Rishi frowned slightly; his pencil stopped moving. He looked up at her with those honey eyes. "What are you asking? Why would I want to go out with you if it doesn't involve marriage as the end result?"
Dimple was grateful for the misty darkness. "Yeah," she said quietly. "I thought that was the whole point for you. Marriage, following your parents' wishes, all of that. And if it is, then I'm definitely not the girl who's going to get you there."
Rishi set his notebook and pencil off to the side. He looked up at the stars, thinking, and Dimple felt her heart banging in her chest, afraid of what he was going to say. But also just wanting him to say it, to just rip the Band-Aid off. The scent of eucalyptus wafted at them in soft swaths. "I'm not going to lie. Culture and tradition are important to me." He looked at her, his eyes shadowed. "Very important. It's how I was raised, you know? It's an incredible responsibility, being the first child . . . the first son. Especially since Ashish is so . . . Anyway. The point is, I don't think he'd really respect Ma and Pappa's wishes the way I will. The way I want to. So, yeah. Getting married is important to me. Giving my parents grandkids someday is important. Taking care of them in their old age, ditto." Then, in one fluid motion, Rishi lay down on his belly so his face was near hers. He crossed his hands and put his chin on top of the backs of them. Their faces were no more than an inch apart. Dimple couldn't breathe. He looked straight into her eyes as he spoke. "But you're showing me that other things are important too. The point of dating you, Dimple Shah, is to get to know you. To spend time with you. To see the way you push your glasses up on your nose when you're especially moved by whatever you're saying. To smell your amazing shampoo. To feel your heart beating against mine. To see you smile. To kiss you." He leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips. When she opened her eyes, he was smiling. "So maybe all that other stuff that's important to me can take a backseat for now. And maybe I'm totally fine with that . . . if you are?"
Dimple's heart slowed down. She felt every muscle relaxing. "I am. I'm very fine with that." She leaned in and kissed him again, tasting his lips, smiling when she heard the way his breath caught when their tongues met.
When they pulled apart, Rishi grinned and sat back up, picking up his notebook and pencil again. He began sketching. "So. Now that we've put that issue to rest, tell me the truth. What'd you think of me when you first saw me?"
"At the wedding? Or at Starbucks, when you randomly accosted me?" Dimple raised an eyebrow.
Rishi laughed. "Both. Start with the wedding."
"At the wedding I thought you were cool. Like, how you sat there, just ripping up magazines that didn't even belong to you. That would never even have occurred to me. At first I thought you were just some destructive, crazy boy , but then you began to make those flowers, and I was totally impressed. I was doubly impressed when my mamma's voice didn't make you flinch."
Rishi smiled, looking up at her quickly before looking back down again. "Want to know what I thought?"
Dimple leaned forward. "Yes."
"I thought you were the loveliest bookworm I'd ever seen in my life."
She laughed and threw a blade of grass at him. "Oh please. You thought nothing of the kind."
"I did too!" he said, indignant. "Why else do you think I gave you my best flower?"
Dimple didn't know whether to believe him or not, but she flushed with pleasure anyway. "So, now tell me what you thought of me at the Starbucks. You know, right before I flung my coffee at you."
CHAPTER 36
Rishi smiled wryly at her before looking back down at his drawing. "I thought you looked peaceful. You were sitting on the edge of that fountain, your face turned up to the sun. You looked like a flower, with that angelic halo of curls around you. Of course, I quickly realized how mistaken I was."
Dimple reached over and slapped his knee, but she was laughing too. "Shut up. You totally creeped me out with that whole future wife line! You should be glad I didn't have pepper spray or throwing stars on me." It was incredible, she thought, that they were laughing about this now. When it first happened, she'd been so sure that Rishi and she would have absolutely nothing to do with each other. But that was Rishi . . . he was like a pop song you thought you couldn't stand, but found yourself humming in the shower anyway.
"Noted," he said, sketching away. "In my defense, I thought you were here because you knew about our parents' nefarious plan too."