Anu nodded and looked around longingly sipping the tea that was poured from a flask. Old-world bookshelves filled with books about Tagore, education and Montessori methods. Anu had helped Sumitra aunty set up the library and other rooms when she had started Dew Drops seven years back.

As Sumitra aunty had suggested, she was going to make an effort to relax and enjoy her life in Verdant Green. But there was a premonition that it was going to be a very short-lived life.

Anu left Vicky with her parents-in-law, so she could take as long a lunch break as she could with Sameer. He was going to pick her up from the school.

‘Did you make time for me or were you free today?’ Anu asked once they settled down with a drink.

‘I would have made time for you but I was free today. No shoots.’

‘Smooth.’ Anu smiled. ‘No shoots of both kinds?’ Sameer did some part-time modelling and also some professional photography. But his full-time occupation was lazing around.

‘So how is it going there? Settling down? Has Sanju started enjoying his luxury living?’

Anu scrunched up her face. ‘Let us not talk about it, Sameer. It is not a pretty scene.’

‘Done. Let us just drink to Anu’s happiness.’

They drank quietly for some time. Anu exceeded her normal two mugs and ordered a third and then a fourth. That was when she started unravelling. She told it all to Sameer. The snooty crowd, her fight with Sanju, and how miserable she was, the trouble Sumitra aunty was in.

Sameer listened quietly. When she finally calmed down, he shook his head. ‘Anu, don’t act like the martyr you are not! Big deal you got into a catfight. And it is high time you and Sanju fought. For how long can you remain the Romeo and Juliet of the twenty-first century? Now, go back and live. Go out more. Meet more people. You can’t brand an entire community snooty because of two immature women.’

‘Hey! Don’t trivialize my problems.’ Anu’s head started to spin with the extra beer.

Sameer laughed. ‘I am not trivializing them. I am saying they are solvable. Come on, Anu. You are a fighter. Fight to have a good time as you always do.’

Anu began to giggle. ‘You sound like a fortune cookie!’

Sameer smiled. ‘I am feeling like one too! Do you remember Teju?’

Anu squinted at him suspiciously. ‘Of course. The air-hostess who turned you down.’

Sameer smiled. ‘Not any more. Now she is all turned on and around. We are seeing each other.’

Anu smiled. ‘Sameer, you have to live a little less! Get married, have children. Join the married people’s club for all-things-sedate.’