1 One



"You must be so excited to meet him," not, "I just know you'll love him!"

I highly doubted it. "Alright, mum. I need to leave now, wouldn't want to keep my darling husband waiting."

She was way more excited for the 'lunch date' she'd planned than I was.

"Okay, okay," she sighed, "will Raj drop you off?"

The nineteen year old looked up at the sound of his name, annoyance plain on his ugly face. "Why do I have to? I'm not her driver."

"She's your sister," I was definitely going to be late, "get the car keys."

Twenty minutes later, I waved my brother off with a reminder to pick me up later. Now, time to get this over with.



Forty minutes.

I'd been here for forty minutes, and the jerk was still a no show. And I'd been worried about being late? He obviously didn't care.

I moved to call my brother, stopping when I heard the sound of the seat being drawn out. Finally.

"You're late."

He looked up. "I know, several things held me back."

I frowned when he made himself comfortable without a single word of apology to me. Okay, rude.

"You're not going to apologize?"

"I'm starving," he took his glasses off, "have you placed your order yet?"

I scoffed. "No."

"Well, we should. I don't have all day to-"

"I don't want to," I snatched my purse from the table, "I'm leaving."

I left the table, quickly regretting hasty my decision after numerous attempts to call my brother. Swiched off? I was going to kill him. I sneaked a peek at the table I had left, and the jerk was still there, eating with zero worries. A very attractive jerk, he was.

I watched him walk towards the door, paling when he attempted to walk past me.

"Hey!" he turned, the stupid glasses back on his face, "I need a ride home."

"Is there a reason you're telling me this?"

I wanted to strangle him.

"Can I catch a ride with you?" his head tilted to one side, and I adjusted my question immediately, "please?"

"Follow me."



"Are you okay?"

I scowled. "I'm fine."

Arnav took one look at my leg, the one that hadn't stopped bouncing since I got into the car, and smiled. "Doesn't look that way to me."

It wasn't something I could help, it just happened whenever I got mad. And considering the fact that I was seriously plotting the murder of a certain idiot, I was glad he didn't say anything afterwards. I would've hated to be rude by ignoring him, I did have manners after all.

I jumped out of the car the moment it was parked at my house, yelling a quick thank you to the driver whose face I hadn't seen, and stomping off.

I was going to find Raj, and his death was going to be brutal.

*

"You're dead, you little piece of shit!"

Raj's hands went up in mock surrender. "I swear, it was mom's idea," the idiot looked like he was about to laugh, "she wanted your husband to drive you home."

Husband? All of this was driving me crazy.

Before I could display the act of violence I'd been plotting, my mom walked out of the kitchen, a ridiculously large grin on her face.

"You're back already?" I mean, was I supposed to sleep out there? "How did it go?"

Like shit, I wanted to say, but I knew very well she wouldn't appreciate those words. "Great, just great."

I was very sure she didn't detect the sarcasm in my voice, because the shit eating grin didn't leave her face for one second. "I knew it!"

Her excitement was making me sick. "I'm tired, so I'll take a nap now."

She waved me off, probably too busy planning more tea dates for me and my husband, to give a vocal response.

When I was confined in my room, my annoyance came back with full force. If I was going to be honest, I hadn't expected our meeting to go entirely right, but it had gone left so very fast. I had never quite met someone so disrespectful, infuriating and attractive at the same time. He had no right to look good with that kind of attitude.

My loud ringtone pulled me out of my thoughts, and I smiled when I spotted the contact name.

"Liv," I sighed, "you called at the right time."

"What's up with you?" I heard her telling her boyfriend to quit being nosy in the distance, "you sound stressed."

"Because I am," very stressed, "I met him today."

"Tell me all about it!" another person more excited about this than I was, "what is he like?"

"We didn't talk much," we didn't talk at all, "so I can't really say at the moment. I don't want to be too quick to judge him, you know?"

Oh, but I'd done that already. And at the moment, it didn't seem like anything he did could make me see him as a better person.

"That's the best thing to do," she said, her voice cheerful, "hang in there, okay?"

"I'll do my best."

"Luke's making a mess of my kitchen, so I'll call you back later, okay?"

It was only after I hung up, and her words registered, that I realized one more thing.

I hadn't even gotten to eat earlier.