"I can't move in with you." I whispered.
"Why?"
I didn't answer, so he drew me to him and pulled me to sit in his lap.
"Nayana, why don't you want to move in with me?"
"Because that would complicate things." I said softly.
"Complicate things? How?"
I looked at his face and his questioning blue eyes and considered telling him that he was not my type that he was not Indian, that he was younger than me, that we had nothing in common but physical chemistry.
I considered telling him that moving in was a bad idea because he was still on the rebound and I couldn't invest any more of myself in this non-relationship. I thought about telling him how I had missed him after being away from him for only an hour and how much it affected me when he was affectionate towards me. I was in over my heels and unfortunately unlike him I had not been trained to be fearless of messy situations.
I did the only thing that made the most sense for my well being, I stood up, gathered my stuff and walked out. Max ran after me. He was saying something but I wasn't listening. My mind was building a fortress around me and was securing my safety- Max was the perceived threat that needed to be kept out.
Chapter 10
I stopped answering Max's calls. I called Kylie and gave her some bullshit excuse about my apartment being too noisy because my neighbours were renovating and checked if it was okay for me to stay at her place for a few weeks till they finished. Kylie is smart so I'm sure she must've known that I was lying but she's also a really good friend, so she didn't turn me away. A few days later I came clean with her. Thankfully she understood and approved of my course of action.
I caught a big break during my two week stay with Kylie. After months of hard work my boss had finally acknowledged my contributions and signed-off on my promotion. The bump in my pay meant that I could finally look for an apartment in a nicer and safer building than my current one.
Throughout my stay with Kylie and the weeks that followed my friends made sure that I had dates lined up for every night I was free. I was a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of eligible Indian men that had suddenly cropped up in the city.
When I finally moved to my apartment I was grateful to Kylie for having visited the place before me to remove any reminders of a certain someone. I had briefly mused over whether there had been messages on the answering machine or notes under the door and then laughed at my own silliness.
With the passage of time I came to realise that with determination and a li'l help from my friends it wasn't that hard to purge a person from my life. Of course sometimes in the nights when I lay in bed and touched myself, the annoying voice in my head would tell me that I wished it was someone else touching me. Fortunately, I had gotten really good at ignoring that annoying voice.
---------------------------------------------
"Dinner at Nomad bitches!" Kylie said yelling at me and Saira.
We were discussing her plans for her 33rd birthday the following week. My stomach did a flip at the mention of Nomad.
"Wow! I knew you were doing well just didn't realise you were doing
that
well." Saira said clapping excitedly.
"Nothin' bu de best fer ma grrls," Kylie replied.
It had been two months. I'd finally moved on I believed; I didn't see the point of ruining Kylie's day just to avoid the risk of bumping into Max. Besides, I told myself chefs worked in the kitchens and not in the restaurant.
-----------------------------------------
I was nervous, and ended up changing my clothes three times before I noticed the time and that I was late. I reached Nomad just as my friends were seated at their table.
"Wow! Whose heart are you planning to break tonight?" Eloise commented on my choice of outfit.
"Everyone's if I can help it." I replied with a wink sliding into the seat saved for me.
"Hey, you're not supposed to upstage the birthday girl." Kylie said faking outrage.
"No sweetie, you're not supposed to upstage the bride. And I swear when you get married," I said with my hand over my chest, "I'll wear the ugliest bridesmaid dress you can find."
We were soon laughing and poring over the menus deciding on what to order. Kylie had warned us that we were not supposed to touch the drinks menu. "I'm doing well, just not
that
well yet," was how she had put it.
During the course of the dinner the restaurant staff had discovered that it was Kylie's birthday and helped us celebrate by getting us one of the most decadent chocolate cakes that left us oohing and aahing in ecstasy. Kylie decided that she had to pay her compliments to the chef. My heart sank and I also felt a little anger at Kylie's callous attitude till I remembered that I'd very likely never told her that a certain someone worked here.
As I watched the Maître D disappear into the kitchen I considered my options at that point: ducking to the Ladies or ducking under the table to look for a spoon or a fork I had hopefully dropped during the course of my meal. I decided to just remain seated and brave whatever would come next. The Maître D returned with Max to our table. If he had noticed me, he certainly didn't show it.
"Ladies, let me introduce you to our Chef Williamson."
"Ladies," he nodded in greeting to everyone at the table.
All the women looked at him while I looked at the tablecloth.
"Chef, we wanted to pay you our compliments for a truly exquisite meal." Kylie said. "You really helped make my birthday extra special with that gorgeous cake."
"So you're the birthday girl? Well, I'm glad we were able to enhance your birthday celebrations."
"You know you look very familiar," said Tara.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same." Kylie and Saira piped in.
"Wait, you're that guy from the club," Eloise said almost jumping up in her seat. "Surely you recognise him, Nayana."
I was absolutely mortified, there I was trying to blend into the background and not draw any attention to myself and suddenly everyone at the table was staring at me. I finally looked up at him.
"Err, hi Max." I said awkwardly.
He nodded, "Hello. It's been a while."
"Yes, yes it has." I was back to staring at the table cloth; I couldn't bear to look into those blue eyes.
"Everything good, I presume?"
"Yes, yes. Thank you for asking." I kept nodding idiotically. "And you?"
