‘You can be really mean, you know?’ he said, but a smile was sitting comfortably on his face. ‘If you haven’t noticed, fashion is kind of my thing. With your creative drive and my style instinct, we’ve got this clothing line pitch in the bag.’ For someone who’d blackmailed his boss to get out of doing any work, and then had to be reverse-blackmailed into finally doing it, he sure knew how to inspire confidence.
I held out my hand, not bothering to wipe off the truffle grease first. ‘Deal.’
The waiter brought out our bill as Neil’s strong, tanned hand closed around mine. And then he was holding out his credit card.
I frowned. ‘We’re splitting.’ I might be broke, but I still had my pride.
‘Don’t be ridiculous. You barely ate anything.’
‘That’s not the point,’ I said, trying to wrestle the card out of his hand.
He pulled his hand all the way back, so I’d have to jump over the table to get to it. I won’t lie, I thought about it. ‘Then consider it my peace offering for starting that whole blackmail circus.’
The waiter glanced nervously between the two of us, wondering what to do. He must’ve seen some resignation on my face because he proceeded to accept the card from Neil.
That was a pretty cheap peace offering, I thought to myself.If I’d known, I would’ve ordered a damn pasta.
twelve
An !dea Can Change Your Life
Thatweekend, Nikita gave me a mini heart attack. ‘Babe, I found Neil on Instagram.’
I almost dropped my boiling hot coffee all over our landlord’s living room couch. ‘What?’
IswearI hadn’t told her anything. Even though I’m pretty sure I’d developed acid reflux from keeping Neil’s secret, I hadn’t breathed a word to anyone. And now that he and I had arrived at somewhat of a truce, it was more important than ever to make sure I didn’t jeopardize that.
Nikita joined me on the couch, head buried in her phone. ‘Look,’ she said, handing it to me.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I didn’t see the words @devilwearscolaba on the screen. But the feeling was soon replaced with something else … something strange. Because there he was, standing in front of a waterfall, lips locked with a drop-dead gorgeous, fit woman with legs longer than a Kartik Aaryan monologue.
I recognized her instantly. Who wouldn’t? Her face was plastered on half a dozen billboards around town. ‘The Lakmé model?’
‘Yup. Aarushi Garg.’
And that wasn’t the only PDA-infested photo on her page. There were hundreds of posts of them holding hands at the beach, dancing at parties, blowing out birthday candles and doing all kinds of nauseating couple BS, dating all the way back to 2018. And she’d only stopped posting photos with him around December 2024, six months ago.
For some odd reason, that really threw me off. I’d always gotten fuckboi vibes from Neil, so finding out that he’d dated the same girl for most of his adult life was … disorienting.
‘They’re not together anymore?’ I asked Nikita, as if she’d have some inside info on my intern.
‘I guess so.’ She placed her head on my shoulder so she could look at the photos with me. ‘It’s a shame though. They would’ve made some really banger babies.’
I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. ‘Maybe they’ll get back together.’
Nikita hummed in agreement. ‘Everyone knows you don’t put up a full on kissing photo with your boyfriend on Instagram unless he’syour person.’
I thought about what she’d said before deciding that there was truth in her words. I had never quite managed to hard launch Arjun on my Instagram, even though we had dated for four years. Something about announcing us to my friends and family, including every nosy relative who followed me to keep tabs on me, had felt unnecessary. Maybe, deep down, I’d always known he wasn’t my person.
‘BT dubs, you never told me about the dirt you’d found on him.’ Nikita angled her face to look up at me, pulling me out of my head.
‘Oh …’ I racked my brain to come up with something believable. ‘He, er, takes thirst traps in the office washroom.’
She pouted, clearly disappointed. ‘Who doesn’t?’
A laugh bubbled out of me. In twenty-four years of my existence, I’d never met someone like Nikita. She really was a character. ‘It’s fine, though.’ My torso kept sliding on the couch until I was almost horizontal. ‘We’ve called a ceasefire.’
She harrumphed. ‘Let’s see how longthatlasts.’
