The Hero Next Time: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 4)

Chapter Thirty: Sunny, Summer, 1993

"Did you hear me?" Tej said, a little annoyed.

"Sorry, yes, I did. I was a little distracted."

"Your full attention should be on me, Mister."

"You're absolutely right. It's just that Jordan's here."

Tej looked where he was looking, and said, "Fuck. I hope he's not here to make a scene."

"I wonder what Bishan's told him. 'Sorry, I can't take you to my brother's wedding because my parents still don't know about you and would kill me if they found out?' Or, 'Sorry, I can't take you to my brother's wedding because I'm taking my future husband?'"

"It can't be your problem today."

"I know. It's just that I made a promise to protect her--"

"You were five when you made that promise," Tej interrupted.

"And I can't help thinking that I should have done more to protect her from herself."

Tej grunted in disgust. "Don't you go chauvinistic on me, Sunny. She's a grown woman and free to make her own mistakes. Men date more than one woman all the time and no one punishes them."

"I'm just worried that she's juggling too many pins, you know? One of them is going to drop eventually, or she might fumble the whole works and get hurt by falling pins."

Tej nodded thoughtfully. "She's going to have to make a choice soon, and the longer she takes, the less likely that choice will be Jordan."

"Right. Balwinder has more of an in. What can Jordan offer her that Balwinder can't?"

Tej shrugged. "Great sex?"

Sunny felt himself go hard at Tej's frank admission that sex could be important enough to hold on to somebody past the point of safety. "Did Sean offer that to you before I met you?"

She barked a laugh. "Please. He was a boy. You, my love, give me more than he ever did."

"So, he's not lurking in the shadows somewhere?"

She gasped in incredulity and shoved him. It wasn't playful, and he would have fallen over if he didn't brace himself on the floor. "Don't even joke about that!" she whisper-shouted so no one would hear her. "You remember why I dumped him. Love means acceptance of the whole person; he couldn't love me enough to respect my identity."

"Would you have stayed with him," he asked, "if Air India didn't happen?"

She actually thought about it a moment. "I don't know," she admitted. "If Air India didn't happen, you wouldn't have shorn yourself, and if you hadn't shorn yourself, I might never have noticed you."

"Me?" he said in amazement. "Are you saying I pulled you away from him?"

"Don't get a big head about it, buddy. It was both of those things. I had to notice you, and he had to be a prick about the terrorist thing. If you can't be confident enough to bring your date to your family, there's no point continuing a relationship."

"So, by your logic, Bishan should cut it off with Jordan."

Tej looked to where Jordan was, and then to Bishan sitting with the two families. "I suppose that's true."

"I sense a but."

Tej shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I've become too influenced by western pop culture. Bishan found Jordan on her own. The two fell in love with each other. Balwinder was arranged, and even though Bishan seems to have warmed to him, there isn't that same heat, you know?"

"Plus, Jordan has those eyes."

Tej huffed in annoyance. "If that's all Bishan cares about, then she's not as smart as I think she is. She is smart, you know. Maybe not smart in love, but book smart."