Chapter Three
She really did need to sleep. She also needed to figure out her life. She’d been in constant motion for over three years now. Away from her family, her memories. Easier to hop on another flight than deal with all that.
If her mom had been here, she would have told her pick one of those handsome young men and marry him. Nimita closed her eyes to shake the thought, and as soon as she did, an image of Roshan standing on the beach filled her brain.
He had been captain of the soccer team in high school and considered handsome by most of the senior class. But Nimita had had her eye on things other than boys.
Roshan had become decidedly more attractive since high school. He most certainly was more muscular, had grown into his jawline, and his eyes were still that deep dark brown.
But Nimita had not forgotten her last encounter with him at graduation. The subtle accusations he’d made. Sure, they’d been barely eighteen, and he had been upset. But fifteen years had passed, and email was not new.
Though at least he had his life together. That was more than she could say.
The glances she had sneaked at him when he was bickering with his friends revealed a man in the thick of the people he loved most. Whatever had happened between her and Roshan back then, he was clearly successful and loved now.
She’d had the same potential back then and had even had herself together. Yet here she was, no job, no home and her family angry at her.
She remembered the three guys as being completely inseparable in school. And here they still were, close as ever. It was something unusual.
Nimita’s high school friends had fallen away as she moved on to college, and to be honest, she hadn’t really been sad to see them go.
She hadn’t ever really belonged. She didn’t care about hair and makeup and clothes at the time, and while she liked boys, and secretly crushed on a few, she knew she would never be allowed to date, so why bother?
Not allowed to date, but then was expected to marry in her twenties.
To say it was paradoxical was an understatement.
Not to mention, she had dreams. Dreams of changing the world.
She lay down and closed her eyes. She had loved her job as a biomedical engineer, figuring out how technology worked with the human body and vice versa. She had felt like she was changing the world, even if it was simply in her own little corner.
Her mind jumped to all the adventures she had been on in the past three years. She’d been to Christmas markets all over Europe, explored deserts and safaris in Africa, seen the Taj Mahal and experienced houseboats in Thailand. All things she might have missed out on had she listened to her mother.
She quickly brushed aside thoughts of her mother. She avoided thinking about her mother as much as possible, and she wasn’t going to start now. There would be plenty of time to meander down the road of guilt and regret when she got to San Diego. Reena would make sure of it.
She was exhausted and jet-lagged, and sleep finally found her.
* * *
“Well, at least we didn’t hit anyone on the way in,” Roshan said, glancing at Nimita as she deftly parked the car at Mama’s Fish House.
Nimita was more than ready for dinner. She had slept most of the day and had showered and thrown on a summer dress for dinner. The guys cleaned up nicely, making a very handsome trio.
Karan was the tallest, just over six feet, his body lean and muscular, like a runner.
His dark hair fell below his ears, curling slightly.
Dark skin glowed in the sun, and his smile was small and shy as he shook his head at something one of them said.
If memory served, he’d been one of the fastest on the soccer team.
He was an engineer now. Vishal was a couple inches shorter than Roshan, also lithe and quick; he had played striker.
He was saying something, his medium brown complexion complimented by his white shirt.
He pointed at Karan and ran his hand through his closely cropped hair.
She gathered that now he was a high-level corporate lawyer.
Roshan, just an inch shorter and a bit broader than Karan, had been the goalie on the team.
He had won some county and state awards for that position.
Roshan was shaking his head and laughing with his friends.
His skin tone was the lightest, which Nimita knew only played off the darkness of his eyes.
His dark hair was longer on top and he tossed it away from his eyes. He had become a doctor.
The three of them turned heads of all ages in the lobby of the hotel.
Though not one of them seemed to notice.
“The best defense is a good offense,” Nimita said calmly, rebutting Roshan’s critique of her driving.
Roshan opened his mouth like he was ready to say something, but he shut it, then quietly said, “That’s what I always say.”
She snapped her gaze to him in surprise.
“My dad always said that when he…well, when he taught me to drive.” He had been healthy back then.
No episodes. They had all but forgotten that he had MS. Those were some of her favorite memories.
Guilt tugged at her, reminding her that she hadn’t bothered to spend more than a few days every few months with her dad.
It was the fact that seeing her father meant also dealing with her sister.
She shook away those thoughts. Plenty of time to worry about all that later. She was sure Reena would have more than a mouthful for her when she got to San Diego.
“Do you all still live in Maryland?” She should make conversation.
“I live in Minneapolis,” Vishal offered.
“Philly,” Karan added.
“Basically just live at the hospital,” Roshan joked, and his friends rolled their eyes.
“But all our parents are all still in Columbia. How about you?” Karan asked.
“I don’t really live anywhere. But my family moved out west,” Nimita responded, keeping it vague.
They settled in, ordering drinks and appetizers, all of the guys listening to Nimita’s recommendations. The conversation flowed, and the meal was amazing. Roshan was mostly quiet.
At one point, his phone rang, playing a mystical tune she recognized from social media. He excused himself and left to take a call.
“I thought you said no work,” Nimita said to Karan.
“Oh, that’s his little sister, probably just checking in.”
“That’s right, I remember… Malini, right?” she said, thinking of the thin little girl in her pretty head scarf. Frail but full of life. “She had…?”
“Leukemia, yeah.”
Nimita had been trying to stay cool and distant with Roshan, but she felt a bit bad that she hadn’t asked about Malini. “She’s better now?” she asked the guys.
“She’s had a few rocky years. He’s pretty vigilant about taking care of her. They even live together,” Karan offered before returning to his meal.
“She’s fine now,” Vishal said, likely in response to the blanched look on her face.
“Not to hear Roshan say it,” Karan mumbled.
She had a million questions, but Vishal and Karan had moved on to other topics of conversation.
She remembered that Roshan was many years older than his sister, and he’d always seemed like a good big brother.
She’d liked that about him back then. His parents weren’t always around during their tutoring sessions, taking care of their daughter; appointments, hospital stays.
Roshan had been so focused on academic excellence, but he’d also seemed to keep the household running.
She remembered him skipping a few sessions to drive Malini places or preparing dinner while Nimita talked over some chemistry concept or other.
Reflecting on it now, she hadn’t really known him well socially, and it made sense now that she thought about it.
He’d been focused on school and his family.
There was no priority given to getting know each other.
Which had suited Nimita just fine then and quite frankly suited her just fine now.
She wasn’t in a place to add relationships when she was barely managing the few she already had.
After dinner, the guys saw her back to the hotel before heading out to grab a drink at a local bar on her recommendation list. “Come with us,” Karan had offered.
More than aware that the guys were on their special trip, she declined. “Surf lessons tomorrow. Sunrise.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Vishal said, waving her off. Roshan didn’t even look her way.
* * *
Still jet-lagged and sore from his beating, Roshan was ready for bed. The guys insisted they have just one drink. Karan ordered three mai tais to a round of groans.
“It’s Hawaii. You have to have at least one,” Karan insisted.
Roshan had acquiesced.
“What is with you, Roshan? You don’t even talk to Nimita. She is smart and funny and hot. You could be civil,” Karan said. “I thought you were friends in high school.”
Roshan studied his mai tai. They had been friendly. Friends even. Until he’d messed it up. Something no one knew about, except for him. And Nimita. As far as he was concerned, he deserved that beating she had given him, for reasons other than defending herself from an intruder.
He downed his mai tai. “I’ll have a bourbon. One rock,” he told the bartender. “I talk to her,” he defended himself to his friends. “Besides, I don’t date, remember?”
“Passenger seat driving is not the same as talking. Listen, just because it didn’t work out with one woman does not mean you’re a bachelor for life. You and Simmy just wanted different things,” Karan said.
“Have you been talking to my mom?” Roshan asked, half joking. His friends clammed up. He shifted his gaze from one guilty friend to the other. “Oh my God, you have been talking to her. She called you?”
Vishal collapsed. He never could keep a secret. “She did. She knew we were going to see you, and she wanted us to talk to you.”
“You should have said no.”
Their eyes widened. “Are you crazy? You don’t say no to an auntie. Especially your mom.”
“So you’ll set me up with the first woman who comes along?” Roshan shook his head at his friends.
Vishal tutted. “We weren’t going to set you up with anyone. But then, Nimita showed up, and come on. She’s smart, well-traveled, beautiful—”
“And she has no interest in Roshan whatsoever,” Karan said. “In fact, it seems like she hates you.”
“Yeah…” mused Vishal. “There is that. And she did kick his ass. Which was amusing.”
Karan laughed. “It really was.” He paused. “Ooh—maybe that’s a sign!”
Vishal rolled his eyes.
Roshan glared at his friends. “I don’t see either of you getting in line to get married.”
“Why do you think we want the focus on you?” Vishal said.
Roshan gave what must have been the first real smile of the day. “You two suck, you know that?” And because he already knew their response, he said, “I need new friends.”
“Go ahead. Make all the friends you want,” Vishal said.
“’Cause we’re your brothers. We are here for life.” Karan downed his drink. “Come on. Surf lessons at sunrise.”
Roshan finished his own drink and stood. These idiots were his brothers.
They always had his back. So maybe there was something to the whole Nimita thing. But Roshan knew what the guys didn’t. Roshan knew how poorly he had treated Nimita on graduation day. Any thoughts of romance with her had been washed away long ago.