14
The heavy oak doors of the central library usually offered a sanctuary of hushed whispers and the scent of old paper. But today, the air in the back corner of the CS section was vibrating with a very different kind of energy, mostly the high-decibel, dramatic kind.
Adhira rounded the corner of a bookshelf and stopped dead.
There sat Shreyash, looking like a man awaiting a public execution. His head was bowed so low his nose was almost touching his copy of Algorithm Design, his shoulders hunched as if trying to shrink into his seat. Standing over him, pacing like a caged tiger, was Ayan.
"I trusted you!" Ayan's voice was a harsh, stage-whisper that was definitely carrying across three rows of desks.
He slammed a hand onto the table, making Shreyash's pens jump.
"I brought you into my home! I fed you my mother's biryani!
I let you tutor my baby sister because I thought, foolishly, that you were innocent! "
"Ayan, please," Shreyash rasped, his voice thick with a mortified, soul-deep guilt. He didn't look up. The scarlet stain from the weekend hadn't fully left his neck, it just seemed to have permanently taken up residence there.
"Don't 'Ayan' me! You were playing the long game, weren't you?" Ayan threw his hands up, his eyes wide with exaggerated betrayal. "I turn my back for one semester, and suddenly my best friend is my brother-in-law? You stole her! You poached my sister right from under my nose!"
Adhira stepped out from the shadows of the stacks, her eyes narrowed. "I'm not a piece of land you can poach, Ayan. Shut up. People are trying to study."
Ayan spun around, pointing an accusing finger at her. "And you! The silent accomplice! When did this happen?"
Shreyash finally looked up, his eyes meeting Adhira's for a fleeting, panicked second.
"Ayan, I swear," Shreyash stammered, his fingers twisting a mechanical pencil until it looked like it might snap. "I didn't... I never made a move. I never would have... it was the mothers. They..."
"The mothers! The ultimate conspiracy!" Ayan pulled out a chair and sat down with a heavy thud, crossing his arms. "Fine. If this is how it is, I'm not leaving. I am the chaperone now. I am the wall. Shreyash, open that book. If your eyes stray even an inch toward her, I'm calling the wedding off."
Adhira sighed, a slow, dangerous sound. She looked at Shreyash, whose face was still a mask of pure, flustered misery, and then at her brother, who was settling in for a long afternoon of being a nuisance.
She pulled out her phone.
To: Kavya [The Boss]
Emergency. The idiot is in the library acting like a martyr. Get here. Now.
Ten minutes later, the library doors creaked open.
Kavya sauntered in. She was dressed in a simple cotton kurti with her hair tied in a messy, effortless bun, looking every bit the woman who held Ayan's heart in a velvet-lined vice. She spotted them and a small, knowing smirk touched her lips.
"Ayan?" her voice was a soft, melodic purr that cut through his protective rage like a hot knife through butter.
Ayan stiffened. His 'big brother' posture deflated instantly. He turned around, his face shifting from fury to a helpless, lovestruck grin in 0.5 seconds. "Kavya? What are you doing here?"
"I was going to get coffee," she said, leaning against the table, her eyes dancing with mischief.
She reached out and played with the collar of Ayan's shirt, her fingers lingering just a bit too long against his skin.
"But then I remembered I had a fiance who was supposed to be helping me with my project.
Or are you too busy to spare me some time? "
Ayan blinked, his brain clearly rebooting. "I... well, I was just making sure that..."
"Forget them, Ayan," Kavya murmured, leaning in close, her voice dropping to a low, flirtatious hum that only he could hear.
She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, giving him a look that promised a much more interesting afternoon than supervising a study session.
"I'm bored. And I haven't seen you since yesterday. "
Ayan stood up so fast his chair nearly tipped over.
The sacred duty to protect his sister was long gone, incinerated by a single look from Kavya.
"Right, I'm coming." He looked at Shreyash, pointing two fingers at his own eyes and then at his friend.
"I'm watching you, Shreyash. From the cafeteria or possibly from the next building. So don't make any move you shouldn't."
Kavya rolled her eyes, grabbed Ayan by the hand, and led him away. As she passed Adhira, she threw a subtle wink over her shoulder.
The silence that followed their departure was heavy, sudden, and absolutely electric.
Adhira didn't sit down. She walked around the table, her footsteps silent on the carpet, until she was standing directly behind Shreyash. The back of his neck was still a deep, bruised red.
"He's gone," she whispered.
Shreyash let out a long, shuddering breath, his head dropping into his hands. "He hates me. He actually hates me."
"He doesn't hate you," Adhira murmured. She leaned down, her chest brushing against his shoulder as she reached past him to close his textbook.
The scent of her jasmine hair-oil enveloped him, thick and intoxicating in the enclosed space of the carrel.
"He's just dramatic. And you're just... far too honest for your own good. "
She let her hand linger on the table, her fingers centimeters away from his. She could feel the heat radiating off him.
Shreyash turned his head slowly, his glasses sliding slightly down his nose. His eyes were dark, dilated, and filled with a raw, terrifyingly intense hunger that he clearly didn't know how to hide anymore.
"Adhira," he breathed, his voice a low, gravelly vibration. "We're in a library."
"I know," she whispered, her gaze dropping to his lips, then back to his eyes. She leaned in closer, her voice a soft, sensual caress that made the hair on his arms stand up. "But I don't see my brother anywhere. Do you?"
Shreyash swallowed hard, his hands trembling where they rested on the desk. He was losing the battle, and from the way his gaze burned into hers, he didn't seem to mind the surrender at all.