Page 16 of Glass Jawed
She smirks and I find that absolutely nerve-wracking. “Why? Are you hiring?”
This woman truly doesn’t care about how this meeting has come about, does she? I’ve seen her naked, for fuck’s sake. And now she thinks I’ll fucking hire her?
I huff out a laugh, sounding almost bitter. “Absolutely not. I don’t want to be reminded of that dreaded night every day.”
Her face falls immediately—only slightly. I wait for the guilt to consume me at my crassness. But it doesn’t come. Instead, I feel vindicated. Shit. This is getting out of hand.
I force myself to go in softer. “Sorry. I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, you know.”
She side-eyes me. “You sure about that? You seem to be enjoying it.”
I sway a little at her words, forcing a duped grimace. “It’s a bit hard seeing you dismiss that night as a mistake when I was completely... destroyed.”
I watch as her eyes soften. Oh, so that’s what I need to do to get her to react appropriately. Self-deprecation could go a long way. I had plenty of brokenness to dish out, anyway.
I signal the waitress for a refill of my beer as Aarohi casually sips her first drink of the night.
“I—” she starts.
I cut her off. “Listen, I’m truly sorry for what I said that night. It’s been a year and I’m over it. I think it’s just some residual anger I’m throwing your way. I don’t mean to.”
She smiles shyly. “For what it’s worth, it definitely wasn’t a great night for me. I never thought I’d becomethe other woman. It was... awful.”
I exhale slowly, trying hard to contain the sinister smirk ready to crawl out. Instead, I purse my lips and nod. “I can imagine.”
“It is what it is,” she shrugs nonchalantly. “You must be glad you got rid of a cheater.”
I feel my hackles rise. It’s not that I want to defend Tim. I know for a fact that Tim cheated. But he wasn’t a cheater—as if he repeatedly cheated. He didn’t.
I can even understand—to some extent—that he was confused. What I loathe is the absolute nerve of this woman who is practically a stranger—throwing judgements at him. Praising my circumstances as if I was better for it. I wasn’t.
Last year is a testament to that.
Suddenly, I don’t control the sick need for this game to play out. I let it happen. Let it coil up my spine to form the plan I’d dismissed early on. Because this woman iswrong.
Because Aarohi has absolutely no idea about what it feels to have her heart broken in that manner. She doesn’t realize the depth of pain she caused. And now, it’s my job to let her know.
I lean back and smile. The stretch of my facial muscles feels alien. “I won’t say I’m glad. But at least I can move on. At least he got caught and I wasn’t left oblivious to his actions.”
She nods—almost empathically. I can almost feel her relax. So, I go for the jugular.
“But I’m not happy with myself with how I treated you. I’d love to make it up to you... somehow.”
That gets a real reaction. A subtle shake of her head as if she’s trying to get rid of her shock. Her brows lift.
“You want to make it up to me?”
“I think I should.”
“Because you feel guilty?”
“Because I was cruel,” I lie. “You didn’t deserve that.”
I remember that night in the form of a hazy montage. But I know I wasn’t cruel. Not to her. I simply wanted her to leave. I may have said things that were partially true, but I had a decent justification for it. Didn’t I?
She stares at me for a beat. “You said I didn’t even look like a woman.”
My chest tightens. Just a bit. Did I really say that? She’s mentioned it twice now. Could she be making it up?
