The Girl He Left Behind (13 page)

Later, they lay in each other’s arms in silence. Sia sprawled boneless over his chest with her eyes closed as her breathing slowed and settled. Watching the sunlight streaming through the window play over her body, Ryan ran a gentle hand down her back. When she didn’t move an inch, he rolled her gently to one side, anchoring her with an arm around her waist and keeping her back to his chest. Letting the peace of the moment wash over him, he fell asleep to the sound of her gentle breathing. He woke an hour later to silence and an empty bedroom.

Dressed in jeans and a pale blue kurta, Sia walked into office a couple of hours later with only one thing on her mind. She’d left a note for Ryan, telling him she had an important meeting and would call him later. She couldn’t wait for work to be over. Hugging the delight spreading through her, Sia did a quick twirl in the middle of the corridor. She felt whole again and not just because she’d made love but because she’d made love with Ryan. Feeling the weight of all her insecurities slide away under the wash of love flooding her, she smiled broadly at anyone who passed her. She was going to spend the rest of her life making up for all the time she had lost.

Ajay was sipping from a large cup of coffee and lazily flipping sheets in a file when she caught sight of him. Scanning the area, she saw plenty of people at their desk for witnesses. Good. Walking over, she grabbed his cup from his hand and emptied it over his head.

Yelping, he leapt up frantically trying to keep the coffee out of his eyes. Judging from the splatters on her hand, the coffee was only lukewarm. That was unfortunate. Ignoring the curious looks, she waited for him to stop sputtering and meet her eyes.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

‘Frigid? Touch me not?’ When she saw his eyes widen with
understanding, she raised her voice so people at the neighbouring tables could hear her more clearly. ‘You’ve asked me out on innumerable occasions. I’ve told you every single time that I’m not interested. If you ever slander me or approach me for anything that is even remotely personal again, I will report you to Human Resources. I have witnesses and I have proof. From now on, the only time you communicate with me in any way is if it is something to do with work. Understood?’

Nodding warily, he wiped another trickle of coffee from his temple. ‘This wasn’t necessary.’

‘Oh, I think it was. I’m done being anyone’s victim.’ Turning on her heel, she was already a few feet away when his voice reached her. ‘You really didn’t have to. Your boyfriend already took care of it. I apologized and everything.’

‘Took care of it?’ She didn’t even need to query the nonexistent boyfriend; she already knew who it was.

‘Can’t blame him though.’ Shrugging, Ajay looked about as ashamed as he could with matted hair and coffee streaks all over his face and white shirt. ‘I would have done worse if I’d heard some guy talking trash about the girl I was in love with.’

‘He’s not in love with me.’ Even as she made the reflexive denial, she let the little bubble of hope form and grow inside of her. She needed Ryan to say it before she believed it completely.

‘If you say so.’ Clearing his throat, he said with as much grace as he could manage under the circumstances, ‘I’m sorry about the things I said. It was just my ego blowing off some steam. It won’t happen again.’

Accepting the gesture in the spirit it was meant, Sia nodded before walking towards the bank of elevators. So that’s where he’d got the black eye from. Punching in her floor, she made her way to her cabin. She was going to finish work and then take some time to make sense of the incredible morning she’d had.
Banishing the goofy smile plastered on her face, she dialled into the video conference and tried to focus on work. Three quarters of an hour later, she looked up to a tap on her door.

‘Coffee?’ Grinning, Minty held up two steaming mugs.

‘You heard.’ Locking her laptop, Sia held out a hand for one of the mugs. Taking a deep, appreciative sip, she eyed Minty over the rim. ‘Are you here to applaud me or yell at me for being a tad reckless?’

‘A tad?’

Sia shrugged, ‘I don’t care. A tad, more than a tad. I needed to make my point.’

‘You did that quite spectacularly. Apparently, so did Ryan a few days back. Although I suppose some would say his point had a bit more impact?’

Snickering at her bad pun, Minty put her mug down on the table before she spilled any coffee. Noticing Sia was too preoccupied to join in her juvenile humour, she asked, ‘What are you thinking?’

Making up her mind, Sia put the mug down firmly before grabbing Minty’s hand. ‘Do I look different?’

Minty’s eyebrows shot up skyward as she took a closer look at Sia. Flushed face, feverishly bright eyes, fidgety hands that played with the end of her ponytail and a foot that was tapping away frantically under the table came into focus.

Mystified, Minty watched in silence for a second, ‘Should I even ask? Or would it be better if I just kept quiet?’

Tap, tap, tap.

Staring at the foot tapping out a staccato rhythm on the floor, Minty waited for an answer. When none seemed forthcoming, she put one foot down gently on Sia’s.

Grinning quizzically, she tried again. ‘Something you want to tell me?’

‘Ryan and I. We sort of. We kind of.’

‘You sort of?’ Trying to not to think of all the ways those fragments could end, Minty waited patiently for Sia to finish a sentence.

‘We spent the morning together. In bed.’ Hearing herself blurt it out so baldly, Sia groaned and buried her flaming cheeks in her hands. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking.’ When several minutes passed in silence, she peeked out at Minty through her fingers. A slightly hysterical snort of laughter escaped her as she realized that for the first time in her life she’d completely silenced Minty. Mouth open, she was staring at Sia like she’d sprouted two heads. Or maybe even three.

‘Please say something. Anything!’ Sia begged.

Before Minty could come up with a reply, the door opened and Ryan strode in. One look at his expression had Minty scrambling off the desk and Sia’s foot tapping nervously again.

‘Could I have a minute alone with Sia, Minty?’ The suppressed fury in his voice had Minty swallowing the smart aleck remark on the tip of her tongue and nodding quickly. She gave Sia’s shoulder a quick squeeze before sidestepping Ryan and leaving.

‘Things have really changed in the last six years.’

Not knowing quite what to make of the acerbic remark, Sia nodded cautiously. ‘I suppose it has.’

‘Six years ago, you would never have left me in your bed and walked out without a single word.’

‘Six years ago, you would never have had a chance of being in my bed unless we were married.’ A sense of foreboding creeping over her, Sia’s eyes flashed with hurt. ‘And I left a note.’

‘A note? I guess it went missing before I woke up. I’m surprised you didn’t leave some money anchoring it.’

Shock turning her insides to ice, Sia opened her mouth but found she couldn’t speak. All her gloriously happy plans of this
morning crashing around her, she mutely took in the sight of him standing hip shot in the centre of her tiny cabin.

‘I thought I could do this but I can’t.’ Suddenly weary, he ran a hand across his face trying to regain some semblance of control. The anger drained away at her silence leaving only gut wrenching hurt in its place. ‘I thought if I could just chip away at all your objections, if I could prove you wrong then maybe just maybe I could get you to fall in love with me again.’

‘Ryan-’

Lifting a hand to stop her, he continued, ‘I thought if I fought for us hard enough, if I worked at understanding your concerns and proved to you that I deserved a second chance it was only a matter of time before I got it. But I won’t be used. I thought I was getting a second chance. I didn’t realize all I was getting was sex. Great sex.’ An ironic smile twisting his lips, he shook his head. Who knew he would be the one demanding respect after a tumble in bed? And that’s all it had been to her. ‘All my life, I’ve had to fight for what I wanted. I’m done fighting for this. I need you to want me and a future with me as badly as I do. I need you to fight for us, to choose us. I want a lifetime with you but apparently you don’t think I even rate a conversation.’

Forcing words past the constriction in her chest, Sia tried desperately to get him to listen to her. ‘I just needed some time to-’

‘Well, now you’ve got all the time in the world.’

Even through her unshed tears, Sia got a clear view of Ryan walking away. Then the door slammed and there was only silence.

‘Ryan.’ Minty’s voice hailed him from across the parking lot later that night. He’d been working late trying to tie up everything so he could go home and space out in bed. He was going to be on the first flight to Mumbai in the morning. Dropping his laptop bag and suit jacket into the backseat of his car, he turned and waited for her to catch up with him.

Huffing and panting, she bent over with her hands on her hips trying to catch her breath.

‘You really shouldn’t run in those shoes.’ He said, eyeing her stilettos. ‘You’ll end up breaking your neck or something.

‘Have you seen Sia recently?’ She managed between deep gulps of air.

‘Only earlier today when I threw you out of her office. Why?’ Pulling a bottle of water from his car, he handed it to her. Her face was an alarming shade of red.

‘No. I mean, have you seen her post lunch?.’

Disquiet making the hairs on the back of his neck rise, he asked again, ‘Why are you asking?’

‘Because I haven’t seen or spoken to her since. She isn’t answering my calls either on her mobile or her landline. She isn’t in office and I called her neighbour who says the lights aren’t on in her house either.’

Recalling the look on her face when she said she wanted time, Ryan said, ‘Maybe she just wanted some time alone. She might be driving around trying to clear her head or something.’

‘Why would she do that?’ Tuning in to the undertone weaving through his voice, Minty glared, ‘What happened between the two of you?’

Talking over the guilt and confusion clawing through his insides, Ryan said, ‘Look, I’m sure she’s home by now. Why don’t we drive by her place and check?’

Not wasting time arguing, Minty walked over to the passenger side and got in. Swearing silently at himself and the world in general, Ryan got in and started the car. Glancing at Ryan’s set profile, Minty kept her thoughts to herself for the entire drive. Turning into Sia’s lane, they took in the house still shrouded in darkness.

‘If you’ve said or done anything to hurt her again, I’m going to kill you this time.’

Grimly staring at the dark house, Ryan nodded. ‘Any ideas on where she would go?’

‘Plenty. No ideas on why she isn’t taking my calls.’

Flipping his phone out, Ryan tried calling Sia only to have it ring fruitlessly.

‘Shit.’ Dropping his phone near the parking brake, he got out of the car. With Minty at his heels, he walked up to the porch and rang the doorbell. Leaning on it as hard as he could, he waited. When pounding on the door didn’t get them a response, they did a quick walk around the house, rattling windows and calling out her name. Barring a few curtains swishing in neighbouring houses, they got no reply.

‘Do you have a spare key?’

‘No. I gave it to her mother when they arrived unexpectedly once and forgot to take it back.’

Swearing, Ryan walked back to the front and pulled his wallet
out. Riffling through his cards for the most worn and used one, he yanked out an unused gift card. Sliding the card through the gap, he flexed till he felt the bolt give and slip back. Pushing the door open before it clicked shut again, he held it open for Minty to enter.

Smiling faintly at Minty’s raised eyebrows, he shrugged. ‘My misspent youth has some uses. My parents often locked me in my room without dinner or lunch as punishment. I just busted out after they slept and ate to my heart’s content.’

A quick scan of all the rooms told them what they already knew. The house had been empty since morning. The dirty dishes were still in the sink and the unread morning paper lay casually tossed across the sofa. Leaving Minty to the kitchen and drawing room, Ryan walked into the bedroom and stared at the unmade bed. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he took in the twisted sheets and rumpled pillows. Turning the light on he proceeded to look through the room for any indication of where she could be. When his search of the room turned up nothing, he gave the sheets one last yank in frustration before turning to leave. The crackle of paper under his foot had him stopping and crouching.

Picking up the scrap of paper, his eyes traced the words.

‘I’m running into office for an important meeting. I’ll be home in a couple of hours. Knowing you only snore as loudly as you were this morning when you’re very tired, I left you to sleep it off. We need to talk. I don’t know where this is going to take us but wherever it is I hope it’s together. Call me or I’ll call you once my meeting is done.

P.S- You rocked my world, Ry’

Forcing himself to unclench his fist and stop mangling the note, Ryan tucked it into his wallet.

‘Should we call her parents or the police?’ Minty’s forlorn voice reached him through the darkness.

‘Are you sure she wouldn’t have just gone somewhere to clear her head? She has a tendency to do that if she has things on her mind.’ He’d certainly given her enough to think about. Guilt shredding his insides, he tried to think of where she might be.

‘She would answer the phone and tell me she was okay. She wouldn’t ignore my calls.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Of course, I’m sure.’ She snapped back at him. ‘She always replies to calls and messages as promptly as possible. It’s been over six hours since I last spoke to her and she hasn’t called back or even messaged. I’m telling you something is wrong. You know her, Ryan. She wouldn’t do this.’

Thinking back to that morning’s fiasco, he winced. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Where?’ Struggling to keep up with him in her heels, Minty swore and tugged them off and threw them in the backseat of the car.

‘We’ll drive around all the spots she would normally go to and see if we can spot her there or on the road. Call Adarsh. He can take some of the places. We need to split up into two cars too. If we still don’t find her, we’ll call her parents and go to the police.’

Gripping the steering wheel, he kept his eyes peeled for any sign of Sia. He could hear Minty on the phone with Adarsh telling him to check out a few places. Blanking his mind out to all the horrific possibilities, he turned into the all night library. A quick scan of the brightly lit premises told them she wasn’t here. Leaving, they drove to the next venue, a coffee shop they often frequented even as children.

Two hours later, Minty was ready to accept defeat. Adarsh hadn’t seen any sign of her either. ‘We need to call her parents and the cops. Ryan, look at me.’ Tugging at his shirt to get him to stop his ceaseless scanning of the area, she said, ‘It’s almost
midnight. We’ll check the house one last time to see if she’s come back and then we’ll call her parents.’

Ryan looked like he’d aged ten years in the last two hours. Remote as his expression was, he couldn’t mask the despair in his eyes as he took one last scan of the area before nodding.

In silence, they made their way back to the car before driving into the night again.