The Girl He Left Behind by Shilpa Suraj

Sia sighed. ‘Before you guys came in to the cafeteria, Nisha was talking to me about what high hopes she has for this meeting with Ryan. Apparently she felt this spark when she met him and now wants to see where it goes. So, I figured we should leave them to it.’
    When Minty didn’t say anything to that, Sia slid a sideways glance at her and noticed for the first time the lines of strain etched on her friends face. ‘Min, is everything okay?’ When she still didn’t get a response, Sia put a hand on Minty’s arm to stop her from moving forward. ‘What’s going on? Is it work or problems at home?’
    ‘Neither actually.’ Minty had a rather strange smile on her face.
    ‘Pre-wedding jitters?’ Sia hazarded a guess though she doubted that could be it, Vikas and Minty were pretty good together. Or so she’d always thought. To her complete surprise, Minty dissolved into tears. Looking around quickly, Sia steered her into the nearest empty conference room, locked the door and held her while she cried. When Minty finally calmed enough to blow her nose and wipe her face, Sia went out and got her a glass of water and sat down. ‘Do you want to talk about it? Or shall we just go out after work and do some random shopping and clubbing?’
    Managing a watery laugh, Minty said ‘I don’t think shopping and clubbing is going to help this time. Do you remember what I told you when I decided that Vikas was the guy for me?’
    ‘Refresh my memory, hon.’ Sia said gently ‘We had a lot of conversations about him. Girl talk, remember?’
    ‘I told you that part of being in a relationship with someone who loved me more than I loved him would be that there were less chances of me getting hurt.’
    ‘Oh right! The men who are popular are jack asses conversation.’ Sia recalled.
    ‘Turns out I was an idiot. It’s not just men who are popular that cheat on you but apparently even the nerds who on the surface of it seem completely in love with you end up scoring with women behind your back.’
    Sia sat in silence for a few minutes after this bitter proclamation before venturing, ‘Vikas cheated on you? Is this speculation or do you know for sure?’
    ‘I walked in on them in bed last night. I dropped by his place after we all had dinner last night. I was in a good mood and wanted to surprise him. Thought we could grab a late night coffee at one of the hotels. He’s certainly very acrobatic in bed with her from the glimpse I got last night.’
    ‘What did he say when you confronted him?’ Sia asked, placing her hand over Minty’s in silent support.
    ‘The usual, it was a mistake, an accident, he didn’t mean to, it’s all pre-wedding nerves, once we’re married it will be different.’ Minty let her head drop into her folded arms with an exhausted sigh.
    They sat in silence for a few minutes before she raised her head and looked at Sia. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m going to do now?’
    Sia smiled at her before saying ‘I don’t need to. After you dump his ass, we’ll nail his picture to a dart board and throw darts at it. Once we’re through with that, we’ll go partying and let all the hot men hit on us. And once we’ve got that out of the way, we’ll go home and stay up all night eating ice cream and thrashing men.’
    ‘That sounds like a fun plan. Can I tag along?’
    Minty and Sia looked up in surprise at Ryan standing inside the room. Damn, Sia thought, she’d forgotten to lock the door.
    ‘I figured something was wrong when you guys didn’t emerge from this room for a while so I came to check. Who’s the guy we hate?’ Ryan asked though he was pretty sure he knew from Minty’s tear stained face. When Minty just stood up and walked into Ryan’s arms for a hug, he met Sia’s gaze over her head. At her nod, he sighed and tightened his hold on Minty. He felt her shoulders shudder with silent sobs as she held on just as tightly. Sia walked over and laid her hand gently on Minty’s