Today's Reading
"Shake, what—" I break off, completely shocked. I haven't heard from my ex since he dumped me about three weeks ago. I'd concocted this whole plan right after our breakup, intending to call him once I finished all of this and got back to D.C. I hadn't expected him to find out about it already.
"What are you doing tracking my location?" I ask.
"You never took me off Find My Friends," he says. "I called your office, and they said you were out of town, and—"
A white Toyota Camry pulls up, and though I can't confirm it in the app, I'm almost certain it's for me.
"Hey, hang on," I say. "I think my car's here."
"Wait, Meena, I'm saying I don't know if you should—"
The driver steps out of the car, and I pull the phone away from my ear, though Shake's voice continues faintly.
"Meena?" the driver asks, and I nod, meeting him near the trunk and handing him my carry-on bag.
I climb into the backseat and place my purse near my feet before I return to the call. Shake's still talking, and though I've missed the last few seconds, I can guess what he's said.
"Look, maybe I should have told you about this before I came down here," I interrupt, clicking my seat belt over my chest. "But with everything you said last time...I thought I'd just fly here and finish things and then we could figure out if there's anything, well, if there's anything left for us to figure out."
Shake's silent for a moment. "So...you're actually doing it? I mean, you've made up your mind?"
I pause. Abhishek "Shake" Das and I have been friends for years, ever since we were introduced and I gave him a hard time over his chosen nickname. We both worked on the Hill and ran in the same circles, and fell into an easy, banter-filled friendship, but there was never anything romantic back then. When we first met, Shake had a girlfriend he was beyond devoted to, but even if he had been single, I hadn't really been in the right headspace to date at that time.
But after Shake's relationship went up in flames—in the most public, embarrassing way imaginable—I was there for him. I'd sympathized, having known exactly how that kind of heartbreak feels, and the more I'd gotten to know him, the more I'd realized how similar the two of us are. We share the same goals, the same dreams, the same drive. We just get each other on a fundamental level. And over the years that friendship naturally transitioned into something else.
I'd dated other men, but Shake was the only one who understood both my ambition and my slow, cautious nature. He understood that when your heart's been broken, it doesn't heal back quite the same. He had always been satisfied by the feelings we had for each other, by the way our relationship was. Calm and quiet. Soft and comfortable. He understood that we didn't have to feel capital L Love for each other. He agreed that loving each other was enough.
When he broke up with me, my first thought was how hard it would be to find someone else who would understand me that same way, who would be satisfied with only that much. On top of that, my family loves him. In fact, my parents think he's perfect. They couldn't stop talking about him after they met him, saying he was exactly the kind of man they'd always pictured for their daughters. They'd be devastated if they found out we broke up.
"Yeah," I tell Shake. "I'm sure. Look, I'm flying back tonight, so maybe we can talk about all of it then."
I had booked the latest flight available for tonight out of Houston. Maybe it was optimistic of me, thinking this would take less than a day to sort out, but I'm a good negotiator. It's a key part of my job. And there's no reason we can't both be professional about this. At the end of the day, this is a deal like any other. There's something I want. And though I don't know what it is, there must be something he wants too. And once I figure that out, I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.
I almost smile at the thought. He's never seen this side of me before. Never seen me go all Godfather on somebody. He doesn't know what I'm capable of. But after today, he will.
"You're...you're flying back tonight?"
I frown. "Yeah," I say. "That was the plan at least, and so far nothing has changed."
"Really?" Shake's voice sounds more normal now. There's a hint of relief in it that wasn't there before. "That's great. So, everything's okay, then? That's why I was calling, because it sounded like things were going to be bad. Like, really bad. I wasn't sure...But if you're still going to fly back tonight, maybe it's not...maybe it's not what I was thinking."
My frown deepens. Has my lawyer been talking to Shake? Sharing information with him? I mean, they are friends. Shake is the one who referred me to him. But if there is news, neither of them has shared it with me. My lawyer only told me that there'd been no response. He hadn't given any indication that things would be particularly bad once I got here. Unless...Is Shake jealous?
...
