Page 59

“You should leave,” she said quietly. “And please don’t mind Grandpa not accepting your flowers. He hasn’t slept properly in two nights.”

She didn’t turn around. Her fingers tightened around the knob of the juicer as he was inside now, closer.

“It’s fine,” he said, standing by the edge of the kitchen counter, hands in his pockets, his shirt sleeves rolled up, and his eyes watching her like she was the only thing worth seeing in the whole room. “Actually… I wanted to—”

Before he could finish, her hand accidentally turned on the juicer knob. The sudden roar of the machine echoed through the kitchen like an explosion. Nandini jerked, flustered, and Shaurya was infuriated by the intrusion. He immediately held his hand over hers on the knob and turned it off. Her cheeks burned, and so did his touch on her skin.

She met his gaze finally, still breathless. “Sorry, I—”

He took a step closer. “I wanted to talk to you about our… kiss… that night.”

At the mention of the word ‘kiss,’ her hand shot out, and she grabbed his wrist. “Shh!!” she hissed. “You’re going to get me killed. If Daadu hears this, forget me, he’ll strangle you first.”

“Strangle me?” Shaurya rolled his eyes. “He can’t even get out of bed without help.”

“I didn’t mean it literally,” she muttered, dragging him out through the French doors of the living room and toward the mango tree. Her pulse thumped with each step. She stopped beneath its shade.

“So,” she said, glancing around to make sure Lakshmi Aunty wasn’t around to see or hear them. “What about the kiss? Didn’t you already say you thought I was your date?”

“I didn’t have a date,” he said firmly, locking his eyes with her. “It was Varun who had set up some blind date nonsense for me. I’d refused him and never really went through with it.”

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Wait… a blind date? So, you kissed someone you didn’t even know? That’s your idea of blind dates? Kissing them without a Hi or a Hello?”

“I don’t kiss blind dates,” he muttered angrily, his eyes locking with hers. “In fact, I haven’t kissed anyone since my divorce.”

She blinked, clearly taken aback. “But you kissed me.”

He paused, clearly thrown off-guard by her words. Yes. He’d kissed her. A woman who wasn’t his wife, nor his girlfriend. It was a first!

But before he could find the right words to explain, she continued, “Well, now I know why. It all makes sense. Since you hadn’t kissed anyone in so long... no wonder.”

“No wonder what?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head, clearly not wanting to spill anything out.

Shaurya leaned in, gripping her arms.

“No wonder what, Nandini?”

She hesitated for a second… and then sighed.

“No wonder… that kiss felt a little outdated.”

Shaurya looked at her like she’d just told him he was a century-old fossil. “Outdated?” he echoed.

She nodded, biting her lower lip to hide a smile. “Yeah. Like one of those old flip phones you probably used in college. By the time I got to college, they were in museums.”

His jaw clenched. “You’re comparing that kiss to a flip phone?”

“Yes,” she said matter-of-factly. “You know how with a flip phone, you had to snap them open first? A little awkward. A little clunky. And onlythenyou could finally talk. That kiss felt the same. Like all setup, a little mechanical, a bit stiff… and the actual connection came a bit late, like the signal took time to warm up.”

Shaurya blinked, trying to mentally decode the metaphor.

Nandini gave a little shrug, feigning nonchalance. “I mean… it wasn’t bad. But I expected more from a man who struts around like he trademarked arrogance.”

His brows rose.

She tilted her head and continued her blabbering. “And now that I know that kiss happened because you thought I was yourblind date—a total stranger—I gotta say… besides beinggrumpy and hot,you’re also reckless.”