“So are you!”
He felt warm in the face.
“Is my heart in danger?”
She rolled her eyes — “No.”
“Then I’m fine.”
They stared at each other — caught, embarrassed, done for. And burst out laughing.
“Fuck!” She doubled over. “Fuuuuck!” He fell back on her bed — “Fuuuuck! It felt like they were your parents.”
“Iam her Maasi!” She fell beside him on the bed, vibrating. “Oh my god, what just happened?!”
He rolled over, pulling her to him by the waist. She stopped laughing, but kept hiccuping, chuckling, draining her laughs in his bicep. Their feet dangling, bodies moulded, they stayed like that till who knew how long. He was not one to point it out anyway.
“Phew. I will have to go face the firing squad this evening.”
“Gautam?”
“Maya.”
He chuckled. “But hey,” he held her chin. “Don’t worry about Gautam. I will speak to him.”
“Stay out of this, Nilay.”
“Like hell I will. He is a business partner. Even if I stay out of it for the sake of our relationship, I cannot stay out for our business interests…”
“Relationship?”
“You know what I mean.”
Her mouth pursed. Her mobile buzzed and she reached for it, showing it to him — “And it starts.”
“Ignore it for a second.” He breathed deeply. “Just stay here. The last thirty minutes aside, today was a good day.”
“Mmmm.”
Her phone buzzed again.
“Yes, Maya?” She plastered it to her ear. He tried to shamelessly eavesdrop and she transferred it to her other ear, glaring.
“You what?!” She sprang up. He followed at leisure. Ritu was mostly a mellow person. With Maya though, some drama crept in. He stared at her, low-key enjoying her colour turn red again. Anger suited her, when it was not focused on him. Nilay knew he ought to care about what had made her so angry, but he couldn’t help it. She was fuming at somebody else, and what a sight that was.
“Maya.” She hissed.
“What happened?” He asked.
She held up a finger, as ifhehad offended her. Nilay shrugged.
“No.” She deadpanned. “No. I saidno, Maya.”
She ended the call and groaned — loud, angry, from the stomach.
“Doctor…”
“Don’t Doctor me right now. Pack up and leave.”
