“Didn’t seem to care about that when you went home with theboss!” he shot back, tilting his chin upwards to tell her to continue climbing.
“We have history, him & I,” she sighed, moving ahead.
“I know. You told me last night and I’m still digesting it. Talk about childhood rivals to lovers. Art certainly does imitate life.”
“Not lovers,” she corrected him, stepping into the hallway of her new apartment. “It was a one-time thing.”
She took her shoes off and headed toward the moderately furnished living room, dropping her box next to a small pile. When she straightened, Jay was looking at her like he didn’t believe a word of what she’d said.
“Seriously,” she insisted. “All that stuff that happened when we were teenagers—we found a resolution for it. Got closure. Like adults.”
Jay snorted. “Like horny adults.”
“Why am I friends with you?”
“Because without my glorious presence, you’d be a dark hole of misery?”
Despite herself, Vera felt her lips tickle at his ready answer. “Smartass.”
“I know I am,” he agreed, dropping heavily onto the couch nearby. “Also, you’ve given me another reason to avoid marriage.”
“I have?”
A world-weary sigh escaped him. “On the off chance I marry and procreate, I don’t think I’ll survive having a daughter. I already know what it feels like.”
“You do?” she asked, her brows shooting up in incredulity. Vera watched as Jay nodded solemnly.
“Having a female best friend is like having a daughter who doesn’t listen to her father, goes out with inappropriate men, and then calls for a mid-night pick up after a bad decision so that she doesn’t have to perform the walk-of-shame.”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t have called you?”
“Of course you should have! I’d have been livid if you’d been unsafe and used transit to get home. It’s just. . . you slept with the boss.” He scrunched his nose, shuddering like she’d made love to an alien with horns and a spiky tail, though that would have been an interesting experience in itself.
“Sorry, Father,” she said in a sickly-sweet tone, causing him to turn green.
“I wanted to be called ‘Daddy’ and instead, I’m ‘Father’? This friendship is costing me in ways I had not been prepared for,” he whined, his face a picture of misery.
“Shut up,” Vera laughed, shaking her head at her dramatic friend. He was suited to be an actor, it was clear. She took stock of everything around her. Apart from the few boxes they’d left in the living room, the rest of her meagre possessions had been placed in her bedroom already.
“I think that’s all of it,” she breathed out, hands on her hips. “Thanks for your help, JJ.”
“No problem, Veeray,” he winked, ruffling her hair on purpose to annoy her, much like a brother.
“Hey, Vera!”
Both of them turned to see Jay’s cousin, Nina, amble into the living room, followed by another young woman.
Nina waved at her, but it was the friend who had Vera doing a double-take. Brown eyes on a heart-shaped face stared back at her, no longer red and watery. It was her, the girl she’d met at the club—Vihaan’s friend.
“You?” She tilted her head, blinking multiple times to make sure she was seeing right.
“Aditi.” The young woman smiled, coming forward to shake hands with Jay and Vera. “You can call me Adi. What a coincidence!”
“Yeah,” Vera nodded, explaining to the other two how they’d met at Velocity the previous evening.
“Wow, small world,” Jay commented.
“Very,” Aditi agreed. “How do you all know each other?”