2. Naina
Chapter Two
NAINA
Everyone needed a best friend in their life who sent them voice notes of random things happening in their life. Kat, my best friend, loved voice notes. It was our primary form of communication.
I was back in the office organizing a pile of receipts as I listened to her latest voice note.
“There was a man on the subway who kind of looked like that one actor from that one show, you know the one I’m talking about. Like, I almost talked to him, but at the same time I was like, that’s not happening. I’m going to just mess that shit up.”
The next one started playing.
“My boss thinks it’s appropriate to set me up on playdates. Excuse me, sir, I’m a grown woman and if I feel like I need to recharge my social battery, I will do so. Why does he keep insisting I work with Mike, the man is useless. How does he still even have a job?”
And the next.
“I haven’t taken a walk through the city in forever. I miss you.”
I picked up the phone and pressed the record button.
“I do know the actor you’re talking about, Mike should be fired, and I miss you, too. You should come to Carmel. California still exists, you know.”
Her reply came back almost immediately.
“Have you been talking to my father?”
Samira burst through the office door. And no, that wasn’t an exaggeration. Sami always came into a room excitedly as if there were a million bees buzzing about inside her.
Since Dad died, I’d tried to distract her with literally anything and everything. The latest being waitressing at the restaurant. It was summer, she didn’t have school, and she needed something to keep her occupied between therapy sessions.
Sami's happiness was of the utmost importance right now. I was trying to do everything I could to make sure she was happy and healthy before she started her sophomore year of college in the fall.
“He’s here.” Her brown eyes danced with delight.
“Who’s here?”
Smoothing out a bill, I stacked it on my ‘undetermined’ pile. Dad’s filing system was horrifying and I had no idea how he had done any work here. My heart squeezed, and pressure built inside my stomach and chest.
My hands tightened around the box of receipts until my knuckles turned white. The guilt and grief weighed heavily in my chest, making it hard to breathe. It happened every time I thought about my father. Because I wasn’t here when he needed me.
“Didi, are you okay?” Sami was next to me, her hand on my back. Her expression was drawn in worry and fear.
“Yeah, I’m perfect. Maybe a little dehydrated.”
Her expression brightened immediately. “I’m getting you water right now.”
She bounced out of the office and came back a minute later with a steel water bottle that had a bedazzled N on the side. Mrs. Warwick from the arts supplies shop ran an arts and craft corner every Saturday and Sami had bedazzled this bottle for me so I would feel guilty if I didn’t use it.
She watched as I took gulp after gulp of water. All I could think was how much I was going to need to pee after this.
“What’s taking so long? The man is waiting.”
Sonia popped her head around the corner of Dad’s—my—office. Sonia was our chef, but first and foremost, she used to be our mother’s best friend and was our godmother. For most of my life, I called her Maasi, which was what you called your maternal aunt in Hindi. She was a huge support system for us after mom died and now with dad gone, she was our only ‘relative’ in close proximity.
“I can’t believe you’re in on this. We have servers, you know!”
Ignoring me, she held out one of the tablets the servers used to take orders.
“I really have work to do,” I protested, my voice getting high. “I can’t drop everything and go take orders.”
You would think they cared that I had an Inn to manage and money to dig up out of a hole.
I took the tablet even though he always ordered the same thing. For the last six months or so, Kash Sutherland came in every Tuesday (and sometimes Friday and Saturday), always sat at the same table by the windows overlooking the ocean, and always ordered the same thing.
And for some unknown reason, he always insisted that I take his order.
And for some other unknown reason, he came to dine at the Windfield. Even though his family’s company owned Evergreen Resorts.
Normally, the servers wouldn’t even come to me unless the customer was particularly unruly and rude. Kash Sutherland was neither of those things, he was unfailingly polite, paid his bill as soon as he was finished eating, and left.
Sami smoothed my hair and dabbed lip-gloss on my lips while I tried not to cringe hard. This was way too much.
I walked out into the restaurant and my steps stuttered as soon as I saw him.
Okay. Fine. The man was unfairly beautiful.
I had dreams of pushing my hands into all that thick, dark hair, having those piercing blue eyes staring right into my soul. It left me breathless and sweaty.
Which were all thoughts and feelings I shouldn’t be having for a man who would probably ruin my life if he found out what I’d done. Or maybe he already knew, and this nice guy routine was part of the act and he was really a psycho who enjoyed playing with his victims before he attacked.
Needless to say, I’d spent many nights awake wondering about his motives.
Kash looked up as I walked closer to his table, his eyes sparkling at me. My heart tha-thumped in my chest, pushing against my ribcage in an effort to escape.
It was really unfair how happy he looked every time he saw me. It made me wonder if he remembered meeting me five years ago on a rooftop in New York City. He’d never mentioned it once and as much as it hurt to admit, I figured I wasn’t that memorable to a man who probably dated supermodels.
“Mr. Sutherland.” I came to a stop at the end of his table. “You know we have other servers, right? I was literally in the middle of reading my letter from Hogwarts.”
His mouth pulled into a smile, one side higher than the other, and a dimple appeared on his cheek. That smile must get him everything he wanted.
“I’m sorry, you must have looked forward to this day your whole life.”
The restaurant’s outside door opened as two patrons came in, bringing with them the scent of fresh flowers and wet grass. They waved to me as the hostess led them to their table, that same mixture of sadness and pity in their eyes which I was getting used to seeing on all the regulars.
The smile I returned to them was brittle at best.
“You know how particular I am about my order. I just don’t trust anyone else to take it,” Kash said.
When I looked at him, I found him glancing over his shoulders to where the newcomers were being seated.
“Last week I brought you the wrong order and by the time I realized it, you were already halfway done. And you didn’t tell anyone it was the wrong order.”
A shoulder went up in a casual shrug. “I hate complaining.”
“Two months ago, you complained about being seated next to a family with young children.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Those children were devil’s apprentices, and you know that. More importantly, do you pay attention to me?”
Wouldn’t anyone pay attention to the most dangerous creature in their midst? Until I knew his true motives, Kash Sutherland was that dangerous creature.
I was not going to admit I watched him a little too much or that my body had some kind of Pavlovian response to him and my heart started racing whenever the clock struck 12:30pm.
“Nuisance.”
“Did you just call me a nuisance?” His eyebrow went up in question, yet his eyes continued their annoying sparkle. Was this man a Disney princess in his past life?
“13 down.” I indicated the crossword in front of him. “I would never call a client a nuisance to their face.”
“I bet you have a burn book in your office somewhere. Do I have an entire chapter?”
“You have an entire book dedicated to you.”
Kash sat up straighter. “Can I read it?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I want to know what you think of me.”
“Is my face not an indication as to how I feel every time I have to take your order?”
His eyes scanned my face and once again I realized I said more than I should have. At the end of the day, Kash was not my friend. We didn’t belong in the same stratosphere. Eventually, he was going to get bored of me and the restaurant. I looked forward to that day and dreaded it in equal measure.
I looked down at the tablet, loading up the order screen.
“Did you want the usual? The wait might be a little longer because one of our ovens is out and the technician hasn’t arrived yet.”
I prayed to the universe that it was a minor repair and not something that required thousands of dollars. I was at my breaking point here.
“I can wait,” he said.
I entered his order and before I hit send, I confirmed again.
“Are you sure? I really don’t know how long the wait will be. I mean, obviously it won’t be absurdly long but?—”
“Naina.”
The sound of my name coming from his mouth startled me a little. With the light coming in from the window beside his table, his eyes appeared the lightest shade of blue, almost like glass.
“I don’t want to be a nuisance.” He fingered the edge of his crossword. “If my leaving makes things easier for you then I will leave.”
The word yes was on the tip of my tongue, it was a knee jerk reaction. Something stopped me, though. Maybe it was that fizz of excitement I got every time I saw him. Just because it was bad for me didn’t mean it wasn’t fun.
I could tell he sensed my hesitation. There was an immediate shift in him, and he leaned forward just the slightest bit, as if in anticipation.
“You could just order something else,” I said, trying to downplay it.
Kash’s smile widened.
“You don’t want me to leave, do you?”
I tried not to roll my eyes and held back my own smile. As much as I tried to tell myself that even a friendship with him would be devastating for me, I couldn’t resist. Why couldn’t I resist? I’d never been particularly fickle or someone who was easily distracted.
In high school, when my friends went out on the weekends, I didn’t have any problem staying at home and doing my homework or helping my parents. It didn’t make me special, just someone who was perfectly fine resisting other people and their company. This strange relationship with Kash was very distracting.
“I don’t want anyone to leave, I’m trying to run a business here.”
“Whatever you want to tell yourself.”
Kash picked up his pen and crossword. Didn’t he have a company to run or something? Looking at him, you wouldn’t be able to tell that he possessed an insane amount of generational wealth. He always wore these jeans and a plain t-shirt and a watch with a brown leather strap.
No doubt all of it was worth more than I would spend on a single article of clothing.
“Your delusion is out of bounds. Do you want anything to drink?”
“Coffee’s fine.”
Just as I walked down the alcove that led to the kitchen door, I turned to look over my shoulder. Kash’s eyes were locked on me and this time he didn’t smile. Our eyes held across the busy restaurant floor for a long moment and neither of us blinked.
I would give away a lot of the money I didn’t have to find out what he was thinking. And that said exactly how crazy he was making me.
“You could just ask him what he wants,” the devil on my shoulder whispered.
“Sami, don’t you have work to do?” I looked over my shoulder at my sister, the devil.
“Come on, that man wants you,” she whined. “He looks at you like you’re the snack he’d rather be eating. Seduce him and we can be rich.”
I made a noise of protest, covering my ears.
“I can’t believe you just said that, you’re twelve!”
“I’m almost nineteen,” Sami laughed.
“If you’re nineteen then I am just old.”
Sami's laughter bubbled up until she almost doubled over.
I turned her around and pushed her down the alcove towards the kitchen.
“We’re not talking about this anymore. I definitely have work to do and it does not involve wondering about Kash Sutherland and seduction.”
Liar, liar.