Chapter 11
Siya stood at the sink and slid the ice-cold mask from her face. Discarding it, she began washing away the remnants of leftover fruit pulp from her face. As she patted her face dry with a folded towel, she noticed that the puffiness and redness tinting her cheeks were slowly fading.
She could hear voices buzzing with activity beyond her room. Laughter echoed loudly, then softened under a careful shush. Someone called out for the placement list. She could hear it all, just not the voice she truly missed.Hisvoice.
Her pulse flickered with the memory of last night. She’d expected lethargy, fatigue or dire exhaustion, all of which she usually dealt with after an anxiety surge, but oddly enough, all she felt was an echo of how safe she’d felt with Abhay. For the first time in years, she had shared the weight she carried with someone and not braced for rejection.
Siya remembered the low cadence of his voice when he had told her to breathe with him, and the quiet authority in the way he spoke her name gave her a dark thrill. Her palm tingled with the memory of how steady his heartbeat had felt against it.
The scent of his cologne crashed back into her, and she remembered how his thumb had trailed on her collarbone. Her breathing grew heavy, and a flare of heat pooled in her lower belly. She knew just how dangerously easy it was to give in to the dark promises his gaze held.
Enough, she scolded herself.The kind of mistake he made does not just vanish because he smells heavenly, she reminded the face staring back at her. Red veins still circled the whites of her eyes, but she hated seeing a shadow of hope reflected in them.
So, she grabbed onto the anger and betrayal that haunted her and used it to fill in the cracks in her armour he’d made in just one night. While it did not erase the memory of his thrilling touch as he’d pinned her wrists, or the way his muscular body had held her all night, it served as a temporary shield against his charms.
She quickly checked her phone and saw Kashvi still hadn’t replied to her text. That worried her.
When she opened the bathroom door, she found Meera sitting on the bed, one leg tucked under another. She was stirring coffee in the mug she held, and her smile brightened up the room. Relief moved through Siya so quickly that her knees nearly buckled.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked as she crossed the rug, the plush pile tickling her toes, and took a seat beside Meera.
‘Where else would I be? It’s not every day that my best friend throws an engagement brunch. Besides, someone had to make sure that if the bride wants to run away, she has help,’ Meera said, and lightly bumped her shoulder against hers.
‘Am I that obvious?’ Siya asked, taking the cup of coffee Meera passed on to her. She inhaled deeply and the hot vapour warmed her cold face.
‘What can I say? It’s the way you look at people like you’re planning for a war that makes them move out of your way. Youcould try smiling. Maybe it’ll help,’ Meera said, taking a small sip.
Siya let out a soft sigh and blew on the steam. ‘That’s impossible. I was born with this face.’
They shared a short, merry laugh and the rigid tension slowly melted from her body. She could breathe easier just by being in Meera’s company.
‘How are you?’ Meera asked after a beat.
Siya hesitated, then lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. She had an upcoming day full of practiced lies and scripts to follow, but she’d be damned if that day began by her lying to her childhood friend.
Before Meera could ask further, Siya decided to deflect from the topic. She traced a thumb along the rim of the mug as she casually asked, ‘Have you spoken to Kashu?’
Meera gave her an exasperated look, like she’d caught onto her trick. But Siya took a deep breath when she let it go.
She patted the cream garment bags perched beside her and said, ‘Your assistant dropped off this brunch dress at your apartment last night. She didn’t know you’d moved in here. I stayed over with Kashu last night, so I thought I’ll bring these along.’
The dresses were glinting with colour and stones but her focus was stuck on what Meera had mentioned. A rush of emotions stung her eyes as Siya rasped, ‘You stayed with her last night?’
‘Of course I did,’ Meera stated as a matter of fact. She slipped her arm and looped it with hers. ‘She’s my baby sister too. I knew the first night would be the toughest so from here, Iwent straight to your place. I wasn’t about to leave her alone with nothing but stale takeout dinner and her chaotic thoughts.’
‘I didn’t even think of asking someone to stay with her. I just…’ Siya trailed off, feeling the familiar bite of guilt.
‘No, don’t do that. You can’t always be the one who stays strong. It’s okay to fall apart sometimes. You were surviving your own storm so it’s allowed that you missed a few things.’
She sniffled and rested her head on Meera’s shoulder. Thank god she had her friends who could step in. A flash of Abhay’s penetrating, whiskey eyes burst into her mind, and she quickly stomped it shut.
She leaned back enough to look at Meera and asked, ‘I hated leaving her like that. Is Kashu okay?’
Meera made a snorting sound. ‘She was too quiet for my liking, so I bullied her into eating parathe and curd with me. You know how she hates that. But she did take her revenge by forcing me to watch the worst horror movie ever made, so don’t feel too sorry for her.’
Siya laughed under her breath. It seemed like her baby sister was living up to her reputation of being a difficult child, and for that, she was proud of her. ‘She’s lucky you were there to put up with her.’
‘I put up with both of you,’ Meera sighed, wiping off non-existent sweat from her forehead. ‘Isn’t that why you gifted me the “mom of the group” coffee mug for my birthday last year?’
