Chapter 55
CHAPTER 55
Ash
I stood in front of the mirror getting ready for my date tonight, Frank and Charlie were there, lying on my bed with Petal climbing all over them. They’d come over to babysit, in case I was going to stay out all night, because Anushka and Aayan were away at a cousin’s wedding. After much back and forth, we’d all decided I should wear the light blue dress and that I should paint my nails the same color and wear the coral-colored lip-gloss that I’d stolen from Sarah.
“Your enthusiasm for this date is really radiating off you,” Charlie said as I stood fiddling with my hair for a disproportionately long time.
“I’m kind of questioning why you’re even going at this stage,” Frank said, holding Petal up above his head.
“I do want to go, it’s just that . . . No! I want to go. I want to.”
“Clearly no psychologist here, but sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself of that.” Frank was swinging Petal back and forth now and Petal was attacking the air with her paws—adorable.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you were. Max was really fucking hot, and nice,” Charlie said.
“Christ, if I have to hear how good-looking this guy is one more time, I think I might get sick. We get it, Charlie—he’s hot,” snapped Frank.
“Why do you get so irritated every time I say that, but it’s okay for everyone else to say it?” she asked angrily.
I turned round and watched them as they began bickering again.
“Guys, stop,” Sarah said, coming into the room with a giant bag of chips.
“But he is,” Charlie insisted. “He’s hot as hell, and on top of that, he was so sweet and considerate, the way he put your feelings first like that, even though you could see how hurt he felt. Max gets my vote. I vote against this date with Hot Doc, and vote for a date with Max.”
“For heaven’s sake.” Frank got up off the bed and walked out of the room with Petal.
Charlie flopped back down on the bed. “What’s his problem again?” she asked, but honestly, I didn’t quite know. These two had been at each other’s throats much more than usual lately.
“Just because he’s hot and nice, doesn’t mean I should be dating him instead of Sibu.”
“Then what other attributes does a guy have to have for you to date him?” Charlie asked, sitting up on my bed, glancing into the next room, presumably to see where Frank had gone.
“He’s got to not be my ex-boyfriend.” I turned back to the mirror and fiddled with my hair one last time.
“I hate to point out the giant, gaping hole in that statement, but technically Sibu is an ex-boyfriend too,” Sarah said.
“But Sibu wasn’t a boyfriend that totally broke me. With Max it’s too dangerous. There’s too much of a chance that it’ll end badly again and then I’ll find myself living under some new Max-induced curse for the next thirteen years.”
Sarah eyed me suspiciously for a moment and then looked across at Charlie who nodded at her.
“You’ve got feelings for him!” Sarah started walking over to me and Charlie followed close behind.
“The only feeling I have for him is fear of having feelings for him. Not actual feelings.”
“You fear having feelings for him, but you don’t have feelings for him?” Charlie asked.
“Exactly,” I replied.
“Or you’re afraid, because you do have feelings for him,” she said.
I blinked at Charlie, and then looked at Sarah, who gave me a small knowing nod. I didn’t like or want small knowing nods right now.
“You have feelings for him!” Sarah reiterated. “And then you went and had sex with him.”
“How could she not have had sex with him, though?” Charlie said, just as Frank came back into the room.
“Are you still talking about him?” He looked Charlie up and down and then walked out the room again.
“What the hell is going on with you guys?” Sarah asked, and Charlie shrugged.
“Guys, I’ve got to go on a date now with a really, really nice, sexy, hot guy. Who’s kind and thoughtful and cared enough to check my snake bite in the airport. Who’s family orientated and supports his brother-in-law’s restaurant and does fucking charity work! He saves sick children’s lives. In Africa. He’s the guy I want to have feelings for! And right now, I’m almost running late for my date. I love you guys. Bye!”
I walked out of my bedroom and found Frank on the couch, still with Petal.
“Thanks for coming round and babysitting,” I said to him. “And by the way, you and Charlie need to stop fighting, you should go in there right now and hug it out or something.”
“I second that,” Sarah said, walking past. “Hug it out!”
“Who’s hugging?” Charlie asked, walking out of my room now too.
“You guys are hugging. You and Frank. You guys need to hug it the fuck out!” Sarah announced loudly. “Come on. Come, come. No more fighting. Make love not war and all that.”
I was about to exit the front door when something about Sarah’s statement made me turn round and watch the scene playing out in my living room.
“I’m not hugging him until he apologizes to me,” Charlie said.
“Apologize for what?” Frank was on his feet now, walking towards her.
“Enough! You’re friends. You’ve been friends for twelve years. Stop this stupid bickering and hug. I insist. Come . . .” Sarah started pushing them towards each other, and as she did, something in the room changed.
“Go on—don’t be shy.” She practically smashed them into each other, giving them no other choice but to hug each other, but the second they did, something invisible punched me in the gut and my mouth fell open. Sarah whipped round and looked at me, her mouth as wide open as mine. She raised her eyebrows at me and I nodded back. We both turned our attention back to Charlie and Frank. They were still hugging. And there was a seriously non-friendly energy emanating from it.
Sarah turned back to me, her mouth still gaping in shock. “We’ll talk about this later,” she mouthed, and I nodded at her vigorously before leaving my apartment with a massive smile on my face.
When I arrived, Sibu was already sitting waiting for me. He hadn’t seen me, so I took a moment to look at him. He really was gorgeous and I really wanted to like him as much as I knew I should like him. He finally saw me, stood up and waved.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
“Thanks, had my hair done.” I touched my new hair, which I’d put some highlights in this week because I’d needed a distraction from thinking about Max one afternoon, and doing something with my hair had seemed like a good idea.
“It suits you, the lighter color. Brings out your eyes. And I love the cut.”
“Not even a minute into the date and so many compliments already,” I teased, and then was surprised to see him pull the chair out for me.
“Thank you.” I sat down and watched him walk to the other side of the table and sit. “You’re not looking too bad yourself,” I said.
“Thank you. I’m feeling better too. Last time we were . . . Well, I wasn’t in a great place. But I’ve been going to therapy, really working through some things, and can honestly say I’ve never felt better.”
“Wow, that’s amazing. I’m happy for you.”
“I hope you don’t mind—I’m not on call today and actually don’t have work tomorrow either, which is a miracle, so I took the liberty of ordering champagne. I couldn’t remember if you liked it.”
“Fancy,” I said. “I do love some champagne. But what’s the special occasion?”
He sat back in his chair and looked at me solemnly. “You. You are the special occasion.”
I felt my cheeks redden. And it was real excitement. Suddenly, I didn’t feel like I was pretending so much anymore. “I’m flattered.”
“So, I have a confession,” he said, resting his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands.
“And what might that be?”
“I may have gone onto your company website from time to time to catch up on what work you were doing. I may have also watched the ads you shot, and I have to tell you that the one you did for that men’s fragrance—”
I laughed. “The one with the unpronounceable French name.”
“That one. You sold me.” He stuck his wrist out and looked down at it.
“You did not!” I leaned down and smelled it. “Oh my God, you did.”
“You got me! I was sold in seconds.”
I laughed again. Hang on, had he always been this funny, and playful? Or perhaps this was a new development, along with his new state of mind.
“That shot when the bottle of perfume fell out of the air and into the water in black and white slow motion, those droplets flying out, you almost had me there. But you seriously got me when that shirtless guy was standing in the rain with the lightning behind him and then fell to the ground and crawled like a panther over the marble floor.”
I laughed again and put my face in my hands. “I want to state for the record that I have no control over what those creative directors come up with. I only try and make it look good.”
“You made it look good. Very good.”
“Thank you, that’s nice to hear. And how was Malawi?”
He shook his head and his smile was gone. “If you could see what terrible conditions those doctors are having to operate under. Sometimes with no electricity and barely any medication. Their dedication is astounding. They’re saving lives with so few resources.”
“It’s awful. I must confess, I also did some research on you before I came. I didn’t realize it was actually your charity foundation—that’s amazing. I saw some of the photos on your website . . . I’m sure they’re very glad to have someone like you helping them.”
“We did manage to get a lot of supplies to them, but it really made me realize how lucky I am to practice medicine where I do.”
“Well, it’s amazing you were able to do that.”
“I’m thinking of doing it more regularly.”
“That would be great.”
“Maybe one day you could come with me and do some filming for us? We’ve been looking at doing something like that for ages. Hopefully a video could get us some attention and bring in more funding, which we are always in desperate need of.”
I sat up straighter in my chair. “It would be my absolute honor and pleasure. I’d love to do something like that.” As I said it, our eyes locked and a small flitter of something made itself known in my stomach. The flitter was spontaneous and totally unforced. I smiled. The flitter had given me hope, hope that maybe this could actually work this time. The champagne arrived and we toasted together and the conversation flowed so easily. This was good. Very good. It was actually better than I expected. I was not pretending anymore at all.
Max . . . who ?