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“I will.”
“I miss you, Dev,” Sanjana said in a small voice.
“I miss you too, kiddo,” he said.
“We haven’t met in more than a month. It’s been too long.”
“I know.”
“Meet me soon, please… We need to talk,” Sanjana requested.
He didn’t reply to her. He couldn’t. That was one thing he wasn’t sure he could give his sister.
He scratched his jaw. A heaviness settled over him. More than a month back, when he’d realized Sanjana was in love with Aaryan, he’d considered the possibility that Aaryan would make her choose between Dev and himself. Much to his shock, Aaryan hadn’t, for he was that crazy about Sanjana. But Dev never wanted them to have an issue because of him, so he’d made a choice for them. While he spoke to Sanjana often on the phone, he vehemently refused to meet her. He never asked her about Aaryan and the rest of his family ever. He never wanted her to be in an awkward position because of him.
“Dev, I will always believe in you. You are good, you hear me,” Sanjana said.
“Thanks, kiddo. I have to go now.”
He hung up the phone with a smile on his lips. He was so fortunate to have a sister like Sanjana. She hadn’t known the bitter history between the Rajpoots and him until she’d fallen for Aaryan. And now, despite knowing everything, she had never once lost faith in him.
He leaned against Avantika’s bedroom door. Now, if only the person he truly wanted to believe in him would give him a chance.
10
Avantika woke up slowly, feeling disoriented and disconcerted. She looked around her hotel bedroom, feeling at a loss until her eyes fell on the man sleeping on top of the covers beside her, fully dressed in cotton sleep pants and a t-shirt.
She scowled.
Why was Dev sleeping next to her? And why was she wearing only her camisole and shorts? She didn’t remember changing into them. Hadshechanged into them? What had happened here?
She shut her eyes, trying to recollect what she could. She remembered the carnival at Notting Hill, drinking a lot of wine, kissing Dev—her mind paused on the kiss, but she pushed that incident away to dissect later. She remembered getting drenched in the rain, taunting Dev with her tattoos, his poignant words to her, and their cab ride home. After that, everything was hazy.
Bits and pieces of memory, however, gradually came to her mind.
Dev looking after her.
Dev feeding her soup.
Dev drying her hair with a hair dryer.
A doctor checking on her, giving her an injection.
Dev force feeding her spoons of vegetable rice when she’d been lucid.
Dev helping her to the toilet while he stood outside.
Dev being there each time she’d woken up.
Dev.
Her breath caught. He’d been around her constantly. She flushed as she recalled everything he’d done for her. She assessed herself, and other than a little heaviness in her head, she felt fine.
Her eyes fell on his sleeping form. He lay on his side, one hand under the pillow. Dark shadows circled his eyes. He looked tired. She didn’t know how many days had passed since she’d fallen ill, but she did remember that each time she’d opened her eyes, he’d been there in front of her, for her, ready to do anything she asked.
Why? Why had he helped her like that? Why had he cared for her as such? Her heart and mind were both in a dilemma, trying to figure out him and his motives.
His eyes blinked open. He saw her studying him and rose to sit on the bed, facing her. He put his hand on her forehead, checking her temperature. His touch felt familiar now. For sure, he’d repeated this action so many times in the past few days. Thanks to her illness, their no-touching rule had clearly gone down the drain.
