‘Sia! Wait up. I need to talk to you.’
Sia pivoted on her heel to see Vikas hurry across the car park towards her. It was too early in the morning to be dealing with this. The little slimeball must have been waiting for her to arrive. She stood motionless and let him make his way over to her.
‘You have to help me!’ Big earnest puppy dog eyes fastened on hers as he gazed at her pleadingly.
‘I don’t have to do anything.’ It had been his eyes Minty had found the most attractive, Sia thought dispassionately. Even now knowing what he’d done, she found the sincerity shining out of them oddly believable.
‘Minty won’t take my calls or answer my messages or emails. I went by her place the other day and she wouldn’t even open the door. Please, Sia, please help me out here. I just want one chance to explain what happened.’
‘Explain? What possible explanation would make this okay?’
Withering slightly under her incredulous stare, he tried again ‘I love her, Sia. That night was just an accident. I’ve never done anything like that before. I wouldn’t dream of hurting her in a million years.’
‘It was an accident?’ Sia asked in a deceptively soft voice ‘Let me guess. You tripped, managed to fall out of your pants and into another woman?’
He had the grace to flush. ‘I had too much to drink that night and I was really nervous about the wedding. It didn’t mean anything and like I said I never wanted to hurt Minty in a million years.’
‘Yet you managed to hurt her in the one year you’ve been in a relationship with her. There isn’t anything I can do to help you, Vikas.’ Dismissing him, Sia started to turn to walk into the building. She’d barely taken a step before he grabbed her arm and yanked her back. For a small guy he was pretty strong.
Maintaining a tight grip, he leaned forward. ‘I just want to talk to her. I don’t see any reason for you to be such a bitch about it.’
‘Let go of her.’ The soft voice in which it was said didn’t disguise the menace in Ryan’s tone. Sia stumbled when Vikas abruptly released her arm and took a step back from her. Her back collided with Ryan’s chest and he put an arm around her waist to steady her before she broke her neck in her heels. Flustered, Sia looked up at his grim profile. He was still staring at Vikas like he was contemplating which bone in his body to break first.
‘Who the hell are you?’ Defiantly, Vikas faced off with him. It was a bit like watching a Pomeranian take on a Rottweiler.
In reply, Ryan smoothly moved Sia to one side and reached across and plucked Vikas off the ground by his shirtfront. It happened so fast that Sia just stood there blinking for a few seconds. They were quite far away from the office building and in a relatively secluded spot but there were still a few people tossing them curious stares before scurrying away. They’d had enough scenes at the office to last them a lifetime.
‘Ryan.’ She put a calming hand on his forearm ‘You really need to stop grabbing people by their shirts. It’s a pretty unpleasant habit you seem to have picked up over the years.’ Her stomach was quivering but she refused to focus on that right now. She would deal with her damn phobias later.
Angry, irritable, depressed. Whatever his mood, she could always get him to smile. Lips twitching, he released Vikas with enough force to send him sprawling back into the dirt. ‘Don’t come near either one of them again. Minty doesn’t want to have anything to do with you and Sia isn’t going to be a convenient go between for you.’
When Vikas managed to scramble back to his feet, he stalked off without a backward glance.
Ryan turned to look at Sia and found her standing with her arms wrapped around her stomach. When she saw him looking at her, she straightened and let her arms fall to her sides.
‘I didn’t know you were coming into work this early.’ She picked up her handbag which had got knocked aside in the ruckus and started to dust it off.
‘Have you been checking my schedule?’ That was a direct hit judging by the blush reddening her cheekbones. ‘I have conference calls set up with some of my international clients.’ When he noticed she still looked a little pale, his voice gentled ‘I’ll handle the creep, Sia, and make sure he won’t try a stunt like that again.’
‘I can handle him.’ With her nose turned up in the air and the frost back in her voice, the ice maiden was back with a vengeance. ‘I have a meeting to get to so I have to run. I’ll see you around.’
Conflicted, Ryan watched her stalk off. There was only one undeniable conclusion to her bizarre reactions but his mind continued to shy away from it. He knew exactly where to go to get some confirmation.
* * *
Three meetings via video conference with clients back in Mumbai, one working lunch and a one on one with Adarsh later, he was still stewing over it. He had half an hour before his next meeting and he wasn’t going to accomplish much before that with all this buzzing around in his head. He may as well use the time to get this sorted. He pushed back from his desk and headed towards his one stop resource for all things related to Sia - Minty.
‘Hey sexy!’
Relieved that the smile she flashed him was natural and easy, he decided there was no harm in getting right to it. ‘Hey. I need to ask you something.’
‘Sure. Does this have something to do with the sexy author you’re dating?’
‘What?’ Losing his trend of thought, he stared at her openmouthed.
Grinning at his baffled expression, Minty said ‘Did you honestly think the news wouldn’t make the rounds?’
‘I have to say I seem to have underestimated the grapevine.’
‘Actually it wasn’t the grapevine. We got the news straight from the horse’s mouth.’
‘We?’
‘Nisha had come into the office yesterday. She filled Sia and me in on all the stuff you guys have been up to.’
‘Stuff?’
‘Is this going to be a conversation where I talk and you repeat one word from every sentence of mine? An ad man should be better with words, don’t you think?’
‘It was one dinner.’
‘Oh? That must have been some dinner.’
‘Okay, then how about this? She’s gorgeous, smart and fun to spend time with. So why not?’
‘I’m all for it, Ry. Nisha’s a nice girl so I think it’s great if the two of you hit it off.’
More than a little nettled that she was agreeing so cheerfully with him Ryan said a trifle defensively, ‘She is very nice.’
‘But?’
‘But there is something missing.’ She wasn’t Sia. But then no one ever came close. ‘Anyway, that’s not important; there is something else I wanted to ask you about.’
‘Not important? She thinks she’s falling in love with you, Ry.’
For the second time in this conversation, she left Ryan completely stupefied. Feeling the first stirrings of panic, he sat down in the nearest chair he could find. ‘What?’ he asked again.
‘Are we back to that scintillating bit of repartee?’ Minty was starting to feel a lot better. Ryan’s reaction was just what she was hoping for. She couldn’t help stirring the pot even further.
‘She said that? She said she was falling in love with me? After one dinner and a couple of phone conversations? Is she insane?’
‘Never heard of love at first sight? Do you think I’d make something like that up? You know what I was thinking? We haven’t had a chance to show Adarsh the nightlife in town. All of us should go out dancing one night.’
Ryan was back to parroting her. ‘All of us?’ he asked with a horrified expression on his face.
Making sure the happy dance her heart was doing wasn’t visible on her face, she said ‘Yes. Adarsh, Sia, Nisha and the two of us. We can add on another guy to make the numbers even. Let me ask Ajay if he is free.’
‘That muscle bound dolt? Why do you want to ask him along?’
Minty batted round innocent eyes at him. ‘He’s been asking Sia out for ages and she keeps shooting him down. I thought maybe a group outing would help her loosen up around him and be more open to the whole thing.’
‘What whole thing?’
‘For heaven’s sake, Ryan! Don’t be so dense. I’d like her to have a little fun in life you know.’
‘With The Incredible Hulk?’
Muffling an unladylike snort at that very apt description, Minty continued ‘Why not? It’s just a start. I’m only suggesting she get to know him a little better. Who knows, sometimes the most unlikely people end up together.’
‘It’s a ridiculous idea.’
‘The night out? Why? I thought you liked dancing and I know Nisha definitely does. It’s even listed in her bio as one of her hobbies.’
‘Don’t be an ass, Min. You know I mean that guy, Ajay, coming along.’
‘It would round off the evening nicely.’ Feigning innocence was easy; moving quickly forward she said ‘You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to. I’ll tell Sia to keep him occupied and away from you.’ Ignoring his expression at that last remark, she continued, ‘I have to go now, Ry, meeting coming up. I’ll set the clubbing night up and ring the group. I can’t wait. It’s going to be so much fun. Talk to you soon.’ Deftly manoeuvring him out of the room, she shut the door in his stunned face before he could protest.
On one side of the door, Ryan shook his head bemusedly before walking back to his cabin. On the other side, Minty sent up a silent apology to Sia for what she was going to dump on her unsuspecting head. It was certainly going to be an eventful night.