They barely spoke in the car. Jas was busy concocting new ways of getting away from Krish and into Ajay’s arms after the show, all the plotting taking her mind off the pre-performance nerves so the butterflies would have to find other stomachs to fill.
This time, the milling crowds were gone. The contestants were whisked quickly away to a green room suite where they were interviewed and filmed ‘interacting’ with each other. One hundred competitors from across the UK were seen in batches in front of the judges and an audience of family members and local people. Sixty would be rejected, leaving forty to go through to round three.
Why hasn’t Ajay tried to see me?
So much waiting. Watching and waiting.
Anjali was looking stunning in hot pink and gold, super-c
onfident and immaculate. Jas groaned internally when the girl made a beeline for her, smiling her toothpaste-ad smile.
“My new sister,” she greeted her.
Jas’ hackles rose in reaction.
“Sister?”
“Your lovely brother…” Anjali broke off, sighing stagily. “He is so gorgeous.”
“Are you seeing him?”
Anjali’s velvet-black eyes widened in surprise. “He didn’t tell you? Yes, we have seen each other a few times now.”
Jas felt sick and had to put her hand up to her mouth. That was the moment she was called on stage.
Ajay, dance for Ajay. I’m going to see him again. My film star lover.
He was a long way away, down below the stage, but his charisma made him seem closer and larger. She directed every stylised move, every expression, every note of her song to him. Dhaliwal and Priti Mehra might as well not exist, the audience mere mannequins. It was Ajay she wanted to captivate and, judging by the fulsome comments afterwards, she’d succeeded.
“Next stop Bollywood,” he finished, to cheers and whistles from the crowd.
Jas finally allowed herself a smile of pure pleasure. Something in her life was going right. She hadn’t worked and slaved over her routine for nothing.
She and Anjali were both picked for the semi-final and, once Anjali had grabbed her and spun her around the stage, Jas stumbled off into the green room to find Krishnan waiting for them.
Expansively, he put an arm around each of them.
“I’m taking both my girls out to celebrate,” he said.
Jas stiffened, and so, she noticed, did Anjali.
Torn between the desire to slip away and make contact with Ajay and the equally powerful desire to stand between Anjali and her target, Jasmine dithered.
“Oh, I don’t know…” she said.
“Jas wants to meet up with her boyfriend,” stated Anjali.
“What? What do you know about my love life?”
“Girls, girls.” Krishnan laughed, but he couldn’t be immune to the sudden tension that had sprung up, surely. “Goose Fair is on. I just thought you’d like to go down and have some fun. Jas, if you have somebody you want to meet, why not bring him along? I’m your brother—it’s right and proper that I should get the chance to vet your dates.”
“But we’re in our dance costumes,” Jas protested.
“They’ll be fine under your coats,” Krish insisted.
Jas knew she was backed into a corner. There was no way she could sneak off and meet Ajay without arousing Anjali’s—and Krishnan’s—suspicions now.
She shrugged and went to collect her handbag, where she checked her mobile for messages. One from Ajay.