She settled into his typical spot on the couch and pulled his great-grandmother’s pillow into her lap with the utmost care. “Why don’t you open it and find out?”
Arjun turned his attention to the Insomnia Cookies label and the fresh scent of double chocolate chip. He smiled at the gesture, simple proof of how well she knew him.
“Thank you.” He couldn’t remain at a distance from her, so he also moved to the couch, their knees just barely grazing as he sat down. She didn’t pull herself away when they touched, likely because she was so used to him that these little moments didn’t matter anymore. Still, he wondered if she felt the same electric spark that he did. “What’s the occasion?”
Madhuri opened the box and split a cookie in half, placing the larger of the two in his open hand. “I wanted to congratulate you on a good game. Plus, I thought you’d like some company tonight.”
“The game where I made a fool of myself and got knocked out on the field? That’s worthy of cookies to you?” He popped a piece into his mouth, and the taste of sweet chocolate flooded his senses. “I do appreciate you wanting to keep me company, though.”
“Why can’t you let me be nice to you in peace, Arjun?”
“Because I know an ulterior motive when I see one, especially when it comes to you. Spit it out, Madhuri. Why are you really here?”
“Fine, fine, you caught me, but I’ll have you know that you were only correct in the cookies having an ulterior motive. Me coming to see you was purely because you’re my best friend and I love you.”
I love you. The three words echoed through his ears, though he should’ve known better than to be so affected by them. She said she loved him because it was safe to do so, because he was irrevocably defined as her best friend. He needed to remember that.
Arjun sent her a pointed look. “You’re avoiding the subject.”
“Alright, I’ll get to the point. I was hoping to set a date and a time to go over the ground rules for our little dating scheme, and I brought your favorite cookies to make sure you didn’t get cold feet.”
“First of all, even if I did get cold feet, a box of cookies would not be enough to change my mind. I’m not that easy.” Madhuri chuckled, and Arjun felt his heart glow the way it always did when she so much as looked in his direction, let alone laughed at one of his jokes. “Secondly, you didn’t have to come all the way here just to set a date and a time. Our phones exist for this reason, you know.”
“Maybe I needed an excuse to see you, and the experiment was the easiest way to do it.”
“Don’t start making me feel special,” Arjun teased. “What’s gotten into you?”
Madhuri looked up at him through her lashes, fluttering like the butterflies careening through his stomach in that very moment. “I guess I felt bad about how I treated you at our reading and at the game. I wanted to apologize to you properly, when we were alone and not preoccupied by my family or the prophecy or the experiment.”
“You don’t need to apologize for arguing with me. We’ve been that way for ages, and I know it’s not personal.” Arjun locked his eyes on to hers. “I also know how you are when it comes to your destiny. If you need to take your frustration at the Universe out on me, I’m completely okay with that.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have to be, and I’m sorry for making you feel like you need to be my punching bag in order to be my friend.” Madhuri shook her head at him as if what he was saying was somehow amusing and sad all at once. “Now, finish your cookie. I’ve had enough sentimentality for the evening, and I’d say it’s finally time we get into the fun stuff.”
Madhuri flashed him a smile before continuing on with business as usual, her apology slowly fading into the depths of Arjun’s memory. “Why don’t we develop our hypotheses tomorrow? I think we need to get the details of our experiment locked down before people start to ask questions, and trust me, they will. You’re a pretty hot commodity, and I’m positive it’ll cause a riot once the girls at school notice you’ve been taken off the market.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but what you’re saying is that we should be prepared for crowds of girls to throw themselves at me in protest. I don’t think I’d complain if that were to happen.” Arjun let out a quiet chuckle. “Unless that makes you jealous?”
“Jealous, yeah, sure.” Madhuri rolled her eyes. “I just don’t want to be caught in a lie if we were to be interrogated about our relationship. Besides, I think it’s more likely that those girls will throw themselves at me, and not in the fun and flirty sort of way.”
“More the off-with-her-head sort of way?”
“Exactly.”
Arjun knew that if two average teenagers agreed to date, they didn’t do it through scientific hypotheses. There was nothing typical about Madhuri’s proposal, but he should’ve seen that coming. Most teenagers weren’t ruled by the planets, nor did they have something to prove the way that she did. And Arjun wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to show Madhuri exactly what she’d been missing her whole life—a happily-ever-after with him.
“Well, I’ll be free tomorrow to work on those hypotheses. You can count me in.”
Madhuri’s smile widened into a brilliant grin, and she pulled him into a hug. They didn’t do that often, the whole physical displays of affection thing, but he didn’t have the heart to stop her. “Thank you, Arjun. I seriously don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Arjun couldn’t bring himself to let her go, not when Madhuri leaving meant facing his deserted house all over again, so he didn’t. Much to his surprise, the two of them stayed that way for quite some time before he finally found the right words to respond.
“I promise you’ll never have to find out.”
CHAPTER SIX
Madhuri
Madhuri loved the smell of books. Old or new. Torn or polished. That was why she wanted to create their experiment in her mother’s study, a room dedicated to the art of Vedic astrology. It was only right for Madhuri and Arjun to sign their agreement beneath the watchful eyes of fate, hidden within the intricate planetary charts on her mother’s bookshelf. There was something peaceful about the whimsical language scrawled across each page, and Madhuri needed all the peace she could get before her plan went into action and effectively turned her life into a Bollywood film.
Arjun fell into the swivel chair in front of her, dropping his gym bag to the floor without a care in the world. Beads of sweat dangled from his hair, specifically the stray strand that curled toward his forehead. For someone who’d probably spent the morning working out, he didn’t smell too bad. In fact, Madhuri couldn’t smell anything but the floral perfume that belonged to the lingering presence of her mother.