She stopped, startled, when Eram banged the wheel with both hands. Slightly built as he was, he looked ready and able in that moment to push the steering column straight into the engine block.

‘Why didn’t you tell them?’ he said after a minute. ‘Your parents. Why didn’t you tell them you were going to Goa with me?’

‘Firstly, it’s none of their damn business where I go or with whom. Secondly, I did send Nina a text saying I’d be back soon. And thirdly, why’re you freaking out? I don’t understand why this is such a big deal.’

It was a big deal for Eram because he saw himself as having a higher purpose. He had consciously chosen a road in life devoid of the petit dramas—the heartbreaks, the jealousies, the classroom cliques, the secrets and lies—that other people concerned themselves with. Any appetite he may have had for the unexpected or strange was more than satisfied by his dad’s erratic behaviour at home. Barring that particular slice of randomness, Eram’s life was blessedly noise-free, trimmed of fat, almost spartan in its discipline. Or it had been until recently.

‘Before I met you,’ he said in a taut voice, ‘I worked and slept and ran. It was a simple life, which was great because I’m not a complicated guy, y’know? Now, I’m always worried that the next time I answer the phone Varun would have OD’d or you would have cut your wrists open. Your parents hate me. Your friends hate me. All of a sudden I’m investing in a business I know nothing about, I’m going to weird parties and having sex with a complete stranger, I’m being locked up by the cops . . . I just . . . I just don’t know anything any more.’

There was a lot in there for Gehna to get agitated about, but she chose not to sit around parsing Eram’s rant. Instead, she lifted her bag out from the back seat in silence and wheeled it towards the hotel.

Eram watched through the windshield until she disappeared from sight. He banged the steering again, but his heart wasn’t in it and he just ended up feeling silly.

Later, Gehna walked to Miramar beach by herself. It was not a short walk, and the weather was muggy, but Gehna didn’t want to ask Eram for the car keys; that would mean actually having to see him and, given the way she felt, she would be perfectly happy if she never did again.

She entered the shops lining either side of the approach road to the beach and pretended to be a tourist looking to buy glow-in-the-dark wall hangings or Tibetan junk jewellery.

‘How much for this one?’ she asked, doing her best to sound like the young Israeli women who flew to Goa after completing their mandatory military service back home.

Sometimes, if business was slow, the shopkeepers played along. For you no charge, they said, smiling with their teeth. You have boyfriend? Take it, take it. Free only for you.