“So how are things with you and Dhillon?” Roshni asked, with a smirk on her face.
Riya side-eyed her. “Not talking about it.”
“The man is clearly in love with you. Didn’t he tell you so?”
“No, what he said was he wished he wasn’t in love with me.”
Roshni rolled her eyes. “He loves you. And you are clearly in love with him. Do something about it.”
Riya focused on the road. Her cousin was right. It was about time she did something about it. “Fine. Go into my phone to the dating app, and let’s see if anyone interesting pops up.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“That’s what I need to do. Find someone else and move on. Put Dhillon in the past. I think there was a part of me that believed that somehow, by some form of magic, we’d be together. But that will never happen. So—” she turned to look at Roshni “—start swiping.”
Roshni rolled her eyes and sighed heavily to make her opinion known, but she did pick up Riya’s phone and was just catching her up on the latest family gossip when they heard the wail of sirens as a fire truck came up behind them. Riya pulled over to let the engine pass.
“Isn’t that your engine?” Roshni asked.
Sure enough, the fire engine bore the familiar number52in black script. “Not anymore.” Riya set her mouth in a line to hide her pain.
More sirens sounded, so they sat for a few minutes while Riya shifted this way and that, trying to see what was happening. An ambulance passed them as well. Then another.
“Go,” Roshni said.
“What? No. Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a civilian now.”
Roshni shrugged. “Fine. Don’t go.” She started swiping on Riya’s cell.
Riya glanced outside. “Maybe I’ll just go see what’s happening. I’ll just be gone a minute. Promise.” She put her hand out for her phone.
“Uh-huh.” Roshni slapped the device into her hand.
Riya strode onto the scene with the authority of someone who belonged there. Old habit. There had been a car accident on the bridge, and four cars were involved. Right now, two of them were dangerously close to the edge of the bridge. EMTs were on the scene, helping people from the other two cars. She stayed on the periphery, observing. The front right end of one of the cars was smashed into the guardrail.
Her former lieutenant was directing the scene, and she saw him notice her. Embarrassed, she made to go back to her car, but he called out to her.
“Desai! Desai!”
She couldn’t just ignore him. She should have stayed with Roshni in the car.
“Lieutenant.” She simply could not bring herself to call him Jeff. Unemployed or not.
“We have a situation.”
She nodded her head. “Sorry. I just wanted to see if I—”
“Could help?”
The understanding she found in his eyes was comforting and annoying all at the same time. “Call Dhillon,” he ordered.
She stared blankly at him. She must have heard wrong.
“We have a situation. We need a protective dog moved.That vehicle,” Ambrose continued, pointing at the one that was crashed into the guardrail, “has an injured man in it. He’s bleeding from the skull, and his leg is stuck under the dash.”
Riya furrowed her brow and shrugged. “Cut off the door—”
“Thanks, genius.” Ambrose stopped just short of an eye roll. “Problem is his German shepherd. Won’t let us near him. We’re just looking for management, a trank or something.”
