Page 28 of Pillow Talk (Rally Romance #1)
S hona convinced herself that she had nothing to be heartbroken about.
Senthil Aiyer had been a friend with benefits and now it was over.
He had not made any promises to her and she hadn’t given him her heart.
She simply needed to get used to the idea of not having him around as often as he had been in the past nine months.
She’d arranged to meet a shopfitter at her new premises a week after signing the lease and, just as she was going through a book of paint swatches, her phone rang.
‘Stranger, have you forgotten your best friend?’
Shona laughed.
‘Anni, I’m so sorry. I know you’ve been busy, and I am too,’ she said.
‘I forgive you. I saw your mother earlier and she told me about the shop. Sho, you’re doing this. I can’t believe it – I’m so excited,’ she enthused.
‘Thanks, Anni. I’m nervous but excited too.’
‘I called to invite you to Sam’s birthday party on Saturday.
It’s last minute – I decided on the spur of the moment to have a party.
’ It was so unlike Anni to do anything on the spur of the moment.
It must mean her friend was finally healing from the childhood trauma that constantly made her doubt herself. Sam was good for her.
Shona knew she couldn’t refuse, even if Sen was going to be there. She would be mature about it. He’d moved on and she would respect that.
‘Give me the details. I’ll be there.’
Sen sat at the bar drinking a beer with his friend.
‘I’m so lucky,’ said Sam.
‘You are. Anni really outdid herself with this party.’
Sen looked around at the dance floor and the buffet station. People were genuinely enjoying themselves.
‘I didn’t know you had this many friends,’ he added.
‘Neither did I. Since when is the town’s pharmacist my friend? I think Anni may have gone overboard.’ Sam smiled indulgently.
‘And it’s awesome,’ Sen replied.
He spotted Shona at a table with Anni and her sister Aruna. They were doing shots.
Shona scrunched up her face when the liquid entered her mouth.
They were three hours into the party and she’d said only one word to him: ‘Hi.’
He still didn’t know why he was being ignored and he couldn’t corner her to get an answer. She was sticking to Anni like glue.
‘Are we buddies?’
‘No. I’ve just stuck with you all these years because I’m a sucker for punishment. What a dumb question, Sam.’
His friend laughed.
‘Are you drunk?’
Sam shook his head.
‘I’ll ask you that question again later tonight,’ Sen teased, ‘but for now, stop talking in riddles.’
A ballad came on.
‘I’m going to ask my wife to dance,’ said Sam and went to fetch Anni.
Sen watched him lead his wife to the dance floor. Aruna then went off to dance with a man she’d introduced to him as her fiancé.
Shona sat alone at the table. He put down his bottle and went over, taking a seat opposite her.
‘Are you going to run off?’
She rolled her eyes.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she lied.
‘You’re not avoiding me?’
‘Why would I do that?’
He pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘I’ve been asking myself the same thing. What’s with the hot and cold attitude, Shona?’
He saw a flash of anger cross her face and then she switched to pretend mode.
‘There’s no attitude. You’re busy. I’m busy. Our arrangement has reached its end,’ she said, clearly trying to sound matter-of-fact.
‘So you decided that on your own. You never thought to tell me you’re dumping me? You just ghosted me. How mature,’ he replied, an edge of sarcasm in his voice.
She sat forward and glared at him.
‘Don’t you dare play the victim here,’ she hissed.
‘Typical, complicated Shona,’ he replied.
‘Fuck you, Sen.’ She stood and stormed off.
He followed. ‘You don’t get to walk away without an explanation,’ he said.
She stopped and turned around. ‘I can do whatever I want. We have no obligation to each other. Just a no-strings-attached arrangement.’
He nodded.
‘Are you sure this is how you want to play it?’ he asked.
She took a step closer to him and looked up into his eyes. ‘Who’s playing?’
Before Sen could reply, Anni appeared.
‘Are you two okay?’
Shona turned to her and put on a fake smile. ‘Perfectly fine,’ she replied and walked off.
Shona went to the bar. She knew Anni was following.
Her friend took the stool next to her, paused for a moment and then said, ‘When we were growing up, I also thought Sen had feelings for you.’
‘And then when we turned 15, we discovered he didn’t,’ Shona replied bitterly.
‘Let me ask you this: when you started sleeping with Sen, did you really think you were not going to fall in love with him?’
Shona froze.
‘I figured it out a while back. I didn’t want to say anything because I thought you two would see what’s right in front of you. I was wrong,’ Anni said.
Shona turned to Anni.
‘I saw him kissing some woman outside a restaurant when I went to Durban to look at rental spaces,’ she said.
Anni shut her eyes for a few seconds.
‘Sho, you’re my closest and dearest friend. I love you. You’ve been my family most of my life, so it pains me to say this: you are an idiot.’
Shona jerked her head back. ‘I wasn’t expecting that.’
‘Did you speak to Sen about what you saw?’
Shona didn’t reply.
‘I knew it,’ said Anni.
Shona didn’t say anything.
‘You’re now going to march yourself to that table he is sitting at, sit your butt down and tell him,’ Anni ordered.
‘But …’
Anni narrowed her eyes.
‘Fine.’
Shona got off the stool, approached Sen and sat on the chair opposite him.
‘Anni knows we were sleeping together,’ she said.
He didn’t reply.
‘Can we get out of here? I think we need to talk,’ she whispered.
He looked directly at her face.
‘Alright,’ he said.
Shona stood up to go and say goodbye to her friend, but Anni had been watching and gestured for them to go.
‘I love you, Sho,’ she called out as they left the bar.
Once they were in the parking lot, Sen asked where she wanted to go, to which Shona replied her apartment. They drove in silence and, even when they were in her living room 15minutes later, they were both quiet.
Shona slipped off her heels. Sen stood with his hands in his jeans pockets.
‘I saw you kissing a woman outside a restaurant in Durban,’ she quickly said.
‘Did you stick around to see me push her away?’
Shona plopped down on the couch. She didn’t care that the hem of her little black dress had ridden up her thighs.
‘I didn’t think so,’ Sen added.
‘I—’
‘It was an ex-client’s stepdaughter who wormed her way into a lunch meeting and then she kissed me.
Yes, we went on a few dates years ago. It didn’t go further than a drink or two.
After my reaction to the stunt she pulled outside the restaurant, I don’t think she’ll ever cross my path again,’ he explained.
‘Okay,’ Shona replied.
‘Shona, I feel like when I take a step forward with you, we end up going two steps back. Perhaps you’re right. This arrangement isn’t working anymore,’ he said.
Shona nodded.
‘I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t want you to hurt me but it’s starting to get too intense,’ he went on.
She nodded again.
‘Can we agree to walk away as friends?’
Another nod.
‘Then I think I’m going to leave,’ he said.
Sen took one more look at her and left her apartment.
Shona lay back on the couch and pretended it was for the best.
Sen didn’t mean a single word he’d said to Shona two nights ago. It was about self-preservation. She was willing to throw away their friendship and relationship without even talking to him. That was enough to tell him that she didn’t care about him.
He lay on his couch and thought back to a hot summer’s afternoon when he was around 13years old. They were lying on their backs on a grassy spot under a tree overlooking the lake.
Breaking the silence, Anni said, ‘I hope the lake is here forever.’
‘It’s not like the lake can just get up and leave,’ he’d teased.
But Shona, now sitting bolt upright, had said, ‘But it can dry up or someone could buy this land and drain it to build a block of flats.’
‘That must never happen. I want to come here every summer with you two,’ was Anni’s reply, a look of alarm on her face.
‘Do you think we’ll still be friends when we grow up?’
He’d turned to look at Shona, pondering her question.
‘Why wouldn’t we be?’
Neither she nor Anni had answered.
After a while, he’d said, ‘I hope we’ll always be friends.’