Rani was standing by the hallway mirror, fixing the watch on her wrist. The divorce papers still sat on the coffee table the way I left it; untouched and unsigned. I gritted my teeth. What the heck did she want, if she didn't want to sign the divorce papers?
As if torturing me like this wasn't enough.
I got out some milk, spinach, bananas and blueberries for a breakfast smoothie, making sure I only got out one cup. From the corner of my eye, I could see her watching me with pursed lips before eyeing Cookie who sniffed at her legs.
She shifted away and cleared her throat. "I don't understand why you got a dog."
I remained silent. She had gone from crying her eyes out and watching me with a frown to now acting like she had no idea about anything. God, I was so confused.
"None for me?" I nearly cut myself with the knife I was using to slice the banana. She was tapping her fingers against the wooden table repetitively. A nervous tic of hers I hadn't seen in a while.
"Should there be?"
"I mean...you usually make me breakfast. Or did you forget about that, already?" she joked. The woman joked. I brought my brows down and stared at her.
She was looking through the bag she took to work, not noticing the utter turmoil she was putting me through. Why was she acting like everything was okay? Like nothing last night had happened? As if she'd woken up and restarted or something.
"I didn't forget." I turned back to making my smoothie. "Did you?"
I could feel her gaze burning the back of my head. "I called Sandra and asked her and Anish to come over." What? "I want to celebrate today with all of you. A new start."
New start? I scoffed under my breath as I shoved all the ingredients into the Nutri Bullet. "Weirdly enough she said she isn't coming if he's coming. But I invited the both of them anyway."
The whirring of the machine represented the buzzing in my brain. I watched her with a gaping mouth as she waved her fingers at me briefly and headed out the front door.
What in the hell just happened?
***
Later that night, the three of us sat by the dining table. Sandra glared at her phone as she scrolled through it and Anish shifted in his chair, taking a few glances at her. Rani looked between the both of them before taking a huge gulp of her wine.
Cookie yipped before nuzzling Sandra's leg. Rani lifted her legs up and folded them under her on the chair as Sandra bent down and scratched under his chin. "I missed you too, baby," she cooed. "You're the only reason I came."
"Thanks," I joked, trying to cut through the tense atmosphere. She rolled her eyes but no one said anything afterward.
"Why're you two acting so weird?" Rani finally asked looking between Anish and Sandra. I narrowed my eyes. Why was she acting weird, was what I wanted to ask. How could she forget that they were having problems?
Sandra seemed to think the same because she smacked her phone against the glass table. Rani jumped but Anish and I stayed rooted to the spot. "I'm really glad for you and Dhruv but please, Rani, if this is your version of a joke, I'm not up for it."
"Yeah, why'd you call us here?" Anish added.
Rani turned to me, raising her eyebrows in a 'what the hell's going on?' kind of way. I pretended I didn't notice and opened the cap of my water bottle to take a swig.
"Well," she began, "I thought it would be fun to get together and have a meal. It's been a long time since we've seen each other."
"Dhruv." Anish looked exasperated, his arms spread wide, palms facing up. "You're not serious, are you?"
"I don't know. Ask Rani."
"Is there something going on?" Rani frowned. "What am I missing here?"
"I don't think I told you," Sandra said, "but we're getting divorced."
Rani furrowed her neatly shaped, angled eyebrows at me. "I didn't know."
"You know the details. You were there when it happened, so I don't get why you're acting like this."
"Unless you wanted to make fun of us," Anish grumbled. "What, you want Dhruv to cook for us and model the perfect husband-wife duo you got going on when you were just as bad?"
"Why're you snapping at her, you piece of shit?" Sandra snapped, addressing him for the first time.
Oookay, now it was starting to get out of hand. I slapped my hands on the wooden table and pushed the chair back, standing up. It scraped against the tiles and toppled onto the floor with a large bang. Everyone turned to look. Rani's eyes were narrowed, a deep frown etched onto her face.
"If you're both here to fight, do it in your time. Not in our house."
Sandra licked her lips, shaking her head. Anish rubbed his forehead, turning the area pink. I noticed the ring was gone. "Sorry. We're a little sensitive."
"No shit," Rani mumbled under her breath. "Look, I'm sorry. Apparently...I forgot. It's been a journey. I didn't mean to open wounds."
No one said anything. Anish was the first to get up after me. "I think we should go."
"You can go," Sandra piped up. "I'll be staying a little while."
A vein in his neck throbbed as he angled his jaw back and forth. Without another word, he stormed out. I shot Rani a look. What was that all about? Acting like she didn't know...I hadn't thought she would actually invite them. What she said the other night popped up in my head again but I pushed it back as Rani shrugged in response.
She reached out to grab Sandra's hand, patting the top of it. "I'm sorry. I was an insensitive bitch."
"Yeah, you really were. You've been so sweet lately, I don't understand where this came from."
"It was an accident. I haven't been feeling well."
I cut in, wanting to take the harsh attention away from her. She'd been ripped into enough for the night. "You and Anish haven't been doing so great, I take it," I said, sitting back down but in the chair Anish was in. I didn't bother picking up the chair that I toppled.
She played with the black chain choker she was wearing. "Is it that obvious?" she said sarcastically. Rani rubbed the side of Sandra's arm, and she stopped fiddling with her necklace and heaved a great, big sigh. "I don't know if I want to be with him anymore. He's told me he cut Frankie off but I don't care. The damage has been done already."
"Frankie? As in your best friend?" Rani repeated. It was mumbled, but I heard her pretty clearly. Sandra, on the other hand, was in her own world to probably care.
"She's contacting the both of us, going on about how much she's sorry and that she never meant to come between us. Bullshit. I don't believe a word."
I cleared my throat, scratching the back of my head. I'd been the one to encourage Frankie to do that on a whim the other day.
Whoops. "That'd be because of me," I said.
Sandra spluttered, "What the fuck, Dhruv?"
"She's been feeling awful. I'm not trying to excuse what she did and I'm not saying you have to forgive her," I added seeing her cheeks puff out, "but I just want to let you know that she's trying to get you two back together."
"I don't want to get back together with that dick. Nor do I want to speak to her."
I nodded. "Got it."
"I hate those two!"
"I don't blame you."
"Frankie's the worst friend in the world."
"No doubt about it."
"Stop agreeing with me, Dhruv!" snapped Sandra.
"What?" I asked, with a shrug. "Isn't that what you want me to do?"
Her lips twitched with a ghost of a smile before it was replaced by a very forced frown. "I hate you. Rani, divorce him already."
My smile slipped away. My thumb traced the lip of the water bottle as I felt Rani's stare impaling me from opposite the dining table.
"I don't think I want to," she mumbled. Her eyes were glazed over as they looked straight through me. The way she looked at me was different.
As if she was seeing me for the first time.