‘Mhmm,’ I hummed, distracted. Turns out other people’s drama isn’t half as interesting when your own life starts feeling like a daily soap.
‘Hey, you okay?’ she asked, peering at me.
I just shook my head, not knowing what to say. It’s not like I could tell Tanya about the unique predicament I was in. She knew nothing about my secret, so telling her about my blackmailing intern was out of the question.
‘Kavya?’ she probed, placing a hand on my arm.
Sighing, I looked up at her. ‘I’m exhausted. The work never ends.’
She pouted sympathetically. ‘What can I do to help?’
I smiled slowly, feeling a surge of love for her. She always looked out for me. ‘You can help me get drunk after work.’
‘I wish I could, really, but you know dad doesn’t like it when I’m out late.’
‘Just for an hour or two? Or you can stay over at my place if he doesn’t want you travelling late …’ I knew what she was going to say before she did.
‘I’m sorry. I just can’t.’
I nodded, feeling entirely deflated. Tanya’s unavailability beyond work hours wasn’t new. It wasn’t her fault, obviously, that her parents were stuck in the Stone Age, but I couldn’t help but feel frustrated that she never even tried to push back. Freedom is rarely ever granted with Indian parents. You have to negotiate it—aggressively. I didn’t express any of that to her, though. I just let her hug me before walking back to my desk to begin packing up for the week.
When I got there, Saloni appeared beside me.
‘Hey.’ She nodded at me before turning to Neil, who unplugged his AirPods and greeted her with a cheerful smile. ‘Great job on that deck!’
‘Oh, of course. No biggie,’ Neil said, looking up at her.
She leaned against his desk, one hand resting on the edge, the other tracing her hoop earring. ‘I’ve been asking Kavya to do a proper competitor analysis for ages, but she’s always swamped with God knows what. Glad it finally happened.’
Had she forgotten that I wasright there? And why was she talking to Neil anyway? She’d never wasted her breath on an intern before.
Neil glanced at me from the corner of his eye. He must’ve noticed how furious I looked, because he said, ‘Well, she walked me through most of it. I’d have been lost without her.’
His words took me by surprise. The gall of this man—stealing credit and giving it back in the same breath.
She smiled politely before changing the topic. ‘Nice shirt, by the way. Heading somewhere after work, are you?’ She wiggled her eyebrows in a way that felt an awful lot like flirting.
‘Yeah, a friend’s throwing a party,’ he answered.
‘Your girlfriend going with you?’
‘No … no girlfriend,’ he said with a casual shrug, like there was nothing strange about this line of questioning.
I huffed, acutely irritated that I had to sit here and listen to this crap. It’s a good thing she left a few minutes later, or I’d have suffered brain damage from violently rolling my eyes.
‘Spit it out,’ Neil said, turning his chair.
‘Spit what out?’ I continued closing the million odd tabs open on my browser.
‘Whatever snarky remark you’re holding back.’
I tilted my chin up. ‘Why would I say anything? It’s your life … if you want to spend it flirting with a married woman, that’s fine by me.’
‘Aw, don’t be jealous,’ he said, chuckling. ‘Besides, I wasn’t the one flirting.’
‘I’m not jealous of her. I’membarrassedfor her.’
He leaned back and crossed his arms against his chest. The movement had his biceps flexing, the muscles peeking out from under the fitted sleeve of his crisp olive green shirt. It was a nice shirt, I’ll give Saloni that.
