Page 77 of The Ex Factor

“What?” I scrambled to sit up in the hammock.

“Easy, easy,” she said. “Here, take my hand.”

Gripping her wrist, I climbed out of the hammock. She led me inside, and I followed her in a daze and with an embarrassingly large bulge in my shorts.

AARTI

He was still holding my hand as we stepped inside the beach house. I let him settle while I fetched a towel.

“Are you cold?” I asked with genuine concern.

“No,” he responded as he took the towel from me and wiped his face and legs.

“It looked like you were shivering. And then there is this other condition,” I said with as straight a face as I could manage.

He quickly wrapped the towel around his waist. “It’s nothing, probably a dream.”

“A dream? What kind of dream? Were you having a sex dream?” Oh, I was definitely curious.

“No.” He responded calmly, but averted his gaze.

“You know, sooner or later, you’ll have to tell me who you were dreaming about,” I said.

“Not anyone you’d know.”

“Oh, so now you’renotdenying it was a sex dream.”

“Aarti, didn’t you bring me here to relax and unwind? Stop bothering me. I’m going to change out of these wet clothes.”

I opened my mouth, but he held up a finger. “No pun intended,” he said before I could get in a word. “And FYI, if I wascold, my…thing would be doing the opposite of what it’s doing now.”

I burst out laughing while he escorted his wet body to the bathroom.

My renewed optimism this morning could be credited to a decision I made last night. I might not get to hold on to Sujit for life, but I was determined to enjoy his company for as long as I could. He was good for my soul. He had helped me heal in a way I hadn’t expected. Even after we were forced to part ways, I knew I could hold on to the love, the hope, the kindness in my heart. It sounded like a cliché, but he had made me a better version of myself. I didn’t feel broken anymore. I was stronger, more confident with him in my life. He was the definition of the elusive happiness that I’d been searching for.

I walked to the coffee station, brewed two cups, and carried them to the small table by the glass wall. Several delicious-looking pastries and small cakes were neatly arranged on a covered cake stand.

Sujit reemerged from his room, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. I frowned. He had flaunted his bare torso all day, and now, after that ridiculous dream or whatever, he had chosen to cover up his body.

That didn’t mean I was going to let him be. All through coffee, I kept nagging him to tell me who was responsible for his condition in the hammock.

“Okay, at least tell me if that person is real or not.”

He frowned. “As in fictional?”

“Or, you know, like a celebrity or something.”

“I hope this is not like breaking the truth about Santa, but you know celebrities are real people, don’t you?”

I hit his arm.

“I’m not saying,” he replied and stuffed a mini cupcake into his mouth.

Turning serious for a moment, I asked, “Was it Tara?”

With a vehement shake of his head, he gulped down the cake with haste. “I’ve never dreamed of Tara, sexually or otherwise.”

When I opened my mouth again, he quickly added, “If you keep bugging me, I’ll have to rethink the gifts I got you.”

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