Page 16 of Since You Stole My Heart

He raised a brow. ‘Oh, really? And what’s the goal? Looking like a ghost?’

‘It’s a minimalist trend. You wouldn’t understand.’

His gaze didn’t waver. ‘You really think I’m blind and stupid?’

‘I needed a little break,’ she mumbled the only thing she could think of.

‘From me? Kash, if I’m the reason you’ve been staying away, then I’ll move out tonight. I would have left the moment you asked. All you had to do was talk to me,’ he said, and the simplicity of it disarmed her.

A pulse of panic flickered through her chest. The image rose unbidden in her mind. The apartment stripped of his laughter, his shoes gone from the doorway, the empty space on the couch where he always sat. None of it felt right.

The thought hollowed something inside her, and the anger she had been clinging to began to unravel. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Why would you move out? It’s our apartment.’

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, and the glorious sight of it made her heart skip a beat.

‘Then help me understand what’s going on, because I know you’ve been avoiding me. Especially after we nearly kissed… or is it because of that?’

The memory of that evening at the beach sent a shiver down her spine. She remembered it as though it had happened yesterday. Beneath the fairy lights of the giant wheel and the full moon above, she had stumbled into his arms, their lips only inches away from crossing the fragile boundary between them.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said, though she couldn’t fake the conviction.

He traced the edge of her jaw with the tip of his finger, and she became acutely aware of how little distance remained between them.

‘Let me remind you. After we almost kissed on the beach, we came back for the group dinner. Halfway through it, you announced you were planning to stay with a friend. You didn’t look at me or say a word when you left. Since then, you stopped picking up my calls and only replied with one-word messages. Does any of that ring a bell?’

Kashvi bit her lip as she remembered the chatter around the dinner table, and his unwavering gaze trained on her from across it.

She hadn’t been able to meet his eyes, because she hadn’t wanted him to see how badly she wanted to finish what had almost happened. Acting on impulse, she had faked an emergency call from a friend.

‘Did you really expect me not to notice?’ he asked.

She truly hadn’t. She had thought he would be glad of her absence. Yet here he was, standing in front of her, holding her close, showing her just how wrong she had been.

Kashvi swallowed hard when she felt the rasp of his breath near her lips. ‘You’re reading too much into a small moment. It was nothing.’

‘Am I?’ His voice dropped, softer now, as he shifted his hand from her waist to the shelf beside her head. ‘Because it felt real to me, Kash, and so did the way you shut me out after that.’

A pang of guilt twisted through her. He was right. She’d thought leaving would protect them both. But standing this close to him, Kashvi couldn’t deny that every second of that memory still felt as real as her heartbeat.

He leaned forward until his forehead rested against hers, and the world seemed to narrow to the rhythm of their breaths mingling together. ‘To me, it looks like the second we came close to admitting there was something between us, you ran. But why?’

She tried to gather a response, but the words stayed tangled in her throat.

He pulled back, his eyes searching hers with a patience that felt almost unbearable. ‘It’s fine if you don’t want to answer that, but at least tell me why you’re doing this to yourself.’

Kashvi frowned. ‘Doing what?’

Swayam glanced around the apartment, and she followed his gaze. The room looked even more desolate through his eyes, stripped down to the bare minimum.

An old mat lay folded in one corner beneath a faded sheet. There was no fan humming, no stocked refrigerator, no kettle on the counter. Just blank walls and hollow space that echoed with the bitter memories of her and Siya making do with what little they got from their father.

‘You’ve got nothing here except a lamp and your favourite book to keep you company.’

She folded her arms across her chest, hoping it might shield her from his scrutiny. ‘I don’t need much to survive. A bed does the job.’

‘A bed?’ Swayam repeated softly. ‘That thing is barely a mattress.’

‘I sleep fine on it. It’s enough for me. Not everyone is a giant like you,’ Kashvi huffed.