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“And yet you continue to slash it with that awful red pen of yours.”
Virat looked up and frowned slightly. “Okay, so don’t rain down fury on me. But there’s just one element missing. And no, I still can’t figure out what it is. Just give me another week to sit on this, yeah?”
Vikram nodded, even as he remembered that Naina had said she knew what was missing. She didn’t know a lot about making movies and yet, he trusted her intuition when it came to people. She was also one of the few people who would give him her honest opinion, who challenged him to look past his own blind spots.
Look at how easily she’d woven herself into the fabric of his own life.
In just nine days, he’d already gotten used to waking up with her curled up against him. It was disconcerting to say the least that after thirty-six years, someone could become so addictive in the matter of a few days. But he had no other word that would fit what was happening.
Marriage had seemed like something that would only work for him with someone like Zara, who would never ask him for more than he’d give. And Naina didn’t either. And yet, he often woke up in the middle of the night to realize she had a way of taking what he wasn’t even sure he could give.
There was a magical, addictive quality to their union that did...give him pause. Once she was his wife, that strangeness would become normal, he reassured himself. Naina was so far away from any life partner he’d imagined in his wildest dreams that the novelty of it was bound to go to his head.
“I’m surprised you’re still in the Maldives when everyone else has flown home.”
Vikram shrugged. “Aren’t you the one who’s always saying I need to relax more? Go with the flow?”
“But it’s not just the island paradise that’s wrought this difference. You’re smiling and you didn’t even yell at me when I said I needed time to sit with the script and make changes to it. Even Anya said you sounded different on your call with her.”
“I trust your judgment, Virat. I know I have made you doubt that before, both professionally and personally, and I apologize for it.”
Virat blew out a breath. “I guess we’re doing this then. Then I apologize for attacking you like I did last time. I’m not unaware, nor is Anya, of how much you’ve given us at great personal cost to yourself,bhai.
“It’s not a debt I can ever repay.”
Vikram swallowed the lump in his throat. He simply nodded, glad that they had sorted their differences. Oh, they would absolutely butt heads again—they were far too different in their temperaments not to, but things would be okay between them.
“Come,bhai, spill it,” Virat prompted again.
“I’m engaged,” Vikram said simply.
A stillness came over his brother’s features, all the more disturbing since Virat had always been a ball of fiery energy from childhood. Every school had thrown him out, every teacher raised their hands when it had come to him. Even as an adult, there was a sense of constant motion, an excessive energy about his brother that Vikram always found disconcerting. And yet now...it was as if he’d pulled a shroud over himself, masking the real him.
But Vikram knew his brother well. Very well. They were comrades who’d lived through the war zone that had been their parents’ marriage.
Virat wasn’t simply angry at his announcement. It was something else. Something Vikram wasn’t sure even his brother understood.
“You said proposing to Zara had been an impulse. A mistake. You said you’d been relieved when she turned you down. God,bhai, don’t tell me she’s accepted you after all. You’re not right for each other.”
He knew he was being a beast but Vikram wanted confirmation of the sudden doubt niggling at him. “Are you so sure about that, Virat?”
His brother pushed a shaking hand through his hair suddenly looking sick to his stomach, and Vikram realized he’d gone too far. That whatever was between Zara and Virat was no joking matter. “It’s Naina,” he said, eager now to remove that devastated look from Virat’s eyes. “Not Zara. Like I said, that was just a momentary madness.”
Virat’s jaw dropped. “Naina as in Ms. Menon who shattered your ego, the Naina that you hired to be your temporary PA?”
Vikram laughed. “Yes. That Naina.”
Virat leaned into the camera, as if to get a better look at Vikram. “Bhai...you’re serious?”
Vikram simply nodded. “We haven’t made it public yet. So keep it to yourself.”
“She’s not your type.”
“I was unaware I had a type,” he said flatly.
“She’s innocent and full of heart, and one of a kind.”
Vikram didn’t like the admiration in Virat’s voice. Even though he knew his brother was teasing him now. And that every word was true. “She’s also undemanding, low maintenance and yes, she’s honest about what she feels for me and she’s never going to break my trust.”
