Spice of Love - Completed

Chapter 3

Was it the pregnancy? Did that make her more sensitive to this kind of need? But that couldn't be quite right, Cat did not crave anyone other than Sadiq.

Sadiq. Sadiq. Sadiq.

She glanced at her desk, where her thesis sat half-done. A thesis meant to impress Professor Aldridge on the maturity of her mind. She had been listening carefully to him these past few days and poring over his past works trying to get inside his head as much as he was trying to get inside hers. That was what this thesis assignment was—a means for him to delve into her mind and find her worthy... or not. She knew he would dissect it, word for word, until he saw all that was her. Something she was dreading terribly at this moment. She was ugly inside, now more than ever. This she knew better than anyone. Catherine Little was not nice. She was not sweet. She was not even kind. All that was Emily. Emily—without even trying. Cat never tried either. She never felt the need to try. Her family loved her unconditionally, just the way she was. The world she knew could go hang if they didn't like her. 'Like'—and getting 'likes'—was not the way she led her life. She didn't socialise, not even on the web.

Cat firmed her jaw stubbornly. And that extended to a certain prince. No matter how hot she found him. There was no way he was knocking her up any more than he already had. Cat reached down to pat her still-flat stomach, knowing that she didn't have much time before she started to show.

Cat sighed. She may not need the prince and the world to like her, but Professor Aldridge simply had to like her. He had to effing love her to give her what she wanted more than anything—to be a doctor. Cat groaned, pulling her hands down her face. It was not as though the thesis was a hard one; 'Why I want to become a doctor' was practically elementary. A question posed to kids since kindergarten and throughout their schooling life on career days. She'd had it posed to her numerous times, even before she decided to actually pursue this career. But the reason why had remained elusive. The true reason. The reason that would make or break her thesis.

"What is happiness?" Professor Aldridge had demanded in one of her sessions with him.

A state of mind.

"Feelings," said Cat instead, keeping her eyes wide and her expression innocent. She knew if she were to stare into a mirror then she would see Emily reflected back at her.

"Some say happiness is love," persisted Aldridge, clearly fishing for something. But what? Did he know she was pregnant? Why was she getting paranoid in thinking everyone knew? She wasn't showing—not yet.

Love is fiction. A series of chemical reactions bent on deluding the mind.

"Of course, it is. Love makes the world go around," said Cat contrarily. Mimicking Emily was easy for her; they were twins, after all. But did it ring true? Cat avoided the Professor's direct gaze uncertainly.

"Chemistry?" prompted Professor Aldridge.

"Everything that is not physics is chemistry. Even organics... especially organics," retorted Cat, automatically.

"I was talking about the bond between a man and a woman," corrected the Professor, lifting his brow in a condescending arch.

A flurry of vivid pictures flooded her mind; not of the porn she sometimes watched for the want of better things to do, but of Sadiq, naked and all wrapped up with her limbs.

"Eh?" Not surprisingly, that was all she could manage on that point. Her voice all choked-up with suppressed emotions of the lustful kind. Had Sadiq bumped into her just then, she would have been on to him like a leech and they would be happily bumping hips not a moment later. Being this obsessed with a one-night fling was terribly unhealthy.