“It’s dangerous for a dev. Sharks and sharp coral lurking, waiting for their chance to bite some of that coding off.”
“Sharks?” I recalled how vast and deep the ocean was from the plane.
“Yes. There’s a particularly territorial tiger shark in the dark water, but we’d never swim out there. I’m sure a bunch of tourists will want to see clear waters, not dark and murky straight out of Jaws. They can smell tourists like fresh chum, all bloody and gooey and ripe for snatching up.”
“Noted.” Not that I’d planned on it, but no way in hell was I getting into the ocean.
Seven Bhanu
We hitched a ride on a golf cart while Sunny explained the dynamics of his friends’ group. “Bored” wasn’t exactly the word to describe this short soliloquy, never with that voice of his. To my chagrin, his voice was unfathomably pleasant to listen to, particularly when he wasn’t demanding anything of my team or insinuating that my own work was behind deadline.
The gist was thus:
“You met Sam, the groom. He’s marrying his college sweetheart, April. They’ve had many ups and downs between work, both engineers at Boeing. Her wanting to get her master’s degree when he wanted to have kids led to a separation for a bit. Then there was drama when he considered leaving the company and she was briefly seeing someone else.
“His parents are a bit hard to please and her parents butted heads with his; therefore, they’re flying in the day before the wedding for a rehearsal dinner that’s more of a family calm-down dinner. The entire reason they’re having a destination wedding is to keep the parents out of it, and to keep it small. Her parents wanted to invite everyone they’d ever met, and his parents wanted April to cut back on some things.”
“Are they Indian?” I joked.
Sunny, to my shocked disbelief, actually hinted at a smirk. Gasp! Did his mouth know such things? It made his side profile attractive, if I were to forget what an ass he could be.
He replied, “You’d think. You met Aamar, the best man, also an engineer at Boeing. He brought his fiancée, Maya, who happens to be good friends with April and is her maid of honor. They’re a relaxed couple, but Aamar’s overseeing a lot of things for Sam, despite them having a wedding planner. Sam is a perfectionist, which drives April up the wall. And you met Sejal,” he grumbled.
Ouch. Talk about a sore spot.
“She’s a bridesmaid, for some damn reason, and here with her boyfriend.”
Then he went quiet, but I wanted to know more. Strangely, I wanted to know about his life, these people I’d inadvertently agreed to sharing my vacation with, and this menacing former lover who appeared to be the archetypal ex.
“Is that all?” I pressed.
“Yep.”
“Nothing else I should know about these people? Their dislikes? Points of discussions to avoid?”
“Nope. I’m sure they’ll try to pry into you or us, but I’ll be quick to cut them off.”
“Speaking of us, what’s our story?”
“Story?”
I sighed dramatically. “Yes. Basic facts. How did we meet? How long have we been together? Should we know each other’s allergies, birthdays, tidbits about parents and siblings?”
“No.”
I scowled.
“You don’t need to know more about my life.” And there was that clenched jaw again. The asshole was back.
“If this falls apart, then that’s on you. I can only master the information that I have. Otherwise, I’ll start making things up when they ask. And they will ask.”
A few minutes later, he conceded. “We met at your work party a year ago, started dating two months ago. That’s enough time, right? To bring you for a wedding but not long enough that they’d question why I didn’t tell them? Besides, your sister lives here, so you were coming anyway. A last-minute coincidence.”
“Sounds believable.”
He continued to stew on other broad aspects of our fake relationship when we pulled up to the villa, the point being not to get too chatty. “It won’t be an issue since you’d rather be doing your own thing with your own family.”
If by “my own thing,” he meant sneaking into work, then yes. Since I saw Diya on a regular basis, and this was a long trip for me, she couldn’t take every day off. And I wouldn’t want her to, not when I was content to lounge around. She was back to work, giving me time to relax without filling the void with conversation and plans.
Essentially, “plans” included me sitting on the lanai with an ocean view, sipping drinks, nibbling on cheese, and scouring my laptop. Diya would end me. Just like Gabrielle. Even if I didn’t love my job, it was difficult to unplug. It was why I couldn’t just watch TV and not be on my phone and tablet. And why it was hard to just read a book and get lost in the story. My brain had to juggle multiple things at once.
“I’m going to be a breath of fresh air,” I told him.
“What?” He stared at me as if I’d spewed frothy lies at him.
“Your friends will only get off your back if you’re deliriously happy. Especially with your ex there.”
“You’re going to pull off deliriously happy?”
I batted my eyelashes. “I make all my men deliriously happy.”
He opened his mouth—knowing him, probably to inquire what had happened to all those men if I’d made them so content—but he, smartly, didn’t say anything.
This might be fun after all. I’d always wanted to be an actor. Okay, well, maybe in high school during my Bollywood phase. I could ham it up. I could be the perfect girlfriend, if for nothing else than to occupy my time so I wasn’t bored to death around his friends. Something to keep my mind off work and checking my messages every half second for interview updates. This was a vacation that had turned into a fake dating heist. I might as well be the center of my own best fantasy.
“I can tell this has already blown up in your head.”
I snickered. “Your ex will be begging for you to go back to her.”
