The Wrong Woman

44. Mouna

The past few days were taking a big toll on me. I felt mildly responsible for what happened between Anish and Sandra, and then there was the meeting I needed to prepare for. Thinking about going over the notes made me want to hide under the bed.

"You free tonight?" Dhruv asked, gesturing to the untouched notes sprawled all over the coffee table.

"I'm making myself free," I said with a forced grin.

He studied me, hand on his chin. "Good. Don't exert yourself, it's not good for your body. Especially with what you've been through."

My lips twitched. "Why did you ask?"

"I was thinking of inviting Mouna and Veer out to a restaurant. What do you say? It'll get your mind off of everything that's happened."

My voice caught in my throat. He wanted to invite both Mouna and Veer?! Just my luck that this was the way things had to go. "Um, yes. That sounds like fun!"

"Great. I'll let them know, then." He got out his phone and texted Veer, I assumed before he put his phone down. He tilted his head. "By the way, you said you and Mouna were friends, right?"

That was...one way of putting it, I thought. "Yes?"

"Have I seen her somewhere before this? She doesn't look familiar but the way she acts around me, I feel like I know her."

She's your wife. "We only became friends recently, so I'm not sure."

As the rest of the day passed by, I chewed my bottom lip. How was the night going to end? I wondered.

I only hoped it wasn't a disaster.

***

We were at a Korean BBQ place, and the smells were something I wasn't used to. Not to say that it was bad, the food was great! There was a small black grill pan on the dining table and Dhruv and Veer were grilling pork belly and beef right there. It was something I had never seen before, the meat searing and steam whizzing through the air.

The snippets of conversation and the sound of sizzling meat from other tables echoed in the loud, vintage restaurant. The noise drowned out the tension I felt in my shoulders. Dhruv placed some meat in my bowl that I was staring idly at when Mouna--I mean, Rani--kicked my leg from under the table. She was using chopsticks efficiently, like she had been doing it her whole life, and gestured with her eyes for me to do the same.

I swallowed, slowly. I had never seen these sticks in my life. How was I supposed to use them to eat? My hand shook as I reached for it, then immediately dove for the fork. Rani frowned at me, but I only managed a half-smile.

"What about you?" Dhruv asked both of us. He and Veer looked at us as if we had been following along with the conversation.

"What about us?" Mouna shrugged.

"Chinese or Korean?"

Veer added, "I say Chinese. The debate needs a conclusion."

"Why, so Dhruv can force feed her that, too?" she mumbled.

I exclaimed in a booming voice, cutting her off so Dhruv wouldn't hear, "I love both! Who doesn't love Chinese or Korean?!"

Dhruv eyed me as his shoulders shook. There was no hurt or malice underlying his expression, so that told me he hadn't. Suddenly, he cupped my cheek, the touch and the warmth of it startling me. His thumb traced an area around my bottom lip, eyes so focused that he didn't realise my studying him. Until he did. His gaze flitted up, and my stomach lurched. We stayed like that until he smiled and moved away, lifting his thumb up.

"You got BBQ sauce all over you." I flushed as he sucked it off, absentmindedly lifting my hand up to trace the area where the faint heat of his touch was left. I felt someone burning holes in me and I glanced up to see Rani sneering at me.

I cleared my throat and straightened up. Having her see that was no good. Not good at all. I wasn't a woman who did that with another woman's man! But why was she so mad, anyway? It wasn't like I did anything--Stop rambling, I commanded myself. Ducking my head down, I dug into some rice and forked some pork belly to see how it tasted when Veer grabbed my wrist.

He opened his mouth to speak, pausing to collect his thoughts, then continued in a low voice, "You don't eat pork."

"I don't?" I looked to Dhruv for clarification, but he looked like he couldn't care less about the situation that was happening. In fact, his expression was schooled to perfect indifference. Rani's gaze darted between Veer and Dhruv before shaking her head and poking at the bowl in front of her. "May I try it, at least?"

He loosened his grip on my wrist, the lines on his face smoothening out as he chuckled. "I...suppose. Sorry, it was a reflex." Rani whispered something to Veer whose body slackened, and he chuckled. I wished I could make Dhruv at ease around me as easily as Rani did.

She knew how to speak to men. She knew exactly what to say to both Dhruv and Veer if they were ever in a bad mood. What did I know? I couldn't help but stare at both of them. My abdomen pinched and my lower back began to hurt. I ignored the pain.

Rani made the best of any situation. Even in my body, she ruled everything and everyone around her. Of course people liked her. As I always told myself, it was only natural. My ribs squeezed tight as I blinked furiously down at the bowl in front of me, not noticing the gaze of the man beside me.