I feel slightly envious that I have missed part of this conversation.
‘Wait, I thought we were boycotting pickleball,’ I tell Shirin.
Shirin turns around so she’s walking backwards and somehow navigating through the crowd without even glancingover her shoulder. Or maybe it’s the people around us doing her a favour by stepping out of her way. ‘We are.’
‘So why do you need a new outfit .?.?.’ I pause, my eyes widening in emphasis, ‘for pickleball?’
Shirin stops, and we stop with her. ‘You guys really aren’t making this easy for me, are you?’
‘Your delusional self is making this difficult, Shirin,’ Lipi says, so deadpan it’s funny. Even though Lipi is the soft one in our trio, she manages to come out with these savage one-liners every once in a while that remind you not to underestimate her. ‘Pickleball is done – let’s move on.’
‘You guys suck,’ Shirin says, crossing her arms. ‘I support you both without any judgement when it comes to your crushes and partners.’
I raise my hand as if I’m in a classroom. ‘Um, excuse me, you’re still friends with my ex who broke my heart. I wouldn’t call that support.’
‘We agreed when you guys broke up that we weren’t getting involved in your relationship drama, and staying friends with both of you is part of that,’ Lipi tells me before turning to Shirin. ‘And I don’t have any romantic problems, thank you very much. Self-love is the only way to go in this economy.’
Shirin rolls her eyes and turns to me. ‘Poppy, do you think we wouldn’t be completely on your side if we could? You need to remember that we’re not just lifelong friends with just you but also with him. We are obviously more loyal to you but the agreement we had about staying out of your drama with him included staying out of the friendship break-up, too.’
She’s right. I can’treallybe mad at them for still hanging out with Salman when they’ve been friends with him for as long as they have with me. ‘I’m still going to be salty about it.’
‘I’ll get you some chips to go with all that salt. Would you like some fish, too?’ Shirin cracks a smirk.
If I could roll my eyes into the back of my head, I would.
‘So if we’re not shopping for a revenge dress any more, what are we doing?’ Lipi asks.
Shirin throws her arm around Lipi. ‘Lips, have you ever heard of the idea of just hanging? You know .?.?. no plans, just vibing?’
Lipi pushes Shirin with her shoulder. ‘You’re such a huge ass.’
‘Have to match what my mama gave me.’ Shirin turns around and shakes her bum at us. The people who are walking past turn their heads to stare with wide and horrified eyes.
‘Right, let’s get moving before you get us kicked out of here,’ I say. ‘Get a pretzel and a drink?’
Shirin practically foams at the mouth at the idea, and we head towards the little kiosk in the middle of the mall. Once we’ve got our pretzels and drinks, we find a table on the ground floor and settle in. As soon as I take the first bite, I feel like I’m in heaven. The dough is gooey and crunchy at the same time, the salty texture exactly what I need to revive my tastebuds after the havoc of Salman’s hot sauce cupcake.
‘Yo, what’s this? We don’t even get an invite?’ a voice calls loudly. We turn in that direction to see Raju and Amit walking over, shopping bags in their hands.
‘Where was our invite?’ Shirin rebuts with a raised eyebrow. ‘From the number of bags, I’d say you’ve been here longer than we have.’
They grab chairs from nearby tables and pull them up to our table.
‘Look, it was purely for your benefit that we didn’t invite you,’ Raju says.
‘How’s that?’ Lipi says through a mouthful of dough.
‘Come on, have you seen this body?’ Raju gestures at himself. ‘You’d be losing your minds if you had to watch me change in and out of fire outfits every five minutes, knowing you couldn’t get a piece of this.’
‘What he said,’ Amit adds with a nod. ‘Not that we’d blame you, obviously. We’re just too good-looking.’
Shirin scoffs. ‘Honestly, I’ve never met anybody more delusional than you two, and I’ve met Carol from marketing, who thinks PowerPoint presentations are a form of art.’
‘Oh my God, it makes you really question how she got the job, doesn’t it?’ Lipi says, landing a hand on Shirin’s shoulder. It sparks another flicker of jealousy in me. Again, it feels like I’m missing out on an inside joke. One I could have easily been part of if I hadn’t had to take the job at Eternally Yours.
‘Is Carol single?’ Raju asks with waggling eyebrows.
‘You really need a hobby,’ Shirin responds while Amit takes a bite out of her pretzel.
