Page 76 of Cherish my Heart

I blink. “What?”

“You are,” she says, eyes crinkling. “Trying to act all tough with your grumpy face, and then you go and do something like this.”

“I didn’t do it to be cute,” I mutter.

She walks toward me, slowly, her fingers trailing across the back of a leather armchair.

“You don’t have to do things like this for me,” she says gently. “I don’t need grand gestures. Just quality time.”

My jaw clenches. I don’t know what to say to that. I never learned what quality time is. Growing up, time was something you survived through, not something you shared.

But she’s looking at me like she means it. Like being here—with me—is enough.

“I wasn’t trying to impress you, darling,” I say finally.

She tilts her head. “No?”

“I just… wanted to give you something that feels like you. Quiet. Thoughtful. Full of stories. And maybe,” I add after a pause, “keep a reason to be close to it too.”

There’s a silence between us. But it’s not heavy. It’s… soft.

She crosses the room and stands in front of me. Places her palm gently against my chest, right above the scar I got when I was sixteen and made the mistake of saying no for once. Her touch burns. But not in a bad way.

“This is the best first date I’ve ever had,” she murmurs.

I don’t know how to handle praise like that. I look away, but her hand keeps me grounded.

“Then I’m setting the bar too high, darling,” I say. “You’ll have to keep going out with me just to see what I do next.”

She laughs. The sound makes me feel something I don’t have a name for yet.

Her fingers curl into my shirt slightly. “You’re not good for my heart.”

I lean down, close enough to see the flecks of gold in her brown eyes. “I’ve been bad for a lot of things, Aditi. But with you… I want to try being good. Even if I don’t know how.”

Her smile fades into something tender, something almost vulnerable. “You’re already better than you think.”

“Maybe,” I say, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. “But if I’m ever enough, it’ll be because you saw something in me worth loving.”

She doesn’t say anything. She just reaches up and hooks her arms loosely around my neck. No rush. No pressure.

Just... closeness. And then she presses her lips against mine.

CHAPTER 40

ADITI

I’m not sure what I expected.

Maybe he’d come in today with a softer voice. Maybe fewer files dumped on my desk. Fewer last-minute client calls, maybe an extra smile or two… or even just a break. One proper break. After last night, after fairy lights and his quiet confessions and the way he looked at me like I was all the oxygen left in the world, I thought something would shift.

But it hasn’t.

Abhimaan is still the same brutal taskmaster he’s always been.

And I—apparently—am still the idiot who likes him too much.

“Fix the proposal numbers on slide twelve. And tell Priya to call the vendors again. If they’re late on delivery this time, we’re switching them.”