He looked to Rachel, who grinned at the dances and clapped to the beat. She was in no hurry to join in once the floor was opened to all guests, however.
Zack would have to change that.
She only put up the smallest fight before he swept her up into his arms and twirled her like a princess in the middle of the dancefloor. Her laughter overcame the blaring Bollywood music that occasionally blended in and out with the hottest Western tunes, including a powerful Shania Twain ballad that Zack hadn’t heard in years. He was so used to weddings featuring live jazz bands and lounge singers flown in from LA that he had forgotten how fun a wedding could be with a great DJ and a floor big enough for dancing.
“I didn’t know you could dance!” Rachel shouted over the music.
“I can’t! Honestly!” He only stopped dancing with Rachel when she claimed she was getting too dizzy to stand. Even after she stepped off the floor to get some punch and water, Zack continued to dance, swayed by the music.
A certain woman caught his eye. He didn’t hesitate asking Sita’s great-aunt to dance to Charli XCX.
***
Rachel only had so much dancing in her. Her weak ankles begged her to take a break before she pushed them to the point of no return, so she excused herself from Zack’s sweaty embrace and decided to refuel and catch up with some of the guests she knew.
She was not prepared to hear a group of aunties scream and point at what a stranger did on the dancefloor.
“Can you believe it?” one woman yelled in Hindi. “He got Dita to dance!”
It was no secret that Zack had a million admirers that night. But what the young single women lacked in confidence, their aunts and grandmas made up for in unabashed flirting. It was a good thing great-aunt Dita was a widow and her family didn’t follow the more rigid customs of how a widow should behave. Because that was some serious dancing she and Zack were up to while everyone clapped around them.
Parvati, in her neon orange saree and bouncing gold jewelry, nearly mowed Rachel over in excitement. “Holy shit!” she cried, ignoring the disproving looks in her direction. “I can’t believe he actually came! And look at that! Girl, you’re gonna have to beat off every North Indian auntie in New England to get close to him again!”
Rachel laughed. “He’s too charming for his own good!”
“I’ll say! My aunt didn’t even hesitate! She’s probably thinking this is gonna be the last great dance of her life!”
Great-aunt Dita had such a fantastic I dare y’all to stop this face that no one dared to separate her from Zack’s gyrating body. As soon as the music died down and suddenly boomed a hot bhangra number, two more aunties ran forward and insisted on sharing Zack for the next three minutes.
“Good thing I’m danced out. Did you try the curry yet? It’s delish.”
Parvati let out an exasperated sigh. “Girl, you brought the hottest date to my sister’s wedding! You…”
One of the aunties whispered something into Zack’s ear. He bent back up from her short stature and pointed Rachel out. Both aunties nodded in approval before going back to dancing with him.
“Uh oh.”
Rachel knew what that meant. She didn’t need Parvati to tell her.
Sure enough, a flood of aunties rolled by Rachel and Parvati, coyly suggesting that not only was Parvati the next to get married, but that Rachel might beat her to it. This was all said with knowing winks and elbow jabs to the side.
“I can’t decide if I’m happy that you’re taking the attention off me,” Parvati began once they were alone again, “or if I’m jealous that you get a guy like Zack. For a while there, I thought Sita was going to dump her fiancé and go after Zack!”
Rachel scoffed. “I don’t have a guy like Zack. It’s not like that. You know it.”
“Girl, you’re boning him on the regular.”
“We’re not having intercourse. That’s different.”
Parvati clenched her fists in disbelief. “On what planet? If you’re getting off together and touching each other’s junk, it’s sex! Hate to break it to ya.”
Rachel didn’t respond to that. She was too busy gazing at Zack and the way he danced with Parvati’s young cousin who was barely out of high school. She was so giddy with excitement that she kept tripping over his feet and apologizing for being a klutz. The ever-gracious Zack brushed her off with one of his most charming smiles. They ended their dance with a hug and the cousin prancing off before her mother could chastise her for dancing like that with a grown man.
“If you don’t lay claim to him, half of Little Mumbai is going to start praying that he marries one of their daughters by the end of the year.”
“I thought ‘Little Mumbai’ was obsessed with inter-Indian marriages only?”
“Trust me. They’ll make an exception for a rich, handsome, young stud like him. They’ll say he was sent by the gods.”
“It’s not like that,” Rachel said again. “We’re friends fooling around together. He’s seeing other people. I went on that awful date with that girl.”
Parvati put a hand on her friend’s arm. “And what happened when that date ditched you, hm? Zack swept in and you ended up fooling around some more. You told me all about it!”
She’s right about that. Rachel wasn’t able to contain herself the day after her terrible date. Parvati had assumed her friend got lucky with the lovely lady. Instead, she was treated to a story about swimming pools and the number sixty-nine. The only thing that continued to shock Parvati was the fact that Rachel and Zack had yet to go all the way.
“Do you see the way he looks at you?” Parvati shook her head in disbelief. “I’m not getting my hopes up on your behalf when I say he’s got it bad for you. That’s not the way a man looks at a woman he’s fooling around with.”
Rachel stiffened. “Then what is it?”
Parvati didn’t hesitate. “That’s the way my new brother-in-law looks at my sister.”
There’s no way he’s in love with me. Rachel would never entertain that thought. Not seriously, anyway. She knew better than to think a man – let alone one like Zack – could possibly love her in that capacity. Maybe he would love her for a night. A week, if she was lucky. A month, if they truly clicked. Let’s be real, he’s only into me because he’s holding out for PIV. Rachel couldn’t maintain the smile she had only a few minutes ago. Watching Zack sweep across the dancefloor with Parvati and Sita’s mother in her amber saree was like watching TV from another planet.
If she and Zack truly ended up together, it would end with nothing but paranoia. Every woman would want a piece of him. Rachel would be dealing with that jealousy for the rest of her life. Could there really be enough trust in the world for her to give that part of her heart to a man like Zack? What if he broke it because it was too easy for him to stray? Rich men, handsome men… they both had that going for them. A rich and sexy man like Zack was a giant catch, yes… but he was also one helluva liability to Rachel’s already fragile heart.
Besides, she would never be able to rely on him. That was like walking brazenly into disaster.
I owe so much money to the nursing home… That’s what the meeting had been about last week. And when Rachel was done crying herself out on the way home, she had allowed Zack into her bed for the rest of the night. They hadn’t done anything except cuddle and go to sleep.
See? Just friends.
Rachel caught Zack’s glance the moment the song ended and his partner wandered off to blush with her friends. A classic Bollywood love song – “Suraj Hua Maddham” – began to play. A hundred women crossed their fingers in hopes that he would ask them to dance.
He held his hand out to Rachel while Parvati urged her forward.
“Oh my God, Rachel,” she said. “This guy crashed my place of work to ask for your number! And that was weeks ago! Dance with him!”
She stepped forward and tentatively placed her hand in his.
“Out of all the women I’ve danced with tonight,” he said, taking her into his arms and swaying back and forth in time to the music, “and let me say that I’ve had my pick of some of the most gorgeous post-menopausal women this side of the Atlantic…”
Rachel squeezed his hand, the other draping across his shoulder. His grip sent shivers down her spine. “That last woman you danced with was the bride’s mother.”
“Like I said, out of all the beautiful women I’ve danced with tonight, I have to say that you’re the one I’m most excited to be seen with.”
“Those aunties are convinced that you and I are getting married. I think they’re testing me to see if they can set you up with their daughters. Or themselves. Some are lonely widows.”
“Let them think whatever they want. We came together, anyway. Or did you forget that I’m your plus one?”
“How could I forget that I came with the biggest star of the wedding?”
“Hopefully I’m not upstaging the bride and groom.”
Rachel stole a glance at the happy couple slow dancing, lost in their own blissful world. “Don’t think they mind. Now, if you dance with the bride, her husband might have to kick your ass. He’s already had his shoes stolen once today.”