His head cocked to the side, and the waves of his combed back hair did not move. Product. His beard twitched, and he opened his obnoxiousmouth to say something equally obnoxious when MM began to babble at him. His eyes cut to her, and Ritu had the strongest urge to hide her somewhere.Don’t look the bad guys in the eye, MM.
He tipped his chin to the baby like she was his lowly staff. MM pouted her lips, making her GoohGooh sound through her bubbles.
“What are you doing here?” Ritu shot out coldly.
“PVR ran out of shows.” His eyes came back to her. Then smiled even more condescendingly, going down her body and back up. Ritu’s throat tightened. She had left body issues way behind, and yet her tummy tightened under the flimsy, translucent fabric of her white saree.
“Did your BP come back under control?”
His smile vanished. Ritu stared hard at him and his face turned furious.
“NiP, hi.” Gautam’s voice broke the tense silence.NiP?Was that his nickname?Yuck!She took her attention away from whatever this man’s ‘name’ was and switched MM to her left arm. The right one was going numb.
“Gautam, nice party.”
So hedidpossess a courteous tone of voice andknewhow to use it.
Ritu didn’t look up to check if he also had an expression to match, focusing her attention instead on getting the locks of her hair free from MM’s grip.
“Oh my god! You actually came?!” Maya came barreling down to them, opening her arms. To Ritu’s shock, she embraced the man like he was a long-lost lover. Ritu glanced at Gautam. He didn’t look like he was caught off guard.
“You sent me four invites,” he barked a laugh, his voice deep and heavy, patting Maya’s shoulder delicately and stepping back. “How could I not?”
“Correction — one save the date, one invite and two reminders. That’s how I plan. Or don’t you know yet? I love what you’re wearing, by the way.”
“Amavasya on amavasya,” Ritu blurted under her breath.
“Excuse me?” Nilay’s obnoxious voice was bass now, low, authoritarian.
“She means, you’re giving the new moon a run for its money,” Maya breezed. Ritu’s eyes met his, and the obnoxious smile was gone, replaced by an entitled one.
“Oh, let me introduce you to my Maasi…”
“Maasi?” His egoistical head cocked again.
“Can you believe it?” Maya rattled on. Ritu didn’t care at this point, but the silent laughter in the obnoxious man’s eyes was needling something inside her. Maya never took non-verbal cues though — “We are more like sisters. Grew up together.”
“I see.”
“She is the best interventional cardiologist on the East Coast, just recently finished as the head of St. Jude’s Medical Center in New York. They also gave her an award… what’s it called, Maasi?… They only give it to one doctor a year. And she got it for saving lives without making her patients undergo operations.”
“Is it?”
“Yep, and Maasi, this is NiP… why am I even introducing? You must already know him, naa?”
Ritu saw his eyes take a smoky, prideful look. Like he not only thought but believed that he was god himself.
“No.” Ritu deadpanned.
“No?” Maya’s wide-eyed gape turned to her. “Are you serious, Maasi?! NiP?” She waved her palm like a wand at the man standing in front of them. “The designer whose lehenga Dimple bawled and begged for, then threatened to call off her wedding for, then threatened suicide, andthenJimmy fuva finally agreed? I got the news via-via, but that’s what happened…”
Ritu swallowed. Then shrugged.
“Wow, ok,” Maya huffed. “ThenIhave the honour of introducing you to NiP, the founder of Nilay Patel Couture. He has resurfaced Indian heritage fashion and indigenous textiles. Basically, bridging the road between the ancient grassroots and uber-rich couture. Versace is looking to collaborate with him andhehas declined, can you imagine?!”
“Maya?” Nilay’s amused voice broke her monologue. They both glanced at him and he was looking down at her with unparalleled pride and joy — “You have my account.”
“I know! This is genuine admiration. The ego pandering was over on our first meeting.”
