‘Touché.’ He ruffled his mop of hair and smiled. ‘Well, Olivia, it was a pleasure to meet you.’
If only she could say the same.
‘Just think,’ he continued, ‘who knows where you would have ended up if I hadn’t bumped into you? Destiny is a funny thing at times.’
‘Oh yeah, thank you, Destiny, for throwing me to the ground and leaving me battered and bruised.’
Jacob gave a deep laugh. ‘The universe works in mysterious ways, Olivia. Sometimes you just have to trust it.’
‘Sure, whatever you say.’ She pushed open the door to the shop, releasing a blast of cold air on to the streets. ‘Thank you for the help though.’
‘Like I said, it was a pleasure. And hey’ – he began to walk away, a look of childish mischief on his face – ‘you never know. I might see you around some time.’
‘I doubt it!’ she called after him. ‘India’s a big place.’
‘I know …’ He was far enough away now that he had to shout to be heard, his sun-kissed figure slowly being swallowed up by the crowd. ‘But who knows what fate has in store for us, hey?’
And before she had a chance to counter his stupidity, he was gone.
*
‘Can you hear me?’ Olivia shouted at the phone screen. Kate’s face remained frozen; a blurred snapshot of familiarity.
‘Kate?’ She tried again, lifting the phone higher up into the air and swinging it from side to side. ‘Are you still there?’
A small flicker of movement. ‘I can h-he-hear you. Can y-yo-y-you hear m-m-me?’ Her friend’s voice crackled through the speaker.
‘Kind of.’ Olivia scowled, trying to keep her frustration at bay and resisting the urge to throw the stupid phone across the stupid, stuffy hotel room.
‘How is it?’ Kate asked, her face finally unfreezing.
‘It’s fine.’
‘Just fine?’
‘I won’t say Delhi is myfavouriteplace in the world.’
‘How come? You’ve only been there a day.’
A day too long, in her opinion.
‘It’s pretty intense and quite overwhelming.’ Olivia tried to keep her voice light. ‘And you know how much I hate chaos.’
‘True, that is very true.’ Kate sighed, brushing a strand of her ginger hair out of her eyes. ‘But I’m sure you’ll get used to it soon.’
Olivia highly doubted that.
‘By the way, whereareyou?’ Kate’s eyes squinted. ‘It looks like some sort of prison cell in there.’
Jacob’s arrogant voice rang out in her head.
That place is a shithole.
She felt the tension build in her body, as she tried to shake the thoughts of the smug stranger from her mind and concentrate fully on the screen in front of her.
‘Not far off it.’ The contempt in Olivia’s voice was blatant. ‘Turns out my hotel isn’t quite the four-star accommodation I was promised.’
‘Jesus Christ!That’ssupposed to be four-star? You should sue.’
