Page 45 of Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar

Rudra props his elbow on the sofa, resting his chin on his palm and tilting his head to look up at me. He has a really nice forearm, I suddenly notice, taut and peppered with soft hair. “Nothing, I just think I was right before. Youarea hopeless romantic, though I am starting to see the appeal.”

“What?” I splutter.

“You heard me, Krishna.”

I think something short-circuits in me when he says that, because my insides are most definitely malfunctioning. Priti flops down next to me, giving us both the stink eye, and I’m pretty sure she caught at least part of our exchange.

Charu speaks up just then, cutting off whatever remark Priti’s about to make. “Where are we going for lunch? Mumma and Papa said we could order in or go out.”

“Let’s go out,” Digha says. “I don’t want you boys going back to gaming.”

“We wouldn’t have anyway,” Varun chimes in. “Rudra totally tookJalaj out.Multipletimes. It was so fucking cool.”

Varun gives Rudra a fist bump, and all us girls exchange looks like,Boys.

“If y’all are done bromancing,” I say, “can we decide on a place?”

“Hey, what if we took them to the Mahishmati thali place?” Charu says, excitedly getting to her feet.

“Good idea, but it’s like forty minutes away,” Varun says. “We should take them somewhere closer. There are decent places nearby.”

“But we have a big enough group to be able to finish the whole thing!” Charu insists.

Now,that’sintriguing. “What exactly would we be trying to finish?” I ask.

“You’ll see,” she says mysteriously.

“It’ll be fun,” Varun adds, nudging his brother.

Jalaj looks doubtful. “I know, and I don’t mind, but I need to be back in time to prepare for the trek.”

“Trek?” Priti asks.

“Oh, Jallu leads these treks during the summer with his group,” Varun says, grinning. “He’s guided more than fifty treks around Lonavala already.”

“He has a certificate and everything,” Digha adds proudly. “Very legit.”

Jalaj bats away the compliments. “Today I have a group of about six college kids booked, and we’ll be taking a hired minibus at eight p.m.”

“Isn’t that a bit late for a trek?” Rudra asks.

“It’s a midnight trek. It’s jugnu season, so we take a lot of trekkers to the points where the fireflies gather and mate in swarms. We start at the base of Prabalmachi and get back to Pune by noon the following day.”

He takes out his phone to show us a video. My breath hitches in my throat. It’s the mostgorgeousthing I’ve ever seen. Fireflies illuminate a tall, dark tree like strings of flickering Christmas lights.

“It’s mostly the male fireflies that emit light, in order to impress the females,” Jalaj explains.

“So they put on a whole light show for the females?” I say, clasping my hands. “That’s so adorable.”

“It rewired my brain that first time, for sure.” Jalaj shuts his eyes, a small smile playing along his lips, and I can see just how much these treks mean to him. He speaks about fireflies the way I would about human anatomy.

“You said you’d be back in Pune by noon,” I say. “Isn’t that when you’re expecting the car back, Rudra?”

“Yeah,” Rudra replies.

“Please tell me you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking,” Priti says. “We can’t go on the trek, Krishna.”

“Why not?” I say. “It’s not like we have anything to do but wait for Rudra’s car, and we’ll be back by noon tomorrow.”