11. Sujit
SUJIT
“ W hat are you smiling at?” Devi asked as she rushed into my office.
She could always tell from the look on my face when she could come in and when it wasn’t wise to bother me.
I hadn’t realized I was smiling. My mind had momentarily wandered off toward Aarti and the expression on her face when she thought I was about to spill the secrets of my love life. I cleared my throat.
Devi narrowed her eyes and tapped her pen on the planner in her hand. “You have been uncharacteristically upbeat the last few days.”
“And that’s bad because?” I asked, looking over the rim of my glasses.
“It’s not,” she emphasized. “But why are you happy?” She cast me a suspicious look again.
I removed my glasses and placed them on the desk. “For months now, you all have hounded me to emerge out of my gloom and despair , your words. And now that you think I’ve found some illusory happiness, you’re skeptical about the reason?”
“Hmmm…” The tapping of her pen grew rapid and intense. “The question still remains. What is the reason behind this happiness? And now that you broached the subject, I wonder if it’s someone new in your life.”
I frowned. I had given it away too easily. “Why, so you can go tell Cathy and Amma about it?”
“That’s always an option,” she said, teasing me with a pensive look, although I completely trusted her. She hadn’t divulged my relationship with Tara even though she’d visited me at the office long before I broke the news to my family.
“Was there a reason you barged into my office?” I asked with mild annoyance.
Devi held her stare, then gradually resigned. “I wanted to remind you of a couple of things. The new lease is ready and needs your approval.”
I worked hard to keep my face impassive. The lease. Aarti. Her expression. The reason for my smile. No, I wasn’t about to go down that line of thought. Not right now.
“I’ll take a look at it. Have you run it by El?”
“Yes, she has approved the amount.”
“Good. Anything else?” I asked in a bid to rush her out of my space.
“Your mother called and insisted that I remind you about Padmaja’s exhibition on Thursday.”
I put my glasses back on. “I remember,” I said, my reply clipped but not curt.
“And she wanted me to remind you to buy something for her puja room.”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “Yes, I remember.”
“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger,” Devi complained.
“I’m not. Sorry. I’ve got things on my mind right now.”
“Yes, like trying to hide a smile behind that massive screen of yours. Like trying to rush me out of your office so you can go back to reminiscing about whoever it is you are reminiscing about.”
“Good god, Devi. Do you sometimes forget I’m your boss?”
“And do you always forget I’m Cathy’s friend and that you couldn’t fire me even if you wanted to?”
“Out,” I said with a smile as she pulled up her dignified professional persona before walking out of my office.
Cathy or no Cathy, firing Devi would mean doom for my business.
She had been with me since we were a small startup, and she adapted quickly when we ballooned into a million-dollar venture.
After it was acquired and I embarked on this new journey, she stayed with me instead of moving to the new company despite their several attempts to poach her.
She had her finger on the pulse of this business, and without her, I would not only be left rudderless but possibly be thrown into full-blown chaos.
Obviously, I would never tell her that. But the smart woman that she was, she knew it already.
She was family, and her loyalty to me ran deeper than our professional association.
I turned my revolving chair to face the skyline before me.
My vision blurred over the horizon in the distance, where the skyscrapers reached up to kiss the low clouds.
It had been more than a week since our dinner at the Korean restaurant, and I hadn’t heard anything from Aarti except a couple of innocuous messages early last week.
In response to my text thanking her for dinner, she had sent a brief one saying that she’d had a wonderful time.
I was tempted to ask when we could meet again, but I had typed and deleted that message three times.
She did have a busy work life, and she had mentioned she was going out on dates.
Maybe spending time with me wasn’t at the top of her priority list.
If we had been in touch, though, I would’ve invited her to Padma’s exhibition. It was a black-tie event at some fancy gallery in SoHo. I didn’t know the details. I was sure Devi had already passed the information on to Imran.
I sighed as I turned around to face my screen and tackle the steep work week ahead.
Imran dropped me off outside the gallery on Thursday, and I was glad to step away from the evening chill into the warm hall.
The gathering was larger than I had expected.
Multiple artists and sculptors were featured at the exhibition as the brochure in my hand informed me.
Padma was talented, Tara had gushed over and over during our time together.
Maybe this would be her big break. My heart beamed with pride as I looked around for my cousin, but I wasn’t ready for what met my eyes.
About fifty feet away stood Aarti, with her back to me.
The ease with which I recognized her form unsettled me slightly.
She wore a simple black dress that fell just below her knees.
The cut of the dress and the fall of the fabric definitely screamed designer .
Darn, I had too many fashion savvy women in my life that I could spot these things so instinctively.
I’d always seen her in professional mid-heels or sneakers.
At the exhibit, she towered over half the crowd with stilettos on her tall legs.
I tried to check the admiration on my face.
It was a good thing she hadn’t seen me yet because I couldn’t stop staring at her.
She was gorgeous in the truest sense of the word, and it wasn’t unnatural to be attracted to her.
But maybe she deserved someone better, someone who didn’t intermittently think about his ex-girlfriend.
I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Hey, Annayya!”
I turned around to face my younger cousin with the perpetual baby face. “Hello, Bella!”
“Will you give it a rest?” She hit my arm.
“Sorry, I keep forgetting you’re all grown up, Ms. Padmaja.”
“You are impossible. You know that?”
“Only with the people I love. Now, show me what you’ve made, and I’ll tell you if you’re any good,” I said.
With a scoff, she threw me an as if expression and began escorting me toward her sculptures. “Any other names you’ve butchered since mine?”
“One. Devi’s daughter, Katyayani. That’s too long and inefficient. I call her Kitty. She loves it.”
“Let me guess, Devi hates it and hates you for it.”
“Bingo.”
“I forget why you chose that silly name for me.”
“We didn’t, Bella, you did. Ask Srijan,” I said about my brother. “You bugged us for a whole summer to call you Bella.”
“Of course I did. I was nine!”
“We still love you the same, baby sister.” I gave her a side hug as she pointed at a geometric sculpture of some kind.
I walked around and attempted to study it, but I didn’t have an eye for these things. “I have no idea what it is, but I’m buying it,” I declared.
Padma smiled. “No, you don’t buy something that doesn’t speak to you,” she argued, instantly reminding me of Tara.
Tara used to say the same thing. And there I was again, thinking about her.
“This is beautiful!” A rich, smooth voice behind me caused a pleasant warmth to unfold in my chest. I swiftly turned around with a smile.
“Aarti.”
“Nice to see you again, Sujit.”
I stood stupefied and tongue-tied against her beauty.
The black dress was complemented by a pair of solitaire earrings and a statement ring on her middle finger.
The red on her lips was both classic and powerful.
I’d never seen her in a perfect red lipstick before.
My trance broke when our eyes met, and she blinked.
I cleared my throat, trying to redirect my own thoughts. “Aarti, may I introduce my very talented cousin, Padmaja R?”
Aarti turned to her with an extended hand. “Padmaja, it is wonderful to meet you. You are a phenomenal artist!”
Padmaja shook her hand and gushed, her baby cheeks flushing with color. “Thank you, you are very kind.”
“Padmaja,” I said. “This is Aarti Bhatia. She’s a…business associate.”
Aarti’s eyes spied me with mischief, but her composure remained consummate.
We talked for a bit before Padmaja was called away.
“This is soul-stirring,” Aarti said when we were alone.
“This geometric structure?” I asked, looking at Padma’s creation before me.
She nodded. “See this sort of cage formation here? This is how we are entrenched in different ways. Things we do to ourselves, and things society does to cage us.”
“Hmm…” I walked around it and tried to look at it through Aarti’s eyes. It did make sense what she saw. I would’ve never found meaning in it if she hadn’t shown it to me.
“I especially love how she’s slipped the curves inside the harsh geometric lines.”
“What does that mean?”
Aarti looked at me. “I don’t know how she intended, but to me it suggests there’s fluidity, beauty, and movement inside what seems bulky, unwieldy, and stoic. An allegory for life, don’t you think?”
I closed my gaping mouth. I was definitely buying it.
“How have you been?” I asked and walked around the sculpture to stand beside her.
She looked at me with her soft, warm eyes. “Good. Busy. You?”
“Same.” I wanted to tell her that I’d missed talking to her.
She slipped a sly smile as if she’d read my thoughts. “I had hoped to hear from you.”
“I waited to hear from you, too.”
“You could have texted,” she accused.
“I didn’t want to bother you,” I said, then rather audaciously suggested, “But let’s grab a drink after this.”