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“No, I didn’t,” Rashi muttered defensively, knowing she damn well had.
“You were snoring!”
“I was not!” Had she been? She patted her cheek to see if she’d also been drooling. It was something she’d been known to do.
“It’s the intermission,” Harsh interjected. “Can I get you both something to eat or drink? There’s champagne.”
“No, thank you,” Veda said just as Raashi yelped, “Yes.”
The two of them looked at her, one furious and puzzled, the other smirking like he was enjoying himself a little too much.
“Yes to champagne,” she muttered, feeling like a five year old as she struggled to get out of the stupid recliner. Being vertically challenged meant her feet didn’t touch the floor when she got into one of these high-above-the-ground chairs. It also meant that she currently looked like an overturned beetle in front of the one man she detested above all others.
And the dick just stood there, with his hands in his pants pocket, watching her struggle. At no point did he offer to help her to her feet. Veda reached for her, but she batted her sister’s hands away, refusing to let him watch her accept help to do something as simple as stand.
She gained her feet in an ungainly rush just as the server arrived with three champagne flutes. She grabbed one and drained it before any of the others could even manage a sip of their own.
“Easy,” Veda murmured, her anger giving way to worry. “Are you okay, Raash?”
“Yes.” She looked around for somewhere to place her empty glass but couldn’t find anything. So, she held on to it, her nails tapping against the glass restlessly.
“Are you ever okay Rash?” Satan sneered, mangling her nickname like he always did.
“It’s Raashi to you,” she told him coldly. A waiter walked past with a tray full of glasses of champagne and she swiped another one, took a large sip. Okay, it was more of a gulp but there was no need to nitpick.
“Okay Rash.” He said again as he tipped his glass at her. He hadn’t taken a sip yet, she noted.
Raashi growled, her frustration with this man’s very existence rising to the fore.
“Don’t you have anyone else to talk to?” She took another gulp.
“Nope.” He drew the word out making a loud sound with the ‘p’, grinning at her. “Nowhere I’d rather be than here.”
“I see Iyer Sir!” Veda exclaimed suddenly, wandering off to introduce herself to the choreographer before either of them could react. Clearly, she couldn’t handle another second of the two of them together.
“Why are you here?” Harsh asked abruptly, the minute Veda was out of earshot.
“Akka.” Raashi shrugged, knowing that was self-explanatory. She chugged her glass to keep from saying more. People were glancing over at the two of them, judgy side eyes that had her back going up. She hated this world that her family and Harsh’s reveled in. She especially hated the people in it. Case in point, the fool standing in front of her.
“I mean why are you here in India? America threw you out?”
“Yes,” she said blandly. “They did.” She drained her glass, her bitterness making even the excellent champagne taste like rat’s piss.
“Some more?” Satan asked, holding out his still full glass.
She grabbed for his glass, feeling like a fish out of water in this ridiculously glamorous setting. One more glass would help with that. She could already feel the first two going to her head. One more and she might even be able to tolerate the Great Harsh Kodela.
“Easy Raash,” Veda said, worriedly, suddenly reappearing beside her. “You know you’re not good with alcohol.”
Satan laughed. “Cheap drunk, are you? Should have known.”
So much for tolerating him. Raashi flushed, temper sparking. “Atleast, I’m only a cheap drunk. You, on the other hand, are just cheap.”
Harsh’s gaze flattened, his mouth going tight. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means,” Raashi sniped, stepping forward to go toe-to-toe with him. “You’re a cheap ass.”
“Listen Viper, no one needs your brand of poison here.” Harsh kept his voice low, his hard gaze on her.
