Aditi peered at him, amused. “Love doesn’t need time. It only needs a moment.”
"Careful, Doc. Your medical licence might get revoked if you keep talking like this,” he teased, watching her pick up the plate when he made a move to collect their forks. “You studied science. You're supposed to rely on facts, not feelings."
"Love can be a fact and a feeling,” she glibly replied, gesturing to him to sit back down. She proceeded to rinse the dishes in the sink, loading them meticulously into the dishwasher.
Rian watched Aditi move about his kitchen, at ease with where things were kept, needing no direction from him. The domesticity of the moment held him in its thrall, an intense longing blooming in him for something he couldn’t recognize.
“Fact or not,” he cleared his throat, trying to avoid feeling overcome by this new emotion, “I'm not going to go down that path again."
“Again?” She glided up to him, wiping her hands on the dish towel. “Bad experience?”
He shrugged. “It’s not for me, Doc. Love is uncomfortable and all-consuming.”
“Isn’t that the point of love? To be so consumed by how you feel for someone that everything else just feels. . . less.”
Her words tickled some sleeping part of his heart to a mild wakefulness.
“Well, I should call it a night. My date was a bust but at least I had good dessert.” Aditi grinned, sounding mostly recovered from the stress of the evening. “Now, if only I could manage a good dessert, a good date and a good kiss—all in one evening—that would be tremendous.”
She turned towards him, smiling still. With him being seated, the difference in their heights was no longer as pronounced. She cocked her head, only now realising how close they were. Her eyes grewwarm, deepening to a dark brown. Without a warning, she leaned in.
Rian stilled, his breath hitching when her nose bumped against his skin. His entire being stood at attention when her soft lips brushed against the hollows of his cheek. It was a delicate graze, but held him arrested. He blinked rapidly, his body awash in goosebumps as she pulled away.
“Thank you.” Her voice was a bare murmur above the blood rushing to his ears.
“For?”
“For stepping in when I needed help. For trying to cheer me up, and for turning a bad evening into a good one. You’re a pretty good friend to have.”
Friend. It was quite possibly the most hated word in his dictionary as of this moment. What a ridiculous and unnecessary addition to any language.
“We’re. . .” He gulped, needing to take a breath. “We’re not friends.”
She didn’t argue, smiling at him indulgently. Like she accepted his need to maintain this farce of a distance between them.
“Good night, Bugs.” She sashayed down the hall and into her room, unaware that Rian still hadn’t recovered.
It had been a chaste kiss, but had left his gut twisting with need. “Good night, Doc,” he whispered, well after the lights under her door dimmed, wondering how the feel of her pillowy lips on his skin hadn’t worn off yet.
And dreading the moment it would.
12
Food for the Soul
Rian
“You have a motorbike.”
“Umm, yes.”
Rian watched Aditi process this fact like he’d just opened a trunk full of drugs. Why she would behave this way was a mystery to him. He was having a hard time figuring out what Aditi was suffering from, because one thing was certain—she was not her usual self.
He'd only just returned from work when he'd found her trying to slip out, muttering furiously under her breath.
She was hungry, she'd explained, but his offer to cook for her had been declined with disconcerting politeness. Worried to let her roam about by herself, he’d proposed that they all go out together. Nanamma had suddenly announced that she was far too exhausted to join them, practically shooing them out the door before either could try and convince her to change her mind.
Which brought them here, in his underground garage, with Aditi staring at his BMW Roadster like it was a three-headed dog she’d been asked to harness.