Vedveer reaches for the mango pastry.
‘Good ch-choice,’ I say. ‘It’s our speciality.’
‘It’s good,’ he says.
His sleeves have ridden up on his right arm. An entire subculture on Instagram is dedicated to his forearms. They are wholly brawny, but that’s not why we are facing each other across a table this morning.
I stop thinking about his arms.
How can we call thisrokaoff?
I’m playing with words in my head, arranging and rearranging, aiming for the right tone.
‘I called you a couple of times,’ Vedveer says, leaning back in his seat.
‘When?’
‘A week ago? I thought we should at least speak before we meet.’
‘I don’t know, I’m not sure…’ I may have blocked his number.
‘I’m probably on your block list,’ he says, nodding.
‘Apologies.’
I feed his number into my phone and send him a message.
Me:Hi
‘I should have messaged first, maybe,’ he says.
His phone is in his pocket, probably. I haven’t seen it.
God, oh god! I call out to the powers that be. Please tell me we did not kiss. I will not ask you for anything ever again.
‘Did you send the flowers?’ Of all the million ways I could have worded that question, I choose preposterous.
‘No,’ he says, before asking, ‘You don’t know who sent you those?’
I shake my head.
‘Anonymous admirers, casually slipping red roses into the mélange.’
‘What are your interests?’ I blurt out. ‘Do you have hobbies?’ I ask like a kindergarten teacher.
‘Organic farming,’ he says, his smile brightening.
‘Environmental science and engineering,’ I say.
His head bobs.
Dung. Cow Dung. Soil chemistry. I try to perk myself up. We reside in parallel universes. I could tell Appa that we are very different. That has got to count as a good reason!
‘Aahdeethaaah,’ he says, pausing to smile. ‘I hope I am saying it correctly? I was sufficiently schooled on pronunciations last evening.’
It is an improvement. ‘Aahdeethaaah’ didn’t drill a hole in my head like it did yesterday when the Rathores came calling. But that may also be because any mention of ‘last evening’ is sending me on a tailspin.
‘Last evening,’ Vedveer is saying.
