But I didn't go. Why? Because, Sara sent a girl from marketing to keep an eye on me and she followed me everywhere . After some time, I gave up the idea of slipping away from this place unnoticed and made small talk with her.

She was telling me about her clingy, possessive but loving husband when my phone buzzed, showing an incoming message. It just read

'Where are you?'

He is mistaken if he thought I would reply to his dumb message in seconds. I continued to listen to my new friend when my phone vibrated again. But this time he was calling me. My first instinct was to ignore it but then again, he never called me. Like ever.

"What?" I said being my usual mannered self.

"Riya, where are you? I will come and meet you," is it just me or did he really sound desperate.

"I am not meeting you, Ash. What makes you think...?"

"It's about Sasha" there was a pregnant pause and once I recovered I told him to meet me in the office canteen.

*************************

I was looking at Ash with a serious look and he was just staring at his glass of water. Two tables behind him was my friend/bodyguard for the day, happily sipping her coffee. It has been twelve minutes (yes, I have been checking my phone every minute) and he hasn't uttered a single word yet. It was fine with me because I was not in a mood to listen to him.

You are never in a mood to listen to him.

That's because asked me to ignore him for the rest of my life.

True that. I really wonder what Nick is doing right now. He hasn't called back yet.

And I wonder what is doing, considering the fact you have been throwing numerous ways of ambushing him at his house all morning.

Yaa that..., guy. But Nick is...

Oh, shut up you Nick-freak.

Ash's throat clearing pulls me out of my reverie "so you and Ryan? Who would have thought? I was surprised; I mean... you know..."I lifted my pointing finger, asking him to pause

"Ok first of all it's none of your business, second he is not my boyfriend. Third what do you mean? That I can never have a boyfriend? And lastly I am not here to discuss about my love life."

"Riya that is not what I meant. I...just..." he was exhaling constantly. For a second I thought he was suffering from asthma. Then it came to me that this was Ash, he did not suffer from any kind of common ailments, he was an alien, golden boy in medical history and star athlete. He was just taking his time for constructing sentences carefully because one wrong word from him could do more damage than an atom-bomb did to Hiroshima.

After a lot of contemplation, he finally looked up confidently and spoke,

"I met her at the dinner."

"I know, I tried to stop her from coming. But it didn't work."

"She was not exactly happy to see me."

"Who is ever?" I was not happy to see him. Sasha, I can only imagine. My mother would start weeping the minute she sees Ash.

It looked like he wanted to say something else but instead stopped and said, "You were" with a smirk.

Ha-ha, so funny. Even if Ash was my boss, who was on the verge of giving me a promotion, even then I would have never cracked a smile for what he said. So, I gave him an unimpressed look.

"Ok fine I know. But here's the thing Riya..." I knew what he would say next and I was preparing myself to not show any kind of emotion. "I still love her."

He sounded and looked serious and I knew he meant every word of what he said. But he is an idiot if he thinks Sasha will fall for it even if he already broke her heart once. I let out a humorless chuckle and looked at him like he is an idiot.

"Oh, so now you love her."

"Riya, you and I both know that I have always loved her. She knows it too. She doesn't have to say me but I know that she still harbors feelings for me. I know that I messed up but the least she could do is give me some time."

"Seriously, Ash? Just... don't. How dare you? How dare you say the least she could do is give you some time, when all she has been doing for the past one year was pick up all the broken pieces of her heart one by one, that you have shattered when you disappeared on her suddenly without informing. One day you were madly in love with her and the next day you were just gone. Do you have any idea of what my friend went through because of you?" I was seething. Ash looked stunned at my sudden outburst, but what did he expect?

"So, she is your friend now? Who am I? The bad guy?"

"Ash" I was really trying to keep my voice void of emotions. But the way he was talking was getting to me. "Don't you dare go there. I am here for Sasha and her only. If there is anything else you want to talk about, I am out of here. Because right now I am just treating you as the guy that broke my friend's heart, if that isn't the context you don't exist to me."

"That's not even fair. Why are you being like this?" then he raised his hands up in surrender and added "you know what? Forget it. You want me to talk about Sasha? Let's talk about Sasha. I know what I did was wrong and I am sorry. But you should understand it was a hard thing for me. Sasha wanted a life together and I was not ready to give her what she wanted. It was fast, we knew each other for only few years and I was not ready to settle down. Every minute apart I regretted running away, but I was not ready for a big step just yet."

Is he dumb?

"She wanted commitment you idiot. She did not want you to move in with her or give her a rock-of-a-ring. She wanted you to assure her you wouldn't leave. She wanted commitment from you and what did you do? You ran away like the coward you are. Courage –the cowardly dog is more courageous than you. And now you come here to say that you still love her? You should be ashamed of yourself."

"Then all she should have done is just ask me, not give hints that I can't catch. Why couldn't she just ask me if I ever had any ideas of leaving her?" his nostrils were flaring and any minute now I am waiting to see fire emit out of them.

"Oh, so she would ask and you would say 'never'? But guess what . So that proves nothing. You have no right to come back now and expect a place in her life. She is finally happy and I will not let you ruin it for her."

"Is she?" Ash asked me with a smug smirk.

"She is. She is getting married to Nick and he is twice the man you will ever be. And guess what? He doesn't run away. With him she will not have to worry about commitments because he will never leave her and he is ," stupid brain, stupid stupid brain. Why did you add the last part?

Shut up it is pay back. And someone was getting really protective of Nick.

He let out a heavy breath

"Riya, listen I know this is all messed up but can you... can we...this..." I felt bad for him for just a second but then images of Sasha from a year ago flashed in my head. The always chirpy, cheerful, rude and bossy Sasha became weepy, whiny, pessimistic silent killer. It took me months to get her out of her house. All she did was go to her work, eat a lot, weep at night, watch romantic movies and curse their makers. She was madly in love with Ash and was hinting him to meet her parents and make their realtionship official, but this guy ran away.

"Riya before all this, you know all of this. We used to be friends" I gave him a flat look "you were the one I would turn up to if I had a problem and you always had answers. Can we for once go back to being that just till I get back Sasha? Riya please, I love her and I can't afford losing her forever. It is killing me."

No no no no nooooooooo....

But it is killing him.

Good, he deserves it.

"Fine, but not until you get her back. Because I don't believe it can happen. She is happy with Nick, I don't see why she must get back with you. But since you are dying, I will consider it as your last wish and I can only advice you. And my advice is, go talk to her. She needs to know, what you have been through and why you did what you did. Tell her the usual stuff that she likes, like you love her and all that. I suggest you do this as soon as possible and after pouring your heart out give her some time. She needs it, let her weigh her opinions and then she can tell you what she thinks."

He was deep in thought and after a few minutes sighed and asked "do you think I have a chance?"

"If it were me, well, I would slam my door shut on you, with your neck in the way but this is Sasha. With her you never know what to expect. One last tip, she isn't here. She texted me this morning, saying she flew off to some island." I said with a shrug.

That is Sasha for you. If she ever had a problem or was upset or stressed she packed clothes, drove to the airport and hopped on the next flight to nowhere. She said that thinking less about the problem helps in finding better solution. As twisted as that logic was, it worked for her. Who am I to complain?

"That was encouraging... so she went on another trip" Ash opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and simply said "I better go then." He lifted himself from the table and started walking away with a frown etched on his face. I resumed drinking my orange juice "Thank you Riya. It means a lot." I did not bother looking at him and acted nonchalant.

"Now, we are back to who we really are to each other. You. Don't. Exist. To. Me."

Ash walked away with one final shrug and Jenny i.e. my bodyguard for the day made her way to where I was sitting.

"He is one fine specimen," she said still looking in the direction where Ash just disappeared.

"You are married."

"Doesn't mean I can't ogle at hunks. Please, I have a right to look at something beautiful and appreciate it."

"Jenny, hypothetically if you are mad at someone... like your... husband. What do you do?" I asked this because Jenny looked like someone who dealt everything in her life in a peaceful way.

"There are many things I do. Like lock him up in the shower the next day, cook a bad dinner, wear dresses he doesn't approve off... who are you angry at?"

Oh no one just our boss who is also my 'boyfriend'.

Why do you say it like you like it?

I don't like it, I do not see Ryan like and you know it.

You better not like anyone that way. There is only one guy who can be looked at like that and it is Nick.

You can shut it Nick's fan girl. I will never look at like .

Yaa whatever but right now you should be thinking about Ryan.

~*~*~*~*~*

Hello to all new, old and permanent readers.

Thank you for all the support. Until next time, stay happy.

Read. Vote. Comment. Share