‘That was kind of her.’
‘It was.’ Sadia is such a nice person, and I bet Ma will get on with her when she finally becomes a client and meets her. I rub my fingers in a circular fashion between the bones of Ma’s upper back, and can feel her tension relieving within seconds. ‘Is that all right?’
‘Perfect, angel.’ Ma hums. ‘Tell me more. What did you do today? Did you see any clients? What are your colleagues like?’ She peppers me with questions, but it’s the last one that makes my spine stiffen.
‘Well, it was mostly intro stuff, getting set up on the laptop and reading background on the company.’
‘Don’t worry, beta, first days are always a bit of a slog. It’ll get more interesting in time.’
I nod even though her eyes are shut. ‘Though Sadia did ask me to fill out the questionnaire prospective clients have to before they join the agency.’
‘What were the questions like?’
‘They get really deep. Like about your relationship history, boundaries, expectations, values and a bunch of othercategories.’
‘Bet Sadia didn’t expect to be handed back an empty form,’ Ma teases, the words ‘considering you’re not allowed to date until you turn eighteen’ unspoken but definitely felt. I feel a twinge of guilt at the fact that Ma, the person I tell everything to, doesn’t know about my relationship with Salman.
I swallow, trying to speak past the lump in my throat, but find that I can’t so instead I just keep pressing into the knots in Ma’s shoulders. ‘Ma, we really need to get you to a chiropractor. Your shoulders are like cement!’
‘Perhaps, but then I wouldn’t get to spend this quality time with you, my darling daughter. Now, tell me more about your day. How were your colleagues?’
I thought I could dodge that particular question, but it seems I can’t.
‘They’re .?.?. interesting.’
Ma snorts. ‘As long as they don’t rile you up, you should be fine.’
Well, that’s going to be a problem because Salmandefinitelyriles me up, if today’s anything to go by.
‘No, it’s not that. It’s just that I kind of know one of them already.’
I don’t know why I feel so compelled to tell Ma the truth. It’s not like I haven’t lied to her about things before. Case in point, my whole relationship with Salman. Still, something is tugging at me to tell her. To open up the conversation we never had six months ago. Maybe it’s because I’m already lying to her about why I took the job at Eternally Yours that I feel I need to tell her the truth on another front.
‘Oh, really? Somebody from college?’
No, and thank God for that. Salman goes to a college across town over in Filton, since they have a better media course than St Mary’s. After our break-up, I was grateful he didn’t go to mycollege. I couldn’t imagine seeing his face every day after the way we left things.
Well, now I’m forced to. I’m still pissed that out of all the places in Bristol he could have worked, he chose to join Eternally Yours. I know he’s into photography, but surely he could have done that at his parents’ flower shop, Petal Poush, like he does every other year.
‘It’s Salman,’ I blurt out, not sure how much longer I can put it off, so I just rip the band aid and say it.
‘What’s Salman?’
‘One of my colleagues is Salman.’
Ma turns around slowly. ‘Salman? As in –’
‘Yep,’ I cut her off. ‘Hira Auntie and Azad Uncle’s Salman. The same one.’
‘Oh.’ Although Ma tries to hide her surprise at hearing the names of her former best friends, I still catch it. I don’t know what led up to it or what they fought about, but one day Ma and Salman’s parents just stopped speaking. Salman and I grew up together, our families so close, then nothing – they went missing from our lives.
‘It’ll be fine. It’s just weird seeing him again after all this time.’
After the break-up, Salman and I managed to figure out a way to avoid each other. We’d take turns meeting up with our friends, Amit, Raju, Shirin and Lipi, dividing up custody of them as if we were divorced parents. It also helped that our parents didn’t attend the same parties after their big fight, which happened just before our break-up. They probably came up with an arrangement similar to ours so they didn’t have to see each other.
‘Well, just be civil, OK? You’ll be working together, after all.’
I’m surprised at Ma’s reaction and how relaxed she’s being about Salman’s reappearance in my life. I suppose she can’t doanything about him working there. Still, I wonder if, now that time has passed, she might actually be over the fight with his parents. If that’s the case, maybe I can finally get some answers about what went down between them.
