Incense and Sensibility (The Rajes #3) - Sonali Dev Page 0,112
messaging and launched an attack from a not entirely unexpected quarter. The NRA was riling up the Blue Lives Matter crowd and spending a lot of dollars on targeted social media to spread disinformation about crime statistics that harmed the Black Lives Matter message. This wasn’t an issue Yash was going to pussyfoot around and let them get away with. Rico and he had been trying to come up with an out-of-the-box solution that stopped Cruz and the gun lobby in their tracks.
Vansh had been on a video call with them for hours this past week, and he was getting home tomorrow to focus on it. The brat was a genius when it came to seeing things no one else did. He also understood social media outreach and had come up with some interesting ways to overlay their message on top of their opponent’s.
“I think we made good progress,” Yash said. “We’ll pick this up tomorrow.” He thought about warning Rico about the breakup, but he wanted to be fair and talk to Naina first about how to make the announcement. They’d still have time to come up with a damage control plan.
Rico stood. “Ashna was right about Vansh. He’s brighter than the rest of you.”
“He knows it too,” Yash said with equal parts fondness and frustration. If Vansh only focused, he’d have done great things by now.
Then again, for the first time in his life Yash wasn’t jealous of his brother’s ability to not care about doing great things and putting himself before everyone else.
“Wait until he gets here and you see the worshipful raptures Ashna and the rest of the family go into,” Yash said, smiling. “It’s a full-fledged love fest.”
“Even more than with you?”
“Me? Hah, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, buddy.”
“Oh joy!” Rico laughed. “Right. I’m off. Call if you need to talk about anything. Anything at all, okay?” He waited for a reaction from Yash, which Yash worked hard to withhold from him.
Finally, the man left.
Naina should be back from Nepal by now. She hadn’t called or texted. They still hadn’t spoken since the engagement debacle. Yash had moved back into his apartment. The family had backed off. There was far too much going on with the election to spend time on a drama they saw as ongoing.
Ma had sent him one message saying she was there when he was ready to talk.
Oh, Ma, you have no idea.
Then she had reverted to her usual chatty messages about how well he was doing in his appearances and interviews, along with specifics of what messaging she thought resonated. Suggestions for what to focus on, along with technique, pauses, and eye contact. It was her area of expertise, the craft of communicating through body language. “Still too much touching of your hair. Looks fidgety and un-leader-like.”
Well, Ma, you shouldn’t have touched our hair so much when we were little. Now we can’t stop doing that to self-soothe. Naturally, he didn’t say that to her. He just worked hard to remember not to touch his hair when he was on camera or at a podium.
On his way to the car he tried again to call Naina and didn’t get an answer.
She’s angry, he told himself. He knew what was coming wouldn’t be easy. Naina was going to take the brunt of it, and he wished he could save her that. Needing to be with India wasn’t a choice anymore, it had become him. All of him.
Just looking at her name on his phone made wild wanting twist through him. His finger hovered over the name, stroking the air between him and the sound of her voice.
The hope in her eyes when he’d left her was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He wanted to see it again. He wanted to feel the way he felt only in her presence for the rest of his life.
Just as he was about to call her and tell her that he was on his way, his phone rang.
“Yash?”
“Arzu? Are you crying? What’s wrong?”
Even as he asked, he knew nothing was wrong, because he had never heard Arzu cry, let alone with quite so much abandon.
The smile in her voice was as clear as her sobs. “Can you come to the hospital? Someone here wants to see you.”
He was in his car and driving before he was even off the phone. Abdul had regained consciousness. Everything was going to be all right.
The first person he called was India. “Abdul woke up.”