He was majoring in architecture and wanted to start something of his own. In his case, he was supported and backed up at every step by his father, Vikram Mehrotra, and his mother, Margot Carter.
Now that I get to work closely with authors, I remind myself to not take it for granted. I love to see what goes on behind the scenes of my favorite books, and Sienna Hayes has been my most anticipated writer. So, it’s only stupid of me to miss our meeting twice.
I let the thoughts of my dead life aside as I set up for the meeting.
I have lost almost everything now. I will be damned if I lose the one and only thing keeping me sane too.
* * *
“So, Sienna, that wraps up everything we need for your upcoming book tour in New York City.” I smile as I look at Sienna’s beautiful face. “I hope you’re excited.”
“I am,” Sienna passes me a smile. “Thank you so much for all the support.”
I ticked down everything we needed to discuss in this meeting.
“We love working with authors like you,” I tell her honestly. “Plus I am a big fan of your work; I would never miss a chance to work with you. One last thing before we wrap up this meeting, will someone be accompanying you there? I meant your partner, because then we will have to arrange something for them too, right?”
A look of hesitation comes over her face, one I am too familiar with.
“No,” she plasters a smile on her face. “My boyfriend hates traveling. It will just be me and my books.”
I nod, writing down the details. “No problem. We will make sure to have fun on this tour. Boys aren’t necessary anyways.”
She chuckles, and I sigh, knowing I lifted her mood a bit.
“I will email you the details. Thank you so much for your time,” I tell her before we say our goodbyes, and I sigh just imagining how much fun we will be having on this tour.
This will also be my first time going out of the UK after my honeymoon, and the thought alone is enough to give me jitters.
I look out the window of my office; the sun set down hours ago, and a sheet of black covers the sky.
There has been no text from my husband, and I try my best to ignore how much it makes me want to cry. By now, I should be numb to these feelings. But I am afraid, when it comes to Reyansh, I have never been able to think rationally.
“Aisha,” Sasha calls my name as she walks in with two glasses of wine in her hand. I have told her multiple times to not drink when we are in the office, but my girl doesn’t listen. “Let’s celebrate your birthday before you get busy with your hot husband.”
She wiggles her eyebrows. She knows every single detail of our relationship, but she is way more optimistic regarding our relationship than I am.
“I am not in the mood; besides, I have nothing planned with my husband,” I tell her before taking a sip of the wine. My husband doesn’t care about me or my birthday, is what I stop myself from saying out loud.
“Come on,” she almost cries. “You guys need to fix this. You guys are the perfect couple, after all.”
I chuckle at that. That was my belief when we first fell in love.
“There’s no such thing as a perfect couple,” I settle down on the couch in my office, with my legs in the air. They are sore from wearing heels all day.
Why can’t sneakers be included in formal wear?
Sasha looks at me for a few minutes, and I know she must have a retort already coming.
“Let’s forget about him,” she says, and I quirk up my eyebrows in surprise. Usually she would give me relationship advice. “Tell me, if you could get one thing as your birthday gift, what would it be?”
I think upon her question. There’s not much I want in life now. I have the career I wanted, and I live in my dream house.The only thing I wanted was a peaceful and loving home with my husband, but that is far out of reach. I doubt I even want that anymore.
The only thing that fills my mind right now is something twenty-one-year-old me would never think about in the first place. In fact, she would hurl and cry at the word being spoken about itself.
But that me was optimistic, loving, and kind. She seemed to have her life altogether even when she had nothing.
Quite opposite of the current me.
