"Shall I stay?

Would it be a sin

If I can't help falling in love with you?

Take my hand,

Take my whole life, too

For I can't help falling in love with you."

Can't help falling in love, Elvis Presley

Arundhati's POV

My stomach was rumbling, and I was bloody sure Neil was hungry as hell too, but like the utter gentleman he was, he hadn't even mentioned it.

I wish he had. I could've used some food a few hours back.

He seemed exhausted to me as he hauled up his overnighter and started to follow me up. We were barely up the front stairs when his phone rang. I saw him grimace as he stared at the caller-id. My curiosity was short-lived, as it turned out to be Shantanu.

"Yeah what!" Neil answered dourly.

I sighed. Of course, now that Neil had told me exactly why he had a problem with his brother, I understood completely, but still...Shantanu had tried, hadn't he? Short of selling out his friend, he had done all he could have.

Maybe someday, I could drill it into Neil's head to forgive his brother.

"But why?" Neil sounded confused. He stopped walking up, indicating he wanted to finish talking. I huffed,  and set down my small bag.

"You got room?" he asked now, eyes averted away from me so I couldn't even use hand signals to ask what was going on.

"Yeah that's good to me" he nodded once, and grunted an affirmative a couple of times before cutting the call.

"Everything okay?" I asked tentatively.

"Yeah...Tanu's still in New York" Neil swallowed, "Same hotel room and everything... His editor gave him some work for the office here, so he never left..."

"I see..." I didn't. I really didn't see where this was heading.

"So...let me walk you in? He told me he's got space for me..." he sounded nervous. I balked. Neil Sachdev sounded nervous to me.

"I thought you were crashing here before you left" I said quietly.

"I...I...uh..." he faltered.

Tentatively,  I reached out for his hand. His eyes followed the movement of my hand, but I felt a surge of confidence shoot through me. I clasped my hand around his wrist and pulled.

"Stay" was all I said.

His eyes shot up to me, and along with nervousness, I saw something I couldn't understand for a moment. Then I did. Conflict. A shot of anger zipped through me. He had given me an indignant lecture on why I should stay with him when I finally did shift to LA, and here he was, conflicted at the idea of crashing at my place for a couple of days before he rushed back to LA.

"Stay with me" I repeated,  my voice calmer than I felt.

He mulled over it a second before he nodded an affirmative.

"I'll stay" he managed a smile.

**

I think those two days taught us a lot of things about each other. The first being that he was one hell of a committed fellow, practically married to his work, but he loved being jobless. When we returned early from Boston, I thought that he would rush to LA for that paternity test, and then to work. It ran through my mind till I was literally sick from overthinking.

He didn't,  though. He had gotten his five days off from work, and he swore he would enjoy it.

"Lenny doesn't like it when I'm missing" he chuckled darkly one night when I brought it up, "The genius is missing, who's gonna do his work?"

"I thought you liked your work" I quipped.

"I do" he said simply, sticking his fork into the spaghetti in front of him, "But vacations are rare, and I enjoy my time off, like every other man."

The second thing was that no matter how many unexpected things were thrown at him, he could always keep up the facade that he had known it was coming. In fact, he was so good at keeping up a straight face, in taking things in his stride, that he had me stunned.

When we walked up to my apartment that morning, the door was opened by Kyle, the very boyfriend because of whom this entire saga had started. I stared, shocked out of my life,  and Neil smoothly introduced himself and walked right in.

While I squawked in shock, looked out for Penny and had a talk on what exactly the jerk was doing in our house, Neil and Kyle struck up a strong friendship. By the time we both came out,  having finished our talk, they were spread out on a couple of couches, nursing beers and discussing West Virginia Primaries.

The third was probably that he was practically a mind-reader at times, and a dumb dodo in the others.  That evening, after we got my wound redressed and came back, I was so exhausted that I could've collapsed, but I didn't complain. It was just me and him, Penny and Kyle having migrated to the latter's house till Neil left.

I crashed on the couch on reaching, tired beyond belief. I did get up within ten minutes to make us something to eat, but found Neil in the kitchen when I did go there.

"Out!" he physically threw me out, banishing me back to the couch. No amount of remonstration or begging gained me admittance.

Ten minutes more, and he started setting the table. Didn't let me help in that either. Five more minutes and a large serving bowl of mac and cheese made it to the table, along with a small bottle of coke and two glasses.

He must've seen my amused grin, because I saw heat creep up on his face and he smiled shyly.

"Eat up" he commanded, trying to gain back his dominant tone.

"Yes sir!" I laughed, digging in.

The food was awesome. Frankly, at that point, anything hot would've been welcome, but the fact that he managed to put up something this nice warmed me up inside.

He finished before me, and ran me a bath without telling me. Imagine my joy at walking into the bathroom for a wash-up and seeing a wonderful, hot bath drawn up!

After my wonderful bath, he sat at the foot of my bed, slowly massaging my feet that had swollen up during our long ride and walking around the hospital. I knew I went to sleep that night with a stupid, satiated smile on my face.

The very next day, Saturday morning saw me wake up at the ungodly hour of eight am, because Neil burst in with his version of a breakfast tray - tea, toast and an apple.

I glowered. He didn't understand the please-get-lost-or-ill-kill-you look.

"I thought I'll start you off to a good day with some breakfast in bed" he said cheerfully.

"It's eight" I grated, "I sleep on weekends till ten, and breakfast at 11."

"Early breakfast is good!" he spoke, but his face fell.

I guess I could've accomodated him for one morning,  especially when he was being such a dear, but there's something about cheerfulness and morning that doesn't go together in my book.

It was my turn to commandeer him.

"Out!" I sighed,  sinking back into the bed. Within a second I was dead to the world, because I didn't hear him leave.

The next thing I learned about him was that he would be a great father. He was careful, he was sensitive, but above all, he had unreserved amounts of patience. It killed me to admit it, and it ate me up inside as I imagined what it would be like if Stacie actually was pregnant with his child, but I couldn't not see Neil as a dad. Sometime...someday...but it would be a crime if he was never a father-figure in someone's life.

Watching him put up a light lunch for us on Sunday (he refused to let me into the kitchen), I caught myself wondering on how exactly did I land a jackpot such as him. He was wonderful, truly. I had never imagined there was someone as perfect as Neil was to me.

I didn't even know if I deserved him. That brought up another line of thought. He was so good to me, but what had I done in return? I had dragged him to my ex's place, was indirectly responsible for that fading bruise on his jaw, and had made him drive back to New York the very next day.

The only nice thing that I had probably done for him was to hand him a couple of aspirins all those days back.

"I can hear you think" my head flew up at his soft words; I almost thought that I had dreamed them up, but the crinkle of amusement around his eyes spoke otherwise.

"That would be creepy" I said flippantly, ignoring the sudden dance my heart was attempting to perform.

"You're wondering how I can cook so well" his eyes held mirth, but he was so way off-track that I burst out laughing instead. His face fell, and then he joined me in laughing at himself. Another thing I was starting to know about him - he didn't mind self-deprecatory humor.

"No, I'm wondering how you can read my mind so well" I sniggered.

"Oh, it's fated, my love, it is but fated!" he sighed melodramatically, looking so lovelorn that my stomach hurt from all the laughing.

I got up from the dining table and walked into the kitchen island, and this time, he didn't stop me. In fact, he watched, amused, as I slipped my arms around his waist and hugged him from the back as he continued to stir up a delicious concoction in the pot. He was much taller than me, so my forehead came to rest somewhere near the indentation of his back, where his neck met his shoulders. I thought I felt him shiver.

"I almost don't want to leave" I heard him whisper.

If Cupid was out there with his arrows of love, I wanted to tell him to stop, because my poor, raggedy heart couldn't take much of this sappy, happy, warm feeling before succumbing headlong to it. What Neil and I had was still a very gray situation to me.

"Ah, but sire!" I made light of the tension, "You have to earn your keep, husband! How else will you support a family, my good sir?"

I thought I felt his stirring arm still for just a moment before he continued with it. The silence made me want to whip myself for my stupidity. Husband, I called him, husband?

"Well, my woman has a job" he spoke finally, and I could sense the amusement in it, thank the lord, "This husband doesn't need to earn his keep."

"Tsk, tsk, making a woman work?" I tried to sound scandalized, though I wanted to laugh in relief from being saved from the gaffe.

"I wouldn't have my woman any other way" he was smiling now, "She's too proud to sit at home and watch her husband earn her keep."

"That she is" the warm feeling was back and it was sousing my heart soppy.

**

It was as if two days were over in a blink, and it was time for Neil to finally go back to LA. I almost didn't want to let him go, while a small part of me wanted to throw him far, far away from me, because he was doing funny things to my heart. I would've never thought that someone could get under my skin like this in just two days. I often caught myself wondering how we would have been if we had met each other years back.

If we hadn't had the past we both had, would we have appreciated each other as much?

We slept on the same bed, albeit with pillows in between. We hugged when required, but I noticed that he was never very into kissing. Never initiated it, and was mostly stunned when I did. I brushed it away – early days. Oh, we were friends, no problem. My only worry was that I didn't want to get friend-zoned by my fiancé.

Imagine the horror of that.

Monday morning came, and we dragged ourselves out of bed with reluctance. We had been up till 3 am talking, and after that, waking up at seven to catch the ten am flight was sheer torture.

"Shantanu is flying back with me" he informed as he rushed to the washroom first, hunting for his toothbrush.

"Oh!" I had forgotten all about his brother, and felt a deep blush take hold of my face as I realized that his brother probably knew that Neil was right here, across the town, shacking up with his fiancé of a week. "We...should've...I mean...I should've called him over for dinner or something..."

He turned, toothbrush in his mouth, and toothpaste foam threatening to drool down one side, but glaring like I was the one who had finally lost my mind.

"Imgwadyudint" he growled.

I managed to stare back with a straight face at the comic figure he was being. He probably understood, shook his head and carried on.

"I'm glad you didn't" he clarified when he finished, "He would've tried to chat you up, and I would've been third-wheeling five minutes into dinner."

He scowled as I howled with laughter, but didn't say anything else.

He had come to drop me to the airport in LA when I was returning, so of course I went to drop him to the airport. He begged me not to, probably not wanting me to meet Shantanu, but when was I one to listen to anyone?

Shantanu met us with the customary yell of "BHABHIIIIIIII", at which Neil glared at him, and I chuckled.

"I know what you were doing..." he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, earning him a thwack on the back of his head by Neil. Neil was red in the face, and I was sure, so was I.

"And who were you doing this time?" Neil narrowed his eyes at Shantanu.

Shantanu choked on the coffee he was trying to drink, while I sniggered again.

"We should go" Neil bit out gruffly, trying to drag Shantanu away by the scruff of his neck, while the younger one loudly protested.

"I want to talk to my gorgeous bhabhiiiiii" he whined, "By the way, Bhabhi, the smaller bandage looks good on you too!"

"Why must you do that!?" Neil's expression was pained.

Shantanu opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by the announcement of their boarding call. Neil huffed and picked up his bag, when I saw Shantanu glare at him once, making him stop. He considered the glare for a moment, and put down his bag and turned to me.

"It..was...wonderful...being here" he spoke stiltedly, reaching for my palm. I could see him eyeing off his brother, who was lapping up the scene like a man stranded in a desert would lap up water.

I grinned. If Shantanu wanted a show, he would get one, and his prudish brother didn't have much of a say in it.

"I'm glad you came" I smiled sweetly, snaking my arms around Neil's neck, and savoring the stunned expression on his face, "I loved having you here." I reached up and pressed my lips to his firmly. For a moment, I thought he wasn't going to respond – well, he never did – but then, his arms snaked around my waist as he pulled me closer, and kissed as if his life depended on it. My eyes probably flew open at this point, for it was I who was stunned now.

Neil was breathing hard when he broke away a few seconds later. I knew I was blushing, but one look at Shantanu and I knew that I could never match the perfect tomato shade on his face. It was he who was stunned, staring open-mouthed at his brother.

"I'll call you" Neil whispered in my ear, "the test and all that..."

"Yes..." I murmured, too shaken to say anything else.

Neil pressed a chaste kiss on the side of my head and picked up his bag again, a wide grin on his face.

"Come on, boy" he waved his hand in front of Shantanu's face to gain his attention, "We have a flight to catch, kid."

"Oh God..." I heard Shantanu whisper as he followed Neil without protest, "Oh my godddddd, Neil bhaiyya?!"

**

As if in a trance, I made my way back to my Porsche in the parking lot. My lips were still tingling when I made it back to my apartment, numb and shaken.

Was this finally getting on the right track? After my frigid relationship with Michael, was I getting my first taste of passion?

Who would've known that nerdy, gorgeously-bespectacled Neil Sachdev had it in him to kiss me back like that?

With a small smile playing on lips, I opened the door of apartment, only to realise that it was already unlocked. All thoughts of Neil and our moment flew right out of the window, and it was replaced my fear. With slow movement, I turned the knob and opened the door, and met with...nothing.

My house was exactly as I had left it before. I exhaled in relief; maybe I had forgotten to lock it in our rush. I knew I never did it; it was very odd...but then, we had been in tremendous hurry. Laughing a bit at myself at my inbred paranoia, I walked in and shut the door behind me securely.

I was just placing my handbag on the mantelpiece in the living room, when I thought I saw a shadow flit by. Scared, I whipped around, to see...nothing. I shut my eyes, pissed at myself now.

What the hell was wrong with me? Why was I getting so scared at being alone? And that too in broad daylight?

I had barely turned back to the mantelpiece when an arm slipped around my waist and jerked me back against a hard body. I opened my mouth to scream, and immediately, a hand slammed it shut for me.

"Has nobody fucking taught you to say goodbye?" a voice whispered.

**

Hello, long update!

As I was reading through my own previous chapters, I came to the conclusion that I really needed to get this show on the road!

If you liked it, please vote:) If you like the story, please do share it with your friends! and comment, comment, comment, because I loooove reading them and laughing along with you all!

Till the next one, I rest,

Ellanie:)