Page 98 of Behind Frenemy Lines

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

THREE WEEKS LATER

Kriya

I tried toargue with Zuri when she said she’d see me off at the airport: “No need lah. It’s two hours out of your day.”

“Not like I have anything else to do what,” she said. “We can chit-chat.”

Which was what we did, at first. Zuri told me about the acar she’d made the other day and her adventures on dating apps. I told her about the kdrama I was watching and Amma’s campaign to get me to lose weight by drinking a cup of bunga telang tea every day.

Zuri grimaced. “Are you going to be OK living with her for weeks? How long has it been since you spent that much time under the same roof with your parents?”

“I was eighteen the last time,” I admitted. “It’ll be fine. I’ll run away and visit friends in KL if it gets too much. It’s only until I figure out what’s happening on the job front anyway.”

I was planning to stay with my parents in Ipoh for a few weeks after the Sanson interview in Hong Kong—since I was between jobs, there was no reason I had to stay in London.

I had a feeling Sanson would make an offer, and I wouldtake it (“You are destined for this role,” Rosalind had said, with her usual predilection for understatement). But I’d reached out to a recruiter who specialised in placing English-qualified lawyers in the region anyway. I figured there was no harm in keeping my options open.

“I might have to fly back to Hong Kong for more interviews, for all you know,” I said.

Zuri glanced around. The carriage was fairly quiet—the nearest person was sat two empty seats away, a beefy guy wearing headphones, from which the strains of a Taylor Swift song could faintly be heard. She lowered her voice. “Have you heard back from Ket Hau?”

“He said he contacted the firm, sent them some documents. Apparently they confirmed receipt, but I don’t know the outcome.” I paused. “I got a message from Charles, actually. But not about, you know, the client issue. He said Arthur’s left the firm.”

The fact I’d resigned had come as a bombshell to my friend circle. Explaining the reason why had made them so raucous in their indignation that we’d come close to getting kicked out of our favourite Korean restaurant, but Zuri now knew everything Arthur had done since I’d moved with him to Swithin Watkins.

“He got fired?” she said, her eyes widening. “Because of what you told HR?”

“Charles didn’t go into the details. He only said Arthur’s left.” I was relieved to note that I didn’t feel a twinge of guilt, saying it.

It was strange: After resigning and reporting Arthur to HR, the thought of him and how he’d treated me made me furious, as it had never done before. I kept remembering things he’d said and done, that I’d accepted at the time, and getting mad about them in retrospect.

It was as though I’d blocked that capacity for anger before, in order to survive our relationship. It was only now it was over that I could see how dysfunctional it had been.

“I hope he has to sell all his properties and ends up in a dead-end job where his boss bullies him,” said Zuri.

“He’ll probably just move to another firm,” I said.

“Ugh.” Zuri scowled. “What else did Kawan Baik say?”

I shrugged. “That was it. He probably can’t say anything about the client issue.” I sighed. “I’ll be lucky if he doesn’t report me to the SRA for breaching confidentiality.”

“You didn’t break confidentiality. They all assumed Helen Daley was going to get sued already.”

I made a noncommittal noise. I didn’t regret anything I’d said or done, but it probably was more than I should have. But I didn’t want Zuri worrying about it.

“Did you reply to Charles?” said Zuri. “What did you say?”

“‘Thank you’ lah. What else is there to say?”

“Does he know you’re going to Hong Kong?”

I nodded. “Sanson asked me to go the day I quit, so I mentioned it to him.”

Zuri and I had been friends for so long that words were not really essential to our communication. I could sense that she was dying to say something.

“What is it?” I said.

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