Golden Girl (16 page)

Alone at last, but with the wrong boy
, I thought, as he put on a DVD of
The Office
(another of his favourite English sitcoms). He sat back on the sofa and rolled up what I thought
was a cigarette. As soon as he started smoking, I recognised the smell from the temple steps earlier in the week. Hashish. He inhaled deeply then offered me the joint.

I shook my head.

‘It’s OK,’ said Kunal. ‘I won’t tell.’

‘It’s not that. I don’t smoke dope.’

‘I thought everyone smoked over in English schools.’

I laughed. ‘No way. I mean, yeah, some people do but not me. Thanks.’

‘Have you ever tried it?’

‘No.’

‘Then how do you know it’s not for you?’

‘I . . .’ I wasn’t sure what to say or how to handle the situation. He probably thought I was really uncool for refusing a smoke, but I knew people at school who smoked and
didn’t like how it affected them. We called them dopeheads, because that’s exactly how they acted: dopey. A mate of Charlie’s had had to leave school and go to hospital for six
months for mental health problems after smoking skunk. I wouldn’t be able to tell which was the lighter type of dope and which was skunk so I wasn’t going to risk it. ‘I prefer to
be clear-headed,’ I said, ‘that’s all.’

I’d made up my mind ages ago to be like that, after Josh Tyler had tried to pressurise me into smoking it at one party, making out that I was acting like a scared kid if I didn’t. I
almost gave in because I didn’t want to appear childish. Pia and I had had a long talk about it at the time and decided that actually it was more immature to give in and do something we
didn’t want to just because some people might say we were uncool.

Kunal just shrugged and we continued watching TV for a while. He snuggled over and got cosy, which I didn’t mind. We were just a couple of mates hanging out, weren’t we? A cuddle was
OK. But then he slipped his hand into mine and entwined his fingers with mine. Still OK but I’m not totally stupid. I knew boys rarely did cuddles if they didn’t want more. Kunal
started playing with my fingers, caressing them. It was definitely feeling like he wanted to be more than mates. He moved in, nuzzling my neck and beginning to kiss me.

I wasn’t sure what to do. To give in or push him off. But then I thought,
JJ is probably snogging Shreya up at the Monsoon Palace right now. Yeah. Stuff him
, I thought and I stopped
resisting and kissed Kunal back.

He moved closer, pushed me back into the cushions and moved so that he was half on top of me. He gently traced my profile with his fingers. Actually, it felt nice. I hadn’t had that much
experience with boys and it was interesting how different it felt being with him to being with JJ or Tom. His breathing began to get slightly faster and the hand that was tracing my face began to
move lower. ‘I really like you, Jess,’ he whispered, as he nibbled my ear. His hand began to stray down to my chest. I moved it off. He moved it back. I moved it off. He sat back.
‘Aren’t you into this?’

‘I . . .’ I wasn’t sure how to react. As with the dope smoking, I didn’t want to be pressurised into anything that I didn’t want to do. ‘Yes. And I like you
too, but we’ve just met. Can’t we slow things down a bit?’

Kunal sighed. ‘I guess. Just you’re so hot, Jess, and you’ll be going home soon.’ He snuggled in again. ‘See? I can’t resist you. You’re like a magnet
to me.’

I laughed and he took it as a sign to start kissing me again. I kissed him back and once again, his hand began to stray. This time onto my leg and under my skirt. He was about to start moving it
up my thigh when I pushed him off again. ‘I
mean
it, Kunal.’

He sat up again and sighed heavily. ‘But why not? We’re attracted to each other. What’s wrong?’

I wasn’t going to be argued into going further than I wanted. I felt confused and hot, and not hot in the way that Kunal meant. I was supposed to be with JJ on this trip, not with some
strange boy I’d only just met, no matter how handsome or charming he was. Suddenly I had a great idea.

‘Hey, I know what we can do.’

‘What?’

‘You like massage?’

Kunal nodded. ‘Yeah.’

‘I can do aruyvedic.’

Kunal raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’

‘Yes. Take your shirt off, lie on the floor and I’ll massage you.’

‘Don’t we need oil?’

‘If you have some,’ I said.

Kunal quickly fetched some oil from the bathroom and a pile of fluffy towels which he laid out on the rug. I kept my face straight because I knew he thought he was in for a sensual, lovely time.
He whipped his clothes off down to his boxers and lay face-down on the towels.

‘This is a great idea, Jess,’ he said as I dripped oil onto him then started gently massaging his shoulders. ‘Ooo,’ he groaned softly. ‘Hey, you’re good at
this. Keep going, a bit lower.’

I began slapping, lightly at first, then stronger.

‘Hey! Ow!’ Kunal cried. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

‘Ayurvedic. It’s good for the blood,’ I said. ‘Now relax, relax, you’re very tense.’

‘Are you sure it’s meant to hurt?’ asked Kunal.

‘Absolutely. I had a treatment myself this morning. Good for the circulation.’ I had to stop myself laughing out loud. If nothing else, it had cooled his ardour. I continued with the
slapping when suddenly he pushed himself up onto his elbows. ‘Um. Maybe massage isn’t your thing after all, Jess. Can’t you go back to the nice, gentle part, like when you
started?’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Lie back down. I’ll try another method.’ I remembered Mum having a shiatsu massage once and the therapist had used her elbows to give a good strong
pressure. I knelt beside Kunal and stuck my elbow into his shoulder and leaned in on it.

‘Ye-OW!’ said Kunal. ‘That
really
hurt.’

I shook my head. ‘
So
much tension there, that’s why you have to breathe into it.’

Kunal sat up and pulled one of the towels around him. ‘I think I’ll leave it for now, thanks,’ he said, as the door opened and Pia, Alisha and Prasad came back in. They looked
surprised to see Kunal half dressed on the floor.

‘What’s been going on here?’ asked Alisha.

‘Massage, aruyvedic style, and a bit of shiatsu,’ I said. ‘Sadly Kunal doesn’t like it.’

Pia cracked up. She knew exactly what I’d been up to because I’d told her all about my massage from hell earlier.

‘JJ texted that he’s coming over to join us,’ said Alisha. ‘He’ll be here in a sec.’

‘Just JJ?’ I asked.

Alisha glanced at Pia and gave her a sly smile. There was something going on. ‘No,’ she said. ‘He has someone with him.’

A knock alerted us to the arrival of JJ. He came in and looked startled to see Kunal just in his boxers and me kneeling next to him. Shreya came tripping in beside him. I turned towards Kunal
and pretended to laugh at something he’d said, like it was the funniest thing ever. I glanced back at JJ. Hah. That showed him. He looked well annoyed.

‘Just a moment,’ said JJ. ‘I need to speak to Jess.’ He beckoned me outside so I got up and followed him out onto the veranda. ‘I’ve been texting you all day.
You didn’t reply. And what’s been going on back there?’ He indicated the bungalow.

‘Oh, we were just hanging out with the boys,’ I said. I wasn’t sure what to say. I felt confused, and now that I was face to face with JJ, my game plan of using Kunal to make
him feel jealous felt wrong. I made myself remember that he had been off somewhere with Shreya.

‘I left my phone at the hotel, but I got your messages earlier. You wanted to talk about Shreya? Someone said you’d been up to some palace in the mountains with her.’

Now it was JJ’s turn to be confused. ‘Mountains? What mountains?’

‘Kunal said he thought you’d gone to the Monsoon Palace with her.’

A flash of irritation crossed JJ’s face. ‘He did, did he? Well, I can tell you I wasn’t up a mountain with Shreya.’

‘So where were you?’

‘I was . . . Hey, Jess, what’s going on here? Did anything happen with you and Kunal in there? And are you OK after the other night?’

‘I . . . I’ve never been better,’ I said, and glanced back in the direction of the room where the others were. ‘Kunal’s been . . . er, very kind to me.’

JJ’s expression had turned to stone. ‘I
bet
he has,’ he said. ‘Jess, I really think we need to talk.’

I knew what that meant. Everyone does. After the ‘We need to talk’ line comes the ‘Can we still be friends?’ line. Basically meaning, it’s over. I was finding it
hard to think straight. My whole plan had backfired. So not how I’d imagined it would be with him. ‘About Shreya. Listen, JJ, it’s fine. I mean it wasn’t but . . . I did
some thinking and I don’t own you. And it’s not like we’ve been going out for ages, so fine. You go ahead with her. I . . . I’m cool.’

He reached out and grasped my hand. ‘Go ahead with Shreya? No! What are you talking about?’

Oh God, I have got this so totally wrong
, I thought as I looked into his face. He looked as upset as I felt.

‘Last night, I . . . I heard you say on your phone that things weren’t working out and you wanted me off your hands, though I wish you’d told me yourself—’

‘Off my hands?’ He looked confused, then his expression changed, as though he’d suddenly realised something. ‘No! Not
you
. God. I would have explained everything
if you hadn’t thrown up, then Mum wouldn’t let me in to see you and you haven’t been answering my texts. Listen—’

Shreya opened the door behind us. ‘Come on, JJ. Alexei wanted us to order food for him.’

‘Alexei?’

‘Hey, Jess,’ said a familiar voice.

It can’t be
, I thought, as I turned around but there he was coming through the gardens towards us.

‘No way!’ I said and went over to give him a hug. ‘What are you
doing
here?’

Alexei flashed a look at JJ. ‘Man on a mission. JJ called, begging me to rescue him. Hasn’t he told you?’

‘Rescue him?’

‘I’ve been trying—’ JJ started.

‘Said he couldn’t get any time with you so needed me to take a certain somebody off his hands.’

I glanced at JJ. ‘Shreya?’

JJ nodded. ‘
That’s
what I meant by it wasn’t working with you. Not that it wasn’t
working
working – but that we could never get any time alone. Shreya
did this whole number on my dad saying how lonely she was and how she needed friends and that she could really relate to me. Dad said that I had to keep Shreya sweet and keep her company, which
meant you and I could never hang out. Also Dad didn’t want Shreya disappearing off to Goa in case there had to be any reshoots on the movie. I’d been getting all these texts from Alexei
about how bored he was in Paris and how he was ready to fly over if he was welcome, so it gave me an idea – and it seems to be working. Shreya came with me to the airport, took one look at
Alexei and—’

Alexei bowed. ‘Happy to help out,’ he said with a grin. ‘But I’m starving. Let’s eat!’

Oh my God
, I thought as the penny dropped.
Oh my God. I have been so stupid. And I let Kunal kiss me and I kissed him back. What if JJ finds out? It’s me who hasn’t been
trustworthy, not JJ
.

‘JJ, I’ve been such an idiot,’ I said. ‘I . . .’ I glanced in the direction of the bungalow.

‘Vot’s going on?’ asked Alexei.

‘Misunderstanding,’ I said. ‘Big misunderstanding.’ I turned to JJ. ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t trust you.’ He still had hold of my hand. I squeezed
it. ‘Really sorry. I thought you wanted to be with Shreya.’

JJ laughed. ‘No way. Hence our man here. He’s been longing to join us and now here he is.’

Alexei rubbed his stomach. ‘Hey. Didn’t someone say something about food?’

JJ pointed at the door. ‘In there,’ he said and Alexei headed in to join the others.

I started to laugh.

‘What’s so funny?’ asked JJ.

‘Alexei,’ I said. ‘I prayed for a fairy godbrother and he turned up after all.’

‘So, are we OK?’ asked JJ.

I nodded. ‘Er . . . about Kunal . . .’

‘You like him?’

‘No
way
. It’s you I want to be with. And what about Shreya?’

JJ laughed. ‘A drama queen and a control freak. I don’t think so. She is
so
not my type. It’s
you
I want to be with.’

I still felt guilty about having kissed Kunal and wondered whether to tell JJ. I so didn’t want to blow it with him and was torn between being totally honest and a fear that if he knew
about the kiss, he’d dump me. ‘I . . . I . . .’

‘We want to be with each other and no-one’s going to get in the way,’ said JJ, as if picking up on my thoughts. ‘So, let’s forget about Shreya and Kunal. Enough
said about them. Deal?’

‘Deal,’ I agreed, heaving an inward sigh of relief.

Our remaining days were a blur of temples, palaces and beautiful hotels where we stopped for lunch or tea. JJ’s plan worked like a dream. Shreya totally fell for Alexei
and when they weren’t out with us, they were off on their own somewhere comparing watches or the designer clothes and gadgets that they were both so into. It was a match made in heaven. At
last JJ was free and his dad was happy that Shreya had company. The only trouble was that, as the week went on, and Alisha and Prasad got more loved up, and Alexei went off with Shreya, it became
more and more evident that Pia was the only one not in a couple.