Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
SUNAINA
O f all the ruthless, arrogant, pompous asses in the world, I happened to be married to the worst one, I fumed silently as I heard his bullshit excuse for why he didn’t want to consider the singer I was suggesting.
I knew his real problem. He thought I was trying to capitalise on the fact that I had lured him into my bed, and now was trying to take over his fucking company. Honestly! And they called women dramatic.
All I was doing was trying to help because Tarana wasn’t just anyone. She was the mother lode.
Viren didn’t know it, but she was exactly what The Bandra Boys were looking for. She had trained all her life under Bhargav Pandit Ji of all people. She had inherited his musical genius if that video was an accurate reflection of her skills. And she wasn’t in the least intimidated by the rigid rules of her gharana because, in the video that I just saw, she was flouting them merrily.
I would have explained all this to my idiot husband if he’d given me a chance to talk. Instead, he had taken mansplaining and condescension to new heights, and it was time to show this big boy what little girls could do if you pissed them off.
I turned on my heel and walked away without saying a word, and I heard Viren swear under his breath. Sufi came running after me.
“He didn’t mean it, Sue,” he exclaimed. “He’s just stressed because he doesn’t want to lose that band.”
He grabbed me by the elbow and dragged me to a halt.
“Talk to me, woman. You have that scary psychopath blank face going on, and I don’t know what you’re plotting, but I’m worried you’ll accidentally destroy the world!”
I smirked at him in reply.
“If you don’t want to go down with the rest of the world, you’ll have to help me, Sufi,” I said coldly.
“Oh God! You’re going to get me fired,” he groaned. “Listen, Sue, I can’t afford to get fired. I’m still paying off the EMIs for my flat in Nerul! And if Viren Chaudhry throws me off on my ass, nobody else will ever hire me.”
“Eh, he’s not going to fire you because I’ll take the fall for this one. Don’t you trust me?”
“I trust you… not at all ,” said the big drama queen.
“That’s fine. All I need is for you to connect me to Tanvir.”
“From The Bandra Boys? Oh no! What are you planning, Sue?” he yelped.
“I think it’s time to show Mr Chaudhry the power of a wannabe influencer,” I replied sweetly.
“Fuuuuucccck,” whined Sufi.
But my bestie had never let me down until now, and he didn’t let me down this time either.
“I know I’ll regret this, but I’ll tell Tanvir a friend of mine wants to connect with him. But that’s all I can do. And Sue, if you value your head, don’t tell him you’re Sunaina Chaudhry. If your husband thinks you’ve pulled rank with one of his artists, he’ll go full nuclear on you. Mr C doesn’t take kindly to anyone messing with an artist who’s under his protection.”
“What exactly do you think I’m going to do to your Tanvir?” I asked irritably.
“I don’t know! You didn’t tell me what you’re planning, remember?”
“Sufi Singh, this is highly classified info. Strictly need-to-know basis. And you don’t need to know anything about it because that gives you plausible deniability,” I said with a crooked smile.
He sent me Tanvir’s number, and I waited for Sufi to give me the all-clear before I texted him. I knew that the perfect time to reach out would be after Viren ripped him a new one for dragging his heels about finding a new lead singer. Tanvir would be vulnerable and worried about losing his big contract with Silver Records, and I had the perfect opportunity to present him with the perfect solution to his problem.
“Be gentle with him, Sue. Mr C just shot down his classical singer idea. He told him to get another singer just like the previous one,” warned Sufi.
Perfect! Because now Tanvir had a point to prove. He wouldn’t give up a chance to prove to Viren that he could make magic with a classical singer by his side. It was a question of his artistic freedom, but in this industry, you only got artistic freedom if you had the golden touch. And in today’s age, the fastest way for a creator to prove he was gold was to have a video go viral. And that’s where I came in.
I told Tanvir I was a social media manager for an upcoming classical singer, who was very open to experimenting with different styles of music, and that I wanted to explore a collab between him and my client. I sent him Tarana’s video as an audition tape with no details about who she was.
I had my reply in minutes.
When can I meet your client?
I set up a meeting that very night at his home in Bandra, and he very kindly invited us for dinner.
The family was in the den when I went downstairs, and Viren’s eyebrows shot up at the sight of me dressed in a dark grey chikankari kurta embroidered all over in pink. I had paired it with long, silver baalis and a thick silver cuff on one wrist.
“Where are you going?” he rumbled suspiciously.
“Someone has a hot date tonight,” said Tahira snidely, and I wanted to smack her across the face with my handbag.
Viren jumped up and dragged me out of the room by the hand. When we were out of hearing range in the hallway, he turned to me furiously.
“I thought we had set some ground rules,” he snarled. “You promised me you weren’t going to meet that asshole for the duration of our marriage.”
“I’m not meeting Dhruv,” I cried. “I’m meeting a prospective client.”
“Dressed like that?”
I looked down at myself in surprise. I was dressed very modestly in a long-sleeved kurta and loose palazzos.
“What’s wrong with my clothes?” I asked in surprise.
Viren stared at me broodingly for a few moments before he spoke.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he bit out. “You look beautiful. And I want to lock you in our bedroom and never let you out because I don’t want any other man even looking at you.”
A slow smile spread over my face, and my husband looked grumpier than ever. I looked around to make sure we were alone before I went up on my tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. The opportunistic bastard grabbed me by the waist and backed me into the wall behind me.
“What time will you be back?” he growled as he bent forward and nipped at the tender skin beneath my ear.
“I…I…”
My mind went blank under the tender onslaught of his lips, and I shuddered in his arms. Maybe I didn’t need to go out after all. We could just go upstairs and… Tarana!
I remembered just in time that I had promised to pick her up in twenty minutes.
“I’ll be back late. Don’t wait up,” I stammered before I pushed him away.