My So-Called Bollywood Life(34)

Raj shoved Dev, and Dev braced himself to do the same.

“Raj, Dev, stop it!” Winnie yelled. This was getting out of hand. “Dev, let’s go. Raj, go home.”

Dev looked at her, then at Raj. “Stay away from her.”

“Screw you, asshole! You’ve always been jealous of us.”

Before Dev could move in again, Winnie pushed them away from each other. “I will seriously hurt you both if you don’t stop. I took kickboxing once, and I could do it.”

She gripped Dev’s arm, intending to lead him to the bleachers. Raj let out a humorless laugh. “Wait a minute. Are you kidding me? The rumors are true! You’re actually dating him?”

“We’re not dating,” Winnie said. “Come on.” She motioned to Dev.

“Why does it matter to you, dickhead?”

Raj crossed his arms over his chest. “Winnie and I are getting back together.”

“No, we aren’t.”

    “Three years and you’re still clueless,” Dev said to Raj. “And yeah, we are dating.” He reached for her hand and linked his fingers with hers.

They maneuvered through a swarm of people until finally they reached the archway that led down to their bleacher section. Winnie pulled him to a stop.

“Dev, you can’t jump people like that!”

“I thought he was hurting you.”

“And what, you think I can’t take care of myself? I know him better than you do. Raj may be misguided, but he’s not violent.” Winnie shivered when the brisk wind rushed up her back.

Dev took the sweatshirt off his shoulder and passed it to her. “Here,” he said. “I was going to give you my jacket, but I figured no sense in both of us being cold.”

It was soft, and it felt worn in, like it had gone through the wash a few times. She almost brought it to her face and buried her nose in it. She hesitated before slipping it over her head. The sweatshirt smelled like him, and in that moment she knew she was never going to return it. Some of her frustration ebbed.

“Thanks.”

“Winnie?”

“Yeah?”

He brushed a strand of hair off her face. “I’m not going to let freshman year happen again, okay?”

“Freshman year?”

    Before she could stop him, Dev touched her chin and pressed the softest, quickest kiss against her mouth.

“Wh-what was that for?” Winnie asked when she could make coherent sentences again.

“I’m not going to ignore Raj while he tries to make another move.”

“He can’t. He won’t. I don’t want him to. But, Dev, this is too much, too fast. I just got out of a thing with Raj.”

Dev raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re over him? Because having destiny on his side is a pretty strong argument.”

“I’m spending time with you, not him,” she said quietly. “Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does.”

She linked her fingers with his again and led him toward the stadium seats. “Maybe at halftime you can buy me nachos and not eat them.”

“And maybe you’ll wake up tomorrow hating Bollywood movies.”

She laughed. “Okay, okay. I can forgive you for taking my nachos because you tried to defend my honor. I appreciate you fighting Raj, but it’s not necessary.”

“Your doucheweed ex doesn’t know what he’s up against. He may have the prophecy on his side, or so he thinks, but so do I.”

Winnie stopped halfway down the stairs. The hair rose at the nape of her neck. “What does that mean?”

    “Nothing. There are some things I should probably tell you because of this whole prophecy thing you have in your star chart, but you have to trust me when I say that it doesn’t matter. After all, you don’t believe in the prophecy anymore anyway, right?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess not.” When they finally sat down next to Bridget and Henry, Winnie tried her best to watch the game and her friends, but something Dev had said wouldn’t stop circling in her mind. What did he have to do with the prophecy?

Like any Bollywood heroine worthy of her role, Winnie spent the rest of the game wondering if the hero she was with had a more tangled backstory than the one who’d gotten away.





12





YAADEIN / MEMORIES





Personally? I don’t think all the praying in the world on the part of the father could’ve saved the heroine and her sisters from looking like idiots.





The most common element in all Bollywood pooja scenes was the number of people in attendance. That was because in real life, poojas could potentially involve a gazillion family members, friends, and distant acquaintances.

Winnie hated all the prep work that went into it. A pooja meant the furniture had to be moved to the front sitting room. Then the living room had to be swept, mopped, and dusted. Every single area rug in the house had to be moved into the living room, vacuumed, and then covered with blankets and sheets for people to comfortably sit on the floor. Lastly, the coffee table had to be pushed against the far wall and then draped in a bright red mesh cloth to display the statues from the small temple upstairs.