Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Which leads me to conclude what I already knew: he’s alone.
He’s lonely.
Despite having siblings, he’s still the outsider. And then there’s the fact that he believes he’s dangerous, a shitty brother, which I don’t understand.
So I decide that I have a responsibility too.
Despite what he did and what my cause is, I’m going to draw him out of his hard, icy shell. I’ll somehow make it so that he isn’t as lonely. Especially when so many people are around and especially when they’re so nice.
I have to say that all the guys have been very respectful toward me. Maybe because I’m the boss’s daughter or because I’m the captain’s fiancée. Whatever it is, they don’t treat me like a pariah. I’m extremely thankful for that, especially because I was a little afraid they may keep their distance because of all the nasty rumors about me.
Since we’re all traveling together, I’ve managed to form some nice friendships. I particularly like Isiah—he’s hilarious; I also like Christopher; his mom makes the best baklava in the whole world and is very particular about parceling it no matter where he goes. Something that the team’s nutritionist isn’t very happy about. Ledger is cool too even though he more grunts than talks and is always on FaceTime with Tempest and their twins. Not to mention, Riot is one of the good ones as well. Even though he too is always FaceTiming Sophie, his three-year-old daughter, and Meadow.
So when the guys play poker to kill time, I join them and try to have him join us too. Not too blatantly but in subtle ways. Like laughing too hard with them so he takes notice. Or playing the damsel in distress who doesn’t understand a thing about poker and is losing. That is true, though; I don’t. And Shepard is so competitive that when we play teams, he won’t pick me or stop to explain the rules—which is surprising if I do say so myself because in the past when we’ve played games like this, he always made sure to stop and explain the rules to me, much to everyone else’s dismay—but it’s fine. It works to my advantage.
Or it should.
But so far, I’ve had no luck in drawing him out whatsoever. Even when the noise gets super loud, he keeps his head down and continues working.
God, the focus on this man.
The world would be burning down around him, and he wouldn’t let go of that stupid clipboard.
So then I try something different.
It’s my personal mission to introduce Bollywood movies to as many people as I can. Usually, they all watch game replays on this big TV up front or some other sports channels or even the news. But one day, I break the norm and make them watch one of my favorites.
It’s about this guy, a journalist who’s traveling to cover an event for his show. And on the way over, he meets a mysterious girl at a train station and falls in love with her. But turns out that mysterious girl belongs to a group of terrorists who are planning an attack on the capital on Independence Day.
It’s a tragic love story and I love it.
And I’m both happy and surprised to say that most of these macho, athletic men think so too. But since they’re ‘men,’ they show their frustration by cursing at the TV or by booing or throwing tantrums and stalking off. Isiah did that twice but came back both times. Riot kept grumbling, fuck this shit. Ledger simply walked away before the climax, saying, he doesn’t need this shit before the game. And Shepard glared at me several times during the movie. I even caught a few sniffles here and there.
Although throughout all this, he didn’t say a word.
He probably didn’t even look up from his clipboard even when this famous song came on. When the hero, since he’s the hero and since this is a movie, dances on the top of a moving train. From what Biji tells me, this song is one of the most iconic moments of Indian cinema and is so ingrained in the Indian pop culture that people talk about it to this freaking day.
I mean, it sparked a fucking debate among the guys.
It did. I’m not even lying.
They all wanted to chip in and argue if this could be done in real life. And I thought maybe now, now he’d say something. Just to dismiss the whole concept and quote physics and common sense that hey, this is foolish. But he didn’t.
So frustrated and bored because I had no interest in hearing the debate if he wasn’t going to chip in, I threw my hands up and said, “Okay, stop. I don’t care what you guys think. If a guy does that for me, if a guy dances on the top of a train for me, I’m his. For life. I’m giving up my freaking life to be his. End of discussion.”