Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
By the time Naina and Tejas walked into Madeira, their colleagues had arrived too, heralded by Iqbal and Kumble. Apparently, Tejas had texted everyone well in advance and asked them to come celebrate with them if they ended up winning.
Anil raced forward and picked Naina up, spinning her around until she was dizzy and laughing breathlessly. “Put me down, you fool!” she exclaimed, and he did.
“That’s my bestie, y’all!” Anil screamed, lifting Naina’s hand up as though they were in a sports competition, while everyone around them cheered. “All right, let’s get the first round. Who’s buying?”
“Me,” Tejas said from behind Naina. As he brushed past her, his fingers grazed her wrist, and he turned once to wink at her.
She pressed her hand to her lips, holding back a giggle.
She couldn’t wait to get a moment alone with Tejas and tell him how she felt.
She’d known it since her talk with Anil, but now she was sure. Tejas was it for her.
In some ways, perhaps he always had been.
“Come on.” Anil threw an arm over Naina’s shoulder and dragged her to the karaoke emcee’s station. “You’re singing at least five songs tonight.”
Laughing, Naina stood beside Anil while he asked the emcee if he had any “bad bitch” victory anthems in his repertoire.
The emcee listed off a few suggestions, but Naina wasn’t listening.
She looked past Anil’s shoulder at Tejas, who had rolled his sleeves up to his muscled forearms and was passing out beer mugs to their colleagues.
Even Ramesh Kumble, who only ever drank expensive scotch, accepted a mug as he laughed at something Iqbal said.
Even from the distance, Naina could lip-read Tejas asking Dhanush, “Where’s Naina?” He followed Dhanush’s pointed look, then approached Naina and Anil with two foaming mugs in his hands.
“You can sing later,” Tejas said cheekily. “First, gather round for the big toast.”
Naina had won a lot of cases in her five years of being a lawyer, but none of those wins had made her feel this proud of herself. Or, she realized, as celebrated.
Tejas stood across from her, with the others piled into the booth, pride and adoration for her flickering in his eyes.
“This case was a real challenge,” he said, beer mug in hand, “not only because of what was at stake—a woman’s freedom and the reputation of our law firm.
” He smiled at Kumble and Iqbal, who chuckled.
“But also because this was my first big case since moving to Bangalore, a city whose local language I don’t speak, whose neighborhoods I’m not familiar with, where everyone is a stranger.
Thankfully, I had a badass partner who led the way for us to win this case.
It’s because of her that Preethi is now a free woman.
So, everyone”—he lifted the mug, beaming at her—“please raise your glass to Naina Shetty, the most competent and capable lawyer I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. To Naina!”
“To Naina,” the booth echoed, clinking mugs.
“Wait!” Naina said before anyone could drink.
“Tejas doesn’t give himself enough credit.
” She turned to her boss, who grinned. “Because, Mr. Kumble, you were right. I needed to work on this case with someone who’d help me become a team player.
And you picked the perfect partner for me, in more ways than one. Tejas, here’s to you.”
Their colleagues oohed and aahed at the implication of her words, but Naina only took a sip, her eyes on Tejas’s beautiful, perfect, tomato-red face.
The night went on in a haze of drinks, dancing, karaoke, and even two cakes that Anil and Dhanush had brought over.
One said, Congrats, you did it! while the other said, We’re proud of you anyway.
“I told Dhanush we wouldn’t need the second one,” Anil explained when Tejas burst into laughter, “but what can I say? He didn’t have faith in you. ”
“Bullshit.” Dhanush frowned as Tejas laughed louder. “I was just covering all our bases.”
Naina didn’t miss the fondness in Anil’s voice when he replied, “And I just like pulling your leg.” Then he took a big piece of cake and fed it to Dhanush, whose face flushed with a giddy smile. Hmm. Maybe type-A Dhanush needed someone like Anil to bring more whimsy into his life.
She approached Dhanush nervously. “Hey,” she said. “I’m sorry about the Subramanian case. How are you holding up?”
Dhanush put a hand to his mouth, which was still full of cake. “Kind of okay,” he replied, his voice muffled. He swallowed, then wiped his lips. “Hopefully, your win will help take my uncle’s mind off of it. But I’ve lost my chances at that promotion.”
Naina shrugged. “You’ve been living in Kumble’s shadow for far too long. Maybe you should start your own law firm instead.”
He blinked rapidly. “Huh. Actually, that’s not a bad idea…
” Then he let out a weak chuckle, jutting his head toward Anil, who had just started singing his next song off-key.
“I want you to know I like Anil. A lot, actually. I know you aren’t my biggest fan, but I think we should try to get along, for his sake, if nothing else. ”
Naina watched Anil groove onstage as he attempted—and failed at—doing a moonwalk. “Yes,” she agreed, nodding at Dhanush. “I’d love that.”
“Good.” Dhanush finished his drink and returned to the booth.
Smiling, Naina had another bite of cake and looked around.
Madeira was quieter and emptier this Tuesday night, except for what seemed like the entire roster of AKC lawyers.
And there Tejas was, sitting by the bar, drinking scotch on the rocks.
Naina grinned, thinking back to her first time at his apartment, and the tense conversation in his kitchen that turned into a scorching-hot moment.
It was funny how just watching him hold that cold glass, his other hand tugging at his collar, made Naina weak in the knees.
Between the toast, her colleagues congratulating her, and the three songs Anil had convinced her to sing already, she’d had no time to talk to Tejas in private. She put her plate of cake away and headed to the bar. “Hey.” She tapped him on the shoulder. “Can we talk?”
“Sure,” he said, gesturing to the seat next to him.
Naina shifted her barstool closer to Tejas’s, letting her heels brush against the hem of his pants.
His hands rested on his knees, so she took them in hers and interlocked their fingers.
“Your toast was really sweet,” she said.
“I don’t normally stop to smell the roses when I win cases, but I’m glad I got to celebrate this with you.
Especially after how our last celebration went…
” She paused, trying to gauge his reaction.
Tejas bit his lip and looked away, perhaps thinking back to that fateful dinner on the yacht. “You were trying to protect your heart, while I was trying to put mine back together,” he said, sighing. “We can’t hold that against each other.”
“And we won’t,” Naina said firmly. “I know myself, Tejas. There are going to be moments when my walls go up even without my noticing, or when I’ll try to push you away because I’m scared of getting hurt.
But thankfully”—she touched his cheek, stroking his beard—“I’ve never been afraid of challenges. ”
“And I’ve never been impatient,” he replied.
Naina pressed her forehead to his. “You once said I deserve someone who fights for me as hard as I fight for my clients,” she whispered, his lips a breath away. “That’s you. And if you give me a chance, I promise I’ll fight for our relationship every step of the way too.”
Instead of replying, Tejas pulled her in by the nape of her neck and kissed her, his teeth tugging at her bottom lip.
Naina moaned; she was about to deepen the kiss, not caring that their bosses and co-workers were in the same room, when he stopped abruptly, smiling against her mouth.
“So we’re in a relationship, huh?” he teased.
Naina pulled away to glare at him. “That’s what you got from my grand confession of love?”
Quirking a brow, he said, “I don’t recall you saying anything about love.”
“You are so agonizing.” She rolled her eyes, then let the words out. “Fine. I love you, Tejas. Happy now?”
He threw his head back and laughed, then pressed a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth. “I love you too, though I bet you already knew that.”
“I did,” she admitted, grinning. “I knew you were in love with me when I stopped you from saying it in Goa.”
Tejas fake-pouted. “And how do you plan to make it up to me?”
“Maybe I’ll show you how tonight, when we go back to your place. As for right now…” She stood, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, her gaze on the karaoke stage. “Let’s re-create a different memory from that summer.”
Tejas held out his hand. “Deal.”
Naina moved to return the handshake, but he tugged her closer instead, his lips meeting hers, moving in time with the karaoke song still playing on the speakers.
Naina tasted scotch on his tongue, his pine-scented cologne so familiar yet so dizzying, and when they broke apart, breathing hard, he reached for her. “Shall we?”
Her chest heaved as she took his hand. She’d lost track of the number of times they’d kissed, but somehow, every kiss was better than the last. Every touch woke her up, every dimpled smile soothed her down to her bones. Love did that, perhaps.
They gave the emcee their song selection, and as the lyrics to “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” appeared on the screen, Naina realized she hadn’t just won in court today. She’d won in life.
And this was one win she planned to celebrate forever.