A spark of irritation flared beneath his breastbone. “I’ve never heard it.”
“Huh. Okay. I’ll send it to you later. It’s pretty good. And it took him forever to write it. We went back and forth on that one for months.”
“ ‘We’?”
“What?” she asked, her brows knit in confusion.
“You said ‘we.’ ”
“Oh. Well, he wrote it. I just gave him my thoughts. Sent some edits.”
“Hmm.” Karthik frowned. He still couldn’t understand why she would waste her time, let alone her talent, on Seth. Some of his thoughts must have shown on his face, because Meghna responded as if she could hear them.
“I do the same thing,” she said, a defensive note in her voice. “I send him my writing too. He gives great feedback.”
“That’s nice,” he said, though he didn’t think it was nice at all.
“Itisnice.”
They looked at each other for a moment, the air thick with sudden tension.
“Sorry we’re late, Meg,” Seth said, finally joining them. The other guys followed him and sat down at the table.
Meg?Did he call her Meg?Karthik had never heard anyone refer to her by that nickname before. Is that what she liked to be called? She’d never told him to call her that. He took a sip of his water, trying to suppress another twinge of annoyance.
“That’s fine,” Meghna said, turning to Seth with a warm smile. “I ordered all your favorites.”
Seth shot her a grin, and that twinge grew into something more. Something hot and dark and bitter. During the rest of the dinner, Karthik tried to ignore it. He enjoyed the food, forced a laugh at all the appropriate times, and even managed to engage Seth’s reclusive cousin in a conversation about the high-fantasy, multi-book series he’d been reading on the beach. But that feeling lingered, burning brighter whenever Meghna and Seth shared an inside joke or laughed at Eric and Mark’s stories about their wild days in college.
“Enough,” Meghna told Eric, shaking her head and holding on to her stomach. “I can’t take any more.”
“But that wasn’t even the best one. Seth, remember that night we—”
“I have no clue where this is going, but I don’t think it’s anywhere good,” Seth cut in with an easy smile. He looked over at Meghna and slung an arm across the back of her chair. “So, best man, where to next?”
That burning sensation in Karthik’s stomach flared, but he took a deep breath and pushed it to the side. He listened as Meghna explained their plans for the night, anticipation quickly replacing the irritation that had been growing within him. They were about to go dancing, and he honestly could not wait.
—
Meghna blinked, the flashing lights in the club making her feel like she’d stepped into the middle of a lightning storm. She wasn’t a hugefan of the ambiance, but she and Seth had picked this place for the DJ, and she couldn’t deny that the music was good. The electronic sound flowed through her, her shoulders involuntarily shaking to the beat.
Their group split in two, half heading to the bar to get a round of shots and the others heading straight to the dance floor.
She was tempted to get right to the dancing, but waited, waving at Karthik to lower his head so he could hear her over the music.
“Hey, you don’t have to dance for long if you don’t want to. Or at all. I bet Seth’s cousin won’t.” She pointed toward the bar, where Seth’s cousin sat, using his phone as a flashlight to read his book. “You can sit over there and I’ll come find you when we’re ready to head out.”
Karthik straightened, his forehead creasing. “You don’t want me to dance with you?”
“No. No, it’s not that. I just don’t want you to feel like you have to.” Meghna tilted her head to the side. “Do you want to? Dance, I mean. With me?”
He nodded once, the movement sharp and pointed.
Surprised delight hummed through her veins.
Well, she definitely wasn’t going to turn down a chance to feel his arms around her. Even if he was only being kind. Or doing it for the sake of their arrangement. She encircled his wrist with one hand, pulling him toward an open spot on the floor.
Once there, she turned to face him.
