Nor did it resemble the work room in his own shop, the doorway of which was notched with his and his sister’s heights, as well as Ruma’s. Their work room had a wall of windows and was always full of sunshine, or else the gray patter of the rain outside, running in rivulets that they could see. Ranar could tell her employees would work beneath the fluorescent hum of the overhead lights, with no clue of what the weather or time ofday might be outside their gray cinder block prison. There was nothing personal here, nothing colorful or bright, nothing but a reminder of what they were. A soulless corporate sweatshop, rolling over the same businesses that had trusted them for decades.
“This is more like it,” he laughed again. “Yeah, this is exactly what I was expecting. You threw me with all of the cotton candy fluff out there.”
“The cotton candy fluff is whoIam,“ she said pointedly with a laugh. “This is . . . yeah. Exactly what you said. Nothing has been what I expected.”
Her voice trailed off slightly, her eyes dropping to the floor.
“The front is beautiful,” he heard himself saying, unsure why he was trying to make her feel better, “and your coolers are full.”
“Yeah, that’s all for tomorrow. Two of the girls are assigned to work on replenishing the cooler, that’s what they do every afternoon. They just make everything to the general spec and we go from there.”
“Two of the girls. How many employees do you have?”
“Seven. Although, two of those are drivers. I might have to bring on a counter person if we ever pick up in the front, but as of now it’s not necessary.”
Ranar chuckled to himself. Seven employees, and she’d barely been open for three months. He supposed it wasn’t fair to compare that piece of his business to hers. Mira was his only employee, but he and his parents could do the work of five floral designers with their eyes closed.Still.Seven!
“Well, it sounds to me like you’re crushing it. Yeah, it’s pretty fucking ugly back here.”
Sumi laughed, taking a tiny step closer as she did so.
“But you’re doing great. Honest. It might not be exactly what you envisioned, but . . .” He trailed off, motioning vaguely to the room. Motioning vaguely at his life, for a decade ago, he’d neverwould have guessed that he’d be starting over again at this point. “They rarely turn out the way we expect.”
She kissed him.
That was what he would cling to, after.
He glanced back down to her, after his hand dropped, and suddenly there she was, catching his lips with her own. She was taller in her heels and gripped the front of his shirt for leverage, catching him unexpectedly in a kiss, soft and tentative.
That he kissed herback, he would simply have to live with. Not only kissed her back, but deepened the kiss immediately, his hand dropping to her hip to hold her close, angling his mouth to slot against hers fully. She was warm and her lips were sweet, tasting of the sugared rims of her fancy cocktail glasses, whimpering into his mouth as one of his fangs caught in her lip.
When she dropped down from her toes, Ranar was breathing hard. Her mouth was still open, lips parted and plump, her eyes wide, as if she couldn’t believe her own audacity . . . When he closed the distance and kissed her again. Another little kitten whimper, her un-sharp teeth taking its turn to graze his lip, before her tongue slid against his. She sent a shock down his spine when her hand pushed into his hair, her long nails scraping against his scalp.
Sweet like candy, he thought as she dropped down again, mouths parting. When she took a tottering step back, Ranar forced himself to swallow.
“I-I have something for you.”
She turned from him, carefully crossing to the side counter before rooting through a large, pink floral tote bag on one of the countertops. “I brought this for your mom. I started going through some stuff at the house and I found all these pictures. I thought this was a nice one.”
It was a photo in an intricate, gold wrought frame, one of his mother and her late friend from some years back, who wasevidently Sumi’s great aunt. Both women were smiling, holding teacups, with their heads together.
“I was going to bring it to her, but . . .” She trailed off, an adorable flush moving up her neck. “Well, I wasn’t sure how serious you are about me staying away. I didn’t want the police to be called.”
Ranar laughed again, forcing his blood to cool.That’s that. And it was a mistake in the first place.“Are you kidding? All I’ve heard for the last week and a half is how she’s having you over for tea and the two of you are going to have a grand old time, and she’s going to take your flower arranging class at the Japanese club. I hope you have a sweet tooth, because she’s going to ply you with desserts until you have rose water and coconut coming out of your pores.”
Sumi laughed, delighted. “I amsolooking forward to it. I had a rosewater dessert for the very first time just a few weeks ago. Strawberry Rose daifuku. Maybe I’ll try making some for her to try. Your family is Indian?”
Ranar smiled wryly. It was hardly the first time he’d heard a variation ofso where are you from.“I’mfrom Cambric Creek. I was born at Healers’, just a few miles away, over by the university. As I said once before, I’ve lived here my whole life. But my family is Tamil.”
The flush had spread up to her ears. “You just need to be aware now that I’m going to asksomany silly questions. Because not only was I raisedveryhuman, I was raised almost painfully white.”
Ranar chuckled. “I’ll let mom know to use a light hand with the spices.”
She teetered on her heels as she laughed again, burying her face in her hands. “Okay, wait. I have something else. This is for Ruma. Well, she gets a bag too, you both do. But this is especially for her.”
She pulled two of the iridescent little gift bags from the shelf. A frequent shopper punch card, a voucher for a free single rose, a five dollar off code, various gourmet candies, a tea candle, organza wrapped and smelling of gardenia, and a pothos clipping, secured in a water tube. “Grace is gonna love this.”
“Are you together?” Sumi asked the question suddenly, whirling around to face him, grabbing the counter for balance as she did so. “I – I mean, you came together tonight. And that day at your shop —“
