The One She Was Warned About Read Online Free PDF Page A

wasn’t perfect, she hated anyone criticising what she wore.
    ‘They’re very nice shoes,’ she told Siddhant firmly. ‘Actually, all in all, I think I look pretty good.’
    ‘I agree,’ a voice said behind her.
    She spun around to meet Nikhil’s smiling eyes. Brilliant—now he probably thought she was needy and totally hungry for reassurance.
    ‘I wasn’t intending to criticise your clothes,’ Siddhant said, after nodding stiffly to Nikhil. ‘I just thought that jeans might be more practical, given that we’re going sightseeing.’
    He himself was dressed in khaki trousers and a crisp white short-sleeved shirt. Somehow, though, he managed to look a little stiff-necked and conservative next to Nikhil’s rugged good looks.
    Nikhil gave him an easy smile. ‘We’re driving to the backwaters and we’ll spend the next few hours on a boat. It’s hardly a Himalayan trek. Shweta—I came to ask you... You said you wanted to pick up some spices for your aunt, right? I’ve decided to stay back for another day, and I’ll be taking the SUV out again—you can ride with me. We’ll stop at a spice garden I know—you’ll get much better stuff there than you do in the stores.’
    Shweta nodded happily. The alternative was to ride in a bus with the rest of the office crowd. Siddhant would be with the other partners in a specially rented van. Not that they were trying to be elitist, as he’d hastily clarified, but they had some urgent business to discuss, which was confidential, and it would be a pity to waste the travel time when all of them were together anyway.
    He didn’t look at all happy about Shweta going off with Nikhil, but there was little he could do about it. ‘I’ll see you at the boats, then,’ he said.
    ‘Yes, we should be there in a couple of hours,’ Nikhil said. ‘Come on, Shweta, we should leave now. See you in a bit, Siddhant. I was taking a look at the video of yesterday’s dance, by the way—not bad at all. I wish I could have made it back in time for the actual performance.’
    ‘Don’t make fun of him,’ Shweta said in an undertone as they waited for the car. ‘He was pretty uncomfortable with this whole dance thing, but it was his boss’s idea and he couldn’t wriggle out of it.’
    There was genuine surprise on Nikhil’s face as he replied. ‘I wasn’t. OK, he isn’t India’s answer to Michael Jackson, but he did a good job. Must have practised a lot.’
    ‘He’s a bit of a perfectionist,’ Shweta muttered.
    She still hadn’t figured Nikhil out. Maybe he’d been telling the truth the night before—he’d only been teasing her back then in school and she’d overreacted. An incipient persecution complex—that was what her father would call it.
    ‘So is it serious, then?’ Nikhil asked after a pause.
    ‘With Siddhant? I don’t know—we’ve not talked about it. We’ve been dating for a while, so I guess there’s a good chance of us ending up together.’
    ‘Are you in love with him?’
    Startled, she felt her gaze fly up to his face. ‘With Siddhant?’ she asked again, stupidly.
    He smiled. ‘No, with that traffic policeman over there. Of course with Siddhant, you dimwit.’
    ‘No,’ she said, and then bit her lip. Impulsive frankness was all very well, but sometimes she wished she had more control over her tongue. ‘I mean, I’m very fond of him, but it’s a little too early. We’ve not actually...’ Her voice trailed off as he began to smile. She must be sounding like an utter idiot to him. He’d already made it pretty clear that he didn’t have a very high opinion of Siddhant, and her dithering was probably amusing him no end. Rapidly she moved the battle into enemy territory. ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Are you in love with...well, whoever people might think you’re in love with?’
    ‘No, I’m not,’ he said, his lips twitching.
    A valet brought his black SUV around and Nikhil helped her in before heading around to the driver’s