Page 212 of Dream On, Liar

Empty.

Green.

Endless.

I pressed my palm against the glass.

He was proud of me.

I’d finally heard him say it.

34

Rihaan

THE FLAGSHIP STORE IN the middle of Soho had a name that sounded less like a place where people bought clothes and more like an institution that had been quietly acquiring real estate for three generations.

Aurelia House of Couture was, all polished stone, brass detailing and enormous glass windows displaying enough embroidered silk to fund a small village.

Today, the entire place had been taken over for our fittings. Dev had called in a favour to make sure that no one but us would be in the store.

Vedant’s engagement party had somehow been transformed into a three-day production involving outfits, jewellery, family dinners, guest lists and approximately seventeen people in Leah’s family offering opinions nobody had asked for.

I was sitting on one of the velvet sofas while Dev scrolled through the pictures on my phone. “This is the place?”

“Yeah.”

He zoomed into the photograph. “You actually bought it?”

“I put an offer in.” I corrected him.

“When will you know?”

“I think the agent said, tomorrow?.”

Dev looked at me over the top of the phone. “You’ve been looking for somewhere for months?”

“Started around Jan, but I held back from an offer until I talked to Raina and Ollie about it.”

“Why didn’t you ask for my help?”

I took the phone back from him, and shrugged. “That’s because your house has no taste.”

He laughed. “It’s practical enough.”

“My point.” I swiped through the photographs again. The place had been sitting in my mind for weeks. Ever since I’d come back from my trip, I’d been more sure than ever that I wanted to my own place. Thankfully, Ollie and Raina had shared my sentiments.

It was just a few houses away from the townhouse I currently shared with them, which meant if any of us got a surprising case of separation anxiety after a few short weeks, we were close enough to help that. It wasn’t an exact replica, but it had all the things I wanted.

In the end, the selling point had been the theatre room.

I paused the photos, showing it to Dev. “The best part is this.”

Dev leaned over. “What?”

“The theatre room in this house is twice as big.”

He stared at me. “You bought a house because of the theatre room?”