What If I Want to Change That? Completed G

Chapter 1

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This coffee shop is their place. For the four of them. Not anyone else. Especially not the guy standing in line talking to Suman as she grabs them all donuts to share. Shravan grits his teeth as the guy-Paras, he thinks. It's Paras, who he caught staring at Suman from across the room-places a hand on Suman's elbow and leans down to whisper in her ear.

"Bhai?" His gaze snaps to Pushkar, who's watching him carefully, concern in his eyes. "Are you okay?" Pushkar asks him.

Shravan blinks, confused until he realizes he's been staring-glaring-in Suman's direction. Not at her of course, but Pushkar doesn't know that. He's about to change the subject by asking where Preeti went, but quickly remembers that she couldn't make it today because she had a college class. It's just him and Pushkar and Suman. And Paras. Great."I'm fine, Pushkar." He sends his brother a strained smile, gaze drifting passed him as Suman laughs, her head tossed back and eyes bright. His heart squeezes in his chest, but he shoves the bitter feeling down. Suman can talk to whoever she wants; he's not her boss.

Besides, she would kick his ass if she knew he was sour over her talking to another guy.Hell, he should kick his own ass for acting like a jealous boyfriend. Pushkar look sat him in disbelief.

"Are you sure? Because you've been staring at Suman with this weird look on your face for a while now." Shravan frowns.

"I wasn't looking at Suman weird. I'm just wondering why the line is so long today," he bluffs.

Technically, he wasn't looking at Suman weird. He was looking at Suman and Paras weird.There's a difference.

Pushkar shakes his head, a slight smile on his face.

"I wasn't talking about today," he murmurs.

"Hmm?" Shravan turns back to Pushkar, clearly having missed the question.

Pushkar waves him off with a shake of the head, turning back to the case file in front of him. Shravan quirks a brow, but something stops him from replying.Suman giggles. Suman will-punch-you-in-the-face-if-you-say-the-wrong-thing-Tiwari giggles. It sounds happy and airy and it's what he thinks sunshine would sound like if it had a noise. On one hand he's shocked-completely stunned by the soft sound-because Suman never giggles, least of all around strangers, but on the other hand something warm floods through him, bubbling in his chest and creeping onto his face.

Oh, and he knows exactly what it is. He's liked Suman for a long time now, he just hasn't worked up the nerve to tell her yet.And that's a huge problem in itself, because he's pretty sure the word "love" is practically written across his face whenever he sees her-which is a lot-and he's pretty sure people are beginning to notice-including his Chachi and her Mami and Maasi, who take turns glaring at him whenever he talks to Suman.

Shravan's thought process is shattered as Suman's gaze slides to his and she smiles-not a smirk-a real, true smile.His heart skips a beat.She turns back to Paras a second later, laughing at something he says, and places a hand on his shoulder, leaning closer to him. Shravan looks away. Clearing his throat, Shravan reaches into his bag, blindly grasping for a file to distract himself with, and practically slams it onto the table, startling Pushkar, who peers at him over the case file. He sneers, shoving the file to the side and running a hand over his face, gritting his teeth.

"What is wrong with you today?" Pushkar asks, frowning at him.

Shravan sighs. "Nothing, it's just Monday."

Pushkar's frown deepens. "It's Friday."

Shravan groans, cursing under his breath.

A sly grin tugs at Pushkar's lips "Does your bad attitude by any chance correlate with Suman-"

A tray of donuts is dropped between the two guys unceremoniously, cutting Pushkar off mid-sentence. Both of them startle, Pushkar dropping his box and Shravan whipping around to face his childhood friend as she slides into the seat next to him, grinning at the two of them.

"Sorry it took so long. There was a long line," Suman explains briefly, giving them a noncommittal shrug.

Pushkar reaches for the donuts, but Suman slaps his hand away before he gets too close.

"Pushkar don't you dare eat all of them this time!"

"But they're so good!" Shravan snorts, watching them argue-he uses"argue" loosely, as Pushkar rarely argues with Suman, but Suman argues with everyone-over food and Pushkar always taking them when Suman is talking to Shravan. Suman shoots him a look, but he pointedly ignores it.

"So, you were talking to Paras," he says to her sourly, keeping his eyes on the donuts.Suman shrugs.

"Yeah, he's a nice guy, funny too," she tells him. Shravan has to fight back an eye roll-because Shravan doesn't roll his eyes.

"He must be," he grumbles, "considering how much you were laughing."

Suman raises a brow at him, lips quirked up in a smile.

"We were talking about you and how you helped my family on the house case," Suman tells him, lips twitching as she recalls the memory.

Shravan groans, ducking his head in embarrassment. He doesn't even want to think about what happened to his feelings in the past 15 minutes or so.

"Oh," he replies softly. She smirks.

"Are you, how do you say it in lawyer terms..oh chuck it..lemme just use normal words..J-E-A-L-O-U-S, Shravan?"

It's a joke, he can tell, but he takes the bait anyway.

"And what if I said I was?" he asks softly, turning to face her directly, his knee bumping hers under the table. Across from them, Pushkar chokes on his donut in surprise, coughing. Suman shakes her head slowly, her eyes almost sad.

"Then I would say you're being silly," she says, sending him a little smile.

"We were just talking and I'm not your girlfriend."

Shravan takes a deep breath, steeling himself.

"And what if, hypothetically, I wanted to change that?" he asks, voice wavering slightly.

The last thing he wants to do is send Suman running for the hills because she doesn't like him the same way.Suman grins, leaning into him, lips brushing his ear. His heart lunges into his throat and he freezes, heart beating out of control.

"Well, hypothetically, I would tell you to ask me out properly."