“Why?”
He watched her for a moment, then shrugged. “Because it’s too warm to get hot chocolate.”
That didn’t make any sense, and she was too exhausted to try to figure it out. She wasn’t sure if Karthik was mocking her or making fun of the situation or if he was simply clueless as to how she felt, but she wasn’t interested in prolonging this night. She just wanted to leave. She told him as much, and he thankfully didn’t push the matter further. They called for separate cars: one to take her to her house and the other to take him to his hotel.
As Meghna climbed into bed that night, a number of texts and missed calls from Ankita and Samir popped up on her phone.
It’s not what it looked like.
I’m so sorry.
That wasn’t supposed to happen.
Please talk to me.
I need to talk to you.
She ignored them and switched off her bedside light. She knew she’d have to deal with her brother and her best friend eventually, but she didn’t have the energy to sort it all out tonight. She was closing her eyes, hoping to fall asleep quickly, when her phone pinged with another text. She reached for it, intending to silence it for the night, but the sender’s name took her by surprise.
Karthik: What does one glass of milk say to the other? What’s up doodh?
An unexpected laugh burst out of her, but the sudden emotion led to a cascade of others: anger, frustration, confusion, sadness, and above it all, a deep sense of having to face everything, having to figure it all out, alone. And just like that, the tears she’d been holding back finally began to fall. She turned her face into her pillow and cried.
Karthik stretched his neck to the side, twisting it back and forth, reveling in the sound of it cracking and popping. His mother had always told him not to bend it like that, saying that those noises meant he would get arthritis. He wasn’t that sure about the soundness of her medical advice, but the stretch gave his aching muscles some relief, and he definitely needed that right now. He’d fallen asleep in the wrong position on his early-morning flight home, and his neck and shoulders were still painfully sore.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket for the fifth time since his plane had landed. Not to see if Meghna had responded to his message. He just needed to check his email. Or the time. Or the weather. At least that’s what he told himself. But every time he opened the home screen, he looked at the little message icon, disappointed when there wasn’t a new notification.
He wondered if the joke hadn’t been funny. Or maybe it had been ill-timed. But how was he supposed to know? He didn’t make jokes like that. He had no idea how it would be received. For all he knew, he had offended her. He shouldn’t have sent it, but he just hadn’t beenable to stop picturing the way she’d looked last night. The sad, pinched corners of her mouth, so different from her normal wide smile. The light in her eyes, the sparkle of amusement that had been there most of the night, had disappeared. She’d seemed exhausted. Listless.
He’d wanted to change that expression. Do something to wipe it from her face. Unthinkingly, he’d suggested getting ice cream, hoping to take her mind off the events of the night. Now that he was back in his office, it no longer seemed like such a great idea. She’d seen something shocking, had clearly been upset, and he’d suggested getting dessert. She must have thought him so callous.
And then he’d been back in his hotel room, imagining her lying in bed, still wearing that small, pinched expression. He hadn’t wanted her to go to sleep like that. Hadn’t wanted her to replay everything in her head. So, he’d sent a joke.That joke. He ran a hand through his hair and groaned. He was a fool.
“Dude, did you see what they’re doing on the fourth floor?” Paul asked, gliding into his office. He handed Karthik his coffee, then sat in the chair in front of his desk. Karthik didn’t know how it had happened, but the intern had developed a daily habit of chatting in his office, always lingering for a while after he dropped off coffee or lunch.
“No,” Karthik said, removing the lid from his drink and blowing across the surface.
“It’s amazing. They have, like, this robotic arm? One of the guys was showing me the controls. It’s not working yet or anything, but I think they’re getting close.”
Karthik let out a noncommittal grunt. Of course the biomedical team was working on something cutting-edge and exciting. They always were. Karthik had stopped paying attention to their projects after a while. He wasn’t ever going to work on them, so what was the point?
“Don’t you think that’s cool? Almost makes me want to give engineering another chance.”
Karthik shrugged, rubbing his eye with the back of his hand.
“Rough night?” Paul asked.
“Just an early morning,” Karthik said.
“Same.” Paul sighed dramatically. “Actually, I barely slept at all. There’s a new club that my girlfriend and her friends were dying to go to. We didn’t get home until three.”
Karthik nodded, turning to his computer screen. He hoped Paul would take the hint that it was time to start the workday, and even more important, time for this conversation to end.
Instead, Paul took a big slurp of his own coffee. “Why were you up so early?” he asked.
Karthik sighed and slowly turned back to face him. “I had an early flight.”
“Where’d you go?”
