Aadith was enraged. He couldn’t believe she thought so cheaply of him. He had chalked her reluctance to work with him to that one disastrous evening long ago. He’d never imagined she carried a deeper grudge against him over an imagined slight.
‘I don’t know where you got the idea that I shared it with my friends. I’ve never had the need to kiss and tell. Ever. Not then and not now,’ he growled.
Nina felt bewildered. There was a sincerity in his words that rang true. She could not bring herself to ignore the truth in his words. He had been a popular boy even then, while she had just been a nobody. A boast involving her would hardly have raised his reputation.
God, this was so confusing, she thought desperately.
But Aadith was not done yet. ‘Why would you think that I had told my friends about you?’
Nina cringed inwardly and wished she had not started talking about the past. Going through it had been humiliating enough but talking about it and finding out that she had been even more of a fool than she had thought was excruciating.
‘Your then girlfriend, Monica, told me you’d all had a good laugh about it,’ said Nina quietly. All the rage she’d carried about Aadith’s behaviour in the past now seemed pointless.
‘Monica?’ exclaimed Aadith in disgust. ‘Just to be clear about this, she didn’t become my girlfriend until much later—after I left Pune, in fact. We were just hanging around then. Although now, I can see all too clearly why she would have played such a dirty trick on you—she could be pretty vile sometimes.’
Monica was a mistake he sorely regretted. The only good thing to come out of that relationship was he’d learned exactly how much to trust a woman. Not at all. What Nina said just now reinforced it all over again.
‘A young, gamine girl whom I’d previously only thought of as my friend’s kid sister started drawing my attention. She must have caught my interest in you and decided to protect her “future”, as she called me then,’ said Aadith, looking at her sincerely.
‘Monica spelled trouble from the word go but I didn’t realise it until it was too late. This is just one more in her long list of transgressions.’
Nina coloured at his frank statement of interest in her and lowered her eyes shyly. To know that she had captured his attention then was like an aphrodisiac to her. Her heart started thumping madly in her chest. She felt herself melting under his hot gaze.
‘Nina, look at me,’ commanded Aadith softly.
When she raised her eyes to him, all the hostility she’d harboured against him was gone. There was only a soft vulnerability in them. Aadith felt a strange protectiveness take hold of him.
Desire and attraction he could easily handle, but this new, softer emotion was gripping in its intensity. He didn’t want to feel anything more for her than affection. Anything more spelled trouble, he thought in alarm.
‘Let’s start over. I’m sorry I hurt you unintentionally. It would be better if we forget the past ever happened. I would like us to be friends first …’ Aadith entreated.
Nina acquiesced and replied, ‘I would like that too.’
Though she couldn’t help wondering about his unfinished sentence. Friends first …? Then what? Did it mean he wanted to move beyond friendship? Did he feel the same unrelenting pull that she did?
Nina shook her head tiredly. It was too much to ponder about, after the roller coaster of emotions she’d experienced over the past two days. When the waiter chose that precise moment to present their bill she was relieved.
‘I’ll get to work on the campaign and meanwhile please clear your schedule for at least a week or so at the end of the month for it. I suspect it is going to be a tight run to get it all done in time.’
‘I have no doubt you’ll pull it off,’ assured Aadith firmly.
Nina asked to be dropped off at the office. She thought a bit of work would help to keep her mind off him.
‘Don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything,’ instructed Aadith as he waited for her to gather her handbag.
‘Even if I’m going to interrupt an evening with your darling Sanjana?’ queried Nina impishly.
‘I’ll definitely take a rain check on her if it is for you …’ he said breezily and left in a quick spin of his car.
Nina’s laughter died on her lips. She had asked for it, she thought miserably. Just because he had been interested in her a long time ago didn’t mean he was now. And even if he was, his reply just now had made it abundantly clear that she would be one among the many girls he dated. There would always be someone eager to take her place, she thought sourly.
Nina felt oddly unsettled for the rest of the day. It was bad enough he made her feel things she’d never felt before, but even worse was the fact that he made her look back into her past, a place she’d never had happy memories about.
She could still remember the day Aadith had come into her life. With working parents who’d had little time to spare, she had vied with her brother for their attention. But for them she had always been an afterthought, an extra after their perfect male child, ignored for the most part.
That was when Aadith had entered her life and occupied her every waking thought for the four years they had been neighbours, thought Nina morosely. She smiled to herself as she thought back to that time. She had been a total wannabe then, with her shortly cropped hair, tattered jeans and ratty tees.
Being the same age as her brother, Aadith had quickly befriended him and hung around the house frequently. He’d often teased her about her weird assortment of friends all going through various stages of rebellion. For someone as starved for love as she had been then, the little attention that Aadith had thrown her way had proven to be her downfall. She’d developed a massive crush on him.
Well, she certainly knew how that had ended, thought Nina sadly. He was even more popular and handsome now than he had been before and she was still the same inexperienced, albeit better looking than before, normal girl next door.
The ending looked decidedly predictable. Unless she kept her head and her heart safe she was going to end up seriously hurt again, thought Nina resolutely.
CHAPTER THREE
THE FOLLOWING DAYS were a whirlwind. The ‘Wishing Star’ contest was heavily publicised along with the movie. With the weight of a major production house behind it no expense was spared to promote the picture. Hoardings, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, Internet, every media tool was used to capture the public’s attention. It soon became the talk of the town. Entries flew in from all over the country. Young and old alike wrote in and it soon became a very difficult task just to choose a few out of the multitude of responses. The contest had captured the nation’s imagination and they were now eagerly anticipating the movie as well as the contest results.
Nina spoke to Aadith on and off to keep him updated about the progress of the various promotional activities they had undertaken. Both of them kept their conversations brief and professional. As the star of the movie as well as the co-producer he had a lot on his plate trying to keep an eye on the post-production activities and fulfil his promotional obligations. There didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day for him to catch up with all that needed to be done, yet at odd times he found himself wanting to see Nina again. Deciding to pay her a visit, he rang her office and was informed by Mrs Dutta that she would be working late with her team.
Nina rummaged in her bag for a piece of paper where she’d made a note about the campaign. She needed it for the meeting. Despite its bulging size, her bag was perfectly organised with everything neatly compartmentalised and