Bombay Mixx (18 page)

How stupid could I have been? This woman was nothing more than a woman in love with a dirty dog, who would obviously never change.

With that last thought I rushed into the toilet as the tears began to tumble like a rain.

Luckily, I was able to compose myself after a few minutes in the toilet cubicle and emerged to a stony faced looking Anya.

‘I saw Angus. Are you ready to go?’ she asked as she observed my red eyes. I couldn’t speak without bursting into tears again so I just nodded and we exited the bathroom and made our way to the exit.

Gabrielle’s curiosity obviously got the better of her as we left her to join Tiziana entertaining their enthusiastic audience and Amelia dancing with a tall, model looking man who seemed to be enjoying her company as they were hugging whilst pretending to dance. ‘I guess no more Geron,’ Anya supposed as we both looked at the dirty dancing they were now doing in the middle of the dance floor.

‘I guess not,’ I managed before we left.

**********

‘So, where did you get to last night, then?’ I questioned Gabrielle as we waited for Renesh and Shilpa to come for Sunday dinner. Before she could answer, mum decided to show us the new salsa moves she had learnt from her two lessons at the community centre.

‘Really good mum. You’re a natural,’ I commented before she twirled back into the kitchen, nearly knocking herself out on the door as she realised she’d need a few more lessons to learn how to avoid the dizziness.

‘We just went onto one of the guy’s apartments’ Gabrielle replied secretively.

It was not like my sister to be so coy.

Usually, she would be boasting about the intimate details of the night, so something wasn’t right.

I continued my interrogation. ‘So come on, spill the beans. I wanna know all the details. Please tell me you didn’t do anything with any of them? You remember you’re engaged, right?’ She looked at me and sighed.

‘I am aware I’m engaged,’ she retorted before she continued, ‘I don’t think I’ll be spending much more time with Tiziana.’

‘Oh wow and I thought they were best friends now,’ I pondered.

‘Why? What happened?’ I asked innocently. She looked at me to see if I was genuinely concerned or whether I was going to use the information to mock her in the future.

She explained. ‘We went to one of the guy’s apartments and it was amazing. Beautiful wall to ceiling windows, Japanese inspired furniture, luxurious rugs…you get the picture. Well we went into the lounge area, sat down and one of the men got a crate of champagne and we continued to have a laugh. There were six of us and it felt really comfortable, until one of the men took out a plastic bag, put one of the small white tablets on his tongue and offered it to Tiziana which she accepted whilst kissing him. I tried to shake it off but when another man started lining up coke on the table and the guys started snorting it, I had to get some air so I went to the bathroom and stood by the window. I thought I locked the door but I obviously didn’t as I felt a hand on my arse and I turned to see one of the men smiling at me. He grabbed me and tried to kiss me but I pushed him off. I tried to run out of the bathroom but he blocked the door and started grabbing at my shoulder straps. I kicked him in the nuts and ran out of the bathroom, trying to fix my now broken shoulder strap. I ran into the front room to see Tiziana practically in an orgy with four of the men and when she saw my shaken state, I told her what happened and said I wanted to leave. She didn’t even seem bothered. She told me to relax and have a line before getting back to her foursome. I couldn’t believe it, so I walked out and didn’t look back.’

As much as I wanted to say ‘I told you so’, I saw my sister’s shaken state as though she was reliving the evening so I hugged and comforted her with, ‘well, be glad that nothing worse happened and now we know what Tiziana’s like, we don’t need to be around her anymore,’ I concluded and she agreed.

Ten minutes later the door bell rang and mum went to answer it.

‘Renesh and Shilpa are here girls,’ she announced as she invited them in.

With all the hugs and small talk over, we went to the table and began dinner.

The beautiful, succulent meat danced around my mouth as mum engaged us with her
Ireland
holiday idea and more suggestions for Gabrielle’s engagement party.

Renesh and Shilpa joined in but you could see there was some awkwardness between them, which did not go unnoticed by mum.

‘So, how is work going, Shilpa?’ mum asked whilst trying to break the tense atmosphere between them. The table went quiet and Renesh shot of glare of annoyance at Shilpa. ‘It’s going ok mum. Just a lot of work to do at the moment but hopefully it’ll settle down soon,’ she replied with sorrow in her voice.

I looked at Renesh with irritation, as I felt he had no right to be annoyed after what I saw near the gym.

I couldn’t handle his antagonistic frowns anymore so I interrupted mum’s further light questions. ‘So Renesh, how are you handling not having your lovely wife at your beck and call when you need her,’ I enquired with a raised eyebrow.

My suspicious investigation went unnoticed. ‘Very funny Neets and it would be nice to see her more but I know how important work is to her so I’m trying to be supportive and not make a big deal out of it.’

Mum smiled as she accepted his valiant response and like a dog that just got a treat from his owner for performing a trick correctly, he returned mum’s smile and his expression went back to normal.

After dinner, Shilpa and Gabrielle helped mum clear away the dishes, which gave me the perfect chance to confront Renesh with what I saw. ‘So bro, how are things really going? Did you do the romantic evening with Shilpa?’ I probed. He was unaware of my suspicions as he replied, ‘Yeah but she was too tired again to enjoy it so we just went to bed. I’m getting so sick of trying Neets and getting nothing back.’

I laughed to myself as I thought about all the lies Angus used on me about his wife so this was all too familiar. With the rage building from finding out about Angus and his still, very much alive marriage, I retorted, ‘Ahhh, so since Shilpa was too tired to give you a quick session cos she has been working so hard to build a future for you both, you decided to thank her by fucking the latest tramp you picked up at the gym. How long have you been seeing this hoe?’

Obviously, taken aback by my knowledge of his recent secret activities, Renesh took a step back and looked around to see if anyone else heard the revelation.

The radio was on in the kitchen and mum was entertaining the pair with stories from her past, so there was no way they heard but that didn’t stop Renesh pulling me into the hallway and shutting the door. ‘What on earth are you on about?’ he stuttered, looking flustered.

I regarded him with a long, disapproving stare as I continued. ‘Don’t try to weasel your way out of this one Renesh, I have proof and with that I showed him the picture on my phone.

He examined the picture for a few moments and collapsed on the stairs with his head in his hands.

I refused to console him so I just stood in front of him to make him aware I wanted answers immediately.

He looked up and I saw the colour drain from his face as he started to explain. ‘I didn’t mean to cheat. You have to believe me, Neets. It’s just been really hard with Shilpa working all the time and I’m not blaming her but I was just feeling lonely. I thought I could keep myself busy with joining the gym but then I met Manisha and she was such a good listener,’ he paused to listen to see if anyone was coming so I jumped in and spat. ‘If she’s a good listener then why didn’t you let her listen to your woes, whilst she was running next to you on the treadmill? I don’t understand how much listening she could be doing on top of you.’

Usually I wouldn’t be so crude with Renesh but the anger was boiling inside me and I couldn’t take any more of his lame excuses. ‘We enjoyed each other’s company and eventually an attraction built up. I knew I should have backed off but I was so lonely Neets, I just wasn’t thinking,’ he cried.

‘So how long has this been going on?’ I whispered as I sat next to him and put my arm around him, as I began to realise I was being a hypocrite.

He seemed grateful for my now calmer nature and continued, ‘about three months’.

I gave him a hug before I stated, ‘you need to end this now as it’s not fair to Shilpa’ and he agreed.

We spent the next few minutes giving each other a hug until we were summoned by mum to get our desserts.

**********

‘In work already, Nita? I like this punctuality. Especially after a weekend,’ Ann admired.

Monday came around faster than my bank statements to tell me just how much money I did not have in my account for this month!

Even though I came to work with a heavy heart, after seeing Angus playing the ‘devoted husband’ on Saturday, I still wanted the promotion in Research, so I planned to work my socks off for the next few weeks to show I could cope with the work load Ann was giving me, taking an extra interest in the different systems they used in the Research department and studying the types of day to day work they did.

‘Yep. I just wanted to get a head start,’ I replied without looking up.

This was my motto for the next few weeks along with avoiding Angus and trying to get my parents back together.

Angus tried to explain the events of Saturday night by saying, ‘it’s not what you think, Nita. We were around some very influential people and we had to put on a show. That’s all it was.’

This was the first time I had ever looked at him clearly and I saw him in a different light.

He no longer looked like the strong, arrogant Casanova I once thought I was falling in love with.

Instead, he looked like this opportunistic, weak, egotistical prat, who wouldn’t have looked out of place on a night out with a group of men having a mid life crisis ready to pounce on anything that looks half their age!

Leaning back in his chair, thinking I had accepted his apology, he began to smile. ‘I’ve just come for you to sign these receipts, Mr. Maguire,’ I replied coolly.

Not fazed by my icy exterior, he continued with his performance, ‘you know I want you, Nita. Don’t be like this. Although, if you’re angry, then that means we’ll be “making up” soon, right? Just give me a rough idea as to how long I’ll have to wait.’ 

I couldn’t believe his smugness!

‘What a sleaze! Slime ball! Wanker!’ I thought as I gritted my teeth and moved closer to his desk.

This got him excited and he leaned forward, thinking I was going to kiss him. ‘If you think I’m going to buy that excuse then your more stupid than you look! You were a toy. A fling. Nothing more. So please do not delude yourself by thinking you were anything more or that this will continue. I’ve had my fun and now its time to move onto bigger and better things, so enough of your sleaze as this is our place of work and you need to start acting more professional,’ I spat at him as I backed away. The colour drained from his face.

I felt like I was on top of the world!

Nothing could bring me down!

I actually felt in control of my emotions and no longer wanted to take back the speech, as thoughts of my country wedding with Angus, our children running in from their private schools with their funny stories of their school day and my afternoon teas with the other elite wives of businessmen and maybe even some celebrities, disappear from my mind.

‘So you’re over this then, are you?’ he asked smugly, leaning further back into his already reclining chair. Without hesitation I replied, ‘yes I am. Now if you don’t mind I’ll take the receipt and get back to work.’

I began to walk towards the door, making sure I had the last word. ‘So, how shall I write your reference for the Assistant position in Research then?’ he shouted as I turned and looked at him with rage in my eyes.

I took a step forward and stopped, fearing if I went any further and I would be escorted off the premises by security for putting my boss in hospital.