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Her frown grew. “Who are you?” she demanded.
“I’m his friend… your new tenant until I return to my university after the break.”
Shocked, she stared at him. She had expected her new tenant to be someone like Dheeraj with buttoned shirts and nerdy glasses. But the guy in front of her looked the opposite. He was wearing a form-fitting sleeveless t-shirt that showed off his broad shoulders and muscles. His casual shorts displayed his long, muscular legs. And unlike Dheeraj’s shy smile, this guy had a cocky, arrogant smirk.
“Like what you see, sweetheart?” he drawled.
Her cheeks heated at being caught staring. “You are arrogant!” she snapped.
“Actually, I’m Aarav. Aarav Rathod.”
At the age of eighteen, she had moved out of the girl’s hostel and bought a house with the savings her parents had left to her. Since the house was close to the university she attended, she had decided to rent the top floor to a student.
Dheeraj, a fellow university student and also her classmate in Bachelors of sciences became her renter. She thought a couple of female students would make ideal renters, but unlike most rowdy male students, Dheeraj was sweet, calm and kept the house neat and tidy. He didn’t have any demands or cause nuisance. She knew Dheeraj had a crush on her, but she considered him as a sweet friend with whom she often exchanged notes with and also sent him home cooked meals.
A year later, Dheeraj had tentatively asked her permission if his friend could stay with him for a couple of months during summer break. His friend was studying aeronautical engineering in a distant university. Dheeraj had also added that his friend had no family either, and that they grew up together in a boarding school.
She hadn’t minded. She expected Dheeraj’s friend to be sweet and low maintenance like him.
But Aarav Rathod was anything but sweet or low maintenance. Handsome, cocky and arrogant, he was like a force of nature. It was instant sparks, and before she knew it, he had swept her off her feet and she had fallen madly in love with him.
It was only much later, just before he was about to return to his university after the break, she found out the first shocking truth. It was also the first time from the dozen more times she had broken up with him.
“Prepare to land.”
Sitara jumped when there was a brief announcement from the copilot about landing.
Her cheeks heated because she had been barely paying attention to the outside or to Dr. Pathak’s conversation. Her eyes had been glued to Aarav Rathod while being lost in the past.
Sucking in a deep breath, she looked outside the window, forcibly pushing away thoughts of him or the memories.
She focused on the cruise ship that she could now see. Even from the top, the cruise ship looked huge and stunning. With sixteen floors, twenty swimming pools, spas, several outdoor sports areas, running tracks, dozens of restaurants and stores, live-show theaters, casino and many more, it was supposedly one of the bigger cruise ships and was often referred to as a floating city.
Ever since Dr. Pathak had booked the cruise a month ago, she had been looking forward to it. She even came up with a detailed schedule of what she could do each day. She had a list of things spanning from attending award-winning live theater shows, lectures, yoga classes, specialty spa and massages and many more things along with visiting three islands during the next thirteen days. She forced her mind to focus on them right then.
They landed on the helipad on the top of the cruise ship.
While the helicopter ride came to an end, her stomach continued to flip with confused feelings.
I’m glad he’ll go back in a while. I don’t want to see him again.
She repeated the thought over and over inside her head as though to make it true.
Why would I want to see him again?
He broke my heart and I hate him.
The blades slowed down while the door to the helicopter was opened.
Taking another deep breath, she got out of the helicopter and waited for Dr. Pathak who said she wanted to quickly make an urgent phone call inside. She kept her eyes deliberately on the copilot.
“Thank you, Captain Chandran,” she said with a smile.
“You are welcome, Dr. Narayan.”
Dr. Pathak didn’t come out of the helicopter even after a few minutes. She was still talking to someone.
From the corner of her eyes, she noticed that Aarav was waiting outside next to the helicopter. A few more minutes later, she saw Aarav assisting Dr. Pathak out of the helicopter.
