There's Something About Sweetie(78)

CHAPTER 26





They spent another couple of hours eating lunch and visiting with Gita Kaki and left shortly after that. Neither Ashish nor she was in any hurry to stick around and hear more about Gita Kaki’s mad scheme to take over the world with tropical birds.

“But are you sure she doesn’t have, like, dementia?” Sweetie said as they got into the elevator. “That’s a serious thing, you know.”

Ashish laughed and squeezed her hand. “I’m sure. She’s been like that since I was a little kid. She’s just … different. She has no problems taking care of herself, though, believe me.”

“Or her parrots,” Sweetie said. “Can we come back and visit her soon?”

“You have to be joking.”

“I’m not,” Sweetie protested as they got out of the elevator and walked to the Porsche. “She seems lonely, and I think she really liked us visiting her. Plus, I feel like we really hit it off with Crabby. Maybe next time we could even bring Dimple and Rishi.”

Ashish threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him. She snuggled in against his warm body. “You are the literal sweetest, you know that?” After kissing her on the top of her head, he continued. “Yes, I guess we can come visit her soon. But let’s give it, I don’t know, like, six months?”

She smiled happily. “Sure.”

Ashish took her face in his big hands, and her heart sped up as she looked into those eyes. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she breathed back, her muscles going all liquidy.

He smoothed a curl off her forehead. “I really like you, Sweetie Nair.”

Her heart did a couple of somersaults in her chest. “You really like me?” This moment was like winning the lottery on her birthday while eating Amma’s pal payasam. She was afraid to blink, just in case she woke herself up and this whole thing turned out to be a dream. A very, very, very nice dream.

“Obviously,” Ashish said, his cocky smirk back.

He paused. The cocky smile disappeared, replaced by vulnerability. He blinked and looked away before meeting her eyes again. “Do you … do you feel the same way?”

He was actually unsure, Sweetie realized with wonder. He seriously didn’t know the effect he had on her. He had no idea how hard she’d fallen, how hard she continued to fall every single moment they were together. But she couldn’t say all of that. She didn’t want to freak him out too early in their relationship. “Obviously,” she said instead, grinning.

He smiled then, jubilant and bright. Stroking her dimple with his thumb, he leaned down and planted the softest, sweetest kiss on her lips. “Then I’m the luckiest guy on the planet.”

Sweetie didn’t even remember the drive home (which was fine, since Ashish drove). She was fairly sure the Porsche carried them through the clouds, though, and that they never touched the ground at all.




The whole Richmond gang (plus Samir) were hanging out on the balcony at Ashish’s place Wednesday night. Myrna had brought them out some fresh-squeezed lemonade, and she’d opened the umbrellas placed at the various clusters of sofas and tables so they could all just lounge around and “study for finals.” Really they were just shooting the breeze, drunk on that end-of-the-school-year exhilaration.

Well, most of them were drunk on the exhilaration. Oliver and Elijah looked like they were being led to a dinner date with Hannibal Lecter. Neither of them had so much as looked at the other, let alone said a civil word or two. Ashish could feel the tension crackling between them. He didn’t get too close, in case he got zapped like those poor bugs in those … whatever they were called. Bug zapper thingies.

“Yo, Dreamland,” Pinky called from across the balcony. She was sitting on a little settee with Elijah, and Samir was across from them, his nose buried in some comic. He didn’t have the same final exam anxiety they had, being homeschooled. On the flip side, he didn’t really have that end-of-year exhilaration, either. When your home was also your school, it sort of sucked the joy out of summer break. “I’m talking to you.”

Ashish blinked. “Sorry, I couldn’t understand you with that thing in your lip.” Pinky had gotten her lower lip pierced last weekend at some hippie forest festival, to her parents’ complete horror. The fact that it glowed in the dark—something she liked to boast about at random intervals—did not help the situation.

“Har, har,” she said, though it was obvious that she had trouble speaking with it in. Not that Pinky would ever admit to making a mistake like that, especially one that vexed her parents so much. “We were talking about Band Night at Roast Me tomorrow. Are we all going together or what?”

Ashish darted an uncomfortable glance at Oliver. “Um, yeah, I could drive you guys in the Escalade.”

“I’ll just meet you guys there,” Oliver said immediately, without looking up from his biology textbook.

“There’s plenty of room,” Elijah said stiffly from the settee.

“I know how much room there is, thanks,” Oliver replied equally stiffly.

“What’s the big deal?” Elijah said, standing up suddenly. “You’re here at the same time I am. It’s the same thing as being in a freaking car for twenty freaking minutes, Oliver.”