Chapter 18
DAKSH
“May I come in?” he asked when Vedika just stared at him, her eyes shadowed with emotions he didn’t want to decipher.
An endless moment passed and then she stepped aside, allowing him in. His feet hesitated at the door for a bare second before he passed through. Just dinner, he told himself. Dinner and curiosity…
The door shut behind him with a decisive click and he felt his heart stutter in his chest. He dropped the package of food on the single table in the room. Just dinner.
“How did you know what I like to eat?” she asked, following him.
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “I have eyes.”
Something flashed over her face, there and gone in a second. Before he could ask her what she was thinking, she asked, “And what did you get yourself?”
Daksh shrugged, smiling. “I just doubled your order. It felt easier.”
“But you like food,” she protested.
“Are you saying you don’t, Mouse?” he teased, opening up the package and starting to set the food out.
She stayed silent for so long that he turned to look at her. She seemed to have turned to stone.
“I don’t,” she said finally. “Or rather I do, but I can’t afford to.”
Daksh stayed silent, watching her, giving her time to decide if she wanted to say anything further.
“I was plump…” she chewed on her lip before adding, “no, not plump. I was fat when I was young.”
“Hate to break it to you but you’re still young,” he murmured, handing her the portion of fries.
“Younger,” she amended, taking the fries. “And not overweight anymore…”
Daksh picked up his grilled chicken and sat down in the chair in the corner, waiting for her to continue.
“While I was home, it never mattered. Nobody saw me as less.” Vedika cut up a small piece of her chicken as she spoke. “But when I went away to the US for college…”
Daksh’s blood did a slow boil at the old pain he saw on her face.
“The most popular guy on campus asked me out on a date. I couldn’t believe it. I was beyond excited though he wasn’t really my type.”
“Too popular?”
“Too blonde,” she retorted dryly. “Did nothing for me. But, it was still a huge step up the social ladder, or so I thought.”
Daksh had a bad feeling about where this story was going. “What did he do?”
“I was part of his hazing ritual for his pledge to the fraternity. I was…a bet? A joke? A prank? Maybe all off the above. One of the tasks he needed to check off his list was to feed a cow. He chose me.”
The slow boil in his veins was now an inferno.
“They posted a list of pledge’s completed tasks on the fraternity’s notice board. It was right up there for everyone to see.” Vedika sighed, putting the chicken away and reaching for the bottle of water.
“The humiliation…I ended up with an eating disorder. I was severely bulimic by the end of the year.” She chewed on her lip, looking pensive. “By the time I asked for help and got treated for the bulimia, I had other complications.”
He spooned up some mashed potatoes on to her container.
She smiled her thanks before continuing, “I have IBS, irritable bowel syndrome.” She grimaced.
“If I don’t eat right, if I eat anything too rich or too loaded with masala, I’m in for a world of grief.
It’s just a fact of life now, a very unsexy fact of life. ”
Daksh’s chest tightened, emotion swamping him. “Did I get the order right?”
She forced a smile, popping a little chicken into her mouth. “You got it perfectly right.”
“Does it bother you when other people eat rubbish around you?” Daksh winced as he thought of all that he’d shovelled in since he’d met her. In his defence, there weren’t fine dining meals available in the rainforest.
She grinned. “No, it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s a little hard, but mostly I’m fine. Although your capacity for it has amazed me.”
“I like to go for broke.” Daksh grinned back, pleased to see her face lighten up. “I’m assuming stress makes it worse.”
Her smile dimmed a little. “It does.”
“Is it work?” he asked, keeping his voice casual.
Vedika nodded. “A deal that I am working on, a large one, was through. The signing was meant to go through today. But I got stuck here and now, strangely, there is one document missing. They need to re-sign and they’re raising questions…
” She sighed. “It’s a mess. If I was in Mumbai, I’d be at their office getting it all sorted.
Now, I have to rely on others and it’s not the best.”
“Others like my brother?” Daksh popped another piece of dry, tasteless chicken into his mouth.
His heart was doing a staccato, irregular beat in his chest as he watched her.
She wore soft, old cotton shorts and a t-shirt.
It was nothing like what you’d expect the Thakkar heir to wear for the night.
Her hair fell in a soft, gleaming, slightly damp waterfall to her waist, framing her small, thin face.
She looked sweet, innocent, and virginal. Everything he wasn’t.
Vedika smiled widely at his question, her eyes lighting up. “Your brother is the one who introduced me to the Managing Director of Banlay. They’re college buddies. He’s the reason I even have this feather in my cap.”
Now his heartbeat pounded in his ears, a steady call of alarm.
“Your brother changed my life, Daksh,” she said, her sweet voice cutting through his rising tension. “He’s been so patient, so calm, so anchoring in the middle of all my stress.”
Now, why did those words cause bile to rise in his throat? “Do you mind if I use your restroom?” he asked abruptly.
Vedika looked a little startled by his tone but she nodded. Daksh dropped his container on the table and walked into the tiny attached bathroom, shutting the door behind him for a modicum of privacy.
He gripped the edge of the washbasin’s countertop and stared at himself in the mirror above it. Wild eyed, hair dishevelled, chest heaving, he looked like a madman. He felt like a madman. What was wrong with him?
He pulled out his phone and sent Ashish a message.
What’s the deal with Banlay?
He shut his eyes, breathing slow and deep as he fought to regain control of himself. He was just concerned, he reminded himself. For her, for his brother, and for everyone involved…Ashish’s reply vibrated against his hand and he glanced at it.
What the fuck is it to you?
Your fiancée is stressing, bro.
She’s always stressing, bro.
Daksh frowned at that last comment. Yes, Vedika wasn’t the most relaxed person in the world but there was still an edge to Ashish’s text that didn’t sit right with Daksh.
Exhaling hard, he put his phone aside. He splashed water on his face, hoping the chill of it would work on his fevered brain. Dabbing his face dry with the towel, he took one last look at himself. He’d been in here too long, he thought. He better get out there before she freaked out.
Daksh stepped out of the restroom just as a knock sounded on the room door.
“Expecting someone?” he asked Vedika, surprised.
She shook her head with a small smile, slipping past him to open the door. He watched as she signed the slip for the server, before stepping back to let him into the room to place the tray down. The man set it down, wished them a goodnight and then left.
“What did I miss in the order?” he asked curiously, automatically taking mental notes for next time.
Vedika raised the cloche on the plate with a flourish. “Ta da!” she whisper yelled.
Daksh’s gaze fell to the lobster on the plate.
“They didn’t have tandoori grilled lobster on the room service menu. So, I ordered butter garlic lobster. I hope I got it right,” she said anxiously.
“Perfectly right,” Daksh replied quietly, his gaze still on the dish.
Fuck him. He was in trouble.