Love And Sweet Kisses

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“What the heck did you do, Daniella Levine?” Her best friend's shrill voice boomed through the speakers when Ella answered the call and put the phone to her ear. Grimacing, she immediately pulled the phone away from her ear to prevent her ear drums from getting damaged.

Placing the phone after two seconds  Ella conjured a high pitched tone of her own. “And what the fuck is wrong with you, Alexa?”

“I thought you told me that Abhishek had only been playing you.” Lexi said, her voice thankfully normal now.

At the mention of the name, Ella's chest squeezed tight, caging nostalgia and fury, love and hatred in one tormenting package. “Really, Lexi? It's been more than a year now. I'm still trying to forget him. Why are you bringing him up all of a sudden?”

“So Becky and I met at the supermarket like an hour ago. She's going to give you her own earful sokn by the way, but anyways, there we met Abhi and then... ”

“You burst out on him.” Ella completed, needing no telling to no know her best friend had confronted Abhi. She groaned. “Lexi, you promised.”

“Yeah, whatever, I know.” Lexi said dismissively. “But what matters is not the fact that I broke my promise to you. It is what he told me that matters.”

“What did he say?”

“So when I saw him again, I was all like 'You jerk, how dare you play my sister like that.' He looked at me and he was like 'What the fuck are you talking about? It was she who never valued what happened between us. It was she who lied to me and made me believe she loved me and then slept with another man.'”

Anger rushed through her veins, making it difficult to breathe as Ella clenched her fist on her lap. “The jerk! He's trying to turn the tables on me.”

“That was what I thought at first, and I confronted him about his fiance and he was like 'I've not had a girlfriend in five years.' To be frank, he sounded and seemed pretty honest.”

“As if you would know if he was lying.” Ella scoffed, bitterness seeping into her.

“What do you mean by 'as if you would know?'” Lexi asked, sounding offended. “Seriously, I'm offended. Like I don't have eyes and sense. I saw it in his eyes and the way he spoke like a person being trialed in court for something he didn't do.”

“It's not that, Lexi. It's just, I knew him much longer. Yet he'd only been playing me and I never figured it out.”

“Think back to the facts, Ella. Are you sure he was only playing you?” Lexi asked almost tentatively.

Ella hissed, incredulous her friend was taking his side. “Lexi, did you hit your head on your bathroom floor today?"

“I'm perfectly normal.” Ella could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “I only just got to reevaluate everything. I mean back then, both of us were really upset that we didn't really think about anything except that he'd broken your heart. What if that woman who called was just his unrelenting ex or an obsessed suitor? I mean, you didn't even ask her her name. What if she'd only manipulated you?”

“Oh yeah? Then what about the picture?” Ella shot back, feeling riled up that they were even discussing this.

“A picture can be photoshoped, Ella. Or if she was his ex, it could be a picture from their past.” Lexi mused.

Fighting against the logic behind Lexi's words, Ella said pointedly, “I know what I saw, and that photo was very recent. Besides, what would she be doing with his phone if nothing was going on between them?"

“I don't know, but that can be explained if my suspicions are true.” Lexi insisted, obviously not ready to rest her case. “Besides, think about it. If Abhi had only been playing you and wanted to only sleep with you, then he'd already gotten what he wanted. Why would he fly to Australia just to see you?”

“Some playboys go for double takes and even triple takes sometimes before they get tired of their new toys.” She pointed out wryly, but reality was beginning to unravel with a clarity that was beginning to scare her.

Lexi groaned. “Just admit you could've been wrong, Sis. God, I can't believe I didn't think enough to talk some sense into you a year ago.”

“No...” Ella's hand flew to her mouth as a gasp escaped her.

Could it be? Had she just allowed herself to be manipulated? Had she just threw away her chance at something so wonderful because of some deception? She hoped not, and yet she hoped it was true.

At that time, she'd been so angry, so upset that she'd taken the plunge for the first opportunity to hurt him —his ego if not his heart—and she had gone along with Zach's game when he told Abhi she was his girlfriend. And now it appeared she'd been vindictive for something that had never happened.

“He's still in Rockford. Come see him and talk to him.”

“What would be the use, Lexi?” Ella asked dejectedly. “He said he hadn't had a girlfriend in five years a year ago. He's probably taken by now.”

“What if he is? It's your fault you lost him, but if our hypothesis proves correct, then I think he deserves an apology for what you did to him. You hurt him, that's the least you could do even if he's not willing to take you back.”

***~***

A week later, with trepidant fingers, Ella pressed the bell of the apartment in front of which she stood on the eight floor of a very big building.

Her heart gave an almost painful lurch when the door opened half a minute later to reveal the man she was after. He stared back at her, his mouth slightly agape and shock encompassing his demeanor. He looked as beautiful as she remembered from a year ago even though he'd left his hair to lie messily around his head. He wore a navy blue shirt on top of white shorts.

“Hey.” She said, and fearing he would slam the shut on her face, she sidestepped him into the room just as a scowl chased away the shock on his face.

“What do you want?” Abhi demanded gruffly.

Oh so he wasn't going to hold back on the hostility a bit. Swallowing, Ella turned to face him just as he closed the door. “I want... We need to talk, Abhi."

“Oh, we do?” He asked, his voice drenched in so much sarcasm and bitterness that she nearly cringed. “I thought everything was perfectly understood a year ago. I loved you, you didn't want a relationship between us. But then two weeks after we have sex, you're dating another. I think I understood perfectly well that you never loved me, so I don't see what else there is to talk about.”

He bypassed her and went further into the living room. Ella let her eyes scan the doors she could see, wondering if a woman was going to come out of one any moment.

Then returning her gaze to the retreating figure of Abhi, she blurted out “I thought you only played me.”