Nights Like This by Divya Sood Read Free Book Online Page A

back and bit her lip. She laughed slightly.
    â€œThat is such bullshit, Jess Banerjee. Anytime you’ve called me it’s been because something was not right with you.”
    Her blue eyes accused me. She wasn’t wrong.
    I smiled.
    â€œLet it go,” I said.
    â€œNo, I want to know.”
    â€œI was fucking bored. I called you because I was bored, all right?”
    â€œAt least you’re honest.”
    I sipped my Sauvignon Blanc.
    â€œYou still wear your cat’s eye,” she said.
    â€œI do.”
    â€œYou still play with it when you’re uncomfortable.”
    I stopped my fingers.
    â€œJess, there are many small things that speak of our past without us having to tell the story of the past.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI will always know you like most people never will.”
    â€œAll right,” I said, “I’ll give you that.”
    â€œHow’s Anjali?”
    She sipped her wine.
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œWhere’s your mind?”
    â€œHere.”
    â€œYou don’t have to tell me.”
    â€œI won’t.”
    Tiffany leaned forward and placed a hand over mine.
    â€œJess, why do we even meet? Neither of us seems to enjoy it. You’re still bitter about what happened.”
    â€œYou cheated on me.”
    â€œI fell in love with someone else. It’s not the same thing.”
    â€œSeriously, Tiff? Seriously?”
    â€œCan you ever let it go?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen why are we here? What do you want from me if all you give me is hostility?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œThen who knows?”
    She placed her wine glass down hard enough to make the table shake.
    â€œEither get past what happened or else don’t see me.”
    â€œThose are my two choices, Tiff?”
    â€œBasically, yes.”
    â€œAll right.”
    I placed some cash on the table and rose from my seat. She placed her hand over mine.
    â€œLet me ask you one question before you walk out.”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œHow are you so righteous with me when you cheat on Anjali all the time? Have you ever been faithful yourself?”
    I slowly sat back down.
    â€œI was faithful to you,” I said softly.
    I felt my heart constrict as if it wasn’t four years ago, but four minutes, that I had walked in and found her betraying me, and our lives. I knew that if I closed my eyes, they would be moist, ready to spill my disap-pointment, my confusion, my defeat. So I kept my eyes open, wide open, as if I were indignant instead of hurting, as if there weren’t a myriad of questions still burning bright within me, after four years, even after Anjali.
    Tiffany tossed back her hair.
    â€œNow don’t tell me our relationship turned you from good to evil.”
    I cleared my throat, drank some wine.
    â€œI don’t think it’s a matter of not being able to be faithful. It’s just whom you’re with. With you, it came easy. With Anjali, it doesn’t. And I don’t cheat on her really. Our relationship just changes and we have these moments where we’re not exclusive or we’re trying to be something different. It isn’t like it was with you and me. With us, there were rules and boundaries etched in stone. With her and me it’s always fluid, always changing just when it seems like things are a certain way.”
    I sipped my drink and thought of my squatting stranger. Could I tell Tiffany?
    â€œIt’s cheating, Jess because you know, and I know, that that woman is not going out to screw anyone else whether your relationship is open or exclusive or whatever else. Anjali doesn’t just love you, Jess. She worships you.”
    â€œI realize that now,” I said.
    And I did, especially after the night we had shared, the proposal, the consummation, once again of our relationship. But when you find your name written on someone’s heart, scribbled onto the parchment of her soul,