There's Something About Sweetie(77)

Ashish chuckled. “Yeah, he’s hilarious until you keep getting woken up at night because you’re spending summer break here and you share a wall with him.”

Sweetie wiped her eyes. “Oh my God. A deranged parrot. This just keeps getting better.”

Ashish walked up to her and her smile faded. When he was just a hair’s breadth away from her, he took her chin in his hand. “Being with you can’t really get any better.”

Sweetie smiled up at him before standing on tiptoes and kissing him softly. “What about now?” she whispered against his mouth.

His arms tightened around her waist, and he pulled her snugly against him. She felt something very interesting against her hip, and her heart fluttered. He wanted her. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.

“GET A ROOM!” Crabby said behind them, and they flew apart.

“Okay, that’s new,” Ashish said. “Stupid third wheel.”

Sweetie sputtered a laugh. “Technically, he’s one of fifty-six wheels,” she pointed out. “Speaking of, why are we in here? I thought the whole parrot pyramid scheme was giving you the heebies.”

“Oh, it was,” Ashish said, raising his eyebrows. “She’s always been eccentric, but that was the first time she’s tried to enlist me in one of her harebrained ideas.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I have something to show you. Or, I guess, ask you.”

“Oh yeah?” She smiled, pleased. There were few things as exciting as surprises. “What’s that?”

But instead of answering her, Ashish raised his hands and clapped three times.

Sweetie could hardly keep up with what happened next. There was immediate and cacophonic squawking. It took her a moment to realize the parrots were speaking English words.

“With! With!” one in the corner squawked.

“To!” a multicolored one behind her said.

“You!” a third one screamed after a pause.

“Me!”

“Go!”

“Stop!” Ashish yelled, clutching his hair. “You stupid birds! Stop!”

“Will!” a parrot behind him said into the following short silence, almost defiantly.

“With!” the first one said again.

“You already said that!” Ashish yelled. “Stop it! What are you doing?”

“Damn! Hell! Stop!” Crabby chorused, invigorated by the panic in Ashish’s voice.

Sweetie began to laugh. “What is going on?”

“You!” the one parrot screamed again.

“Me!”

“To!”

Sweetie’s stomach hurt. Tears began to stream down her cheeks, she was laughing so hard. “What … what are they doing, Ashish?” she asked when she could breathe.

Ashish studied her for a moment, his expression livid. Then, seeing her bent over helplessly, he began to laugh too. “The idiotic birds were supposed to ask you to—”

“Prom!” one of the birds said. “Prom! Prom!”

Ashish shrugged. “Yeah, that.” He turned to the last bird. “Thank you, Petey. Very helpful.”

Prom. This was about prom. “You’re asking me to prom?”

“Your prom,” Ashish clarified. “I’ve, ah, been suspended from Richmond’s proms for some shenanigans last year, so that’s kind of our only option.” Sighing, he added, “Anyway, these annoying hellbirds were supposed to help me ask you. In a very orderly fashion. I spent all last Sunday afternoon training them, and Gita Kaki assured me she was keeping up with it throughout the week. Which, I don’t know. What else did I expect, right? Total train wreck.”

“At least I know where Gita Kaki got her inspiration for that whole courier-services thing.”

Ashish groaned and covered his face with his hands.

Smiling, Sweetie stepped closer to him and gently moved his hands off his face. Circling her arms around his narrow waist, she said, “By the way, this isn’t a train wreck. It’s the most romantic thing ever.”

“Seriously?” Ashish cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, right. I forgot I’m your first boyfriend; the bar’s pretty low.”

She laughed and slapped him on the chest, reveling in the way her hand bounced off the muscle there. And the way he’d casually called himself her boyfriend. They were boyfriend and girlfriend. Ashish Patel was her boyfriend. She tried not to squeal in pure, giddy glee. “Seriously. This is the sweetest, most adorable thing I’ve ever heard of. Thank you.” She’d never even dreamed she’d get a promposal from a boy at all (or, technically, from a parrot), let alone a boy as perfect as Ashish, or one into which the boy had put so much effort.

He kissed her on the nose. “So?” he said softly, those honey eyes melting her bones, turning her blood to lava. “Sweetie Nair, will you go with me to prom?”

She gazed up at him through the fringe of her eyelashes. “Yes, Ashish Patel,” she whispered. “I’ll go with you to prom.”

Smiling broadly, he leaned down and kissed her. And that, among the smelly, squawking, unbalanced parrots, was the most romantic moment in Sweetie Nair’s life.




Ashish held her close, his heart leaping with joy. She really did love his madcap promposal; he could see in her eyes that he’d pulled it off somehow. And right on the heels of that joy came the nagging guilt, because he still hadn’t told her everything about Celia. She’d see why he had to do it this way, though, right? Ashish desperately hoped she would. He might be a little thick when it came to love, but one thing was clear even to him: If Celia leaving him had broken his heart, Sweetie breaking up with him would pulverize it to nothing.