Chapter 30: chapter 30

Chapter Thirty“This is a mistake,” she breathed, her lithe body trembling in his arms. “We shouldn’t be doing this.“Probably,” he agreed, kissing her again so she’d stop talking and hopefully stop thinking too. It worked. Maya moaned against his mouth and kissed him back, her hands fisting in the material of his t-shirt. He didn’t need the encouragement. He was lost in the taste of her already. They tumbled back against Lucy, her head colliding with a thud against the armrest.“Shit. Are you okay?” Yash drew back, chest heaving as he tried to rub his hand on the back of her head. She swatted his hand away and straightened. “That was God telling me to stop the madness,” she grumbled, rubbing her own head.“You mean God was literally trying to knock sense into your thick skull?”Maya skewered him with one angry eye. “If anyone needs sense knocked into their thick skull, it’s you. This should never have happened.” He took a deep breath and sat back. He hated to agree with her. This wasn’t sensible. And yet…“This is madness, Yash,” she said, softly. “We had our shot. It didn’t work out.” “You know there is a whole romance novel industry built on second chances?” She rolled her head on Lucy’s backrest and looked at him. “It’s unfortunate then that this is real life and not a romance novel.” “Why did you come here, Maya?” he asked again, roughly, pushing away from the couch and her. He paced to the other end of the room before turning to face her. He needed space from her for his mind to work. He’d laid his heart on the line and she’d told him to take it and shove it up his ass. “Social Butterfly needs this contract. We’ve just started. We haven’t found our feet in the market yet. I don’t want us to lose this because of me.” Of course. Disappointment settled in the pit of his stomach like a cement block. He scrubbed his hands over his face to wipe the drool he suspected was still on it. “I’ve spoken with HR. Told them that we’re acquaintances. It shouldn’t impact your work or your contract in any way. You guys won the contract fair and square.” “Acquaintances,” she said, her eyes boring into him.He shot her a look. She couldn’t have it both ways. He couldn’t be a mistake and anything more than an acquaintance. “Was there anything else?” he asked, managing to sound nearly bored. A flash of hurt lit her expressive eyes before she straightened in her seat. “No, I suppose there wasn’t,” she said, coolly. “Kanak was worried and –““Tell Kanak she has nothing to worry about. My honour wouldn’t let me ruin this for you guys.” The pompous words fell awkwardly between them reminding them both of past conversations that had ended badly.His honour. What the hell had he been thinking? That he was starring in a Victorian melodrama? The silence started to stretch and balloon until Maya stood up suddenly. “I should go,” she announced. Yash found it hard to argue with that. This evening had been beyond painful and he couldn’t wait for it to end. An ice cold shower should take care of the rest of his problems. He hoped.But Maya only continued to hover on his blue rug, her brown flip flops making deep marks in the shag pile. “Anything else?” he asked, brusquely, wanting her gone. She clenched her hands into fists but didn’t move from where she’d decided to plant roots on his rug. “Was it really good?” she asked, her voice low, a hint of vulnerability in it. His mind sprang immediately to the kiss. Yes, it had been really good. He cleared his throat and turned to face a direction other than hers so she couldn’t see the effect the memory was having on him. “I’d hate to think you are giving us the contract out of pity or out of guilt for what happened in the past.” The contract. Right. The contract. For a minute, he couldn’t find the words to reply. And Maya decided to fill that silence. “As much as we want the contract, as much as we need it, we don’t need, I don’t need your pity. I don’t want it that bad.”She didn’t know him at all, Yash realised, a deep sadness washing over him at the thought. In the months they’d spent getting to know each other before it all fell apart, he’d been falling for her and falling hard. She, on the other hand, had apparently only been marching towards an arranged marriage, her heart and mind clearly uninvolved. Any hope he’d nurtured in his heart withered and died. “You won that contract purely on merit,” he told her, quietly. “I don’t give people work out of pity or guilt. You guys would never have gotten that contract if you hadn’t deserved it.” Her expression lightened, her shoulders straightening as if a huge load had been lifted off of them. A bitter smile twisted his lips. “If that’s all, Maya, I have some work to attend to…” He let the words trail off hoping she would take his blatant hint. And she did. “Of course,” she said, flustered at the thought that she’d overstayed her welcome. “I guess I’ll see you in the office then,” she smiled, tentatively. He nodded, his mask firmly in place. “See you.” He held the door open and waited for her to walk out. Maya stepped out on to the corridor and turned to face him, her fingers twisting in her purse straps. “Yash, about that kiss…”“You were right,” he interrupted her. “It was a mistake. One that we won’t be making again.” He shut the door in her face before she could say anything else. Honestly, there was only so much his pride and his poor, battered heart could take. He didn’t need to hear any more from her. More importantly, he didn’t want to hear any more from her. Maya was right. Second chances worked best in romance novels. Real life was just plain fucked up.Â