Page 62 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
“Nori! Will you please let me speak?” Vir interrupted her before swallowing the jagged lump in his throat. He drew in a deep breath, then a couple more. “Please—” he said, turning her around, so she faced him, “—look at me.”
Nori shook her head once, furiously glaring down at her feet. Her chin quivered, and the sight of it made his chest constrict.
“You got it all wrong.” His voice held steady when he spoke this time. “I’m sorry for last evening. I was careless. It won’t happen again, I promise. Also, for making you revisit everything just now. I know it wasn’t easy. I’m sorry, and thank you. I wish I could—I—please, don’t push me away. I love you.”
Her chin quivered again, but she didn’t respond.
“If you didn’t like me at all,” he continued, “then that would be different. But that’s not the case, is it?”
Nori shook her head again, her shoulders trembling as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Look at me, please,” he said, fighting another stubborn lump in his throat.
And her eyes finally lifted to his.
“Tell me what you need. Anything,” he whispered. Then tentatively added, “Do you want me to go away?”
“Yes,” she whispered with a watery grimace. Then shook her head, no.
“Too bad then. I’m not going anywhere,” he said before pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her.
“Hmph,” she mumbled into his chest.
Little by little, she relaxed into him. And as she did, with her thudding heartbeats slowly falling in sync with his, Vir’s lungs finally remembered how to breathe.
Later that afternoon, Nori sat hunchedon the couch with her laptop balanced on her knees. “I don’t feel like working today,” she mumbled lazily after a while.
“Me neither,” Vir said from the other end of the couch as he switched his e-reader on. “I was going to read a bit of light fiction instead.”
“Will you read it out loud?” Nori shut her laptop and scooted closer to him.
“Sure. Pick something.”
She took the device and scrolled till she found one she liked. “This one.”
As Vir began, Nori leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. And just like that, a random thought materialized and made his heart home. He wished he’d catch a cold—a harmless little snotty one. So he could make her laugh with his runny nose, like he’d unintentionallydone all those years ago.
He’d fallen for her laughter then, too, just as he’d fallen for it now. Effortlessly, all over again. He pressed his lips to her hair once before continuing.
“Are you asleep?” he whispered after a while.
“No.”
“Do you want to do something else?”
“Like what?”
“We did agree to pretend this was a vacation earlier.”
“We did.”
“But we haven’t done a single touristy thing yet.”
“We haven’t.” She leaned away to regard him with a curious glint in her eyes.
They came out of the elephant sanctuary a few hours later, partially drenched after being splashed by a group of adolescent elephants they’d watched playing by a stream. A kind snack-stall owner handed them a bunch of tissues at the exit, as they tried to recall where they’d parked their rented bike while also trying not to bend over laughing at each other’s dumb state.
On their way back, after a short trip to the flea market nearby, they stopped at a busy-looking diner for dinner.
