‘For what?’
‘For all of this,’ she said. For giving her a moment when she felt truly free and alive.
He arched one brow, a smirk playing on his lips. ‘For the Ferris wheel… or the kiss?’
That pulled a laugh out of her. ‘I thought you’re smart enough to read between the lines,’ she said, teasing him at the sight of the light flush still tinting his neck.
‘I am, but I will never turn down the chance to hear you talk about our kiss. Anyway, you did well for your first ride,’ he said, his voice still hoarse from screaming.
Siya snorted, tucking the wild strands of her curls behind her ear. ‘Not really. I’m just good at pretending,’ she said with a shrug.
He angled his body toward hers as he said, ‘It must get exhausting.’
She tilted her head at him, surprised by his observation. ‘I didn’t say that.’
He held her gaze. ‘You didn’t have to.’
She broke their connection, looking away toward the line of trees swaying in a dark silhouette behind which the hotel stood, waiting for her to come back.
The silence stretched for a beat too long, so she offered him a soft, practiced smile and asked, ‘What are your plans after this? Is someone waiting for you?’
Too late, she realised that she’d voiced the concern nagging at her. Worried she’d crossed a boundary, she was about to apologise when he began walking backward with a playful scoff.
‘My parents are out of town, and both of my friends are on a romantic getaway, so all that is waiting for me is an empty apartment. What about you? Should I be worried about getting hit with a whiskey bottle once we go back?’
Siya laughed, finding it absurd. ‘No bottles. No jealous boyfriends. You’re safe.’
‘Really? That’s hard to believe,’ he said.
She shrugged, burying her hands into the pockets of the hoodie. ‘I don’t know what to tell you. Dating is not exactly a thriving part of my portfolio. Besides, if there had been anyone, none of this would’ve happened,’ she said, pointing a finger between them.
‘How come?’
She hesitated, biting the inside of her cheek before she answered, ‘Because those relationships were over before I had a chance to figure out what it could be.’
‘Why’s that?’ he asked and waited for a response until after they navigated around a group of teenagers making a vlog.
‘Most men in my world are reckless and rich enough to live spontaneously. Seasonal trips, weekend getaways, last-minute plans—all things I couldn’t do because Kashvi needed me. I’d try to explain how my sister is my first priority, but they seemed to take it as a figure of speech.’
Siya tugged at the cuffs of the hoodie as she added, ‘Eventually, it always came down to the same thing. They blamed me for my “misplaced priorities” and for unfairly choosing my teenage sister over them.’
He said nothing for a moment, and Siya mistook his silence for judgement. ‘And I’m not sorry about that. If someone wantsme, they will have to accept that my sister is and will always be my responsibility, and all that comes with it. And I haven’t met a man who could handle that,’ she blurted out, a thread of worry slithering in her.
He annihilated her concerns with just one word. ‘Yet.’
The word hit her with a startling force because of how gentle, hopeful, and utterly sincere it was.
She raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Why? Are you applying for the position?’ she asked, letting the question tilt into a smile.
The line of his jaw twitched faintly as he said, ‘I’ve been waiting in line for a long time.’
He caught the confusion flicker across her face, and his gaze darted down to his watch. ‘A couple of hours, to be precise.’
Heat flushed through her, making her dizzy in a new way, and her voice dropped when she whispered, ‘You think that’s a long time?’
He lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug, but his smile didn’t meet his eyes. ‘It felt like a long time to me,’ he said, his words achingly soft.
Siya didn’t know what to say to that. There was something in the way he looked at her, something unreadable but honest, something that made her wonder what else he wasn’t saying. ‘What’s your story?’ she asked, curious for a glimpse.
