Page 69 of Red Flags and Rishtas
‘I …’ I began, searching for the right words. ‘I needed some time.’
‘To fuck other people,’ he said bitterly. ‘Yes, I got that now.’
I wanted to resent him for his crudeness, but I couldn’t. This was all my fault and there was no denying it.
‘It wasn’t like that …’ my voice faded out with the realisation that there was nothing I could say right now that wouldn’t sound insincere.
His shoulders were tense, his stance aggressive.
You’ve only known him for a few days,a part of my brain was trying to console me.He’s overreacting.
Even so, it pained me to know that I’d hurt him. I could’ve handled this better. I could’ve returned his calls. I could’ve been honest about my feelings. I could’ve done pretty muchanythingbut sleep with another man and then avoid him afterwards.
‘Were you,’ he said as he cleared his throat, ‘just planning on ghosting me?’
‘No, God, no … I just needed some—’
‘Some time.’ He let out a humourless laugh and said, ‘Right.’
He shook his head at me in a way that made me feel really,reallysmall. And without another word, he spun on his heel and left.
I stood there, frozen, feeling as though I’d been punched in the gut. An autorickshaw honked loudly at me, and I stumbled out of the way. I sat down on the steps of the new and improved Akira Couture and downed my drink. The door opened next to me and V emerged.
‘What’s going on, Annie?’ she wanted to know.
‘Why didn’t you tell me Madhav was coming?’ I asked, trying to comprehend how I’d found myself in such a messy situation.
She smoothed her skirt and sat down next to me.
‘He texted me, and I thought it’d be a nice surprise,’ she said, shrugging her shoulders defensively.
‘You should’ve asked me,’ I said, looking down at the pearled heels I’d worn to match my white cut-out jumpsuit.
‘Unbelievable.’ V was shaking her head.
‘What?’ I demanded.
When she just continued to look away, I jerked her elbow towards me. ‘Tell me.’
She opened her mouth to let out a short, heavy sigh, as if she was getting ready to say something that had been bothering her for a while. ‘You don’t tell me anything about your life and then you expect me to know what the right thing to do is?’
‘That’s not—’ She didn’t let me finish.
‘You didn’t even tell me about you andAadar.’ Her voice rose when she said his name.
‘There was nothing to tell!’
‘Oh please,’ she said. ‘You’ve been acting strangely secretive ever since you met him.’ She began counting things off her fingers. ‘You lie to me to go hang out with him and your phone constantly has texts and calls from him.’
I opened my mouth to explain but she cut me off again. ‘And don’t say it’s for work. I know you’ve been dating him … or screwing him or whatever,’ she said.
‘That’s not it at all.’ My voice was drowned out amid her accusing rant.
‘You know I wouldn’t judge you if you’ve been two-timing him,’ she was saying. ‘I just can’t understand why you’d hide it fromme.’
Her voice cracked at the last word and she stopped talking, breathless.
The noise of the street stood out in contrast with the weighty silence between me and my best friend. The champagne high I’d been enjoying for the last hour was threatening to come crashing down in waves.
