Page 32 of The Rules of Playing with Fire

“I did not.”

“Well, I almost fell into yours.”

Her eyes, rife with desire, stayed on my face as I guided us deeper into the pool.

“My first crush was my cousin’s friend,” she said. “He was much older, training to be a psychiatrist, tall with thick, curly hair. Totally smashing. I was a schoolgirl, invisible to him. He was the one who made my heart miss a beat for the very first time.”

I nodded, expecting there was more to that story. We stood in a spot where the water was chest deep for her. “And why are we talking about him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t want you to feel vulnerable around me. Now you know my secret, so we’re on an equal footing.”

“Thank you, but I must demur.”

“Demur? On what grounds?”

“Gul was my most vulnerable moment. This psychiatrist was a crush. He wasn’t when you felt the most helpless, was he?”

The hands that had gripped my upper arms slipped down to my wrist as she put distance between us. “Gul is also a cherished memory. Not everyone is as fortunate, Mihir.”

“You don’t need to share your vulnerabilities with me, not unless you want to. No matter what I share with you, I won’t do it in the hope of reciprocation.”

The water wobbled around her as she stepped closer to me, her lips curled into a teasing curve. “Come on, aren’t you going to teach me how to swim?”

“Take my hand,” I said and asked her to put her head underwater and blow bubbles through the nose. She did, confidently.

“Good. Let’s try floating,” I said after we’d repeated it a few times.

I taught her how to float on her stomach to the edge of the pool. On her third try, she disappeared from the surface, and in the lights of the pool, I saw her slipping down to the floor, fast.

My heart sank, and my stomach turned as I dove in after her. I was about to grab and rescue her when away she swam, quick like a fish, alluring like a mermaid. Angry and annoyed, I followed her to the deep end, but she turned around and slipped past me with uncanny finesse. When I reached the shallow end, she was waiting for me, hands on her waist.

I grabbed her arms and growled in her face. “What the hell was that?”

She laughed with red eyes.

“It’s not funny, Sona. Not by a long shot. Don’t you ever do that to me again.” My words rumbled in the quiet of the night.

She stopped laughing and stared back into my eyes.

“Do you know how hard my heart is beating right now?” She backed herself against the pool, wearing a grim look. “I thought I was going to lose you,” I confessed without shame.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think… I thought we were messing around.”

I deepened the frown on my forehead. “Do you want me to mess around with you?”

“You’ll have a hard time keeping up with me, Mihir.” She doled out a confident dare.

“Five laps of the pool, no breaks.”

“You’re on,” she said, tearing off into the water before I could react.

I won, but barely, and only because I had seven inches of height on her. She turned on her back and let her tired body float in the tepid water. I touched her hand and floated with her.

“You’re an expert swimmer,” I said.

“I was a Naval Corps cadet. I’d better be an expert swimmer.”

“Sona…”

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