“You are meeting me after dinner.” He asserted instead. This, he could do.
“But…”
“Heart patients can eat ice cream, right?”
14. Aankhon Se Tune Yeh Kya Keh Diya
— NILAY —
As always, Nilay found himself parked and waiting for her twenty minutes in advance. He didn’t know when it happened, but the habit of being before time for his private matters had always been ingrained in him. At work, he always made entries fashionably late. For himself… he was always early. Be it his cardiologist appointments or… Ritu.
He checked his watch and raised his eyes, and there she was, running down the street, glancing over her shoulder like she was being followed. He laughed, unlocking the car. She slipped inside and tapped his dashboard — “Go, go, go!”
“Are we being chased?” He intoned, turning the wheel and merging with the Carter Road traffic.
“No! But Maya came out to wave.”
“How did you convince them not to go and drop you?”
“I told them I wanted to walk home and burn off the dinner.”
“What was dinner?”
“You will salivate.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“Full Gujarati fare. Kadhi, pulav, khandvi…”
“Stop, stop,” he groaned. “Don’t talk about it. I haven’t had dinner yet.”
“What? It’s 9.30, Nilay!”
“I know. I had two meetings to get to and didn’t want to eat out.”
“Then what? Will your cook have made dinner?”
“I will go home and make it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t employ cooks.”
“Really?”
He pulled up outside a Gelato place that was recently hyped on Instagram. But she clicked her seatbelt on.
“What?” He turned to her. “You want me to get it in the car?”
“No. We are first going and eating dinner.”
“I don’t want to eat out, Ritu.”
“It’s alright. You can eat out, just make the right choices.”
“It’s not that.”
“Then?”
