Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter
Thirty-Four
The next morning, Naina sat in a corner at the local breakfast café, drinking coffee and going through the r/PaiMurder subreddit and her work emails again while she waited for Anil to join her.
They hadn’t done a bestie breakfast date in a while, and honestly, Naina needed to tell someone about her not-a-relationship with Tejas before she exploded.
“Well, well, well.” Anil whistled, peering at the messages. “How the tables turn.”
Naina glared at him, then sent a quick Sure to Tejas. “Don’t start, Anil.”
He laughed, resting his arms behind his head. “A lot has happened since the archive room kiss, hasn’t it?”
“Okay, fine.” Naina covered her scorching face with her hands. “Yes. We…did it.”
“I fucking knew it!” Anil practically whooped with glee. “Tell me everything. How? When? Where? How many times?”
She looked around, although the tables near them were empty, and inched her chair closer to Anil’s. Then she lowered her voice conspiratorially and gave him the rundown of Friday night. “And then in the morning, I was late to a meeting, and I…”
“You shut him out,” Anil said, his words a statement, not a question.
Naina nodded. “And he said he can’t keep doing this until I know for sure what this thing between us means.”
Anil smiled at her, his eyes warm. “What do you want it to mean?”
Naina’s gaze went to the window, and her heart fluttered when she spotted a stray tabby cat digging through trash outside.
If Tejas were here, he’d have fed the cat.
Probably given it some pets and scratches too.
“I want…it to not end,” she admitted. “He’s so wonderful, and I like him so much. But—”
“No. No buts,” Anil said, shaking his head.
“But,” Naina pressed on, “I don’t want us to break each other’s hearts, and if there’s anything I’ve learned from the relationships around me, it’s that they end.”
“That’s bullshit!” Anil exclaimed. The waitress, who was passing by, nearly dropped her tray of milkshakes, and Anil shot her an apologetic smile before lowering his voice.
“Just because your ex was an asshole who broke your heart doesn’t mean every man will do that.
Just because your parents got divorced doesn’t mean you will. ”
“Anil—”
“Look at my parents, who’ve been together for thirty-five years,” he said, listing them on his fingers. “My Ajji still loves Ajja, even a decade after he died. Iqbal’s got four pictures of his wife and kids on his desk. And I…” He smiled. “I’m trying to be less cynical about dating too.”
Something in Naina’s heart softened as she sipped her black coffee. “The guy from karaoke night? When do I get to meet him?”
“Oh, um,” he stammered, and it was now his turn to have a tomato-red expression, “you’ve already met him, actually.” His eyes darted to Naina’s laptop for a split second, which was open to her Teams chats, and everything fell into place.
Naina nearly screamed as the coffee splashed onto the table. She wiped off the coffee stains with a napkin and said, “Oh my God, don’t tell me it’s Dhanush?”
Anil rubbed the top of his head sheepishly. “Yeah. Beer and forced proximity will do that to you.”
She snickered, her arms folded. “I must know all the details. How? When? Where? How many times?”
He raked a hand along his stubble. “Well, it started after karaoke night. He’s smart.
I used to think he was only at AKC because Kumble is his uncle, but he knows his shit when it comes to the law.
And well”—he blushed harder—“he really pays attention to what I like, and I don’t just mean in bed.
He watched three episodes of my favorite K-drama and texted me real-time updates. ”
Naina frowned. “How’s he doing after they lost the Subramanian case?”
“I was with him all of yesterday. He’s a wreck, so I’m taking point on the pro bono case now,” Anil said, sighing loudly.
“I’m glad I can be there for him like he is for me.
He loves my catering idea, by the way. He said he has a friend in marketing who could help me with my business plan before I approach more banks. ”
“Huh.” She shrugged, then signaled to the waitress to refill her coffee. “I don’t like Dhanush much, or even know him outside of work, but he seems like he’s trying to be a good…” Her voice trailed off. “Is he your boyfriend?”
Anil switched on his laptop. “Not yet, we’re taking it slow.” He paused. “Unless you count sex.”
“Sounds like me and Tejas,” Naina said, chuckling. “Well, at least until he decided to put the brakes on it. For now.”
“Oh God.” He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. “I’m so proud of you. My girl’s all grown up.”
“Haha, very funny.”
“In any case,” Anil warned as he flipped through the menu on the table, “you’d better not fuck it up with Tejas. He’s a good one.”
She embraced the flush that crept into her cheeks and along her upper chest. “He really is,” she agreed. “And I want to give him a chance. I just don’t know how to.”
“He’s not the one who needs a chance.” Anil tapped her on the nose and chuckled. “You do, so give yourself one, instead of closing yourself off to good sex and even better love.”
Naina studied her best friend. “Do you think I could ever fall in love again?”
The waitress walked up to them, notepad in one hand and a pot of coffee in the other. Once she had refilled Naina’s coffee and taken their breakfast orders, Anil leaned forward and whispered, his eyes twinkling, “Oh, Naina Shetty, I think you already have.”
“No way,” she snapped, although the thump-thump-thump of her heart seemed to say otherwise. “I don’t need Tejas. I was perfectly fine before he turned up at AKC, living a perfectly normal life.”
Anil smirked. “You don’t need him,” he agreed.
“But you want him. And I think that’s what love is.
You know you’ll be okay on your own, but every moment would be so much more fun with that person around.
You want to do life with them, for as long as you possibly can.
Does Tejas make you feel like this, Nay? ”
“I…” Naina’s mouth went dry. “He does. But I’m scared, Anil. You remember how difficult it was for me to focus on work after Santhosh cheated on me.”
“And you’ve come out of it stronger,” Anil reminded her with a pat on the shoulder. “I hate that you had to go through a broken engagement, but I’m also relieved Santhosh is out of your life. He was a total loser.”
She wrinkled her nose. “He was, wasn’t he?”
The waitress brought over their bagels, toast, and scrambled eggs, along with Anil’s iced mocha. After she left, Anil said, munching on toast, “It might not be easy for a workaholic like you to balance work and a relationship, but isn’t it worth trying on the off chance he’s the love of your life?”
She nodded and dived into her bacon-and-cheese bagel. “You’re right. But what if being with him distracts me from work? He’ll be at the office too. How would I…”
“Hold yourself back?” Anil snorted. “Jeez, Naina, you’re not an animal. You have self-control!”
Barely, when it comes to Tejas, Naina wanted to say. Instead, she shrugged. “You know how badly I want that promotion.”
“Look, as much as I hate to admit it, Dhanush is most definitely out of the running for senior associate after the Subramanian case went south.” Anil paused to slurp his mocha.
“And based on what you’ve told me about your case, the prosecution doesn’t have any concrete evidence.
You’ll win it, and with Kumble retiring in five months, they’ll decide soon enough. ”
Naina blew over the top of her coffee, then took a sip. “I guess you’re right.”
“What I’m saying is, you’re a shoo-in for senior associate whether you date Tejas or not. The only question is, will you let yourself have the best of both worlds instead of being an idiot like always?”
Naina’s heart thumped loudly in her chest as she mulled this over. The way Tejas made her feel—alive, valued, cherished…only one other thing had made her feel the same way. Her job.
Was it really possible? A life that included not just her dream career, but also the man she was falling for?
The warmth that spread to her toes at the thought of Tejas’s smile, his flirty banter, and the way his eyes softened when he looked at her—that was what told her the answer, plain and simple.
She waited for a beat before saying, “All right. If things go well with Preethi’s case, I’ll…tell Tejas I want to give things a shot.”
“Good. Don’t go breaking his heart, all right?”
“I won’t,” Naina promised, and she meant it.
Anil grinned, clinking his iced coffee glass with her mug. “Good.”
Naina accepted Tejas’s FaceTime call later that afternoon, and her heart skipped a beat when he appeared on her iPad, grinning widely.
God, she missed that dimple—but despite what she’d said to Anil, and despite what she was slowly understanding about her own feelings, she had to keep it professional.
For now.
“Why do you look so happy?” she asked.
His video turned off for a second, then he came back on. “Check your email.”
Naina’s brows furrowed. “Hold on.”
She pulled up her email in a separate tab and scrolled through the many unread emails that had come in—including a forwarded email from the IT guy, time-stamped late last night. It said:
Hi Tejas sir,
Sorry to be emailing you so late on a weekend, but this couldn’t wait given the Preethi Acharya trial resumes on Monday.
I managed to get a DM back from the Reddit account by baiting them with some fake gossip about the case, which helped me narrow their IP address and location down to this building in Domlur.
I don’t know which specific apartment it’s from, but I hope this helps. Good luck, sir!
A gasp left Naina’s lips. “Wait, Vaishnavi lives there! Jagannath’s assistant! I remember reading about it online.”
Tejas’s eyebrows shot up. “Someone must have paid her off to do all of this. Maybe Gopal? Vaishnavi spoke so highly of him.”
She shook her head, her heart thudding. “No. It’s gotta be Jagannath, especially with Sandhya’s connection to this case. I just…I have a gut feeling it’s him.”
“It could be,” he agreed. “So, what’s our strategy here? Do we confront Vaishnavi with this information or wait for whatever Sandhya has to say?”
Naina sat back and considered it. They weren’t meeting Sandhya until Tuesday, and since they hadn’t subpoenaed her yet, there was always a chance the judge would make her verdict tomorrow.
They might not even get to use whatever evidence Sandhya would give them.
Confronting Vaishnavi on the stand would, at the very least, throw some suspicion on Jagannath and shift focus from Preethi’s so-called motive.
“We get Vaishnavi on the stand,” Naina said finally, lifting her chin up, “and then we break her down until she confesses to the truth.”
“I’ll let you do it,” Tejas replied. “You’re more intimidating than me, and I think we need that to crack Vaishnavi.”
She laughed. “Yeah, that’s a valid point, Mr. Sunshine.”
He beamed at her, a softness in his eyes. “Well, then…I’ll see you in court.”
Naina’s cheeks flushed as she said, “I can’t wait.”