I wonder if I can pull this off. It seems risky, but I'm willing to take a shot at it. I know that Mason and Sarah are going to be out for the majority of the night, but I don't know if it's going to work. We'll see how everything goes, but honestly, you never know what can happen.

 "Nathan can watch himself. I'm going to spend some time at Rakesh's house until you guys come back." 

Mason pulls on his coat, and looks at me with a slightly unsure look on his face. "I'm just concerned that he's going to blow up the house?" 

"With what? His terrible dance moves?" 

Mason chuckles, while I can feel Nathan roll his eyes on me. "Surprised you haven't burnt the house down with your terrible cooking skills." 

"Says the person who burnt a tortilla." 

Nathan rolls his eyes, and immediately, I know that I got him. I got him cornered with my wit. That feeling washes over me and causes a smile to spread across my face. 

Mason rolls his eyes, and looks back at me. "You going to be okay? Do you want me to drop you at Rakesh's house?" 

I shake my head. "He'll come to pick me up. Give it about 30 or 45 minutes. If he doesn't come, I'll take the other car." 

Mason gives me a smile, as Sarah pulls on a coat as well. She looks absolutely fabulous, with her sleek black hair tied back and a tight eyeliner hugging her eyelids. Mason also looks very classy, with a nice dress shirt and pants on, and his hair actually looking like he put some effort into styling it. 

Mason plants a kiss on my forehead, and jingles the car keys in his hands. "Have fun, Ashmita. Don't do anything funny while I'm gone." 

"No promises." He gives me a slight chuckle, then slips his shoes on. "Have fun!" I call, as Mason and Sarah head down to the garage to have a fun night. I walk back upstairs to put on something decent for going to Arjun's house, because the last thing that I want is to look like an absolute train wreck before going over to Arjun's house. 

I find a blouse that doesn't look like a cat chewed it up, and some long pants so that I don't end up freezing to death. Nathan then walks into my room as I'm taking the clothes out of my closet, and stares at me. His eyes are like little daggers that are sharpening with every second that passes by. 

I gulp a little bit, although I'm not scared, because Nathan really can't do much to kill me or intimidate me. "I can't believe you," Nathan growls under his breath, as I set my outfit out on my bed. 

"What now? I'm in no mood to hear a lecture from you, Nathan." 

Nathan raises an eyebrow at me, and then looks even more disappointed than he initially was. "I don't even know what the hell you are doing." 

"Well, I do. I have to do this. What Mason has told you may not be a hundred percent correct. You saw how he lied to me my entire life on the reasons why my mom raised me basically single. He said that Arjun left my mom when he found out I was pregnant. Because Mason destroyed my parents' marriage. My mom cheated on Arjun with her. You really think you can trust every single thing that can come out of Mason's mouth? I love him, but my trust for him has been destroyed ever since I found out that he's been lying to me all my life." I pull the hair tie out that's holding my hair into a ponytail, and run a comb through it to get out any knots. 

"You think that you can trust anything that comes out of Arjun's mouth? Ashmita, listen to yourself. He's a convicted criminal. You don't know what lies he may feed you." 

"You didn't know what lies Mason could feed you either until you found out my life is built on a foundation of lies. You're basically contradicting yourself, Nathan. I may still be slightly suspicious of Arjun, but that doesn't mean that I ignore every input that he may have on the case. He may have some useful stuff." I retie my hair into a ponytail, and then Nathan lets out a huge sigh. 

"You're getting yourself into some huge shit, Ashmita. If you get hurt in any way because of this, don't come telling me that I was right all along. I'm going to sound awful, but I'll immediately shoot the 'I told you so,' line at you." Nathan huffs out of the room, and makes his way to his bedroom so that he can go play some video games, cry about his acne, or possibly both. 

I throw on the clothes that I've picked out, and then check my appearance to see if I actually look decent and not like I just got run over by a dump truck. 

Surely enough, I look fine, and with that, I grab my purse, throw some of my belongings in there, and wait for a few minutes to ensure that Mason and Sarah are nowhere near the area where Arjun lives. I don't want to walk down the street and have them see me walking down there, looking like I'm about to get some cocaine.

After waiting a little while, I walk out of the house and make my way to Arjun's place. I can feel the cold February air nipping my skin, which makes my teeth chatter. I pull my coat over myself a little bit more to ensure that I don't freeze to death. The night is quiet, which is typical for San Jose, where it's calm and serene at this time of the day. 

I eye some of the people that are out at this moment, whether it be for walking a dog, going for a night time jog, smoking a cigarette, or just enjoying how calm it is tonight. I keep my head held high, and walk without anyone stopping me, because before I know it, I'm going to be in Arjun's cozy apartment, asking him more about the case, eating dinner, and having a blast.

That comes quicker than I expect. I reach the building, and push open the heavy doors to get inside. Immediately, the slightly heated air melts on my skin, flicking off any cold air that was once resting there. I push the elevator button and patiently wait for it to come and transport me. I can almost feel the excitement jumping around in my body, waiting for it to explode and come alive. 

The subtle ding of the elevator signals its presence, and the doors slide open for me to get in. I walk in, press the third floor button, and with that, the doors slide closed. The elevator lifts me up, and within seconds, I'm on the third floor of the building. The doors slide open once again, and I walk out. I hear them close, and with that, it's dead silence. 

Somebody could drop a pin and I could hear it. I'm also sure that someone can hear my beating heart from the end of the hall. I walk down, and find Arjun's apartment. Without wasting another second, I take my fist and knock on the door loudly. 

It doesn't take long for it to swing open, and for me to see Arjun standing right there. Surely enough, his facial hair is just as thick and defined, with his slightly muscled arms standing out. His sunken eyes look at me, with a slight smile shining in them. "Come in," he says, in Gujarati, and with that, I step inside the house. 

Surely enough, the smell of spicy food hits my nostrils, as he closes the door behind me. "I was making some dinner. Did you eat beforehand?" he asks. 

I shake my head. "Nope. Came with an empty stomach." 

Arjun's eyes light up a little bit more, and then he beckons for me to sit down. "My lucky day. I made tons of food. Don't worry, I didn't poison it." 

I chuckle, as Arjun comes to sit down next to me. "Do you want to eat now? I'll eat whenever you want to." 

I shake my head. "No, I'm not starving yet. Thirty minutes?" 

"Sure. Anytime is fine." 

I smile, and then he looks at me with a different kind of look on his face. This one is curiosity, which is almost sewn on his face completely. "How's the case going? Did you get an idea on who may have done it?" 

I nod my head vigorously. "I think it was Cody. My mom's diaries point to him, as well as the autopsy report. I could be wrong, but I have a solid idea." 

Arjun nods, and says, "Yeah, I'm not surprised that he was the one. He's always kinda rubbed me in the wrong way when it came to your mom. It's not jealousy, I swear. Just the way that he looked at her always made both of us uncomfortable." 

I nod, and then bring up another question that I think is important. Although it varies from person to person, I think that asking Arjun would be helpful in a way. "Who do you think had zero chance of committing the murder?" 

Arjun looks at me, a tad bit surprised, as if he didn't expect me to shoot such a question at him. "I'd say me, but I'm sure I look damn suspicious right now. Probably Cole. He's the nicer of the two." 

I nod, thinking that it makes complete sense. He has always seemed like the gentler of the two who is less likely to electrocute mosquitoes with the huge electrical rackets. Arjun then gets up, and says, "Well, enough of that. I think your brain is fried with all that talking of the case. This is gonna sound odd, but do you like dancing?" 

I perk up a little bit, because dancing is the one thing in which I don't look like a complete idiot doing. "Of course I do. I used to dance with Mason all the time in competitions. We won a good amount of them." 

Arjun smiles, and then looks on his phone for a song. "Well, I don't know if you've heard of it, but do you like the song "Senorita" from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara?" 

Immediately, good memories start to pop in my head, because that movie is one of the many non romantic Bollywood movies I don't find to be an absolute cringe fest. It's got fantastic actors, amazing humor, spectacular direction, and everything that I could ever want in a movie. Plus, the songs are pretty good. Senorita is a definite favorite of mine. 

"Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is one of my favorite movies! I can watch it over and over again!" 

Arjun gives me another smile, and then turns up the volume on his phone. I can hear the blend of the different music styles fill the air, as Arjun holds out his hand. "Well, then, may I dance with you?" 

I look at his outstretched hand, and without another doubt, I take it and start to dance with him. Because, who would want to turn down an opportunity to dance?

************

Even after I'm sweating, with my feet feeling like someone ran them over with a dump truck, I feel like I can keep on dancing. It's like a healthy form of cocaine that's caused me to get addicted and feel like I can never stop anytime soon. I know it's time to stop when my stomach sounds like someone locked an angry tiger in there. 

Arjun turns off the music, and stretches a little bit so that he doesn't go to bed with achy, nasty joints. "Alright, because I'm old, I get tired easily. And I also like food. Do you wanna eat?" I nod, because food is now the thing that has jumped onto my mind. Arjun leads his way to the kitchen, which I follow because I want to see what he has to offer.

My curiosity is not left unsatisfied, because I can't help but wolf down every morsel of food that's on the plate. It has the perfect spice, seasoning, and texture for me to demand seconds. Thankfully, Arjun made enough to feed an entire wedding, so there's plenty for me to eat. 

Arjun looks at how much I'm eating, and then his eyes widen. "Slow down. I have cookies in the pantry for dessert. I don't want you to explode." "You underestimate my ability to eat." 

He chuckles a little bit, and then gets up to wash his plate. He then opens the pantry to take out the cookies that he got for me to eat. "I got the good stuff from Safeway and not the stuff that tastes like it's solely palm oil and sugar. Go ahead, take as many as you want. I don't care how much my wallet wants to kill me. I will never go back to Chips Ahoy. It just tastes like chemicals that were stuffed inside stale cookie dough and baked. It's nasty." 

I chuckle, as I take three cookies for me to eat. I can't help but agree with him, because although I grew up on them, they pale in comparison to Safeway cookies. I just chuckle and nod, as Arjun nibbles on a cookie that he took for himself. "Oh yeah, how did Mason and Sarah even let you come here? Did you tell them that you're a friend's house?" 

"Yep. Plus they're at their anniversary dinner so it doesn't make a difference." 

"You little rebel. I like you."

 I chuckle a little bit more, as I continue to eat my cookies.

**********

I probably will collapse of a heart attack because of the amount of food that I had, but I died a happy woman. I feel like the cold air is going to freeze the smile on my face permanently. I can't wait for the next time that I can meet Arjun and have this good of a conversation and time. I jingle the keys in my hands and make sure they're still there, as I enter the house. 

The lights dimly light the house, as I turn the key in the lock. I push the door open, and Mason is sitting on the couch, on his phone, probably looking at the news. "Hey, Mason," I call, as I take my coat off. 

He looks up from his phone, and comes downstairs to greet me. "Hey." 

"Where's Sarah? Is she asleep?" 

"Yeah, the food knocked her right out." I chuckle, as Mason looks at me. This time, his look is a little bit more serious than it usually is, which concerns me slightly. 

"So, how was Rakesh's house? Or should I say, Arjun's house?" 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh shit, Mason knows about what's happening? What do you think is going to happen between Ashmita and Mason? Let me know in the comments. 

Hey everyone! First of all, hope you guys like the song. Second, Arjun's face claim (Abhay Deol) actually acts in the movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara  and is in the song. (he's the dude in the red shirt, and is one of my favorite Bollywood actors.) He actually sang parts of this particular song (the parts that he mouths). 

I hope you guys liked the chapter and the song! 

Please vote/comment/share/follow/message if you like my work! See you all next Sunday with a new chapter of TSOC! Have a great week! 

Love you guys, 

Shree