‘What do you plan to do if she calls for help?’ Sameer cocked a brow at Anu. His dislike for Kavitha was nothing new. For a while, she nursed a massive crush on Sameer and he wasn’t happy being followed around by a grinning Kavitha wherever he went. Anu had then manufactured a story to bail Sameer out. That he was engaged at birth to marry his father’s childhood friend’s daughter. That hadn’t gone too well when Kavitha spread that story to everyone in Sameer’s college, but it was still okay since it got Kavitha off his back.

The phone duly rang in fifteen minutes. There was no background noise anymore around Kavitha. ‘Anu, no autos, man. Feeling a bit scared. What do I do?’

‘Is there a bus-stand around you? Stand there. It is safer than the roadside. I will come to get you.’

Anu looked at Sameer and got up. ‘Come, Sammy boy. Let’s rescue the maiden in distress.’

Sameer shook his head in disagreement. ‘No way! I am not getting caught for drunken driving because of that whacko.’

‘Hey! What happened to all the chivalrous men? Come on, Sameer. She can’t call her husband because he hates her love for Sudeep. Her father doesn’t drive.’

‘Ask Sanju to pick her up. He will be sober and he works closer to where she is.’

‘He is in the electronic city office! It is insanely far for him. And, he is in the middle of some software crisis. Come on, Sameer.’

Sameer picked up the keys reluctantly. ‘Why are you the saviour of the crazy world? Who will mess with her? She is large enough to pick up a man and throw him into the traffic.’

‘Hey! No body shaming.’ Anu poked Sameer in the arm, fastening the seatbelt.

‘She calls me a skinny crow. Isn’t that body shaming?’

‘That is because you broke her heart.’

What usually is one of the most wretched stretches of Bangalore during the day turned out to be a nice drive at that hour on the outer ring road. Anu could see lit-up huge apartment complexes with large empty spaces on either side of the road. Tiny cars and tinier two-wheelers zipped past majestic BMTC buses and trucks. Sameer was enjoying the drive as much as her. By then, Anu’s mother had called a hundred times. Anu deftly dodged that bullet by lying that she had gone home with Sanju.

‘Lucky we weren’t stopped for alcohol testing.’ Sameer sighed in relief. They had come past a couple of checkpoints but the police hadn’t suspected them.

After being misdirected by Kavitha a dozen times, they were able to locate her sitting in an empty bus stop.

She got in muttering at Sameer. ‘Yo, skinny crow. Can’t you locate a place properly?’