by Alisha Rai
Was it her imagination, or were his cheeks dark red? “A few. Here and there.”
“Thank you.” She winked. “Hope you let the ads play.”
“So you’re the proper youngest then.”
Dev was changing the subject, but she’d allow it. She didn’t want to tell him how many episodes of his soap she’d watched when she became infatuated with him. Not that he was infatuated with her, of course.
Yeesh. Now she was going to blush. “I am.” Jia smiled fondly and put down her phone. “Sometimes I feel like Ayesha and I have two extra moms and a cool aunt.”
“Speaking as a responsible oldest child, I can assure you they probably mean well.”
“I tell myself that a lot.” She paused. “I’m sorry about your brother, by the way.” It felt weird that she’d talked to Rohan shortly before he died. She was glad they’d only conversed a little before it had petered out.
“Thank you.”
“And your grandfather as well.”
He nodded. Their drinks arrived. “Are you ready to order?” their waiter asked.
“Yes, I’ll have the crab cakes,” she said.
Dev ordered a pasta dish, using flawless Italian pronunciation. Jia sipped on her iced tea when the waiter left. “Your Italian’s good.”
“I spent a few months there a couple years ago. Languages are a family skill. My niece is more facile than I am.”
“Can you tell me about your niece?” For fake dating scam purposes, not because she was interested. Like she’d brought him to a romantic Italian restaurant for the scam.
Dev’s shoulders relaxed, and a warm smile crossed his face, transforming it. He tapped on his phone, spinning it around to show her. “That’s her. Luna. I’ve had custody of her since my brother passed.”
The photo had been taken on the Santa Monica pier, so it must be recent. The girl in the photo wore a pair of black jeans and a dark gray tank top. She was lanky and pretty, her hair curling cutely around her round face. “I didn’t know your brother had a child.” She hadn’t done a deep dive on Dev’s family, but she had cursory knowledge.
“He kept her well shielded from the press.”
“That’s thoughtful.”
“Yes.” He sounded mildly bemused and shook his head when she glanced up. “My brother wasn’t the most thoughtful man in the world. But he had her young, and her mother disappeared, so I give him some credit for not just shipping her off to some boarding school. Or ignoring her altogether.”
“She looks sweet. How is she adjusting to America?”
Dev tucked the phone back into his pocket. “Very well. She had her first day of school today. I was worried, but she seems to be pretty excited about it.”
“Why were you worried?”
“She’s never been to a real school before. Only tutors.”
“I hated school. But it’s probably good for her to have the experience, at least.”
He nodded. “That’s what she said.”
Jia softened. It sounded like Dev was an especially attentive guardian. “Does she know . . . what we’re doing?”
“No. She’s had so much upheaval in her life, I thought . . .” He shrugged.
“Totally right call. It would be pretty difficult to explain anyway.” Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of light, and jumped, but there was nothing there.
He brought her attention right back to him by lightly resting his hand close to hers, close enough that his pinky brushed against her thumb. “Are you okay?”
She looked down at his hand. It was long and elegant, the knuckles prominent. He had artist’s hands. She wanted to . . .
Do nothing! She slipped her hand to the safety of her lap. “Yup. I thought I saw something, but it’s cool.”
They were quiet as their food came. He picked up his fork. “Should we get our story straight on how we met?”
She cut into her crab cake and tried not to look at the pasta he was twirling on his fork. Her food envy would always rear its head, no matter how delicious her own meal was. “I was thinking we could stick close to the truth and say we became friends online.”
“Is that a bit odd?”
“Sliding into DMs isn’t too different from a dating app.”
He took another bite of the pasta, and a drop of red sauce touched the corner of his lip. “Have you spoken to many people in your DMs?”
“Nope. You were the first. But that doesn’t mean others will find it weird.” She gestured to the corner of his mouth. If he didn’t clean it up, she feared she might, and she definitely didn’t need to know what his lips felt like, even under a napkin. “You have a little . . .”
He dabbed it. “Thank you.”
“No problem. So, yeah, we say we met online, became friends, and now we’re meeting up in real life.”
“Got it. You’ll have to show me how direct messages work at some point.”
Jia squinted at him. “You’re not on social media much, I guess.”
“I am not.” Dev pulled his bread plate closer to his pasta dish and twirled off a generous portion. “Here, try this. It’s good.”
She accepted the small plate, touched. Had he noticed her side-eyeing his food? “Have some of mine.” She placed one of her crab cakes on her bread plate and slid it over.
“Thank you,” he said politely. They ate for a few moments in silence, and then he stirred. “Can you tell me about your high school experience here? I’d like to know what Luna might be facing.”
She smiled. “Sure.” They spoke for a while about their respective teenage years. There were differences in their educations, which she expected, given their different countries, but there were a lot of similarities, too, given that they’d both stood out at their respective schools.
“I stopped going to traditional school after my parents passed,” he explained. “Which was for the best. In India, my last name would have made learning almost impossible.”
There was such darkness in his eyes when he spoke about his parents’ deaths that Jia wanted to reach out and hug him, but she reminded herself again that she didn’t know him well enough for that. Instead, she tried to do what she did best: bring the light. “I know exactly what you mean. The burden of a last name! Imagine every teacher you have thinking you’ll be a carbon copy of your four smart, popular sisters, and then letting them down.”
The lines around his eyes crinkled. “You got into medical school, so I imagine you didn’t let them down too much.”
“There’s hundreds of ways to let someone down.” Jia, stop talking. Jia, you’re too loud. Jia, focus. Sure, she’d learned to mask, but it hadn’t been easy.
He shook his head, and took the last bite of food on his plate. She’d already polished off hers. The other side effect of being the runt of the litter: eating extremely fast, lest someone else grab the last serving. “This was a very productive getting to know each other meal, I think,” he said.
“Yup. I think we covered a lot of ground today.” Despite how nervous and stiff she’d felt when the night started.
“We did, yes. I—” He frowned and reached into his pocket. “I’m sorry, someone keeps calling me.”
“That’s fine.”
He glanced at the number and picked it up. “Hello? Oh.” He listened quietly for a moment, then nodded, his frown deepening.
“I’ll be right there.” Dev hung up. “I’m so sorry. My niece is sick. A headache. She doesn’t normally get sick.”
With anyone else, Jia might think this was a ploy to get out of a boring date, but this wasn’t a date and Dev wasn’t that type of guy and he looked genuinely concerned. “I used to always get sick on the first day of school.” She signaled for the waiter and made a signing motion. “Let’s get the check. I can drive you home.”
“I’m sorry—”
“Don’t apologize. If she’s sick, you should get home to her.” Jia dared to edge her hand closer to his. “I’m sure it’s a cold.”
“Right.” He smiled, but it was more like a baring of teeth. “A couple of weeks into living in a new country, of course she’s not well. New germs for her to get used to.”
“Exactly.”
Dev quickly paid the check when it arrived. Once they’d hurried outside, she cleared her throat. “Um, you know, since this”—she gestured between them—“is mostly for my benefit, I can pay for our meals and stuff.”
He moved closer to her as they walked, and she inhaled whatever spicy cologne he was wearing. For a second, she recalled what he’d smelled like when she was almost plastered up against him outside that bar, and then she roundhouse kicked that memory out of her nostrils.
“No, it’s fine.”
“Doesn’t feel quite right,” she fretted. “How about I pay for any dates that are my idea?”
He huffed out a laugh. “I can’t believe I’m debating whether I get to pay for you.”
“Trust me, if you’d asked me when I was really pissed at you, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be conflicted about this at all.” She got into her car, waiting patiently while Dev contorted his long body into her vehicle. She asked for his address and keyed it into the GPS.
“Does that mean you’re not mad anymore?”
Jia kept her eyes on the road. “It’s complicated.”
“I understand.”
Him being so agreeable was one of the reasons it was complicated. “I’m mad at your cousin. It’s hard to hang out with you and not be a little confused. It’s, like, dissociative to feel like I know you, except . . . I don’t know you.”
He hmmed.
“But I don’t want to slap you anymore, no,” she finished.
“Good.” He leaned toward her a little, which in the cramped confines of the car meant that he was leaning toward her a lot. “I’ll do my best to make up for what my family did. I promise.”
She shouldn’t put so much stock in his words, and maybe it was that he’d been nothing but kind to her, or how sweetly he talked about his niece, but Jia softened and nodded. “Okay.”
They drove the rest of the way in relative quiet. Dev’s condo building was a high-rise with big windows that she was sure gave good views of the beach.
“Thanks for the ride. I’m sorry dinner was interrupted,” he said again.
“It’s no problem.”
“Why don’t you text me when you’re free next?”
A little thrill ran through her. “I will do that.”
He opened the door and got out, then leaned down to peer at her. “I’m enjoying learning about you.”
And even though she knew it had been a faux date for a fauxmance, she still fell into his famous brown eyes. “I hope your niece is okay.”
“I’m sure she is. Text me when you get home.”
She nodded. It was a phrase she’d heard ten million times, from every overprotective person in her life, but it hit different when he said it. It actually made her feel like butterflies were exploding inside her? So weird.
He tapped his knuckles on the roof of her car. “Good night, Jia.”
“Good night.” She said his name after he closed the door. “Dev.” She watched him walk into the building. He had such broad shoulders. Broad and wide, and then they narrowed down to that—
She wasn’t looking at him there!
She grabbed her phone and toggled through her recorded messages until she found the one she needed. “Hi, Jia,” came her own cheerful voice. “I guess you had a good night and you’re battling some physical attraction to this man. So I’m going to say this as nicely as I can: make like a fourteen-year-old, and get home and get in a cold shower.”
Jia took a deep breath. Yes. Very good advice from her to her.
“What are you waiting for? Girl, go. Go!”
She threw her car into drive and went.
Chapter Eleven
“KAKA, I’M fine.”
Dev removed his hand from his niece’s forehead and tried not to give in to the urge to roll her in bubble wrap and place her in her bed.
When he’d come home on Friday, she’d been bundled under her covers, moaning from a stomach ache and burning up. Dev didn’t have much experience with illness. He’d shoved his panic down and helped her sit up and drink liquids. After she’d fallen asleep, he’d sat outside her door and dozed.
She’d seemed better the next morning, her usual quiet self, but he’d taken her to a doctor anyway over her protests, and the woman had assured him Luna was fine. Though his niece had made it through the weekend pink cheeked and healthy, he didn’t love the thought of her going to school today.
“Let me check your temperature one more time.” He opened the kitchen drawer next to the fridge and pulled out their first-aid kit.
Luna rolled her eyes. “Do you keep one of those in every room?”
Since she’d come to live with him, yes. Never had Dev felt the sting of mortality so keenly as he did now that he had to care for a young child. “Come here.”
Dutifully, she lifted her face. He scanned her forehead and nodded at the temperature readout. “Very well. You don’t feel any symptoms of a cold or flu?”
“Nope.”
“You could stay home for one day—”
“Please, no. I’ll be that weird girl who started school and then left right away.”
She was responding to his English in Hindi, which eased his concern a little. If she was well enough to mentally translate languages, hopefully her illness truly had been a quick bug. “Are you hungry?”
“Where’s Adil Uncle?”
“I heard him late last night, binging a new season of some makeover show. I imagine he’s sleeping in today.”
Her smile was faint. “I’m not hungry.”
“How about a smoothie?” Starve a fever, feed a cold, right? Or was it the other way around? His mother used to stuff them with food no matter what they felt like. Food and turmeric milk.
“A smoothie would be nice. What are you eating?”
“I already ate.” His trainer had recommended disgusting protein shakes for breakfast, but Dev didn’t want to tell Luna that or drink them in front of her. He might be beholden to the industry, but the last thing he wanted to do was impose the world’s body image conventions on her.
He quickly pulled out the frozen fruit before she changed her mind. The chair squeaked on the tile as she settled at the counter.
“Don’t you have to film today?” she asked.
“No, I’m not needed on set. I’ll drop you off at school and then get some work done.” His agent had sent over a few more scripts. He was tied to this production for a season, but if it or he didn’t get renewed, he needed a plan B.
“Do you like it?”
“Like what?” He added a little water to the blender and set it in place.
She waited until the blending had stopped to continue. “The role?”
He glanced at her. “It’s okay.”
“It feels like you hate it.”
“That’s not true.” He was excited about . . .
About . . .
Uh.
There must be something about this show that excited him? He’d been excited to get the role, right?
Or you’d just been excited about getting a fresh start. No, it had been more than that. Being a crossover star was something anyone would want. “I haven’t been in this role long enough to love it or hate it,” he finished. “I played Raj Kumar for eleven years. It was different.” And exciting. There had always been some wacky twist, some grand adventure, some epic love story.
This show was muted, but that was what received awards and got attention, especially in America. Realistic, relatable drama.
He set the drink in front of her. “See how it is.”
Luna took a sip and made a face. “It needs more sugar.”
Dev was trying to limit their added sugar, but he wanted her to drink something before she went to school, so he pulled the honey out and drizzled some in, giving it anot
her good blend. “There you go.”
She pulled it closer and took a draw. “Better.”
His phone buzzed and he pulled it out. How’s Luna feeling today?
“See.”
He glanced up with a vague sense of inexplicable guilt. “Huh?”
“You looked more excited about that text than you did about the show.”
Luna in a teasing mood was a nice thing to see, but not when she was teasing him about this. “Drink your drink. We need to leave in five minutes.” He quickly typed back a response to Jia. He’d updated her the next day, but he’d been a little cautious, given his worry about Luna. Much better. It seems like it was a twenty-four-hour bug.
Phew. Glad to hear it.
He leaned against the counter. Truth be told, he’d never been very good at texting. If he could, he’d borrow from his own show and scripts as well, but he didn’t know what lines Arjun and Rohan had lifted, and he couldn’t very well plagiarize himself plagiarizing himself. How is your week looking?
Pretty good. Dropping some stuff off with a friend, then heading to work. Have to film some spon con today.
It took him a second to translate spon con into sponsored content. Perhaps we could try for dinner again tonight?
He held his breath, but it didn’t take long for a response to come. I’m actually busy tonight.
Ah. Of course, that made sense. She was, no doubt, in high demand.
Three bubbles popped up at the bottom of the screen. That’s the spon con. I have to go to an art show and take some photos. Do you want to come with me? It’ll be public, but if you wear a hat or something, we should be able to skate by. Dress casual. No one will be looking for celebs there.
He quickly typed back. Yes, I would like that.
Cool, I’ll pick you up at 7.
He raised a brow. Jia had dropped him off the other night, but he was unaccustomed to a woman picking him up. You’ll pick me up?
I’m sure your masculinity will survive, no worries.
He bit the inside of his cheek to hide his silly smile.
“Who are you talking to?”
Dev quickly placed his phone facedown on the counter. “Nobody. Do you mind staying home with Adil Uncle tonight?” He’d have to tell his uncle, but the older man would believe him if he said he was only checking in with Jia to ensure she was okay after his cousin’s meddling.
