The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev Read Free Book Online Page A

started to tremble on the pencil thin tips of her heels. Damn strappy sandals. Damn ghaghras. Damn weddings. Damn it all.
    The girl pushed away from Vikram and sashayed over to Ria. She squatted down next to her. “Here, let me help you. Vic, honey, could you grab that trash can, please?” Her voice was equal parts tinkling and husky and it sparkled with confidence. She beamed at Ria with the impishness of a child who’d been caught doing something naughty, but knew she wouldn’t be punished for it, because she had never been punished for anything, ever.
    Ria looked at her and forced out one of her dimpled smiles. Pushing with all her might to turn her lips up at the perfect angle. Anything to keep from looking back at him as he moved across the room. Anything to keep from falling apart in front of this girl who vibrated with so much life just looking at her made Ria weary.
    “Hey, aren’t you that actress cousin of Vic’s?” the girl asked in her tinkling voice.
    “She’s not my cousin.”
    It was the first time Ria had heard his voice in ten years.
    She pressed her hand into the floor and leaned into it. The deep, low tones washed over her like rain after a drought—so long-awaited every parched inch of her soaked it up.
    Time had turned the bass in his voice up just the slightest bit, but the sound was so distinctly him, Ria’s flesh prickled with recognition. A voice that had haunted her silences. A voice her ears had searched for in all other voices. She wanted to close her eyes and drown in it.
    “But she’s Nikhil’s cousin and Nikhil is your cousin. So it’s the same thing,” the girl said, looking from Vikram to Ria. “Didn’t you guys grow up together, weren’t you friends?” She picked up a shard and dumped it in the bin Vikram handed her.
    For a long moment nothing but the sound of glass on metal clattered against silence. Ria found her gaze locked with his again, although she didn’t remember looking up at him.
    “No,” Vikram said finally, his spine impossibly straight as he backed into the dark paneled wall behind him. “We were nothing.”
    The words fell from his lips, raw and jagged. His face was cast in stone, expressionless, but he hadn’t quite mastered the storm in his eyes. Pain twisted in Ria’s gut.
    A confused frown crinkled the girl’s forehead. She waited for Vikram to say more. When he didn’t, she turned to Ria and stuck out her hand. “I’m Mira,” she said, as if they were standing in Uma Atya’s living room, mingling, not squatting on the basement floor gathering remnants of broken things. As if Ria hadn’t just caught her with her bare legs clutching Vikram in the most intimate embrace. “It’s so nice to finally meet you. Nikhil talks about you all the time.”
    Ria forced herself to reach for Mira’s offered hand. Mira’s handshake was firm and warm and self-assured. It made Ria aware of the limp lifelessness of her own hand and she strengthened it. “I’m Ria,” she said. “And I really am sorry.”
    “Don’t be. We should be more careful.” Mira threw an accusatory glance at Vikram, a look that left no doubt that this had been his idea. “But you know how it is.” She gave Ria a conspiratorial smile. “We lost track of where we were. Vic said no one ever comes down here. That it would be just us. I’m just glad it was you and not one of the aunties who found us or we’d be married off tomorrow.” She giggled.
    “Maybe it should’ve been one of the aunties then,” he said, his voice light now, his eyes indifferent. All signs of pain gone. The storm mastered.
    He walked toward Mira and held out his hand. Everything inside Ria reached for his outstretched hand. She wanted to touch him so badly she had to clench every muscle to keep from moving. The shard of glass in her hand poked into her skin. She eased her grip. Mira reached out and grabbed his hand. As he pulled her up and she jumped into his arms, Ria knew this girl never did anything