Chapter 28
There were many things Cynthia was good at, Rohit mused as he cast a sideways glance at her, confident behind the wheel as she belted out the words to an old Justin Bieber song.
Every day with her brought forth a new revelation to tuck away in the back pocket of his heart: along with razor-sharp intelligence and dry wit, she was on a first-name basis with all the best hole-in-the-wall restaurant owners in town, could list all the elements on the periodic table, and knew every lyric to every pop song ever written since the nineties.
But she was a terrible singer and as a snappy Christina Aguilera song burst through the speakers, Rohit wisely turned his grin toward his passenger window as Cynthia tried to hit the high note with the grace of a shrieking macaque.
His girl could not sing.
A sense of rightness settled in his chest as she smoothly backed her car into a parking stall in front of the Desmond Business Center while shamelessly butchering a complicated run. She was impossible not to love.
“What are you grinning about?” Cynthia asked, putting the car in park.
“Just in a good mood.” Rohit waited for Cynthia to cut the engine, but when she made no move to do so, he nodded toward the office building. “We should get going. We’re already cutting it close.”
She was also surprisingly easy to read once a person got to know her because when the heated glow of Cynthia’s amber gaze met his, he knew exactly what she was thinking.
They might be running a touch behind, but it had been worth it, and he couldn’t stop his eyes from flicking toward her inner thighs, which likely bore the burn of his morning stubble.
Maybe he was becoming ridiculously transparent, too, because under his lingering gaze, Cynthia shifted in her seat, the hem of her white dress riding up ever so slightly.
“Are you sore?” he asked in a low voice, thrilled as a light blush seeped onto her cheeks.
She hadn’t seemed to mind the roughness of his facial hair when he’d pulled her on top of him this morning, nor had it stopped her from grabbing the headboard and grinding against his eager mouth until she found satisfaction.
Cynthia cleared her throat. “I’m fine,” she said in a firm voice even as her cheeks reddened steadily.
Rohit felt a goofy grin stretch across his face and he didn’t bother to hide it. But when Cynthia’s hand remained wrapped around the steering wheel, his forehead wrinkled. “So…?”
“You know what?” Cynthia said, her voice unnaturally bright. “I think I’m going to hit up Starbucks or something.”
Rohit didn’t miss the hint of strain underneath Cynthia’s words and the way her hands fluttered to the parking brake before fiddling with the indicator and tracing buttons on the head unit.
Her unwillingness to charge into the building and take everything on the thirtieth floor by storm nudged a hint of worry in the pit of his stomach, and it wasn’t the first time he’d experienced that cool, uncertain sensation in the last few days.
There were some things that didn’t prick his gut: her willingness to be teased back to bed for just a few more minutes, for example, was something Rohit was completely on board with.
But in the last few days, he’d begun to see undercurrents of avoidance when it came to Kumar Construction, a hint of dissent that went against everything he’d thought he’d learned about Cynthia over the last year.
She was quieter in the senior leadership team meetings, choosing to work off-site the majority of the day, and although their project of boosting morale had been successfully delegated to a special in-house task committee, she seemed disinterested about its progress.
Although the two of them grew closer, he couldn’t ignore that Cynthia was pulling away from the company.
“Is everything okay?” Rohit asked, covering her hand with his own. His chest squeezed when she responded by threading her fingers through his.
“Everything’s fine. But I feel I owe Malik a special treat since I’ve skipped for the last few days. Go without me.”
Rohit’s other hand found the door handle but still he hesitated, unsure if he should pry. This was new territory with Cynthia, too—in the past, pushing the Ice Princess too far would’ve had him on a one-way trip to a rusty guillotine, but he chanced it anyway. “Are you sure?”
“Seriously, go,” Cynthia said with a laugh, playfully shoving him with her right hand. But Rohit didn’t miss how her hands gripped the steering wheel afterward as if she was ready to gun the engine as soon as he left.
As he stepped out of the vehicle, Rohit hesitated again but for a completely different reason.
Not for the first time, the urge to say I love you rose in his throat and he had to physically swallow the words back down.
This was new territory, too, but unlike second-guessing just how far he should pry into Cynthia’s beautiful, unknowable brain, this uncertainty made him want to do moronic, archaic things.
Like beat his chest and lay claim, in some shape or form, to the most wonderful thing that had walked into his life.
Rohit knew Cynthia wasn’t the kind of woman one laid claim to, but he was absolutely certain that she deserved to be showered with love.
She was a queen, and, at least in a quiet part of his brain, his queen.
She deserved everything and it was getting harder and harder to hold back those three words, especially over the simplest, most obscure things.
Like now, when he caught sight of her cranking up the radio and opening her mouth to sing out through the passenger window.
From the way she tilted her head back as she pulled out of the parking stall, it was obvious she was singing at the top of her lungs, and the words sprang back into Rohit’s throat.
I love you , he mouthed silently as he watched her car pull out of view.
Keer was waiting for Rohit outside the elevator doors at Kumar Construction.
“Where have you been?” Keer hissed as Rohit stepped out.
“What?” Rohit shot him a baffled look as he began walking to the front reception desk to see if any mail had arrived for him.
Keer’s hand clamped down onto his shoulder, stopping him, and Rohit instinctively checked his shoulder for donut crumbs. “Rich has been waiting for you,” Keer said.
Well, that wasn’t anything new. More and more, Rich was finding reasons for Rohit to tag along on his daily activities.
Whether it was to a work site Rohit had previously had nothing to do with or to a one-on-one meeting with a senior leader, Rohit often played Rich’s shadow.
Although it meant putting in a lot of overtime, Rohit was flattered that Rich was taking a keen interest in him, especially because the older man never micromanaged or questioned Rohit’s decision making.
Besides, impressing the father of the woman he loved couldn’t hurt.
“Okay, I’ll just drop off my laptop and—” Rohit was cut off by Keer determinedly steering him down the hallway.
“You’re to go to Rich’s office immediately ,” Keer said.
At the urgency on Keer’s face, Rohit’s grip on his laptop bag tightened.
Was this about Cynthia? It wouldn’t take much for a person to guess that they were dating, but, given that he wasn’t her superior or vice versa, it didn’t go against any company policy Rohit was aware of.
Maybe his boss was more old-fashioned than he seemed and had expected Rohit to ask for his permission.
Rohit’s hands began to sweat. Maybe he wasn’t good enough for Cynthia in her father’s eyes.
When they reached Rich’s open door, Keer followed Rohit inside, where the other four members of Rich’s senior management team hovered around the CEO’s desk.
Rich, of course, sat in his office chair, fingers steepled together, his brows furrowed.
To his right stood Larry and Simon, leaning against the wall, hands in their pockets.
Martin and Olufo had dragged in chairs from another room to flock the sides of the desk, and Keer ambled over to Rich’s other side.
“Have a seat,” Rich said.
All eyes were on Rohit as he crossed the room.
It wasn’t until he reached the last empty chair that he noticed Melanie Burgos sitting next to it with an open notebook on her lap.
Rohit’s thoughts raced and he stopped short behind his chair, bracing his hands against its back.
Had Melanie found out about his secret and told Rich?
Is that why the room was so solemn and silent?
“Sit down,” Rich repeated, his face giving nothing away.
“Perhaps one of the senior leaders would prefer to take the seat?” Rohit stalled, gesturing at Simon, Larry, and Keer. When Rich shook his head, his stomach dipped. “Or I can go grab some extra chairs?”
“Nonsense,” Olufo said firmly, pointing a wrinkled finger as if directing Rohit to the electric chair. “You sit right here.”
“Did you see that, though?” Keer said from his spot on the wall. “Putting other people’s needs first.”
Rich nodded. “He respects his elders. These are the kind of values we uphold at Kumar Construction.”
Rohit’s head buzzed in confusion as Melanie leaned forward to write in her notebook. “Your company has executed a miraculous turnaround given the state of affairs just one month ago,” she commented.
State of affairs. Rohit’s trepidation eased as he scoffed inwardly, imagining Cynthia’s reaction to that pretentious choice of words.
He straightened in his seat and looked around the room again.
Besides Melanie, he was sitting in a room with the core group of people who attended the biweekly leadership meeting, with the exception of one.
The most important one.