Chapter 42: chapter 42

Chapter Forty TwoMaya watched his retreating back, emotions rioting inside her. He’d put his reputation and his job, his precious job, on the line for her. Why?Maya knew better than most people what his job and financial security meant to Yash. Even when they’d been briefly engaged he’d talked about his professional goals and his ten year investment plan. Maya hadn’t even had a ten minute investment plan. Which she supposed showed in how she’d managed to tank the business Kanak and she had set up. Anxiety pinched at her heart as she contemplated the financial hit they’d taken. And yet, she knew this was the best possible result to the messy scenario they’d found themselves in. She listened to Kanak and Aayushi discuss the meeting and the plan for Il Cuore. It seemed like it would happen the coming weekend. Her mind made its inexorable way back to the man on the fourteenth floor of this building.“Is Yash coming?” she blurted out before she could stop herself. Aayushi arched her brow, a compelling picture in her sage green pantsuit. “Do you want him to come?” Was her head nodding? Why the hell was her head nodding?“No. Of course not. Why would I care?” Maya trilled, high pitched and shrieky. Kanak and Aayushi exchanged a look, the look. The amused, concerned and entertained kind of look. Irked by just about everything at the moment, she gave them her own furious and pouting look and walked past, her nose tipped up in the air. Her feet slowed down as they approached the foyer and the huge doors that led outside to the hot and dusty pavement. Their contract was terminated. She had no reason to come back to Yash’s office after this. No reason to meet him. No reason to see him. No reason to kiss him. She stopped walking. Kanak plowed into her from behind, smashing her nose into Maya’s shoulder. “Ouch!” Kanak grumbled. “What the hell?”“You guys go on without me,” Maya said breathlessly. “I’ll see you at the office.”Before Kanak could stop rubbing her nose and respond, she hugged Aayushi and whispered, “Thank you for everything. I’ll see you at Il Cuore.” And then she was hurrying back into the office building before either of them could stop her. She made her way through the hive of identical cubicles and towards the offices of the senior management. She reached Yash’s cabin just as Malvika was leaving it. “I’m sorry about what happened,” Malvika said, putting a hand on Maya’s arm to stop her forward motion.Maya shook it off. She didn’t want to be stopped right now. If she stopped to think, she would lose her nerve. “Don’t worry about it. Not your fault,” she told Malvika before opening the door and slipping into the cabin.Yash looked up from a video conference call that he was on, his gaze startled at first but sliding into unreadable the minute he saw who was standing in front of him. He held up a finger to ask her to wait and continued talking to the other people chattering out of his laptop. Maya paced in front of his desk, restless and anxious from the disturbing thoughts and feelings swirling through her. She was so absorbed in what was going on in her head that she didn’t notice the call had ended until Yash spoke to her.“Did you need something Maya?” he asked, his eyes blank as he watched her do another lap of his cabin. “I need to know what you are up to!” she burst out.“What I am up to?” he repeated, leaning back in his ridiculously comfortable looking chair. His face got even more granite faced if that was possible. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you are referring to.”What she was referring to? God, who spoke like him. Stuffy, pompous, thesaurus head. “Are you just going to stand there and gape at me or did you actually have something to say?” he asked, impatiently, tapping a pen on the table. “Why did you do it?” she asked, more quietly. “Why did you offer to quit the company if I was proved wrong?” “You’re not wrong. I know that.” His gaze flicked away from her and to his laptop. “That’s not what I asked you.” “Isn’t it?” He got to his feet and strode over to his cabin door, throwing it wide open. “If that’s all then, I have work to get back to.”Maya didn’t move. “No, that’s not all,” she informed him. “We’re not done.”Yash sighed, his back to her and his gaze on something outside his office cabin. Slowly, he shut the door and turned around. “The sad truth is that we are done, Maya. I’ve accepted it. Maybe you should too.” The words slammed through her, the truth of it leaving agony in its wake. But they’d never had a chance, had they? That’s what she’d said to him. That’s what she’d believed. Then why did it hurt so much.“I just wanted to know why you put your job and your reputation on the line for me.”Yash didn’t respond. He looked down at his shoes, his hands shoved into the pockets of his perfectly tailored pants. The posture pulled the fabric over his shoulders showing her the way they were slumped. “Why Yash? Why did you do that for me?” Still, no response. Maya walked over to him, stepping close so he was forced to look up and at her. The emotion that blazed in his gaze had her breath catching. “Tell me why,” she whispered. “Why did you put the things you valued the most on the line for me?” “Because nothing holds more value for me than you. Nothing.”