Page 24

Arden

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

This is not how this evening was supposed to go!

We were supposed to meet here separately.

Maintaining our meanness is our thing routine.

Do our jobs.

And then meet my parents for a late dinner at this little hole in the wall wing spot next to a poolhall where Dad swore, he’d have his pancake payback.

That was the plan.

Not this.

Not embarrassing myself in front of only Gretzky knows how many fans.

And colleagues.

And the boys.

And worst of all my smug face sibling that I didn’t throat strike during my fleeing only because after a scrap when we were teens – in which I broke a couple of her ribs – I swore to my parents I’d only use words to hurt her.

I regret making that promise.

Almost as much as I regret idiotically getting into a public screaming match with my secret boyfriend where my boss could potentially hear.

Fuck!

Love makes you do the stupidest shit.

Getting into my jeep that’s parked in the building’s side lot is suddenly stopped by Khurana shouting, “Wait!” The absence of a camera grants him the ability to jog faster. “Arden, Wait!”

I don’t wanna wait.

I wanna get in my jeep, get to my dog, and get to shoveling back whatever’s left of the cream of lobster soup Tanner was inspired to make post a heated discussion regarding syllabus changes with his father.

“Just…” he slightly pants proving just how out of shape he is, “ wait. ”

“For what?” my shoulders slump in further defeat. “More yelling? More pictures? More videos?” At the last line, I shoot him a small glare. “And why didn’t you give me any kind of heads up our boss was in the fucking building?”

“Why did I need to?” Khurana challenges back upon his arrival. “Why did you have to constantly go behind my back and verify with Hennington about how much time you needed to be spending with Frosky instead of me?!”

Oh, look.

This isn’t going too wellskies either.

“Why did you have to start dating him?!” Unexpected anger surges through his voice. “Why did you keep dating him?! Why did you start sleeping with him?! Why didn’t you believe any of the fucking stories I told you about him with other women?! The stories we had other people tell you?! The stories we helped spread online?!”

His accidental pronoun change prompts my eyebrows to incredulously lift. “ We ?”

Khurana noticeably gulps but doesn’t verbally confess to anything.

“ We?! ” I quietly repeat on a step towards him. “Who is we , Khurana?” Another stomp forward is taken. “ Who. The. Fuck. Is. We? ”

“Your sister.”

Malevolent moans immediately rattle my chest.

Throat.

“I’m in love with you, and she explained he’s really in love with her-”

His head suddenly bucks back from my fist crashing into the top of his open mouth.

“ Fu- ”

Repeating the action is prompt and equally accurate.

“ F- ”

One more successfully severs any ability to speak as he fumbles to his knees to spit out blood.

Or teeth.

Or both.

Hell, he could be throwing up his own lung for all I know.

Whatever’s leaving him, doesn’t matter to me.

What matters is that he manipulated me.

That she manipulated him.

That they selfishly worked together to manipulate me into ruining everything I love.

Huh.

Talk about a play I never saw coming.