“Shouldn’t we eat?” Karan finally said.
Nimita grinned to herself. That man was always hungry.
“You just had like an entire loaf of banana bread,” Roshan tossed at him, but he and Vishal made to get out of the water.
“Yes, and?”
“We really should eat so we can make the next stop and still get back to the hotel before dark,” Nimita said. “We need to reach Hana and start back by around 4:00 p.m.”
“What happens after dark?” Roshan asked.
“The roads are quite a bit harder to navigate in the dark.”
He shrugged and looked away, clearly not taking her seriously. Whatever. They ate their lunch of sandwiches and fresh fruit before piling into their seats. She started driving.
“I’m happy to drive for a bit,” Roshan said.
“I’m good.”
“Not that you aren’t doing a great job,” he added. “Just if you need a break.” It was probably the nicest thing he’d said all day.
“I’m fine.” She shrugged. “I always drive. I just really like it.”
“And you don’t have to trust anyone else,” he said.
She ignored that he was calling her out and focused on the narrow, curvy road.
“You keep looking over here.”
“I’m not looking at you. Don’t get excited,” she quipped.
He put his hands up in surrender. “Oh, I’m not. Trust me. I still have the bruises.”
This made Nimita smile. “I saw.” She cringed inwardly at the implication that she waslookingat him. Too late.
Silence floated between them for a moment. She glanced in the rearview and saw that Karan and Vishal were both napping.
“They don’t hurt as bad as they look.” Roshan glanced behind him, too. “As much as I deserved them,” he added quietly.
Nimita flicked her gaze to him quickly. Something in his voice told her he wasn’t talking about entering her room in the middle of the night.
Roshan shifted in his seat and let out a sigh. She felt him turn his body to her. Like he had to face her head-on. “I was horrible to you at graduation.”
Nimita just shook her head. “What?” Surely she had heard him wrong.
“You don’t remember? The way you were acting… I was sure you…” He sounded stricken. He faced forward again. “I suppose that serves me right. Why would you bother remembering anything I said that day?”
Nimita did not speak. He sounded so bereft, she had half a mind to let him believe that he had been so inconsequential in her life that his words on that day had left no impact on her.
She took the exit for the black sand beach without a word. She parked and exited the car, making a beeline for the beach. She heard the guys follow behind her, murmuring to each other.
“What did you say to her?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does… Go apologize.”
She reached the beach and removed her socks and shoes. Carrying them in her small tote, she set foot on the coarse black sand, which was also strewn with pebbles.
