42. Aarti
AARTI
I ’m not certain what time we fell asleep, but I saw the dawn approaching through my window just before I slipped into a deep slumber.
By the time my eyes opened on their own accord, a soft sun was showering happiness upon a cold winter day.
Soon, the frosty clouds would swallow it up, but for now, it was shining grace upon us.
Sujit stirred and turned on his side to face me, the sunlight gleaming on his brilliant visage. I moved in and buried myself against his chest, breathing in the scent of his body. A smile appeared on his lips and he placed a kiss on my forehead.
“I’d say good morning, but I see it’s a great one already,” he said with his eyes still closed.
“Not yet,” I said, reaching for him and getting tingly instantly.
He flinched. “Easy! There’s a lot going on there right now.”
I laughed as he excused himself to use the bathroom.
While he freshened up, I drew a sheer robe over my naked body and walked out of the room.
After washing up in one of the spare bathrooms, I turned on the coffee machine.
It dispensed two cups of espresso with the perfect coffee-to-crema ratio.
It was Sujit’s favorite coffee machine for a reason.
That man had impeccable taste. And now that man was my man.
My cheeks turned warm at the thought as I frothed the milk to make a latte for me and turned on a kettle to make an Americano for Sujit. It was wonderful to start a relationship where I already knew how he liked his coffee.
Sujit walked up to me in his boxer briefs just as I finished making the two cups.
“Thank you, sweet girl.” He took the cup I offered and placed a kiss on my cheek. “You didn’t need to. I could’ve made it.”
“No milk, no sugar, right?” I asked.
“That’s right.” He reached for my waist and pulled me closer. “Love the sheer clothing, although I would’ve enjoyed it more if you were completely naked.”
I raised a brow. “Says the man who walked up here in his boxers.” Balancing my cup in one hand, I reached over with my free hand and grabbed his ass.
He gripped my earlobe between his teeth, and I dug mine softly into his chest. He threw his head back, barely maintaining his grip on his mug.
“Careful, you better not spill coffee on my exquisite wooden floor.”
“All right,” he resigned, retracting his arm from around me. “Breakfast at Ms. Dina’s?”
“Sounds perfect,” I replied and sipped my latte. It tasted especially good this morning. “I can finally tell her I intend to keep her golden boy very happy.”
He beamed with his trademark deep dimples. “She’s going to dote on you for life.” Then softly added, “As am I.”
I gripped his arm. “Hey, you aren’t going to tell her about me buying her diner from Walter, right? I don’t want her feeling obligated.”
“No, sweetheart. It’s not my place to share that information.”
“Thank you,” I said.
As he leaned in for a kiss, the intercom rang with a call from the building desk. I answered it.
“Yes, please send him up,” I said and turned to Sujit. “It’s Imran.”
I rushed to the bedroom to put on my plush robe and dashed back out. Sujit had answered the door. Imran stood outside wearing a concerned look.
“Hello, Ms. Aarti,” he said with apologetic eyes.
I responded with a nod. The expression on his face said something was wrong. And that something was about me and Sujit.
“Sorry, Boss,” he said to Sujit. “I’ve been trying to call, but it’s going to voicemail. Everyone’s been trying to call.”
“What’s wrong?” Sujit signaled him in, and he stepped only a foot inside the house. Sujit didn’t seem bothered that he was still in his underpants.
“There’s another feature on a gossip website. It picked up fast and is now highlighted as a banner on a major newspaper site.” He stole a guilty glance at me. “Everyone has been trying to get in touch with you.”
“What feature?” Sujit had his back to me, and I couldn’t see his face, but his voice was laced with anger, worry, and impatience.
Imran hesitated and threw another quick glance at me.
“It’s about you and Ms. Aarti,” he said, his voice just above a whisper. “It’s…not good.”
“It has filth about Aarti?” Sujit asked. Even though his face remained shielded from me, I could visualize the angry frown on his forehead.
Another guilty nod from Imran as he confirmed our suspicions.
Manoj stood at the brink of destruction but his zeal for vengeance against Sujit, the need to show him up, to demean him, did not quell. That man was incorrigible.
Imran looked at me, then back at Sujit. “Your family has been trying to reach you. When they couldn’t get in touch with you, they called me to ask if I knew where you were. I…I didn’t tell them, but they assumed.”
This time, he avoided making eye contact with me. “They asked me to find you and give you a heads up. There are reporters outside your home.”
Well, good thing he was here, although it would only be a matter of time before they found out where I lived.
“I’ll be with the car,” Imran said. “If you need me.”
Sujit nodded and closed the door behind him.
“I’ll get my PR team on this immediately,” he said in an eerily calm voice, like the one before the storm. I knew exactly what he was capable of.
I grabbed both our mugs and deposited them in the sink. Sujit had stepped into the bedroom and turned on his phone.
His forehead creased in a gentle frown that got deeper as he kept reading.
“Fuck him!” I was surprised to hear a deep growl from Sujit.
“What is it?” I asked, nervous and infuriated.
“This is deeper than us, Aarti. This is a smear campaign. They got a whiff of the legislation we’ve been working toward.”
He handed me the phone. Bracing myself for the wretched words that would greet me, I read the headline. “Heartbroken Billionaire Finds Solace in the Arms of His Ex’s Husband’s Ex.”
There are tragic stories, and then there is the tale of Sujit Rao’s unrequited love. A source close to Rao, who has requested anonymity, disclosed that earlier this year, the enigmatic tech billionaire suffered a humiliating breakup, which shattered him completely.
Tara Kadam, an up-and-coming artist, was Rao’s girlfriend for almost a year, and Rao was all set to marry her. It seems he had a custom-designed ring ready to propose to her.
I looked up at Sujit. “Did you have a custom-designed ring ready for the proposal?”
With his anger intact, he shook his head. “It’s a bunch of lies. I probably would have done that if things had turned out differently, but it was too early in the relationship for a ring.”
I smiled at him, and he frowned more furiously. Stepping closer, I placed a kiss on his lips.
“I don’t understand. What’s the smile and the kiss for?”
I gave a quick peck on his cheek. “You could have lied to me, but you didn’t.”
“Lied about what?”
“Lied that you had never considered creating a custom ring.”
“You know everything, Aarti. Why would I lie, and why would I ever lie to you ? You’re my life now. You’re my everything.”
I placed a hand on his chest. “It’s your decency that has led you into this mess in the first place,” I faux-chided him. “If you had nipped it in the bud, you’d not be facing this now.”
“If I wasn’t good, I would never have you. I’m not inclined to give it up anytime soon. And as far as bullshit is concerned, it comes with the territory. If it wasn’t Manoj, it would be someone else. At least with Manoj, I know where he’s going to hit.”
“Your heart?” I said, my eyes flickering.
“Exactly.” He drew me close and placed a kiss on my temple.
I continued reading.
Unfortunately for Rao, his girlfriend went back to her ex, leaving him holding the ring and a broken heart. It is still unclear how Rao got in touch with Kadam’s lover’s ex-girlfriend, but sources speculate that it was with the goal of seeking retribution against the exes who had jilted them.
The woman in question is Aarti Bhatia, heiress to the SB Group, a real estate giant based in Dallas with properties all over the country.
“Oh, Papa is going to be furious!” I cried. “It’s a good thing I’ve already confided in him. He will know exactly how to handle this shit.”
A look into Bhatia’s past makes the retribution claim quite convincing.
It seems that Bhatia had proposed to her then-boyfriend, Sameer Rehani, at a high-profile party in Dallas, where he owns an investment firm.
One can only speculate why he would break up with the heiress to marry Kadam.
Post-breakup rumors suggest that it was because of Bhatia’s lack of commitment toward him.
It was suspected that she was in love with her brother’s best friend, and Rehani found out about the affair.
Bhatia’s teaming up with Rao could be a way to ruin Rehani and Kadam’s marriage.
It is ironic that their plan of foiling the lives of their exes turned on its head, and Rao fell for Aarti Bhatia.
It has yet to be confirmed if Bhatia shares Rao’s feelings or if she’s playing him to get revenge on her ex.
If the rumors about Bhatia are true, Rao might be looking at yet another humiliating heartbreak.
This stain on Rao’s personal life might cause some problems for his social standing.
It is speculated that Rao has been pushing a legislation for accessibility in education.
Considering the dubious decisions in his personal life, one wonders if he can be trusted to weigh in on an issue of such magnitude.
As a close family friend noted, Rao’s shacking up with his ex’s husband’s ex, the one whom Rehani rejected, is a less-than-desirable optic for the influential billionaire.
I paused for thought. “Why did they feel the need to include this?” I mused aloud.
But Sujit didn’t need to guess. “It’s clear Manoj has gotten in bed with the detractors of the Bill.”
“Detractors? Why would anyone want to oppose a Bill for greater accessibility in education?”
“Because free and more accessible education hurts the deep pockets. There’s a pipeline from private schools to Ivy Leagues and boardrooms. Greater accessibility means their privilege and power is threatened.”
My mouth gaped. “This is the reason I hate people.”
He let out a sad chuckle. “Yes, we are the worst species on earth.”
Manoj had stepped on Sujit’s Achilles heel. Accessible education was the mission of his life, and for this alone, I was determined to destroy him to the point of no return.
I wanted to keep going but Sujit gently retrieved the phone from me. “No reason to read on, sweet girl. I’ll call my PR team right away. We can give a joint statement or something. Let me see what they recommend.”
I pulled my arms across my body. “That’s one way to go about it.”
Sujit eyed me intently. “What are you thinking?”
“The thing is, I hate being backed into a corner. I hate being put on the defensive. And I hate being blackmailed. I’d warned Manoj I’d come after him if he didn’t leave you alone, and that’s what I intend to do.”
“Oh?”
I took his hand and stepped over to the bed. Lowering myself to it, I asked him to sit with me.
“Do you trust me, Sujit? This is no longer your fight or mine. It is ours, and we need to be on the same page.”
The brilliant smile that adorned his face brought out the dimples that I cherished. “I love you, Aarti, and with that love comes trust.”
Then he pulled his brows together. “Or maybe I trusted you before I fell in love with you?” he contemplated. “Either way, I love you and trust you completely.”
I pulled in a deep breath. “He wants a spectacle, and we will give him one. Just not the one he expects. He wants us to feel ashamed and embarrassed. I want to give him the opposite. I want to show him, and the world, what you mean to me.”
My plan, of course, hinged on the certainty that Sujit was ready to announce our relationship to the world.
With another confident inhale, I asked, “How comfortable are you making our relationship public?”
A small smile tugged one corner of his mouth.
A smile that transformed into a wide grin.
He knew what I was asking. In that moment, I was reassured that our connection ran deeper than the intermingling of our bodies and hearts.
We understood the other’s unspoken words.
We read each other’s thoughts and body language.
“If you’re wondering if I have doubts about our relationship or that we’d face more public ridicule if it doesn’t work out, I want to assure you right now that I’m confident in my feelings for you. And I’m comfortable sharing this with the world.”
“Sujit…” I grappled for the right words.
“The truth is, I’ve never felt this way before.”
A warm blush spread across my body. “Me neither,” I whispered. “Since the first night I met you.”
“But I hate that we’re forced to take our relationship public before we’re ready. I hate that we’ve not been given the time and space to do it on our own terms.”
“On the contrary, I think we’ve been given a golden opportunity to prove that love is not bound by social norms and conventions.
We chose to be together despite our past, and I want to show the world that this is what love looks like.
I hate that heteronormative monogamy has confined love to a narrow definition.
I know you will always love and respect Tara, and I don’t resent it.
You’re a better lover because of her. You are happy for her, and she’s elated that you’ve found your happiness.
I want the fucking world to see the beauty of this connection.
I want to flip Manoj’s script on its head and show him for what he is.
A petty, narrow-minded egotist. Are you in? ”
His grin reappeared. “Let’s do this. Tell me what you are thinking.”
In the short time since I’d begun reading the gossip article, my mind had already devised a plan. I took Sujit’s hand and interlaced my fingers with his.
“Here’s what we’re going to do…”