What if she wanted to change that agreement?
When he got upstairs, sure enough, Marley was sitting onone of the tall stools in the kitchen, drinking chai with Dad and… was that…
“Nicky Shamdasani,” Shayne said, shaking his head. “The glow-up of the century. Look at you—you’re avision. Wow.”
That comment made Nalini snort and his dad literally beam.
“Nikhil,” Dad said, “Shayne said he would give me his grandmother’s jerk chicken recipe! We can make it for a barbecue in the summer! Dadima loves Jamaican food!”
Nikhil stared at Marley. She was wearing loose cream dress pants and a black blouse that had a large bow at the neck. And her hair that had been piled on top of her head with his hair tie while he was inside her was now down in waves cascading around her shoulders. Shoulders that he’d tasted last night. He took a step away, mostly so he could resist touching her. It was clear that wasn’t why she was here.
Nikhil finally found his voice. “Hi, Shayne. Great to see you again. What are you two doing here?”
Marley’s gorgeous mouth was in a straight line. Was she angry? “I need to speak to you.”
Nikhil frowned. “Okay. Um… yeah. We can do that. Let’s go to the den. It’s private.”
Marley nodded. She was definitely mad. He looked at his dad and sister watching intently, clearly desperate to find out what this beautiful woman needed to talk to him about so urgently at nine o’clock at night. But he wasn’t going to let them find out. He motioned Marley and Shayne toward the other part of the house. “Nalini, don’t listen at the door.”
Nalini pouted, but Nikhil knew she would obey him. Probably. Hopefully.
“Take your chai,” Dad said as Shayne and Marley stood.“Do you want me to warm up some dhokla, too? I have ladoos… or do you want some kulfi?”
Nikhil exhaled. “No, we’re good.”
Nikhil’s heart was racing as he closed the door to the den/office. It was a smallish room, with a desk on one side and a small sitting area on the other. No one ever used the room—technically Dad was supposed to work from home here, but his father was way too social to want to be alone.
Actually, now that he thought about it, he was surprised Arjun didn’t want to rent out this space as well as the basement. Marley sat next to Shayne on the old leather couch and put her cup and saucer on the coffee table. Nikhil sat across from them on an armchair.
“Cozy,” Shayne said. Shayne looked exactly like he had in high school and was even dressed similarly—very stylish, very bright colors. The only thing different was less acne. And he had a mustache now.
Sitting in his childhood home with these two was messing with Nikhil. His past and present were colliding.
Marley’s forehead furrowed. She was quite clearly upset. He had every intention of fixing whatever he had done to put that expression on her face. Even though she hadn’t told him what was going on, hedidknow she was going through shit right now. And he hated the thought that he might have made her life harder.
“Your dad said your mother’s not feeling well,” Shayne said. “I hope it’s nothing too serious?”
He shook his head. “Yeah, she’s fine.” Mom wasn’t fine, but he wasn’t getting into the whole story now. “So… what’s going on?”
“You know why I’m here,” Marley said. “I can’t believe… after everything. I thought we werefriends.”
Nikhil frowned. “Wearefriends.”
Marley snorted. “Friends respect each other’s personal lives.” She looked away, then quickly looked back at Nikhil. “It was a mistake to be open with you last night. I mean… you got what you wanted, right?”
Yeah, he got what he wanted. They both did. But what happened last night wasn’t about wanting each other physically, or a release, or anything like that. What they’d both wanted was a chance, just for one night, to reconnect with the world like it had been before it had fallen apart. He understood that completely but didn’t know if he should say it now.
Marley was still looking at him with complete disappointment. She might even have tears forming.
“Holy shit,” Shayne said suddenly, looking back and forth between them. “You weren’t at Ruby’s last night. You two hadsex. Marley, you kept the fact that you’re not onlystylinga movie star from me, but also that you’rebangingone.”
Marley turned sharply to her friend. “Shayne!”
Shayne would have none of it. “Marley! We’rebest friends! We’re supposed to tell each other everything! I know you two did the dirty tango back in high school, but again? This is huge! Do you know how famous this man is? And you, Nicky.” Shayne looked at Nikhil, disappointment in his eyes. “You never seemed like the cheating type. Aren’t youdatingAmerica’s literal sweetheart? And you’resleepingwith your stylist?”
Marley’s eyes went as wide as her chai saucer. “You’redatingsomeone?”
Nikhil had no idea who or what Shayne was talking about. “No! Who do you think I’m dating?”
