Chapter 9 #2
Mina burst out laughing. It was only natural for her to reach out and lace her fingers with his. “Seriously though, do you take all the girls here to seduce them?”
“Nope. You’re the first person I’ve ever brought to Queens. I was going to take you to Moghul Express, but that would’ve been too obvious. I figured you may like this better.” He tugged on her hand until she leaned in. “You want to know something?”
“Yes,” she said, as his eyes gleamed with mischief.
“My parents lived in Flushing before my father sold his first few patents. They used to bring me and my brothers here when we were kids. We loved my mom’s cooking, but there was something special about cracking a two- foot- long dosa shell and dipping the fragments into a hot sambaar.”
Mina smiled at the memory. She could almost picture them as children: Hem with his charm, Ajay with his seriousness, and Zail with his soft heart. “So why this place when you already have amazing memories here?”
He dropped a quick, casual kiss on her fingers. “I don’t know. I feel like maybe, what you and I can have together might be amazing, too.”
She let out a sigh and tried to pull her hand away, but he tightened his grip.
“Talk to me. Please?”
“Hem, that feels like a line.”
His smile faded and Mina watched his throat tense as he swallowed. “Yeah, not my best work, but I’m just being honest. I’m a little out of practice here.”
She didn’t say anything at first. She wasn’t sure what she should say.
This was all so new to her. And at the rate they were moving, it was lightening fast. Mina didn’t have many relationships to compare what she was experiencing with Hem, and every instinct was screaming at her to pump the breaks, while every heartbeat was urging her on to just go with the flow. To embrace the madness.
“I need to focus on my work.”
“And I’m the distraction.”
This time, she managed to pull her hand away. “Actually, yes. Yes, you are. I don’t mind going with the flow, but at this speed…”
“Is it worth it?”
Of course he would ask that question, she thought. “I haven’t decided yet, honestly. We were supposed to take things slow and get to know each other while remaining professional. Isn’t that what you promised me? The way you always look at me isn’t professional.”
“I could say the same.”
“I mean it, Hem,” she said. “This job is important. It’s my mother’s legacy, and I?— ”
Mina was interrupted when two trays stacked with disposable plates and long, spiral- shaped dosas were placed in front of them.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. She was on the verge of telling him everything, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that.
Hem didn’t look away from her as he thanked the waiter. “Well?” he prompted.
“Well, what?” she poked at her dosa to flatten it.
“Don’t change the subject, Mina. You’re not a coward.”
She huffed out a breath. “And don’t interrogate me, counselor. I’m not on the stand. Also, why is this about me? What about you? Didn’t you just get out of a long- term relationship? According to my sources, you were almost at the altar.”
Hem flinched before he dipped a triangle of dosa into his sambaar and then coconut chutney. Mina watched him chew, his perfect mouth pressed together until he swallowed.
“Lisa and I broke things off over a year and a half ago. And yes, we were engaged before she broke things off.”
“What happened?”
It took him a minute to answer. “Lisa and I met in school, and we kept in touch after we graduated. We ran into each other at a client’s party a while back and a few dates after that, we slid into this easy companionship. Relationship,” he corrected.
Mina continued to eat, waiting for him to tell her the rest.
“Besides a basic attraction, I think we started dating because we had similar career ambitions,” Hem continued. “She understood where I was headed at my father’s company and challenged me to always do more. She wanted to open up her own firm and build an empire of her own, too.”
“And what, she didn’t think you could both be successful together?”
Hem wiped his hands on a napkin before pushing up one sleeve to reveal a tanned forearm.
His kara clanged against the table. “I can’t lie to you and tell you what she was thinking, because she never really told me.
What I will say is that I know my work at Bharat bothered her.
It was almost like she was racing me. She started to get suspicious when I spoke Punjabi to my family and friends.
She didn’t want to attend family weddings or holy festivals or go to Gurdwara with me because she thought it was a way of networking and getting ahead. ”
“But being Punjabi is who you are, not what you do,” Mina said before she pressed her lips together. No way, she was not going to defend a man over a woman just yet.
“I tried to explain that to her, but it never quite made sense to her,” Hem said. “My parents…well, they didn’t like her because they thought she was using me.”
“Yet you still wanted to marry her?”
Hem shrugged. “My parents were partners first before they grew to love each other. I figured that’s what Lisa and I would have. We already had love, so we’d work out our differences with time. Lisa was one of the most admirable women I’d ever met so of course I wanted it to work.”
“And even though she didn’t like gifts, she was in competition with you, she didn’t understand your Punjabi culture and community commitment, you proposed?”
There was the briefest hint of a wistful smile on his face before it disappeared. “I did.”
Mina wiped her fingers on her napkin. “What happened?”
“My father paid her to break the engagement. Twenty-five million dollars. She took the money, moved to Colorado and started the law firm she always wanted.”
Mina’s jaw dropped. “W-what?”
“Yup. She told me in a text message. While I was away on a business trip, she removed all of her things from my house and left the ring on the entryway table. She told me it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. As if breaking our engagement was like leaving an old company for a new business venture.”
Mina felt an ugly twisting truth in her gut come to life. Lisa broke his heart because she prioritized her career over their relationship. If Mina and Hem became something, anything more, wouldn’t she choose her career over Hem, too?
She cleared her throat. “Did your father…”
“Didn’t deny it,” Hem replied cooly. He’d polished his dosa off while she was left reeling. “That’s why I quit Bharat.”
The last piece of information fit into place creating a complete image of Hem’s past. “And now you’re back to help save your brothers while your father recovers,” she said.
Hem nodded.
On impulse, she reached out and cup his face, leaned over their wobbly table and empty plates to plant a soft kiss on his mouth. When she sat back in her chair, she saw the light come back into his eyes.
“Her loss,” she said simply.
Hem watched her for a long moment before the wait staff came and removed their empty plates from the table. “Her loss,” he finally replied.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s wash our hands and then get back to Manhattan. I’m ready to see some planets.”
A few minutes later, they stepped out onto the sidewalk, linking fingers.
Hem tugged Mina’s hand until she turned to face him. “Question.”
“Answer.”
“Are you going to break my heart, too, Mina Kohli?”
Butterflies erupted in her chest and she had to school her features so that he couldn’t read into her reaction.
Because there was a very good chance that she just might if it meant avenging her mother. “You wouldn’t even be asking the question if we could keep to our separate corners in the office. If we stop the lattes and the dates and the bantering.”
Hem didn’t smile like she expected him to. “Are you going to break my heart?” he repeated.
“I’m going to do my best not to, Hemdeep Singh,” she said quietly.
“Good.”
He squeezed her fingers and then pulled her towards his car. “You know, I think you initiated a kiss in here,” he said.
She chuckled. “I did.”
“I can’t believe how shameless you are, hirye.”
“What? Why would I be shameless?”
“Because I saw at least two aunties staring at us in there. Good god, Are baap re, what will your father think?”
Mina was still laughing by the time they reached his car.