“Sooo...” Riya started.
“What?”
She shrugged. “So whatever happened with Sharmila? You know, the fiancée?”
If Dhillon didn’t know better, he would have thought Riya had flushed as she asked him the question. Maybe she had. He and Sharmila had been over for three years, yet she’d never asked him about it before.
He did the one-arm shrug thing. “She was never actually the fiancée. But she simply wasn’t the one.”
“Well, no shit, seeing as how you aren’t married. But what happened?”
Dhillon inhaled deeply. He really had no idea. And that was probably why Sharmila had left. “She broke up with me.” He glanced at Riya. Her eyes were focused on the road, but he knew she was listening. “The truth is that I wasn’t fully invested in that relationship. Sharmila was smart enough to see that when I wasn’t.” He shrugged. “I was checking off a box.”
“So you would have just married her anyway, even if you didn’t love her?” When Riya said it, it sounded like the ridiculous notion that it was.
“At the time I thought I loved her. So it was the next logical step.” He had been trying to live the life that had been expected of him. Not to mention Riya would never have had him.
“I couldn’t do that.” There was no hesitation in Riya’s voice.
“What? Get married?”
“No. I could get married.” Did she flush again? Hard to tell in the semidarkness of the car. “But I couldn’t do it to check a box.”
Dhillon rolled his eyes. “You don’t say. Riya Desai won’t do something she doesn’t want to do? Just because it’s expected of her? Color me surprised.”
“Is that how you see me? Not doing what’s expected of me?” Something in her voice made him look at her. Her lips were pursed.
“Well, yes. You do what you want. You always have.” They drove in silence for a moment. “Much wiser than doing something you know is wrong for you. Sharmila and I would have been divorced by now.”
Riya tilted her head toward him in agreement, a small smile on her face.
“Who was that guy, anyway?” Dhillon knew who he was; he simply wanted to hear it from Riya. He wanted to hear that he was just a one-night stand. That the guy had meant nothing.
Not that Dhillon wanted to think about Riya having one-night stands.
“Just some guy.” She didn’t look at him.
“Wow. That just cleared everything up. Thanks, Riya-D.”
“What do you want, Dhillon? It was some guy I...” She stared out the window, clearly embarrassed. Which was saying something, because nothing embarrassed Riya. Nothing.
She had gone through a fairly long party-girl phase that had stretched, as far as Dhillon knew, from college until...now. “Some guy you slept with?”
She glanced over at him. “Yes. It was a long time ago. It was a one-night stand.”
Relief flushed through Dhillon’s body with a speed that was almost embarrassing.
“I was a different person. Clearly, this guy did not get that memo and didn’t understand a polite turndown. What an asshole.” She sighed. “I haven’t been that person in a long time.”
Silence floated for another moment between them.
“Not going to lie, Riya-D. I really wanted to punch him.” The words were out before he thought about them.
She snapped her head up to look at him, then back at the road. “Because I slept with him? That is the most—”
“Because of the way he looked at you,” Dhillon growled. The memory of that man’s eyes on her sent adrenaline pumping through him. “He looked at you like you were...a plaything.”
Her jaw clenched.
