I’d like to make some good bank on this.
13
‘I can’t wait to see what you’ve got for me,’ Sadia says as she takes a seat at the back of the meeting room on Friday.
Today is the day we present our matches – and either Salman quits or I have to hang out with him. By myself. As much as I would like to think I prefer one outcome over the other, as time has passed my head has become more and more scrambled. Amit’s texts didn’t help, either. Why does Salman need this job so much?
But most of all, why do I care?
‘You want to go first, or shall I?’ Salman asks me as his cursor hovers over the two files on the desktop.
Ideally, I’d like to see what he’s been up to, but my nerves are actually sending me over the edge. ‘I’ll go first.’
He clicks on my PowerPoint and the screen behind me fills with the Eternally Yours logo.
‘Good luck,’ he whispers and I bite back a sarcastic retort and instead nod. I will definitely need the luck. Public speaking has never been my favourite thing. I prefer the behind-the-scenes, the setting-up, not taking centre stage.
When Salman goes to sit down next to Sadia, leaving me standing alone to present, she raises her eyebrows.
‘Right, let’s get started. We’ve got twelve individuals, all looking for love –’ I begin.
‘Hold on,’ Sadia interrupts. ‘What’s going on here? I thought I told you to present together.’
I look at Salman, who gestures to me to explain. When I shoot him a glare, he mouths, ‘It was your idea.’
I let out a sigh and put on my best smile, hoping Sadia can’t see through my nervousness. ‘We decided to try the task separately,’ I start, fidgeting with my hands behind my back. ‘We wanted to test out our matchmaking skills without the other one influencing us.’
Sadia rubs her brows as if to ward off a headache. It makes the words jumble out of my mouth even faster.
‘We thought it would be helpful as a learning tool. You know, to see where our strengths and weaknesses lie. We can only improve our analytical skills if we know what we’re lacking, right? And this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that.’ My hands sweat profusely: no matter how much I wipe them on my trousers, the dampness still lingers. ‘So, yeah, that’s why we worked on this separately.’
Sadia is quiet for a long time, the only sound that of her nails tapping against the tabletop. When she does speak, her words shatter me. ‘You’ll be working on date proposals once we’ve gone through your matches so, please, for your next task, can I remind you to follow instructions?’
My heart sinks. Sadia, as per usual, is nothing but the image of a graceful woman, but underneath the mask I can see her disappointment. It’s in the way she sets her jaw.
This was the wrong move, wasn’t it? Did I let myself get blinded by my emotions towards Salman and focus too much of my energy on a bet, which in the grand scheme of things matters less than what I’m actually here for? Crap. Of course it was a bad idea. I blatantly went against my boss’s instructions, changing the parameters of the assignment to fit my needs rather than what she asked.
IknewSalman was going to be a distraction as soon as he started, and now I’m realising why heneedsto go as soon aspossible or there will never be a chance in hell that Ma will get on Sadia’s client list.
Oh, who am I kidding? She’ll probably have this in the back of her mind for the rest of my time here, and any chance of Ma getting on that list is squashed. Shit, shit, shit! Why was I so defiant –
‘I’d like to clarify that it wasn’t just Poppy’s idea,’ Salman cuts in. I tear my gaze from Sadia to him and am met with a look I’ve seen a million times before. The one that tells me not to worry, to take a breath and pause. He always was good at knowing what was going through my head, my anxieties written across my face in a language he grew accustomed to reading.
‘We both agreed,’ Salman adds. I’m surprised that he doesn’t let me take the fall.
At the same time, I’m secretly thankful.
‘And we will of course follow your instructions in future. It wasn’t our intention to disobey, but at the same time we thought that while we have the opportunity, since we’re learning and all, that we’d try something different. It’s why we were hired, right? To bring a fresh perspective? What’s fresher thantwoperspectives?’
Sadia clears her throat noisily. ‘Since you’ve decided to do two separate presentations, I will give you my opinion once you have both presented.’ She opens her notebook and writes something down. ‘Poppy, please get started.’
I could cry right now, annoyed at myself for having gone against Sadia’s orders, but I force myself to blink away the tears that are building and focus on the presentation. This is my opportunity to prove myself to her, and I won’t waste it. ‘Right, so first up we have Syed and Farzana.’
I press the clicker and two images come up on the screen. Next to their images are bullet points listing details about them such as their age, star sign, occupation, hobbies and a one-sentence summary they wrote about themselves.
‘So, Farzana is a teacher and she’s clearly an empath from her personal statement. In her hobbies, she mentions that she loves National Trust walks, reading magical realism, yoga and going to car-boot sales.’ I pause, my throat drying already. Why couldn’t we just send Sadia a document of our matches? Why did we have to present them? ‘Syed is an engineer. He specialises in aerospace, and in his hobbies he notes that he’s into hiking, trail runs and playing board games likeD&D.’
‘D&D?’Sadia queries.
