The Wrong Woman

45. Dhruv

I watched Rani stare at Veer with a deep sunken frown on her face before turning her gaze to her food. I internally sighed. I didn't want to think about what that meant. I'd never, not once, thought she had feelings for Veer despite their history; interactions between the three of us had always been civil.

Seeing Veer act like he knew more about her than me and then have her not even eat it at his suggestion and then sulk beside me, prickled at my skin. I chewed on the beef that I forcefully snagged off the end of my chopstick, but it had been charred so much by my neglecting it that it tasted like cardboard. Who cared about that when I was more focused on why I even cared so much about what was going on right here? We were getting along, sure, but that didn't mean anything.

I was only helping her until her memories got back. That was what this was. Besides, why was I so worried when Veer was occupied with his date who was adamant about acting bratty? When Rani jumped to yell that she liked both Chinese and Korean, both Veer and I knew what she was trying to do. I hadn't heard exactly what she'd said but I could tell that there was something venomous about it. I didn't much care about it since I didn't even know her, but why was the question?

Rani had taken my mind off of that in an instant and I couldn't help but smile at that thought. Whatever was going on in her mind, the fact of the matter was that she was kind enough to spare my feelings. It was only fair of me to do the same.

So, I nudged her shoulder against mine and gave her a few extra pieces of pork belly. "Try it," I urged.

Her face was scrunched in pain as she poked at her tummy. "My stomach hurts," she whispered. "I think I ate too much."

I tried not to laugh at the thought of the sauce all over her mouth. She was never a messy eater even with just the two of us, so to see her let go in public was something I wanted to capture in my head forever. Seeing her groan and bend over, though, the joy dissipated.

Something was wrong. Then an inkling of thought popped into my head, but before letting it click, I needed to know for sure.

"What date is it today?" I whispered, inching closer to her so that Veer and Mouna didn't overhear.

"Why?" I dug my phone out of my jeans pocket to see that it was two days away from the end of the month.

Crap, I thought. "You have your tampons with you?"

Her eyes widened with realisation. "Tampons?" she squeaked. She shook her head, furiously. I ran a hand down my face, rubbing at the scratchy beard in thought. What were we going to do? What if her blood had leaked or something? Veer and Mouna were looking between us, so I forced a smile.

"Everything good?" Veer asked.

"Yup, all good."

Mouna stared at Rani as if trying to decipher her thoughts. Which wouldn't be too hard considering panic was etched across her face in flashing lights. "Stay here. I'll go buy some for you and be right back. Keep Veer and Mouna talking."

"No, you can't leave me here," she stammered, grabbing at my sleeve.

"It's either me or you. Do you want me to check if you've leaked? In that case, we can--"

"No." She cleared her throat and forced a shaky smile at Veer. "You go. I'll wait."

"When I come back, just wear my hoodie around your waist and head to the bathroom."

Seeing her lower lip quiver before being viciously chewed on made me want to gather her in my arms, but I refrained. That'd be a weird thing to do since we were still a little iffy about what the heck was going on in regards to her memory loss.

"I'll be back," I announced to Veer, "I need to go grab something."

"Grab what?" Mouna asked, suspiciously.

"Rani wants some mango juice," I said swiftly, "and they don't sell that here, so I'll go buy it and be right back."

I made sure none of them could see me from the window of the restaurant before I broke out into a jog. Using my phone to get to the nearest shop, I bought the packet of tampons I've known Rani to use and shoved it into the pouch of my blue hoodie. I was about to head back into the rickshaw when I cursed.

The mango juice. I needed to buy that from somewhere and bring it with me to, as weak as my excuse sounded, make it a little bit more believable. It took me a while to finally find a place where they were selling it in bottles before I rushed back. I made sure I caught my breath before striding back inside like mango juice was my objective all along.

"You're back," Veer said, lifting a hand in the air. "We were just talking about Rani's meeting in a couple of days. She's been doing well, I take it?"

Rani had paled significantly. Well isn't the word I'd use, I thought. "Yeah, she's been working hard. No doubt she's going to do well."

Mouna's lips were in an 'o', her eyes sparkling before I caught her staring. She shook her head and straightened up. "Took you long," she said suddenly, gesturing to the bottle of mango juice that I placed in front of Rani.

"It's hard to find in a bottle," I said. Since the table was big enough, I easily slid the tampon packet from my pouch to her lap. "You never told me your decision, by the way. Veer and I are still debating."

"Right," he exclaimed, turning to his date. I took my hoodie off and handed it over to Rani who wore it--a better idea than wrapping it around her waist. "Chinese, or Korean?"

I continued some sort of random conversation with them, before glancing at Rani and gesturing subtly for her to go. She shivered and got up, making sure that her hands were inside the pouch. She didn't bother saying anything to them because they weren't looking, but she shot me a tiny smile, her face soft with gratefulness.

After she had come back, neither of them had noticed and continued speaking like she hadn't left. It wasn't until we got into the rickshaw that Rani and I looked at each other, a minute of silence before we burst into laughter.