3. I Hate Love Storys
“Mile jo chhora chhori…” she grooved, going around the co-working area collecting her colourful markers. Her coworkers’ definition of ‘borrow’ was ‘steal.’ Markers never came back.
“Hui masti thodi thodi…” came a deep baritone from behind. She whirled.
“Bas pyaar ka naam na lena!” She challenged.
“I hate love stories…” the man grinned. Dimples popped on both his stubbled cheeks, and his eyebrows shot up from behind thick, black-framed glasses. Maya dumped all her reclaimed stuff in her basket and wove through the empty tables. It was still early for the staff to come in.
“Hi!” She perked up. “I’m Maya, may I help you?”
“I’m Aarya. From Amber Raisingh,” he held out his hand. His loose linen shirt was part see-through, while he wore relaxed cream wide legged pants right out of a hippie magazine. Chic, stylish and effortless. A rust-coloured hat added to the charm of his overgrown tousled curls.
“Oh, hi,” she shook his hand. “I am so sorry I didn’t recognise you. Actually, we were expecting a woman from your side. We thought it was an ‘Aryaa.’”
“You’ll have to make do with me,” he held his arms out. And he was a mighty fine specimen to make do with.
“Not bad for make-do,” Maya quipped. “You know Bollywood numbers.”
“I can dance on them too,” he winked.
“Chikni Chameli party is at 4 during these people’s smoke break.”
“You’re on, baby!”
“Excuse me?” Came Gautam’s bored drone from the door. They turned. And there stood the boss, as put together as ever. He was like a complete antithesis to Aarya — grey slacks, matching waistcoat, burgundy tie. Very uptight and ready for some big meeting. His uniform of choice was dress shirt and slacks otherwise.
“Yes?” Aarya frowned.
“Umm… Aarya, this is our founder — Gautam Kumar. G… Gautam, this is Aarya, he has come from Amber Raisingh.”
“Hello,” Aarya held his hand out.
“We were expecting a woman from your studio,” her grump of a boss clipped.
“Some misunderstanding. It’s just me. I look forward to working with you, Mr. Kumar.”
“You will be working with my designers. Maya, come up to my office.”
“Yes, I’ll just settle Aarya and be right ther…”
“Leo?”
As if summoned to materialise, Leo came running in, his backpack and umbrella still hanging off his body. “Yes, sir?”
“Please show Aarya his place. He will be working with Rustom and reporting to Maya for final selections. Maya, follow me.”
She pursed her lips and began her walk behind the sour piece of stone.
“Coffee in 10?” Aarya stage-whispered behind her. She snorted, then raised her thumbs over her head.
As soon as they reached his office, Gautam switched on the ventilation systems and closed the door.
“Sit.”
“I’ll stand. I need to start my day.”
“Sit, I said.”
She glowered, then perched at the very edge of the chair. For the first time, she noticed a flash of annoyance on his face before it was gone. He rounded his desk, settled his phone and keys, then sat back.
“Your job is to oversee Amber Raisingh’s requirements. Rustom will be the point of contact…”
“But you hired me for this project…”
“Among other things.”
“You asked me to make them comfortable!”
“In work.”
“And?”
“I didn’t hire you to dance around my office. And I definitely didn’t invite him to flirt with my staff. I have ignored your antics these last few weeks because they were harmless. I will not do so now that there is an outsider here, judging us for our work culture. Do you understand?”
“He looks like a fun guy, he won’t…”
“I said, do you understand?”
“‘Course I do,” she clipped through her stiffest imitation of Queen Elizabeth.
“This is not a joke here. Talk like an adult when I am talking to you.”
“Then you behave like an adult too! Seriously, Gautam… you have a chip on your shoulder with everybody here but with me there is some extra special extra large chip. I mean, I get it. I was a mean little shit to you all those years ago. I was a teenager and shocked when your boss came like that and began to beat you. My first reaction was to be angry and disgusted. Imagine, you are a girl in a big city like Mumbai and spend a whole day and night with a boy you meet for the first time, and come morning, you discover that most of what he told you was lies! I am not saying I wasn’t nasty… just that I am not proud of it now. I wasn’t proud of it the next day when I thought about it.”
Silence. Time ticked by, silently. He did not look away from her.
“Communicate to Rustom that he and that boy from Amber Raisingh have this working week to come up with the final fabric designs,” he went on, as if she hadn’t puked all their dirty history on his desk just now. “Their requirements need to be completely drafted on paper before we begin sourcing. You may go now.”
She pushed to her feet, then lay her hands on his desk and leaned in. It was a mighty intimidating move. She had dreamt of doing this to somebody ever since she had seen 90s villains do it.
“You know what,” she snarled to him. “You play a very good ‘ignore game.’ But you know what happened to that cat who closed its eyes and thought the world couldn’t see it?” She cocked her head to one side, thinking of a quick, threatening response to her own rhetoric. Shit, stupid Maya, why can’t you just taunt and be on your way?!
Seconds ticked by. His brow went up. More seconds ticked by. Shit, shit, shit.
“Think,” she challenged airily. “Think, Mr. Kumar.”
Then turned with a whirl of her hair and strutted out, hoping he had bought it. Something fell behind her and… did she hear a snort? Maya peeked over her shoulder. He was straightening the pen stand that she had toppled and hadn’t even realised. His face was that same emotionless mask. Had he snorted?
————————————————————
“Hey, what’s with your boss, bro?” Aarya asked, finishing off the last of the sketches to slot into her binder. “Ever since I came here, he is either not visible or giving me cold looks when he is.”
“That’s his resting bitch face,” Maya muttered. Rustom sputtered. He had begun to laugh at her jokes now, not openly but in small bursts.
“Even his office staff… I had met Sahyadri during the negotiations but here she acts completely different. Everyone upstairs is different, in fact.”
“Look,” Maya informed, “upstairs is boring, white collar, stiff, yes-boss. Bichchoo gang area.”
“Hmm? Mereko toh Eagle gang mehich rehneka hai.”
Her mouth dropped open. They had exchanged a lot many songs and dialogues over the last week but this one trumped them all.
“Ek kaam kar usko bula,” she sang.
“Hotel mein khana khila,” he sang back.
“Samundar kinaare leja ke yeh bol de kullam khulla!!! Oh my god! You are my soulmate. Josh fans are rare diamonds in the world.”
He laughed, snapping his Apple Pencil on the iPad’s edge and siting back. “Do you want to go out after work today? It’s a Friday, we will finish these submissions, there’ll be good crowd around. What say? Up for a drink and some dinner?”
“Sure. Rustom bhai, you wanna come?”
“Third wheeling? No, thank you…”
“It’s not like that…”
“Hey, Maya?” Leo called out. “You guys ready to show the final sketches to Gautam Sir?”
“It’s not six yet.”
“He called. He has half an hour available now. He can take you.”
“Umm… are we ready, Aarya?”
“Just done. Let’s go!”
“Rustom bhai, come on.”
“Me? Why? You both have to go…”
“You and Aarya worked on this, I was just hanging around. You both present it.”
Maya led the men up the two floors and to the infamous terrace. For a change, the glass house doors were open and Sia was laughing like an overeager hyena. She stopped the moment they darkened the door.
“Oh, hey you guys, come in.”
Maya glanced at Gautam for permission, because she was quickly discovering that Sia loved to insert herself into positions of authority where she didn’t hold any. Especially, where Gautam’s realm was concerned.
“Come, sit,” he offered. But this time, instead of lounging behind his desk, he rounded it and offered them the couch and its surrounding seating. He himself took an armchair, while Sia rolled her current chair to the circle. It felt cosy, very comfortable as Aarya and Rustom laid out their iPads, the binder of mock-up fabrics and inspo pieces from Amber Raisingh’s office.
“Are you ready?” Aarya rubbed his hands together.
“Whenever you are,” Gautam intoned.
“Right, here goes nothing,” Aarya winked at her and began his presentation. Technically, he did not need Gautam’s approval. He had Amber’s blessing on the fabrics. But he did need Gautam’s mills, his contacts and his expertise in sourcing the best quality fabrics or producing them exactly how they had been envisioned. Customisation, at dirt cheap rates, was Gautam’s USP. Maya sat quietly through the talk, listening as Aarya led the show, and Rustom shone at regular intervals.
“And how did you contribute in all this, Maya?” Sia asked.
“I hung around and helped whenever they needed something.”
“Bullshit. She was the muse,” Aarya barred his teeth cheekily at her. Maya shook her head. “Fine, jokes aside. I don’t like dissecting contributions in a creative project. It is cheap and demeaning to all parties involved. I will only say this, that without Maya, Rustom and I wouldn’t be able to come on the same page even if hell froze over. She was incredible in making Rustom’s old-school design acumen combine with the vision of Amber Raisingh. She has such solid knowledge of fabric science and has seamlessly slipped everything into our collaboration. If you’d still like me to dissect further, I can write up a nice flow chart and send you.”
Maya felt her chest warm, more than a little bit. She even felt red rise up her neck and into her cheeks. But she kept it cool. That is, until Gautam spoke up.
“All the base fabrics you mentioned are already under production at one of our, or our partners’ mills. Except the Mysore Silk. I have a contact in Coorg who produces it, but we haven’t sourced from him yet. So, we will need to visit personally first, then customise.”
“You and I can fly out this weekend itself,” Sia offered. “I will have the tickets booked…”
“No, you stay back. You were just saying that you have a Yoga retreat.”
“It’s ok, I can cancel…”
“Aarya and Rustom will come along.”
“I can’t come on such short notice,” Rustom rumbled.
“Why not?”
“My family needs to be managed.”
“Right.”
“Maya can come along then,” Aarya suggested. “She knows everything that Rustom does.”
Maya perked up at the idea of a Coorg trip, even if for work. But the next moment her excitement deflated. Because Gautam looked like he had swallowed a fly.
Silence. Then, he gave a curt nod.
“Awesome. This means we are flying to Coorg, and our Friday is over earlier than we thought!” Aarya sprung to his feet. “Thank you, Mr. Kumar. I’ll be out of your hair now.”
They all got to their feet and began to move.
“Maya?” Gautam called. “Sit for two minutes. I need to talk to you.”
Everybody filed out, including a pinch-faced Sia.
“I’m waiting downstairs for you,” Aarya mimed to her before walking off. When she turned back, Gautam’s eyes were on him. Maya waited until his attention was on her. Then remained silent.
“You were right,” he said.
“I am right about a lot of things, what exactly are you talking about?”
“You know it. And I am not about to spell it out.”
Her ego was massaged and muscled now, ready to roll in dirt and thump on its biceps. She gave him his same silent-and-stare treatment though. And it worked!
“Ever since you came,” he said. “I haven’t made up my mind on how to behave with you. I need to separate our personal history from your work here, and maybe I failed to do it.”
“It’s alright.”
“I am not apologising,” he frowned.
“You should.”
His eyes shut. Ok, that was exasperation right there. The muscled ego inside her grew into an arm wrestler and thumped his feet.
“I will strive to keep our relationship completely professional going forward. Even if I have leftover anger, it is not right to vent it out now on you.”
“That’s what!” She sat forward. “You are angry. Admit it. I know you are, and you should be. But give me a chance to redeem…”
“As I said, I will strive to be completely professional going forward. Which means no rehashing old times. Do you understand?”
“But I can’t let somebody be angry at me knowingly.”
“I am not angry at you.”
“You just said you are.”
He shook his head, his fingers reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Frustration, right there!
“Ok, let’s start again,” he huffed. “My name is Gautam Kumar and I am your boss’s boss.” He gave a nod.
“Hi, my name is Maya Kotak and I am your… employee’s employee?” She squinted, rolling one eye, wondering if that made sense. He smiled. SMILED! A small, teeny-tiny, just-the-corner-of-the-lips one. Then nodded.
That arm wrestler inside her? He was performing victory clasps.
“I’ll see you then,” he rose to his feet.
“You will. We are going to Coorg together!”
“Not on a holiday.”
“Of course,” she mimed in her best Queen’s accent. He didn’t smile again. So she quit while she was ahead.
“And listen,” he called out as she began to move towards the door.
“Yes?”
A beat. Then, “Nothing.”