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She slapped the tissue onto the counter and whirled around furiously.
“Fine! Your girlfriend told her mother that even though you hate every minute that you spend with me, you have to keep me sweet to get me to loosen the purse strings. And that I’ve had a crush on you for so long that it’s not even funny anymore. And she also said that if you announced your engagement at Nivy’s wedding, I would make a scene,” she snarled.
She looked shattered, and Aryan wanted to strangle Arshia for telling such obvious lies. But he couldn’t get one thing out of his mind. Jessie said that she had already suspected all this. What did that even mean?
“Jess, none of that is true, and you know it,” he began.
She leaned against the vanity counter and stared at him bleakly.
“Do I?”
Aryan wanted to put his fist through the wall next to her.
“Jessie Singh, if you believe that I would use you like that, then you don’t know me at all.”
“Other people have done exactly that. Why not you, Aryan?”
“Because I’m not that sort of man. I don’t need your money!”
“Then why are you still here?” she cried.
Aryan grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her hard.
“For you, you daft woman! I’m here because I can’t stay away from you!”
She snorted disbelievingly.
“And isn’t it convenient how you discovered that only after you started the clinic? Until then, you had no problem staying away from me. We barely acknowledged each other after that horrible kiss!”
“Stop calling it horrible. It was sweet,” he argued.
“Yes, so sweet that you pushed me away and said you only thought of me as a friend. Funny how I suddenly became more attractive to you after I joined the board of the Foundation,” she raged.
Aryan stilled and stared at her as if he were seeing her for the first time. He couldn’t believe that her confident and fearless exterior lay such a dark mass of insecurity. How was it possible that she didn’t see herself as others did?
He grabbed her shoulders firmly and turned her around to face the mirror.
“Jessie, can you - honestly - tell me what you see in there?”
She stared at her reflection unhappily.
“I see me, Aryan. I see a short, dumpy woman that nobody wants. I see a stupid, stupid patsy,” she replied bitterly.
Her brutal self-assessment felt like a punch to Aryan’s gut.
“Can I tell you what I see?”
“You’ll just tell me what you think I want to hear,” she said stubbornly.
“So, all those times that I called you a spoilt, entitled brat, was it because you wanted to hear that?”
Doubt flashed across her face, as she mulled over his words.
“I have never lied to you, Jess. And I don’t intend to start now. I don’t need your money. I’ll build my community clinic on my own, thank you very much. And now, let me tell you what I see every time I set eyes on you.”
He stepped forward to stand behind her, cradling her with the warmth of his body.
“Where you see a short and dumpy woman, I see someone whose head can lay on my shoulder, perfectly placed for a kiss. A woman whose curves make me forget my own name. One who fits into my arms like she’s made for me. Where you see a woman that nobody wants, I see the most beautiful woman on earth. A woman who has been haunting my dreams for years. A woman who makes me miserable because no other woman can match up to her. But one who is utterly and completely out of my reach.”
