Playing With Fire

Chapter 45 - Cheater and drunk

Kajol paced her living room waiting for Amir to come and pick her up. The nauseous churn in her stomach hadn't eased up since she hung up the phone on him forty- five minutes earlier. Ugh! She didn't want to see him, but figured it would be better just to get it out of the way. He obviously wanted to talk to her about something since he called insisting they ride together to cancel at the River House. Couldn't they each sign the papers on their own? It made no sense that they had to go in together. It makes no sense you haven't already gone in and done it yourself.

But then, with everything she had going on lately with work, their cabin trip, the fair and spending all her free time with Shahru, there hadn't been many minutes to spare. Today was completely free, though, and Shahru was off doing a job he said would probably take him until dark to finish, so she had plenty of time to go and get this over with. They'd get the last of the wedding business handled, and she could hear whatever it was Amir wanted to say to her. Then she would be done with Amir Khan.

A loud, obnoxious pounding sounded from her door. That had to be him. It was Amir's personality to want everyone to notice him at all times even while doing something as insignificant as knocking on her front door. Oh, but knowing him, he did it hoping Shahru would be home. What a loser. What had she ever seen in him? Kajol grabbed her purse and headed for the door. She didn't want to give him the chance to try and barrel his way into her apartment. She pulled the door open. "Hi, Amir." To her surprise he backed up and let her out of the apartment without a moment''s hesitation.

"Hello, Kajol . Or are you going by Angel now?" He snickered.

"I'd prefer you call me Kajol. Only people who are close to me call me Angel."
The scowl on his face told her she'd hit a sensitive nerve. She couldn't help but let a
smile stretch across her face.

He didn't say anything else until they were in the car on their way to River House.
"How is your job going?"

Okay, she so hadn't expected him to ask her that. He never cared about what she did outside of their time together when they were engaged. Why would he care now? "It's going terrific actually. I'm really happy there, and I feel as if I'm actually doing something good."

"And being an attorney isn't doing something good?"

"It can be. I'm not saying it isn't, but it also isn't me. It's not the way I want to do my part."

He scoffed. "Don't you think you could have figured that out before your father shovelled out all that money for college and law school?"

She didn't want to go there with him. "That's between my father and me. If he wants, I'll make him payments."

Just then they pulled up in front of the River House. For now the conversation was dead. Amir wasn't the type to risk a scene in front of anyone who mattered, and the type of people who ate at River House mattered to Amir. They were in the office, signing the papers in no time flat. Of course Amir played the perfect gentleman the whole time, opening doors, pulling out chairs and walking with his hand at the small of her back.
As they stepped out the door to the office, Beverly, the receptionist, stopped them.

"It was such a surprise to hear the two of you called off your engagement. By the looks of it you're still very close, which is a good thing. Who knows, there might still be a future for the two of you yet."

Kajol's skin crawled. She tried to pull away from Amir, but he wouldn't let her.

"You never know what the future holds." Amir smiled and closed the door before Kajol had the chance to make it known there was no way in hell she and Amir had any chance of a future together.

* * **

Kajol slammed the door of Amir's car and stalked up the walkway to her apartment. Unfortunately, he followed. "We're done signing the papers. There is no reason you have to go with me inside, Amir. Go home."

"Actually there is. We need to talk. It's important."

She'd known this was coming. She also knew Amir wouldn't give up until he got his way, so she'd have to deal with him sooner or later. Might as well get it over with now. "Five minutes. That's all you have." Without waiting for him to respond, she took the stairs to her apartment. Amir jogged to catch up. Once they were inside, he shut the door behind them. "Start talking. Your minutes are counting down."

"Jesus, Kajol, after all we've been through you'd think you could treat me with a little more respect."

Of all the nerve! "Oh, you mean like sleeping with someone else while we were together?"

Amir walked over to her couch and sat down as if he owned the place. Shocked she followed him over. "Make yourself at home, why don't you."

"I'm glad you seem to be able to stand up for yourself now. You never had much of a backbone, and you're going to need it for what I'm about to tell you."

"Screw you, Amir."

"Maybe if you would have done that while we were together I wouldn't have had to go elsewhere to find out."

Blood pumped with vigor through her veins. Anger surged so strongly she wasn't able to hold it back. "Get out, you jerk! Don't you dare blame me because you couldn't keep it in your pants. I thank God every day I never slept with you. You didn't deserve me."

"Pfft, and like your little boyfriend does? He's a drunk loser, Kajol.."

Her heart dropped.

"What? You didn't know? Well, I did a little checking. He had a loser father who spent his whole life drowning in the bottle, a mum who was too weak to walk away until the bastard killed her. Then your little boyfriend decided to be just like him, drinking himself into a stupor. I think It's pretty outrageous he looks down on me when he cheated on his wife. At least I got it out of my system before we got married."

So many emotions bombarded her at once she stumbled from the weight of it.

"That's right. Your boyfriend is worse than I ever was. He's a drunk and a cheat."

That was just about all she could take. "Shahru is not a drunk! He's been sober for five years, Amir. You don't know anything about him or his past."

"You mean you actually knew? What the hell is wrong with you? You're throwing your life away with an alcoholic handyman who doesn't deserve to speak to you, much less call you his. You're a Mukherjee, Kajol."