Page 24 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

Thirteen

Now Regret Meeting Me

Nori

K ochi?” Nori asked, looking up from her boarding pass at the airport.

The small port city was located over twelve hundred miles away, way down south on the West Coast. Of course, she hadn’t specified a location when she’d asked Vir to book the earliest flight out, but she hadn’t thought he’d pick one nearly all the way across the country.

“The weather’s nice this time of year.” Vir replied with a shrug. Then a lopsided grin broke across his face. He seemed amused for some reason.

“Huh.” Nori nodded. Anywhere was fine as long as they weren’t followed.

So, that’s where they were headed. Kochi, Kerala.

She was used to her parents talking fondly of the green pastures and backwaters and beaches there from their travels a long time ago. And while her heart permanently belonged to the mountains, the idea of a brief affair with the sea had always held a certain pull for her, too .

But now, as she stood in the boarding queue with Vir by her side, Nori reminded herself she was on a mission, not a vacation.

Squaring her shoulders, she looked straight ahead to find random passers-by giving her strange—pitiful, some disgusted even—stares. And a wide berth. Confused, she glanced over at Vir, and to her horror, realized they were staring at him , not her. Him and his raccoon face.

She pursed her lips, trying to ignore the mixture of irritation and guilt rolling inside her gut. When she looked sideways at Vir again, she found his gaze already fixed on her.

He wasn’t going to stop doing that, was he?

Probably not.

But did she want him to stop?

No—YES. She mentally kicked herself.

“Will you please stop?”

“Stop what?” Had she let something slip—some dumb emotion she’d no business feeling?

“The unnecessary guilt.” Vir pointed towards his nose. “It was an accident. I’m perfectly fine.”

“Oh.” She ducked her head before offering him a sheepish smile.

Vir beamed in response. And there it was again—the rounded, kitten-eyed stare. Something warm and liquid slid down her ribcage, almost as if her organs were melting inside. Her fingers twitched as she resisted the urge to trace the contours of his smile.

STOP. Nori averted her gaze, her hands balled into fists inside her jacket pockets.

So quiet that she was sure she’d imagined it, she heard Vir sigh. When she glanced towards him again, he was staring off in the distance with a frown prominent on his brow.

The queue finally moved .

Vir

W hile Nori dozed on and off through the flight, Vir browsed online for places to stay in Kochi.

It didn’t take him long to find one he liked, considering all he really had to do was pull from his bookmarked list of resorts that he’d shortlisted earlier for what was supposed to have been his last beach vacation only months ago.

Located on a thin strip of land, sandwiched between Kerala’s backwaters on one side and an endless stretch of the West Coast beach on the other, the place was exactly what he’d envisioned—a perfect paradise to rot away in.

In a way, he was getting his last beach vacation after all. Only slightly delayed and with company. Not that he minded the prospect of having a pissed-off Nori by his side, huffing and glaring and ordering him to stay alive or else .

Not a bad way to go. Not bad at all. He chuckled at the thought.

At the resort, once they were done with the check-in formalities, a concierge led them from the reception lobby into a landscaped semi-circular courtyard outside.

There, an artfully snaking pathway fanned out before splitting into two diametrically opposite lanes on either side.

They took a left, making their way to studio number four—their apartment sized suite for the stay.

“So, this is where I die,” Vir whispered under his breath once the concierge had left. Then louder, “Not bad.”

Nori elbowed him in the side. “I told you to keep that pessimistic stuff to yourself.”

“Uh, sorry. Didn’t realize I’d said it out loud.”

Nori shook her head. “Dr. Vir Varma, this—” She stepped around him and pressed her card-key to the door, “—is where you’ll live . And you don’t want to fight me on this. Ask Mr. Raccoon.”

Vir rolled his eyes, watching her snicker at her own remark as she stepped inside ahead of him .

Nori

N ori threw her sneakers off at the foyer before padding barefoot into the studio. It appeared to be nearly the same size as her cottage back in Shoja, with a single bedroom, a somewhat lavish bath, a study, and an open kitchen with a cozy island that doubled as the dining area.

The best part was the breezy, double-height living space. It overlooked a small garden with a view of the West Coast up ahead, and a low, black wrought iron gate that opened onto the property’s private beach.

“Feels like we’re on vacation,” she observed, plopping herself onto the plush beige couch in the middle of the living room. She closed her eyes with a satisfied hum.

“We could pretend we are.”

Opening her eyes, she grinned at Vir and his single raised brow. Her grin faltered as she caught herself enjoying the idea of being on vacation with him a little too much. She was there for work. Not on vacation.

But he seemed so… happy.

“We could,” she replied, if only for his answering grin to turn the contents of her ribcage into warm slop once more.

Vir

A fter a period of inconclusive back and forth, where neither of them agreed to take the bed while the other slept on the couch, they finally settled on sharing. It was big enough, even with a partition of fluffy pillows in the middle.

While Vir called house-keeping for an extra set of blankets, he felt through the air, searching for any signs indicating Nori’s dislike for the new sleeping arrangement. He didn’t find any.

The pufferfish inside his chest swelled happily as he lay beside her to sleep. But that was because the pufferfish wasn’t aware of the horror that was to come in a few hours’ time .

Early the next morning, as Vir stood lathering Nori’s pine scented shampoo into his hair, the bathroom door swung open. It had to be the dumbest bathroom door in the history of bathroom doors, because it came with no locking mechanism whatsoever. No bolt. No latch. Nothing .

And thanks to their brilliant design, Vir now stood buck naked inside his shower cubicle, watching Nori sleepily hobble into the adjacent toilet cubicle.

Averting his gaze, he quietly waited for her to finish and leave.

Then exactly five seconds after she’d left, Nori burst in again, no longer oblivious to her audience of a petrified Vir.

“There’s no lock on the—uh, do you mind? Ack!” He fumbled, awkwardly covering himself with one hand while trying to wipe the dripping shampoo suds from his eyes.

“Fuck—yes, fuck! I’m so sorry!” Nori scurried out again, all the while alternating between more swearing and yelling, “SORRY!”

It took them hours before they could make eye-contact again without both their faces going instantly beet red. And only after they’d hung up a makeshift cardboard sign outside the bathroom with OCCUPIED scribbled on one side and VACANT on the other.

O ver the next few weeks, Vir fell into the ease of his old routine again. Only here the late afternoon walks with Nori meant leisurely strolls along the beach instead of going up and down winding hill roads.

Walking beside her now, his gaze dipped to their feet as they moved together in sync over the slippery, damp sand.

Their arms swung side by side, close enough to touch, but not quite. His fingers itched to reach out and maybe, if she let him, weave through hers. To feel her small hand fit perfectly in his. Like it had the day they’d left Shoja.

Then a dumb voice somewhere at the back of his head reminded him that he and Nori were friends. And friends could hold hands.

“Nori,” he started, before quickly shoving his hand into his jeans pocket. He’d promised he wasn’t going to bother her with his feelings. Or even bring up the topic again.

“Hmm?” Nori mused, her eyes set on the dipping sun in the distance .

What could he say to her, anyway? Ask her to fall for a dying man? To humor him, like him back just for a few months, weeks maybe? And then what?

He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat.

“Is everything okay?” Nori stopped to look at him.

Vir nodded, not trusting his voice.

But if he wasn’t gone in a few months… what then? What if he was still here after everything, but she wasn’t? Because she was going to leave, eventually. However the experiment ended, and it was going to end at some point, she was going to leave.

Vir hadn’t really considered that possibility yet and what might come after . He certainly wasn’t ready to consider it now.

“Vir?”

Still not trusting his voice, he averted his eyes from Nori’s scrutinizing gaze.

The waves had just spat out a bunch of broken seashells by his feet. And it was the perfect time to flick them all back into the water one by one. Using his toe.

Flick. The first one landed squarely in an oncoming wave.

“What’s wrong?” Nori asked, trying to peek at his face, but he had a seashell to flick.

Flick. It missed the water entirely and landed a foot away in the opposite direction.

“What—” Nori stepped right in front of him and grabbed his face between her palms, “—is wrong?”

Flick. He just got a chunk of wet sand this time.

“Why won’t you look at me?” Nori’s big brown eyes moved into view.

And as they peered right into his, full of concern and warmth, leaving him nowhere to hide, it finally hit him.

“Do you—” His voice cracked.

“Do I what?”

He pried her hands away from his face and took a small step back before speaking again .

“Do you really think it’s going to work?” Wet sand shifted beneath his feet as he dug his toes in, and his next words slipped out before he had a chance to think them through. “I want to live.”