Chapter 22 #3
It was a blow to the heart, but he nodded. ‘Okay.’ He took a deep breath and let it out. ‘Well, have a safe journey home.’
The queue moved. It was nearly time for her to go. There was so much he wanted to say to her. I want you. I do. But the words didn’t come.
She turned away and took the handle of the trolley. ‘Goodbye,’ she said.
‘Message me when you get home, so that I know you’re safe.’ Oh god, he sounded like his grandmother! ‘Sorry. I mean—’
She turned back and said firmly, ‘Sampath.’
‘Yes?’
‘I know this whole thing has been a disaster, but it’s not your fault. If it had been a different couple, you would have arranged a wedding that caused them much joy. You are an excellent wedding planner.’ She reached the front of the queue, turned around and left.
From behind the clear barriers, he watched her as she navigated the bag search and check in.
She went through it with her head held high.
When she finally walked out towards departures, carrying only a small backpack and her handbag, she didn’t even glance in his direction.
He could see the tension in the set of her shoulders and the way she clutched her documents to her.
She was holding it together, but only just. She was so far from the relaxed woman he’d seen a few days ago – before he’d found out about Marcus, before he’d blown everything by turning her down.
She was hurting and he had made it worse.
No wonder she didn’t want to talk to him anymore.
On the way back, he sat in the back of the taxi and tried not to cry.
When Kalpana had kissed him, all he’d wanted to do was kiss her back, pull her close, tell her he loved her.
But she was still raw from Marcus’s betrayal.
It would have been wrong of him to take advantage of that.
Besides, she was still his client. His job was to do what was best for her, not make matters worse.
So he’d turned her down, despite every cell in his body screaming at him not to.
He crossed his arms. His chest felt hollow, like there was nothing left inside it. That was the cost of doing the right thing. He bowed his head and blinked back tears. It was too much.
He could still call her. She would be in the airport. He could call her and explain. He pulled out his phone. And say what? How on earth could he explain that he’d put his job before his feelings for her and now he was regretting it?
Putting his phone back, he rubbed his hands over his face.
A few more days and he would be back home.
Back to the office. Speaking of which … He needed to tell the office what had happened.
Really, he should have already reported it, but he hadn’t wanted to waste his precious few hours with Kalpana.
Grant would shout at him, even though it wasn’t his fault.
At least he hadn’t had to tell Kalpana about Marcus’s infidelity.
They couldn’t blame him for the engagement being called off.
It was nothing to do with him at all. Except, he’d fallen for the bride.
The one thing wedding planners could never do was catch feelings for the bride or the groom.
Privately, he felt there should be something about not letting people walk into terrible marriages without at least asking ‘are you sure?’ He should have been allowed the freedom to tell Kalpana the minute he found out. Who puts money ahead of people’s happiness?
He did, apparently. Because he could have gone against Grant’s instructions. That would have been the right thing to do.
He sighed. For a job that was all about bringing joy to people, this was certainly not bringing him any joy right now. He closed his eyes and, as he often did in times like this, he thought of his sister.
They had been close when they were growing up, but only lightly linked, as siblings often were.
But in those last months, when she was very ill and he was helping Nick look after her …
that was when they’d bonded properly. By then Lihini was a shadow of her former self.
Almost a different person entirely. More cranky and sarcastic, but also clear-eyed in a way she hadn’t been before.
There was no room for fluff. The main thing he had learned from her was to take happiness where he could find it.
A fine mess he was currently making of that.
He opened his eyes. He loved his job. Seeing the happy couple actually being happy was the best reward he could get.
But from the start, his boss had seen this project as a way to get two things done at once: get Marcus and Kalpana the wedding of their dreams and expand the business offering.
While Sampath had done his best on both counts, he knew which one should have mattered more.
His short career with Grant unrolled in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that he didn’t like the way things were going. He liked his job, but these days it wasn’t bringing him much joy. The solution to that, at least, was simple.