The Girl He Left Behind (3 page)

‘I never said he looked happy Sia.’ Smiling sadly, Minty patted Sia’s hand gently before leaving for her next meeting.

Ten minutes into the meeting and Sia was officially in hell. Her past sat across from her in a pinstriped suit. Doing her best to ignore him, she tried to get her mind to focus. Minty and she had heard Nisha’s ideas on the new novel before and thought they were great. Once she was done running through it again for Ryan’s team, they could get down to discussing what they were here for.

‘Your heroine is Indian and divorced?’ Looking over, Sia saw Ryan raising his eyebrows and checking his notes before saying ‘Aren’t the heroines supposed to be blushing virgins?’

‘Dinosaur.’ It took Sia a moment to realize her inaudible mutter had been extremely audible.

‘Excuse me?’

Scanning the slightly stupefied expressions around the table, she took a deep breath and tried to pull her foot out of her mouth.

‘That caveman like mentality is exactly what Nisha is trying to move away from with this book.’ Even as the words left her mouth, she winced. She didn’t need Minty’s not so subtle kick under the table to know she’d just made it worse. ‘Anyway, can we move on to the next item on the agenda list?’

‘No.’

Ryan’s soft reply had her looking warily over at him. This couldn’t be good. His expression didn’t bode well for her.

‘Did you have something to add?’ She asked as politely as she could.

‘Well, I haven’t finished thumping my chest yet. Surely you’re not going to deny me the time to thump my chest and club a woman over her head to show my interest?’

When she opened her mouth to reply, he just turned away, dismissing her. ‘My team will stay behind to observe the rest of the discussions. Miss Malik, may we set up a separate meeting for you and I to discuss this further? Apparently, my questions are too basic and unrefined for this meeting.’

Since Nisha still had her mouth open at the turn the meeting had suddenly taken, he took her acquiescence for granted and turned to say bye to Minty before walking out without a backward glance. Face flaming, Sia kept her gaze on her laptop screen until Minty cleared her throat and spoke. ‘So the next item on the agenda would be the promotional activities we are planning for the book.’

Speaking only when spoken to, Sia waited for the meeting to finish before making her excuses and bolting from her chair.

* * *

Hours later, Sia finally shut her laptop down, gave in to her exhaustion and buried her head in her hands. A sharp knock on the door had her scrubbing her hands roughly over her face and straightening before calling out a quick ‘Come in.’

When Ryan stepped in and shut the door, her tension ratcheted up a notch. With his jacket missing, shirt sleeves rolled up and tie loosened, he was a mouth-watering sight. Grabbing the bottle of water on her desk and taking a hasty sip to ease her dry mouth, Sia stood when he took a couple of steps into the cabin.

‘Did you want something?’

She watched as he stepped closer to her desk and picked up the picture she kept there. Watching his face soften at the sight of her parents, she waited as he stared at it like he’d never seen them before. Of course, he hadn’t seen them in six years. That was close enough to never in her book.

‘No picture of the husband?’

His low question had her exhaling hard before asking wearily, ‘Ry, did you want something specific?’

Eyes flashing up to meet hers at her use of his nickname, Ryan put the picture down slowly and shoved his hands into his pockets. Regretting the slip, Sia looked away from him just as Minty barged in.

‘Sia, let’s go get some dinner. I’m starving.’ Coming to an abrupt halt in the middle of the room, her head swivelled from one to the other. ‘Is there a problem?’

His face inscrutable, Ryan spoke without looking away from Sia, ‘Min, could you give us a minute? This won’t take long.’

‘Sure. Sia, call me once you’re done.’ Raising her eyebrows at Sia from behind Ryan, Minty backed out of the room.

In two long strides, Ryan rounded the desk and came to stand in front of her. Sia had taken an apprehensive step back before she stopped herself and stood her ground.

Taking in her defensive stance, he waited for her to make eye contact with him before saying, ‘You do not get to talk down to me like that in front of my team or others. Keep your personal feelings outside this office. You have something to say to me, you say it in private. We are going to be working closely together over the next few weeks so I would appreciate it if you could be professional about it. I’m not going to sit through a repeat of today’s performance. You’re not my girlfriend anymore and we’re not even friends now, so don’t think you can say whatever you want and get away with it.’

Dumbfounded, Sia watched as he stalked out of the room. He was halfway down the corridor by the time she caught up with him. Too incensed to care that despite the late hour, there were still some people working, she grabbed his arm and swung him around.

‘I have never talked down to you. Not once. How dare you -?’ Cutting her off, he wrapped a hand around her waist and ushered her into the nearest conference room. Stumbling a bit when he suddenly released her, she spun around to face him.

‘Don’t you ever touch me again!’ The vehemence in her voice had his back going up. Trying to remind himself she was someone else’s wife now didn’t help with the emotions roiling through him. Even knowing he was crossing a line, he couldn’t stop as he strode closer.

‘Why? You never had a problem with it before. Don’t trust yourself around me or won’t your husband trust you?’ He taunted even as he grabbed her by her arms and backed her up against the desk.

‘Back off, Ryan.’

‘A caveman? Isn’t that what you called me? Want me to drag you by your hair back to my cave, darling?’

‘Back off!’ Hearing the underlying panic in her voice, he took a closer look only to realize she was trembling. Letting go of her quickly, he took a startled step back.

‘What the hell?’ Narrowing his eyes, he watched her get a grip and steady herself.

She calmed down enough to say, ‘I need to leave. Minty is waiting for me.’

‘You owe me an apology for today.’

Anger brought the colour back into her cheeks. ‘I owe you an apology? You think I should be apologizing to you after what you just did? I owe you nothing!’

‘Uh guys?’ Minty poked her head around the door cautiously.
‘People can hear the raised voices outside. Do you guys want to tone it down or continue this elsewhere?’

‘No. We’re done.’ Without waiting for a response of any kind, Sia walked out, shutting the door behind her with a decisive snap.

In the silence that followed, Minty flapped a hand towards the door. ‘I should go.’

‘What’s he like?’ His quiet question stopped her with her hand on the doorknob.

‘Who?’ Puzzled, she tried to figure out what was going on. ‘What were you guys talking about?’

‘Her husband.’ Shaking his head at his sudden urge to know more when he’d spent years cutting himself off from anything to do with Sia, Ryan pushed away from the desk and walked over to give Minty a quick hug. ‘Forget it. It’s not important. Let me know when you have some free time so we can catch up, okay?’

Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, he started to move only to have her stop him with a hand on his chest.

‘Ex.’ Reaching up to turn his face towards her, she gave him a cheeky smile. ‘Ex-husband.’ Giving him one last pat on his cheek, she left him standing alone in the room.

Ex-husband. Ex. She wasn’t married. Not anymore. His shield against his feelings for Sia was gone. Ryan stared unseeingly out of the bay windows in his spacious cabin as his day started to wind down. He needed to wrap this project up or at the least his involvement in it so that he could get back to normalcy. He wasn’t able to be as blasé about Sia’s presence as he’d hoped and the sooner he left without making a fool of himself the better. If they managed to freeze on an idea in tomorrow’s brainstorming session, he could leave the implementation of it to Adarsh and go back to Mumbai.

Slinging his laptop bag over his shoulder, he made his way over to the cubicle Adarsh was temporarily using at Trends Now. Lost in thought, he didn’t see Sia and Minty standing by Adarsh’s cubicle until it was too late and he was almost on top of them.

Flashing a generic hi in their direction, he looked over at Adarsh and said ‘I was wondering if you’d like to grab dinner on the way back to the hotel? It would give us some time to talk.’

‘Sure.’ Grabbing his bag, Adarsh started shoving things into it. Minty and Sia started to say their goodbyes when Mr Big Mouth stopped them. ‘Why don’t you girls join us for dinner?’ Adarsh studiously avoided Ryan’s eye while asking the question.

‘I’m game.’ Minty grinned. ‘The only thing waiting for me at home is Maggi noodles so dinner out sounds good. Sia and I were planning to grab a bite on the way home anyway.’

‘Actually, I need to get home. I have some work to finish up. You guys have a good time.’ Sia said, getting ready to leave.

‘Join us, Sia. We’ll make it an early night. You haven’t had a proper meal all day and I know you’re not planning to cook once you get home.’ Minty urged.

‘You cook now?’ It slipped out before Ryan could stop himself.

Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at him. Minty and Adarsh looked amused while Sia looked a little offended.

‘Sia’s actually a really good cook nowadays.’ Minty grinned, ‘She no longer poisons the guests she cooks for.’

Adarsh pounced on that titbit immediately ‘Who did you poison? Do tell. This sounds like a fascinating story. Come on Sia, join us for dinner and you can tell me all about it. Fingers crossed, if God’s listening to me, Ryan will play a starring role in that story.’

She was going to look churlish if she kept resisting their pleas to join them, Sia realized. Conceding defeat, she accepted ‘I need a little time to wrap up for the day. If you’re all in a hurry to leave, you can tell me where you’re going and I’ll join you guys there.’

‘That’s okay. We’ll wait for you. How about we meet you girls at the reception in half an hour?’ Adarsh asked.

Ryan waited a second after the girls agreed to the plan and left before saying ‘I really hate you.’

Flashing an impertinent grin at him, Adarsh replied ‘I like them and I want to get to know them better. You had good taste boss though it has degenerated now.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘The writer,’ Adarsh prompted ‘I saw the looks she was giving you and the smiles you were flashing at her.’

‘She’s beautiful.’ He said with a slight grin. He’d been too focused on Sia’s presence in the room to pick up on any interest from Nisha but he wasn’t going to let Adarsh know that.

‘So are diamonds. They’re also a strain on the wallet, cold and really hard. Forged under intense pressure or so I’ve been told.’ Adarsh said sanctimoniously.

‘I think I’m going to skip dinner and head back. Tell them I’m tired or something.’

‘You’re the one who came up with the plan, Ryan, and you asked me in front of them.’ Adarsh pointed out.

‘I asked you out for dinner. I didn’t suggest a group outing. I don’t think having dinner with Sia is such a good idea, Adu.’

‘How are the two of you going to manage to work together, if you can’t have one lousy meal together? It’s one meal. Not the rest of your life.’

‘Do you realize this smug smirky thing you have going is really irritating?’ Ryan asked as they made their way slowly down the stairs.

‘Being right all the time? That’s my curse to bear. Somehow I manage to struggle along under the burden of it.’ Adarsh sighed dramatically.

Ryan snorted as they walked towards where the girls were waiting. Minty looked ready to party as she flashed Ryan a grin that told him she knew exactly how uncomfortable he was. Sia on the other hand was staring at the flooring as if she had never seen marble before and was completely fascinated by the grains running through it.

After about five seconds of going back and forth on transport arrangements, they decided to pile into Sia’s car. The more serious debate of where to eat started about ten minutes into the drive.

‘There’s this great Thai place opened up since you left, Ryan. You want to try that?’

‘Most of the restaurants in town have opened up since the last time he was here.’ Sia said dryly.

Those were the first words she’d spoken since they’d congregated at the reception. It was quite fitting that it would have to be a dig at him, Ryan supposed.

Deciding to be the bigger person and ignore the remark, Ryan said ‘I don’t think Adarsh is too fond of Thai. Are you, Adu?’

Turning towards Adarsh, he realized for the first time why his friend had been so conspicuously silent since they’d gotten into the car. He had his eyes tightly shut, both his hands clenched into a death grip on the handle above the rear window on his side and his lips seemed to be moving in a silent prayer.

‘Adu, are you okay man?’ Trying to keep his lips from twitching, Ryan reached out to shake his shoulder.

When he got no reply and Adarsh continued to sit like a petrified statue, he realized it hadn’t occurred to them to warn Adarsh about what kind of ride he could expect when Sia was behind the wheel. Minty and he were so used to Sia’s rather maverick style of driving, that they didn’t even flinch when she suddenly flipped on her indicator and shot into the right lane missing the car on her right by inches. Adarsh on the other hand let out a sound that was somewhere between a squeak and a moan.

Payback was sweet, Ryan decided as he settled into his seat more comfortably. He was going to savour it slowly. Very, very slowly. Maybe his luck would hold and the girls would pick a restaurant that was both far away and needed to be reached through some manic traffic.

Muffling a giggle, Minty turned around from where she was riding shotgun. ‘She’s a little fast, I agree, but Sia’s a good driver Adarsh. She has incredible control.’

When Adarsh just opened one eye to glare at her, she took pity on him and said ‘Sia, let’s just go to ‘On the Rocks,’ it’s just at the next junction and I feel like continental tonight.’

Five minutes later, they pulled into the portico of the restaurant. While Sia was handing over the keys to the valet, Minty and Ryan helped Adarsh regain his equilibrium.

‘Good lord Sia! How do you survive on the roads every day? Why hasn’t someone impounded your license yet?’

‘I’m not the worst driver on the road, Adarsh. I just take a few close but accurate judgment calls. It’s all about anticipation and making sure you manoeuvre at the right time.’ Sia grinned.

It was the first full blown, back to normal smile Ryan had seen on Sia’s face since he’d gotten back. And more importantly she wasn’t avoiding eye contact with him; she was smiling directly at him. The rest of the world faded into the background, as they grinned at each other.

‘I never thought I would see the three of you together again.’ A shrill nasal voice shattered the moment.

Still facing Ryan, Sia closed her eyes for a second before turning to greet Mrs. Narayanan; the loud, obnoxious and extremely pretentious mother of an old classmate of theirs. Aarti had always hung out with them at college and had always gotten yelled at for it, Sia recalled. They’d lost touch once college ended, most probably because Aarti’s mother hadn’t wanted her socializing with what she called undesirable elements, namely Ryan. In the good old days, if you wanted to hang out with Sia, you hung out with Ryan by default. Dragging her mind back to the present she smiled politely, ‘Good evening Aunty. How are you?’

Mrs Narayanan took a minute to reply. She was a little busy looking at Ryan like he was an insect she’d stepped on by mistake.

‘Aunty,’ Sia tried again. ‘It’s good to see you. Mummy
mentioned that she had bumped into you at a wedding last month. She was saying Aarti is married now and has a one year old son. Congratulations. You must be very proud of her.’

‘Aarti was always a good girl.’ Mrs Narayanan sniffed, pressing her lips into a tight line. ‘Never gave me a moment’s trouble and got married on time as well at the right age and to a very suitable match. Her husband is a software engineer in the US, you know?’

‘Yes, I know. I’m very happy for her aunty. Please tell her I asked about her.’ Sia said, extremely aware that neither Minty nor Ryan was echoing her sentiments.

‘Well you’re looking good considering what you’ve put your parents through.’ This was said with a disapproving sniff aimed at Sia. Minty felt Ryan stiffen next to her and laid a warning hand on his arm.

Turning to Minty, she said ‘What about you, Meenakshi? I heard from Sia’s mother that you are now engaged. It’s about time you settled down and made your parents happy.’

Smiling noncommittally, she said ‘Yes aunty. The wedding’s in a few weeks so we’re in the middle of all the frantic last minute preparations.’

Mrs. Narayanan opened her mouth to speak again and anticipating another nasty remark, Minty cut her off. ‘Aunty, if you don’t mind, we’re already late for our reservation so we have to go. Please give our love to Aarti. It was nice to see you after all these years.’

Sia murmured her goodbye too and almost managed her escape when that hateful voice popped up again. ‘I’m surprised at you Sia. You come from such a good family and look at the kind of person you are associating with. I would never allow Aarti to even acknowledge people like him. Coming from parents like his, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before his bad blood shows.’

Welcome home, Ryan thought with a derisive smile. Fighting a sense of déjà vu and the anger that rose with it, he took a calming breath and opened his mouth to reply. He was stopped by a firm grip on his arm. Looking down, he saw Sia tighten her fingers around his arm. Sliding her hand down, she laced her fingers with his and leaned into him.

Minty and Adarsh both made varying noises of shock and anger from behind them. Their sputters of outrage were, however, cut off by Sia’s cool, level voice. ‘I don’t believe in judging people by their parents, Aunty. After all, I’m extremely fond of your daughter and look at what a bitch she has for a mother.’

Mrs. Narayanan let out her breath in a hiss of shock. ‘How dare you talk to me like that?’

‘Oh, I dare. I dare quite a bit, Aunty. It’s something you might want to keep in mind before you insult one of my friends again.’

Gathering what was left of her dignity, she shot a vicious look at Sia before saying ‘I’m not surprised your husband left you. No self-respecting man would want to live with someone like you. Your poor parents don’t deserve the daughter they’ve got.’

‘That’s a matter of perception, Aunty. I don’t think your daughter deserves the mother she got.’ Sia shot back.

While Mrs Narayanan stalked off in high dudgeon, nostrils flaring and nose ring quivering in outrage, Minty and Adarsh burst into loud hoots and cheers behind them. Extremely conscious of the speed with which Sia slipped her fingers free of his, he said ‘You didn’t have to do that.’

‘No, I didn’t but I wanted to. Shall we go in?’ With a pang of regret, he saw that she was back to looking everywhere but at him.

‘Sure. But before that I just have one question.’ Adarsh said, having gotten over the terror of his ride thanks to all the drama that had ensued.

The three of them turned to look at him. Smirking, he asked ‘Can I please sit next to Meenakshi?’ He shot an unrepentant grin at Minty when she growled at him.

‘Don’t call me that!’ She stabbed a finger at his chest while glowering at him.

He sauntered past her towards the entrance of the restaurant, calling over his shoulder, ‘Oh, come on. At least it sounds like a name. Minty doesn’t even qualify as one.’

Putting the unpleasant scene behind them, they settled in for dinner to the accompaniment of Adarsh and Minty good naturedly sniping at each other.