Page 31 of Behind Frenemy Lines

Arthur: “If you’re sure. I just wanted to flag that there areother options.” Plucking up some spirit: “We’ll keep an eye on the situation. If there are any issues…”

Kriya: “I’m sure there won’t be.”

Arthur was almost out of the door when he turned and said: “Oh, one more thing. I don’t think I’ve seen the note for Farah yet, can you get that to me?”

Kriya: “Sure. You’ll have it within the next hour.”

She kept smiling until Arthur was gone. Then she sprang up, closed the door, and turned to me.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Kriya

“I am so,so sorry,” I said. “I know that was super weird.”

Kawan Baik seemed remarkably unfazed for someone who had just discovered he was apparently his office roommate’s boyfriend now, at least in Arthur’s mind. Probably in Farah’s mind, too, despite what he’d said about not telling her. Arthur was never as sneaky as he thought.

“I owe you an explanation,” I said.

Charles said, “Did something happen with Arthur in Hong Kong?”

“Oh my God, you’ve heard?” A horrific thought struck me. “Have people been talking about it?”

Shame crashed over me. It was no good telling myself I hadn’t done anything wrong. Arthur’s behaviour wasn’t my fault. But if there was a rumour going around that something had happened between us, I knew which of the two of us would have the worst of it. Who was going to believe the Indian woman with the funny accent over the senior white guy?

“What are they saying?” I said. I didn’t want to know—I could imagine it, all too easily—but if people were gossiping, I couldn’t afford not to know what they were saying.

Charles shook his head. “I haven’t heard anyone talking.Made me wonder, that’s all.” He gestured at the door through which Arthur had vanished.

My heartbeat slowed. “Oh. Yeah. I guess he made it obvious.” I scrubbed my face, sinking down into my chair. “Arthur’s his own worst enemy.”

I couldn’t believe the unhinged conversation we’d had. All Arthur had needed to do was apologise and go back to treating me as he had before. I was fully on board with moving on and forgetting Hong Kong had ever happened.

No doubt he’d told himself he was questioning my office setup out of concern, that it was no more than a good boss would do. I knew better than anyone how good Arthur was at justifying himself.

“He approached you?” said Charles, tentatively.

“Sexually harassed me. Yeah.” It was the first time I’d said it out loud, in those terms. The words felt so stark I found myself hastening to caveat them. “He didn’t touch me, or anything like that. He just, you know, he came to my hotel room and hit on me. So I told him I had a boyfriend.”

“And you told him this boyfriend was me?”

It was almost funny how carefully non-judgmental Charles’s voice was. I wished I felt like laughing.

“No! I don’t know where he got that from,” I said. “He knows I broke up with my ex recently, but I have no idea why he thinks I’m dating you.”

Even as I said it, an image rose up before me—of Arthur, in our office the day before, staring at the plate of cookies Charles had placed on my desk.

I covered my eyes. “Oh God, of course. It was the cookies.”

“The what?”

“The meeting room cookies you offered me,” I said. “Arthur’s gone round the bend. One perfectly normal human interaction and he decides we’re in love.”

Charles made a strange choking noise.

I lowered my hands, worried. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Frog in my throat.” Charles took a sip from his mug of green tea. He looked a little flushed, but he did seem fine. “Quite a leap on Arthur’s part.”

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