Dev stiffened, but the pocket of silence around them snapped Jia from her turmoil faster than a siren could. She glanced around and found that the people at the bar were watching them, eyebrows raised.A circle of people observe the heroine’s embarrassment while the band plays on.
The audience included the redheaded reporter—and the phone the woman held in her hands. Oh no. Jia shook her head, the sting of tears frightening her. She hadn’t cried in years, and she definitely didn’t cry in public. It would ruin her makeup and was extremely off-brand. “Are you done yet?”
He raised his wrist, free of her. “Yes.”
“Goodbye.”
“Wait—”
She spun around, her wide skirt flaring around her ankles as she half jogged away. She only paused at the table at the exit. “Where’s the gift bag?”
She was going to have something to show for this night, damn it, even if it wasn’t love.
Jia grabbed the fabric bag the bored employee held outand continued her dash.
The tears started falling by the time she got to the elevator. She jabbed the lobby button and collapsed against the back wall.
Jia, you are being extremely melodramatic right now.
She clutched the goody bag to her chest and let out a small sob. Yeah she was. She was the little piggy who was going to be melodramatic all the way home, too melodramatic to even care that strangers may have observed her embarrassment.
By the time she got to the lobby, she’d at least controlled the more vocal sobs, though the valet still looked at her askance when she handed him her ticket. She pulled out her phone while she waited for her car and scrolled through her voice notes. Why hadn’t she thought to record an affirmation for herself in case this didn’t work out? Silly optimistic Past Jia.
Either the person she’d been talking to all this time wasn’t the man she’d met upstairs, or he was a cold-blooded internet seducer. Which reality was more palatable? Was she a naïve fool or was she a naïve fool?
Or, third option, you’re too difficult to be lovable, and he realized that once he saw you.
Jia shook the insecurity out of her head, but it was deep-rooted, waiting for any hint of weakness.
She navigated to her messaging app and clicked on Dev’s name. She’d put a heart next to it, during a mushy moment. She scrolled through the last few messages she’d sent, thentyped into the message box.Who the fuck are you???
Three dots immediately popped up, and she waited with bated breath, but the dots went away, and there was nothing.
“Ma’am?”
She swiped her tears and took her keys from the valet, putting a crumpled mound of cash in his hand for a tip. Judging by his effusive thanks, she assumed it was enough.
Her car was as silent as her phone. She cranked the volume of her radio up, until the bass vibrated, and then peeled away from the curb. There were so many thoughts flying around in her head, but right now, the only thing she could stomach deciding was whether she should pick up two or three pints of ice cream on her way home.
Chapter Two
DEV HADonly visited America three times. Once for a wedding, once for a graduation, once for an awards show. He liked the country, but found it a strange place, what with its citizens openly carrying large guns and holding events like pie-eating contests. He hadn’t seen them do both those things together yet, though he supposed such a joint event would not be absurd here.
He never thought he’d end up leaving his home in Mumbai to come work in this country, but here he was. He also never thought he’d become utterly preoccupied with a strange woman within the space of time it took for her to walk up to him, but there she’d been.
You told me you’d searched the universe for a woman like me.
Dev quietly closed the door of his flat. He threw his keys in the dish on the foyer table, and winced as the metal met glass. He fished them out immediately and placed the keys on the table runner. The place had come furnished, the owners vacationing somewhere in Barbados. Given his tight finances and his teenage niece, he’d wanted to opt for aless expensive flat without thousand-dollar glass dishes, but his agent had pointed out that a decent address would be beneficial. His main attraction to these Hollywood hotshots was his famous family. He needed to keep the illusion of wealth intact until he was established here. Luckily, they’d gotten the home for a steal.
The muted sounds of the television led him to the living room. Loud snores from the man on the couch punctuated the forgotten Hindi movie on the screen. Dev picked up the remote and clicked it off.
His uncle sat straight up, coming from sleep to waking in a second. Dev didn’t jump. The man had been a cab driver in New York for over thirty years, and was quick to wake up from his snoozes.
“Dev?”
“Yes. Sorry Uncle, did I wake you?”
“Not at all.” Adil scrubbed his hands over his face. His uncle had just started to get a stoop to his shoulders and silver in his thinning hair. “I was waiting up for you.”
