“Yes. That’s a whole lot. So they tied us, but the feeling was that Harvard had won. I can’t argue with that, because it sure felt as if we’d lost.”

Sushmita caressed my cheek. “I’m sure Yale would have won if you’d played, Danny.”

She was teasing, of course. But she made up for it soon enough. She was natural and unashamed. I wondered how she could be so sensitive about her complexion but not her body. Later, she caught me gazing at the silky hair on the nape of her neck, visible when she tied up her tresses in a ponytail.

“Stop staring, you pervert,” she said, and gave me a playful shove.

I told her she was beautiful. She said I was a frog. I shoved her back. We wrestled. Not sure who won. I think it was a tie. Like Yale and Harvard.

The next morning we slept in. No run for me. Sushmita said it might cause talk. I had no idea of the time. I hadn’t wound my watch, and it had stopped somewhere around three in the morning. We lingered on top of the sheets, in no hurry to get up or do anything. Two days passed this way, with no concerns about the time.

That last night, however, things changed. We both grew quiet as the minutes ticked away, inching us nearer to our date with the real world. The ease and playful joy we’d both experienced for three full days waned as the earth turned and morning drew closer.

Her head resting on my chest, Sush asked me what we were going to do. I told her I didn’t know. In fact, I was debating with myself.

“You’ve got that look again,” she said. The light was low, but she knew I was brooding. “It’s the same look you had the night you announced you were leaving Poona. Please tell me, Danny. What is it?”

But I couldn’t. Not yet. Even if I believed I needed to know her intentions in order to make up my own mind, I still couldn’t bring myself to tell her I was considering turning on Willy.

“I’m sad that our time is over,” I said instead. “You’ll drop me at the station and go back to Poona. I’ll be in Bombay, miserable.”

“You don’t think I’ll be miserable, too? Alone with a man I don’t love?”

“Don’t you?”

“We’re comfortable together, but it’s not love. It hasn’t been for some time now. I want to be yours, Danny, but it’s impossible. Not now. Not yet.”

Her words nearly changed my mind. Maybe I should tell her about Ranjit and Harlan and Willy. Maybe she was trying to tell me to trust her. But in the end, I was more afraid to lose her outright than I was eager to win her forever.