"Shut up, Vihaan."
"Or what? I met her just tonight and even I know she didn't deserve this shit attitude."
Rian said nothing, stalking towards the railing that allowed him to look down into the busy club. His eyes fell upon a familiar green dress, the shapely figure of the woman he’d wounded walking along the periphery of the dance floor. His hand clenched over the metal bar, needing something to hold back this violence within him. The vision of her joy dimming, her face etched with painful embarrassment at his scolding now joined the multitude of other memories that already tortured him.
"Get your head out of your ass before I beat the shit out of you,” Vihaan hissed, his patience gone. “I'm going to go look for her. I'd rather hang out with her than with you right now."
Rian said nothing, inspecting Aditi as best he could. Even from a distance, he could tell that she was tense— no longer the same smile or cheer on her face. He'd taken that away. Acid burned his stomach.
"Whatever your reason for acting like this, you know as well as I do that Aditi didn't deserve to be insulted.” Kaya linked her arm with Arjun, shaking her head in disappointment when her friend didn’t acknowledge them. "I'm going to go make sure she's okay, too. You can stay here and sulk or you can do the right thing and explain yourself to her."
With that, Rian was left alone with emotions that threatened to overwhelm him, and a sinking feeling that he may have damaged the opinions of the only people in the world who mattered to him.
Aditi stood at the counter, her mind in a daze. The bartender asked her something. She saw his lips move, but she heard nothing. The shock of Rian’s reaction hadn’t worn off. The joy of new friends and a fun outing had been obliterated when he’d yelled at her. In the time she’d known him, he’d only ever been kind and indulgent. Even when he’d not wanted her around, he had never been outright rude.
She stood there, her heart murmuring uncomfortably, until a gentle hand shook her out of her reverie. She glanced beside her, coming face to face with a lady she didn’t know. Tall and svelte, she was possibly one of the most stunning women Aditi had ever seen. The kind who would be an artist’s muse, a man’s desire, and a woman’s envy.
Her confidence was obvious given her demeanour as she coolly dismissed the men nearby who were trying to gain her attention.
This was a woman who would never have let someone’s rudeness affect her.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her kindness making Aditi’s eyes burn and her nostrils flare. Perhaps her dismay was clear because she turned to the bartender and ordered two drinks, handing her one. Aditi accepted it numbly, gulping it down without thought.
“If it's a man who has you looking like you’re going to cry, it’s not worth it.” Her tone was devoid of judgement. Her gaze flickered to behind Aditi and almost instantly, the tiny turn of her lips tightened into a firm line, the kindness in her cat eyes all but lost.
“You,” Aditi heard her hiss like it was a curse word, just as Vihaan reached her.
Unlike the playful, flirtatious man he’d been all through dinner, he looked like he was preparing for war with this mystery woman.
“What the hell are you doing here, Vera?”
The lady watched him for a long moment before shifting her gaze to Aditi, as though trying to assess their relationship.
“If it’s because of him,” Vera told Aditi, her smile no different than a sneer, “it's definitely not worth it.”
With that, she left, her blood-red dress disappearing into the throng of people who were crowding the dance floor.
Aditi turned towards Vihaan, the unmistakable tightness of his jaw and the glimmer in his eyes telling her those words had affected him. Just like Rian’s words had affected her.
With a sigh, she turned to the bartender and ordered another drink, hoping that this one would be strong enough to dull the ache and bury the fear that had developed in her.
Rian could hurt her.
And tonight, it had become clear that if he did, she would cry.
20
A Grinch and his Who
Rian
Rian sat the clearplastic box on his gleaming countertop, the overhead light making the mango coulis shine atop the cheesecake.
His intention had been to surprise Aditi with something to indulge in, listening to her exuberantly express her adoration for all things mango. He had wanted to make her happy.
He’d failed.
The drive home had been excruciatingly silent. Every time he’d tried to speak, he’d lost his guts, the stiffness in her posture dissuading him from breaching the wall she’d erected.