Chapter 9 #2
When Rohit caught Cynthia’s curt but venomous head shake, he looked over his shoulder at Sipra, whose face had neutralized again. “I’ll see you Sunday night for dinner,” she reminded her daughter before flowing out the door.
As soon as she left, Rohit walked toward the chair Sipra had vacated, words tumbling from his mouth as if he had rehearsed them.
“Listen, I know you’re not thrilled about this assignment,” he said, gripping the back of the chair and leaning forward.
“Oh, really?” Cynthia didn’t mask the bitterness in her voice. “What gave it away?”
“Could you just drop the Ice Princess act for, like, two minutes and”—Rohit gestured with his hands—“I don’t know, thaw out?”
“Chill out.”
“What?”
“The expression is ‘chill out,’?” Cynthia said, feeling a little stupid about the turn of the conversation. It was one of the very rare occasions she wished she had kept her mouth shut.
Rohit’s forehead crinkled. “The expression ‘chill out’ implies I want you to cool off , which is the opposite of—”
“Forget it.” Cynthia cleared her throat. Under the desk, she gave the skin above her kneecap a little pinch—there was absolutely nothing endearing about the confusion on Rohit’s face. “Why are you in my office right now?”
While Rohit rambled on about strategy and working together and other feel-good crap, Cynthia took a moment to sort herself out.
Unfortunately, pretending to pay attention to whatever Rohit was saying meant she had to look at him, where he stood braced against the chair.
He’d forgone a suit jacket this morning and Cynthia wasn’t entirely opposed to how his olive-green shirtsleeves pulled tight against his strong forearms. Her eyes didn’t need to linger there too long to remember the firm curve against the palms of her hands.
She’d gripped them tight while on top of him, urgent as he’d palmed her breasts.
His hands had been slow and attentive the second time she’d reached for him that night, fingers tracing the dips and peaks of her body with the devotion of a harpist learning the pitch and nuance of each individual string.
The concentration etched across his face as he chronicled every stuttered breath and soft moan had gone straight to her head, making her uncharacteristically uninhibited and carefree, not worried in the slightest that she’d likely been sporting raccoon eyes and serious bedhead.
“Cynthia.”
They’d just met and yet her name had fallen so easily from his flushed, swollen lips.
“Cynthia!”
Startled, Cynthia sat upright. “Right.”
Rohit crooked an eyebrow. “Were you even listening?”
A fiery blush scalded Cynthia’s face. First tears, now daydreaming. What was wrong with her today? “Of course.”
“So, you agree with me?”
“Um…”
“Are you okay?”
Cynthia scrambled for a tart response, but Rohit continued, his eyes intense and watchful.
“Twice now I’ve seen you stomp out of a meeting,” he added.
“If you were to ask my mother, all I do is clomp around,” Cynthia said dryly before thinking better of it. She cleared her throat and straightened an already tidy pile of papers on the desk. “I’m fine.”
But Cynthia couldn’t shake the events of the last thirty-six hours; they seemed to be festering in the back of her mind, gathering mold.
From the senior leadership team dismissing her hard work for the umpteenth time, to Melanie’s claims about Kumar Construction that were surely exaggerations but maybe also not entirely untrue.
And, most cutting of all, her father’s obvious preference for Rohit over his own daughter.
None of this would have fazed her a month ago—she would have used them to drive her climb up that proverbial mountain, kept her clawing for the top.
But now she kind of wanted lie down in the cool, gritty dirt and take a break.
Perhaps Rohit read exactly that on her face because in a gentle voice he asked again, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Cynthia pushed her fatigue aside. She wasn’t about to admit any weakness in front of the Chosen One.
“I’m fine,” she said in a firm voice. “What is it that you were rambling about earlier?”
“We need to find some time to meet and discuss a plan for how we’re going to tackle this.” Rohit shot her a cautious look. “It’s not ideal given our…”
Would he bring up the fact that, once upon a time, they’d fucked? With a small smile, Cynthia leaned forward in her seat, waiting for what Rohit had to say.
“…our workloads,” he finished, averting his eyes.
Coward. But something that felt alarmingly like disappointment threaded through Cynthia. God, she must really be off her game if a small part of her relished the idea of flirting with him.
“But I think your dad is right about us being the best team,” Rohit added. “This isn’t going to work without your expertise. No one knows this place as well as you do.”
“Except you, apparently.”
“We both know that’s not true. You run circles around me.”
“Yes, well…” Cynthia’s lips twitched. “Try to keep up, would you?”
“?‘The man who embraces his mediocre nothingness shines greater than any.’?”
When Cynthia stared back in silence, Rohit dropped his eyes sheepishly and Cynthia felt a strange little tug underneath her breastbone. “It’s a quote from a rom-com,” he said, addressing the surface of Cynthia’s desk. “ Always Be My Maybe. ”
“I haven’t seen that one.”
Rohit’s head snapped up. “You should. It’s in my top ten.”
“You have a top ten?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“I’ve always been more of a true-crime kind of girl.”
Rohit shot her a long look that was anything but cowardly. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” he murmured before clearing his throat and adding, “Believe me, I’ve been trying to keep up with you for the better part of the last year.”
Cynthia feigned disappointment. “And this is the best you can do?”
“Careful,” he said in a low voice, and an actual shiver skipped up her spine. “Let’s not forget what happened the last time you told me to give it my best shot.”
Careful , a voice in the back of her head echoed, and Cynthia forced herself to relax in her seat.
She wasn’t going to get anywhere at this rate, not if she lost sight of her end goal.
She needed to impress her father, convince him that she had the right qualities to take over his company.
And she needed to do it on her own. Now was not the time to give in to Rohit’s charm and that stupid smile with perfect, straight white teeth that seemed to dazzle everybody.
Everybody but me , she vowed.
When she didn’t respond in kind, Rohit’s face shifted back to cautious. “So, shall we meet in my office after work and come up with a game plan?”
Cynthia lifted her chin but in the face of Rohit’s earnestness, the hot press of guilt crept up her neck and she reached back to their meeting with her father earlier that morning to subdue it.
Remember how invisible you felt? And how invisible you always feel in this boys’ club hell while Rohit “Aw Shucks” Patel soaks up all the attention as if he doesn’t receive it all the time for doing the bare minimum?
Deep down, Cynthia knew she was being unfair to Rohit, who was far more competent and hardworking than half the old codgers her father surrounded himself with.
But why should she bother with fair? She’d worked so hard to crack through her father’s indifference and underestimation long before the Chosen One had ever set foot in Kumar Construction and started sucking up all the glory.
“Cynthia?” Rohit repeated, “do you want to meet up after work to talk about next steps?”
She didn’t owe him anything. “Count me in,” she lied.