Against All Odds

by Aarti V Raman

  “I am not. I am discussing it with you right fucking now, aren’t I?”

  “Yeah. After she brought it up yesterday. At an investor pitch, no less.”

  “I am telling you for the last time, Henry. Keep Sophia out of it. Keep her out of it. You’re mad at me. You want to call me desi boy. You want to remind me of how you saved my ass a hundred times, you go right ahead. I deserve it. You saved my ass and I love you like a father.”

  Henry opened his mouth but Bharat cut him off. “I am not done. You did save my ass. All of you.” He looked around the table.

  Three somber men stared back at him.

  “I was wasted, dying, when I met you all. And I will never forget what you did for me. You gave me a roof over my head and time to sort my shit out. Thierron, you have always kept my favorite brand of coffee at your apartment every time I visited. And Henry…”

  He huffed out a breath. “I wish the Mother Superior had found you for me twenty years ago. I am grateful to every single of you and I will sign Caliban over to you guys right now, if that’s what you need in return for having saved my ass,” he finished evenly.

  Thierron’s jaw dropped. “What are you talking about, Bharat? What the fuck?”

  Bharat shrugged. “I mean it. I’ll give you Caliban right now if you want it so badly. But, do not hold the damn company over my head. Someone else did it to me once more. And I ended up a trainwreck. Sophia is…”

  Bharat hesitated. “I don’t know what she is right now. But I would like to find out. And I am not afraid of her brother. But I will be damned if you are going to use my relationship with Sophia as leverage to hold Caliban hostage. I’ll delete every single line of code before I let that happen.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.” Henry looked distinctly ill as he considered the very real possibility of Bharat doing exactly that. This was the problem with men who came from nothing. They weren’t really afraid of going back to nothing. They knew they could build it up again.

  “Watch me.”

  Thierron ran a shaking hand through his five-hundred dollar haircut. “Look,” he said reasonably. “It’s been a stressful week. With the meetings and everything. Why don’t we all take a break and talk about this later in the week? Obviously, we can consider any new direction you want to take the technology in, Bharat. And we aren’t…” He looked hurt now. “We aren’t holding your company hostage, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “It sucks that you think. Sucks hard,” Donald added.

  Bharat stood up. He opened his wallet and threw the last hundred dollars he possessed on the table.

  When he spoke, it was to Henry. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that I am less than one hundred percent invested in Caliban and the company. It’s just…I haven’t ever…I need her. And that’s new for me.”

  Then he shrugged and walked off before he could make a bigger fool of himself with the three people he called family.

  Chapter Twenty

  Sophia was worried when Bharat hadn’t returned from his meeting by six in the evening and his cell was switched off. So she mustered up her courage and dialed reception, asked for Todd Henry. She was given his room number once she admitted she was a guest of Bharat Shrinivasan but informed that he was unavailable at the moment.

  She asked for Thierron Goddard next.

  He was at the gym, so, Sophia went to the posh gym in search of Bharat’s business partner and mentor.

  ~~~~~

  Loud, bass-thumping hip hop was playing on the speakers. Thierron was riding the Nautilus, all buff and ripped like some Greek god in the making. His slate grey eyes gave away nothing as he watched her carefully pick her way through the machines dotted around the room.

  And he tried to assess Sophia Kulashreshtha clearly. To size her potential as an asset.

  She was pretty in her shorts and lacy top outfit, but all women were in their own way. She had great hair and boobs; straight up that was sexy. He could see why Bharat fell for her. Her eyes were vulnerable, while her head was held high. That kind of combination was irresistible.

  Thierron loved his wife Jenna, of ten years, dearly. But, he knew, for the majority of their relationship he’d put himself and the business he was running before his marriage. And she had made it work.

  He wondered if Sophia had that kind of courage and patience. He wondered if she would make Bharat choose between being loved, something he had craved for since he was born into less than ideal circumstances, and his business. Then he wondered if Henry, Donald and he were not doing the same thing to Bharat too.

  The thought did not sit well with him.

  “Hello, Thierron.” Sophia said quietly as she stood in front of the Nautilus.

  “Hey, Sophia. What’s up?” He continued pumping up and down, needing the endorphin rush.

  “How was your meeting? With the VC people. Did you guys get everything you hoped for?”

  Thierron cocked his head. “Did Bharat not tell you?”

  She twisted her hands and looked at her shoes. They were scuffed sneakers. He liked that she wore practical shoes. “I haven’t seen him since he went to meet you all for lunch. And he isn’t answering his phone. I am a little worried about him,” she admitted.

  Thierron snorted. It came out as a kind of grunt because he was also doing resistance training on two hundred pounds of metal. “Then you know exactly how I felt when I tried calling Bharat yesterday night once the meeting was over.”

  She winced. It was a very visible tell.

  “I have known Bharat since he was a whippit. And he had this idea of writing three lines of code that would analyze every single app that existed in the world and help make it better. He’s all about the programming. He’s not had a serious girlfriend… ever. You know that, right?”

  He stopped pumping iron, wiped his sweating face and neck with a handy towel and regarded the woman.

  Sophia’s face closed up. Her eyes shuttered. Oh, she was good!

  “Bharat’s past is none of my concern. I just wanted to know if you knew where he was. I was worried about him.”

  Her pithy retort pleased him. At least she wasn’t a dummy. Or a tech groupie -who worshipped some guy for being the next Zuck or Musk. It was crazy how people managed to fetishize everything.

  Thierron stood up. He towered over Sophia by a good feet and a half and she took an instinctive step back. “No, I haven’t seen Bharat after he left the investor meeting. I guess he is out for a walk and doesn’t want to be disturbed.”

  Sophia bit her lip. “When was the meeting…?” She shook her head, managed another smile. It upped her from pretty to seriously pretty. “Sure. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “It’s alright. Come on. I’ll buy a power smoothie. You’ll feel clearer once you have some wheatgrass in you.”

  “I don’t…”

  “I’ll buy you the smoothie and tell you all about your boyfriend’s non-existent girlfriends.”

  ~~~~~

  She gave a small giggle. “You just told me he never had any serious girlfriends. Ever.” But he told me he was going to marry me.

  Thierron winked. “That didn’t mean he didn’t have any fun. Right?”

  Sophia shook her head. “He is not the man he once was. I know that. You know that.” She hesitated for a second before continuing. “I know you think I have some kind of influence on him, but I don’t. And I am not trying to…change him or anything. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused at your meeting yesterday. I didn’t know what I was saying.”

  Thierron stared at her for the longest time. She somehow managed to hold his gaze without feeling like she was being MRI’d.

  “No,” he said slowly. “You knew exactly what you were saying. You just could have said it better.”

  Sophia huffed out a breath. “Yes, I knew what I was saying. And I could have said it a lot better.” She shook his sweaty, callused paw. “Ok, Mr. Goddard. Buy me the power smoothie and tell me how Caliban is going
to revolutionize the tyre industry as we know it.”

  ~~~~~

  By the time Sophia returned to Bharat’s room an hour later, she was in remarkably good spirits. The wheatgrass had done its trick, as had the company.

  Thierron was funny and self-deprecating and he’d been very informative. Not just about Bharat but about technology in general. And he’d given her a few pointers on how to pursue her own passion, lobbying.

  She’d taught him a basic card-counting trick, where you marked the edge extremely lightly with your thumbnail to know a marked deck.

  The knowledge disparity between them should have bothered her but it didn’t. Nothing did. Because Sophia made up her mind about something.

  She was going to go home once her current Lotus Dragon contract ran out next month, talk to Nakul and figure out some other way of helping him out. No more guilt. No more choosing between family loyalty and what she needed.

  She was also going to tell Bharat that she wasn’t going to move to America and marry him immediately but that it was on the cards.

  First, they would date. Have a relationship like normal people. Learn each other’s quirks and idiosyncrasies and intimate details (was he a fish guy or not?). Move beyond this honeymoon phase. Even if it meant long distance and astronomical video chatting bills.

  She would first find Sophia again. A Sophia who was happy and fulfilled within herself, who was a responsible sister and daughter helping out her family the best way she could.

  She wanted to feel proud for loving Bharat Shrinivasan, a wonderful, talented, extraordinary entrepreneur.

  It was an impressive task list and Sophia couldn’t wait to get started on it.

  ~~~~~

  She whistled, when she slid her key card in and opened the door. The room was in utter darkness. She blinked; the darkness didn’t go away. She blinked again.

  A match struck against a candle wick; it flared to life.

  “Bharat?” she called out cautiously.

  A second candle came to burn.

  Bharat looked up, his face partially illuminated by the candle light. Looking vaguely dangerous with his six o’clock stubble. A pool of heat gathered low in her stomach as awareness rushed through her.

  “Hello,” he said casually. A third candle, a fat votive burst into life. “Did you have a good time with Thierron?”

  There was now enough light to see the single rose on the cloud-like bed. He tapped a button on his special phone and soft music came on – Arijit Singh sang Phir Le Aaya Dil.

  Sophia’s mind went blank.

  “I did,” she said cautiously as she shut the door behind her. “He said you’d gone for a walk after the meeting. Congratulations. You got funded.”

  “Thank you.” Bharat struck a fourth candle to life. “We all got what we wanted on that one. I couldn’t be happier.”

  She felt a little strange walking over to the side of the bed and stashing her ordinary, two dollar sling bag in a drawer on the nightstand.

  “Right. Of course.” She gathered her hair in one hand and tied up with a stray band. She wasn’t sure but she thought his eyes darkened. The thought of it melted her. “Listen, we need to talk.”

  “I agree.” Bharat took the rose and started dismantling it. Petal by petal drifted on the white comforter. On the pillow.

  Sophia couldn’t believe it but it was incredibly arousing. Watching a big man like Bharat handle a delicate flower.

  “Yeah. Cool. So I was thinking we should…”

  “Thinking what?” He was done with the rose so he tossed the stem into the recycling bin halfway across the room. Accurately.

  She sat down on the small chair next to the mini bar. Told herself it wasn’t because her knees were suddenly boneless. “Thinking that this has all happened too fast. It’s like we have managed to squeeze years of stuff into three days.”

  “What stuff?”

  She waved a hand at the room, at the bed. “You know. Stuff,” she finished weakly, knowing how it sounded. A weak excuse.

  “It’s four days, to be perfectly accurate and, I agree actually. We have gone extremely fast with…stuff…than we should have.”

  “Right.”

  Bharat grinned, a quick quirk of his lips that aroused her and made her apprehensive.

  Sophia knew they weren’t talking about the same things. That he was in some sort of mood. And that he wasn’t going to listen to reason. Not with the candles and rose petals and the way he was looking at her.

  Like he would consume her with one gulp.

  God help her, she wanted him to.

  But she tried anyway. “Bharat, about this morning and the thing we were talking about…”

  “I was thinking too, I do that sometimes. Not very often when I am around you and I think of how much I want you, but sometimes I think.”

  Sophia huffed out another surprised breath. “Right.”

  “It was too much. Too fast. Mach speed. Let’s slow down, celebrate this moment.” He’d reached her side before she could think to move. Curved a hand around her waist and lifted her to her toes. “I got funded today. For a lot of money.”

  “I know.” Sophia held on to him as the ground shifted beneath her. And the song wailed on, slow and sultry. Debilitating. “Congratulations.”

  “So let’s celebrate that. I have never…I have never celebrated shit like this before.”

  Because there was no one to celebrate it with.

  At his unspoken admission, her heart melted. “Oh, Bharat,” Sophia sighed.

  “Will you dance with me?”

  ~~~~~

  Bharat took her hand in his, watched her fingers being swallowed inside of his and felt a flare of insane possessiveness. Her other hand gripped his shoulder while his gripped her waist. He brought them flush against each other.

  Felt her heart start to race. Beat by beat by beat. Felt his own slow down till time itself stood still.

  Then he started to move. Shuffling one foot in front of the other. Holding her arrested gaze, so beautiful in the moonlight…ridiculously beautiful.

  “I feel like I should be wearing a ball gown and four inch heels for this. And have perfect hair,” Sophia muttered as she strained to keep up with him.

  “We’ll do that next time,” he promised. “God, you’re pretty. I could look at your forever.”

  “Stop that. I look like a mess.”

  “Sophia.” Her name was the sexiest thing out of his mouth. “You kill me.”

  Bharat took her hand down to where there was evidence of how much he wanted her.

  ~~~~~

  Her heart almost stopped. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. His fingers bit into her hip. And she watched, mesmerized, as his head descended down to hers in slow motion.

  Her lashes fluttered closed and she remembered she was not wearing a speck of makeup. Not even gloss. “Wait…”

  “No,” Bharat breathed against her lips.

  Then he consumed her in his kiss.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sophia had had lovers before. Boyfriends whom she’d thought she was in love with. One was when she’d been eighteen and in first year BMM. He was her senior with a second-hand Honda Civic; He’d initiated her into the joys of sex in the backseat of that Mercedes. He’d not been bad or selfish, but they had been too young and not enough in love to take things to the next level.

  There had been another classmate in her last year. They’d hooked up between assignments and exchanging notes. That sex had been passable, at best.

  He was married to another classmate now; she had seen the Facebook update a few months ago. She had not been invited to the wedding, of course.

  The most serious relationship she’d had, was with Trey Whitman, the TA in her pol-sci class at NYU. He was whip smart, interning at Apple while handling two TA assignments and working in his dad’ business.

  Sophia had really liked Trey. They’d even changed their Facebook status for each other. She’d wanted
to be in love with him very badly. They had even talked about moving in with each other once exams got over.

  Except, she’d never finished her exams and Trey Whitman became collateral damage to what the rest of her life had become. The sex with Trey had been good. Really good. Multiple orgasms good.

  But even Trey had not managed to make her lose her mind in a single kiss. That single point of contact had not been soul-searing. She had never wanted to live inside Trey’s kiss forever.

  Not like she did Bharat’s tonight. She clutched his wrists where they cupped her shoulders. This moment was delicious. Dreamy.

  “I want to ask you something but I am afraid to,” Bharat whispered when he ended the kiss.

  “What?” Sophia wasn’t sure she’d said the word out loud.

  “Do you also blame me for everything that happened? To your father? Your family? Your family?”

  Her eyes snapped open. “What?”

  “I just…the timing sucks and I know this but I went for a walk and thought about everything you said about Nakul and your circumstances…back in Dehli.” He ran a hand through his hair. Still looking dangerous in the candlelight. Actually dangerous, this time. With shadows and secrets in his eyes.

  “And I wanted to,” he swallowed. “I have to know, if you blame me for everything that happened.”

  “Bharat, I…” She couldn’t think and she knew it was vitally important that she do.

  “I could let it go and enjoy this accidental happiness I have found with you,” Bharat spoke quickly. “And I want to. God, I want to. But I don’t want…I don’t think I could bear it if you woke up tomorrow morning and hated me.”

  She could see more than shadows in his eyes. She saw actual fear.

  “I deserve it if you hated me. And I know that,” he ended baldly.

  Sophia felt a stab of familiar, family guilt pierce her. “Why did you ask me now?”

  He closed his eyes then. A gesture of acute pain. “I don’t know; I am a masochist.”

  Sophia sighed. “I don’t hate you, Bharat. I never hated you. And I could only hold you as responsible for what happened as I did my father. You were all grown-ups, not children. I don’t know what to say beyond this, honestly.”