“He’s coming. Keep your hands off him” he tells her. She has no intention to have her hands anywhere close to the man, unless otherwise needed to throttle him. Then again, waste of energy to throttle such a wimp. In any case she never gave him credit for his courageous behaviour. How could she? He had none. Well at least in her eyes, now.

Reply comes in the superficial, diplomatic politeness she has adopted of late.
“I am not interested in men who are taken. Besides I am taken”

“He is single now”

News flash of course. May be his continuation of lying had to end somewhere. When it was not with her, at least with another. Suddenly Karma made sense to her. Well not that she wished ill upon him, but then again, when all is said and done, guess she can believe that what goes around comes around.

She remembers a photo of them, from a while back. Two years to be more precise. They seemed happy despite all the lies. She seemed her naive self where she believed the world was good, he was good and they were good together, till things snapped. He had his arm around her, a sense of protection that she read into it, which later proved an illusion.

The colds and the sweats that were born together on steps of deception and senselessness. Lessons taught and lessons learnt.

He taught her, man was not to be trusted.
She learnt , “he” was not to be trusted.