“Are they watching?”
I checked. “Yes.” With curious stares.
She focused on my hair like she was examining a pixelated header on a website project. Then she spread her fingers through it. I stilled. I couldn’t look at her the way she was touching me, like we were friends or an actual couple. I forced myself to look past her at my friends.
Sam’s and Aamar’s expressions lit up right as Bane stepped to the side to face the hallway. Sam crouched low, all smiles, and ran at me like we were in a football game. He tackle-hugged me and tried to lift me off the ground, laughing.
“Bro, don’t break your back before the wedding!” I said, playfully shoving him, grinning and then hugging Aamar.
Before they could ask any of the usual questions—how you doing, how was the flight, gonna be okay with the ex here—they turned to Bane and beckoned an introduction with smiles.
I groaned as Bane initiated. “Hi! I’m Bhanu. Who’s the groom?”
“Guilty.” Sam raised a hand and clucked his tongue. “Bhanu? Bhanu…hmm…sounds familiar.”
What the hell was he talking about? I’d never mentioned Bane to my friends.
“Group chat. Ex ran into you two earlier,” he clarified.
“Of course,” I muttered.
Bane gave me a careful glance before asking Sam, “So you’ve heard all about me, then?”
“Well, not much and that’s disappointing,” Sam replied with an elbow to my gut. “How are you going to leave a girlfriend off the chat?”
I scratched my ear. “I thought you’d be more upset that I have a surprise plus one.”
“Nah, man. We have plenty of room and food. When did you—” He stopped himself, turning to Bane with a bow of the head. “I’m sorry. Sunny can be closed off sometimes. My bride and I are very happy to have you with us. You’re in for a blast!”
“Oh, no,” she insisted. “I’m just tagging along. I don’t want to intrude—”
“Nonsense! You’re Sunny’s girl! He brought you all the way out here.”
“Actually, I came to see my sister, and this is all a coincidence. I don’t want to end up in your wedding pictures and forever memories.”
“Okay, listen. I can stand here all day and try to convince you, but once you meet my bride, she’s not going to let you go. I promise you.”
Bane looked to me, silently asking, “Are we doing this or what?”
Maybe I could’ve tracked down my ex and had a private conversation, taking the brunt of the humiliation to keep this between the two of us, but damn, she’d already gone to the group chat and now everyone knew. And now Sam was excitedly insisting on having Bane present, which was a big deal. This wasn’t a huge wedding. This would be small and intimate, and being my girlfriend meant he expected Bane to be at all the pre-wedding events. As in an entire vacation together. Dinner, drinks, outings.
I didn’t have much of a choice, seeing that the awkwardness of the truth would be a low-hanging cloud over everyone anytime I was near. Seemed like a huge damper for a wedding week.
Damnit. I heaved out a breath and gave Bane a short, almost imperceptible nod.
In a matter of nanoseconds, she went from friendly stranger in our midst to fake girlfriend on overdrive. She batted her lashes and sank against my side, slipping one hand down to mine, and beamed up at me. “Are you sure? I want you to have time with your friends.”
I swallowed hard, my mind blanking.
She turned to the guys and said, “He’s being shy.”
Aamar quirked a brow. “Sunny? Shy? This guy?”
She laughed and it sounded like angels blessing us with their presence. She’d never laughed like that in front of me before. Who was this woman turning on the charm so high that my friends were instantly eating out of her hands?
Bane shrugged and patted my chest. “Maybe he’s just shy with me. It’s very cute,” she said with a sultry, flirty tone that had Aamar tilting his head and silently relaying in our age-old telepathic bro speak: Damn, bro. You getting that?
“Then it’s settled! Sunny has a plus one! From henceforth, Bhanu will be joining us for everything. Right?” Sam asked, hopeful and a bit too eager.
Bane’s dazzling smile was blinding. How often did she smile that big? She could stop entire worlds looking like that, but how much of it was genuine? The configuration of this ploy led to zero being the most probable answer. Because this wasn’t real. She was faking it. But damn, was she good at this.
“What room are you in?” Aamar asked, pulling out his phone to take note.
With my lips compressing, my brain fidgeted with how to relay my answer without sounding like Sejal and I were at each other’s throats, but also where exactly was I staying?
“The villas,” Bane replied, looping an arm through mine while I stood in silence, dumbfounded and unable to add anything to her response, much less correct it. I didn’t have much of a choice.
“Fancy,” Sam said. “Like a honeymoon suite?”
Bane laughed that angelic laugh, a melody chiming in the breezeway. “Of course not. We’re not on a honeymoon. No, just the quaint villas; a sister property of the hotel. It’s on the other side of the golf course.”
The guys jerked their heads at me. I shrugged. I had no idea what she was talking about, but apparently they did.
“The ones that look like actual houses?” Sam asked.
“Yes. Hence the name, I guess. Not very creative,” Bane said, sounding like a designer. She had probably looked at the hotel’s website and clucked her tongue, skimming down every page making mental notes of what she’d change in the overall UX design of it all.
Sam whistled.
