I watched his retreating back, feeling all sorts of emotions, very keenly. How was I going to hide it from him?

‘I’m so glad they’re both here,’ Ma said.

I turned to her, trying to keep my expression neutral as I nodded. An idea was slowly forming in my mind. I’d been dying to know all these days if he was single or not.

‘I wonder if his girlfriend is pissed at him for coming to Bangalore indefinitely,’ I said, hoping my gambit would work.

Ma frowned. ‘What girlfriend? Does he have one?’

I shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I guess?’ But maybe now, Ma would ask him or Aunty V and I could listen in surreptitiously, I thought. This was a little devious but I was desperate to know the truth.

Ma kept frowning, thinking for a few minutes.

‘Why are you so upset?’ I asked her, wondering if I had done the right thing in bringing this up with Ma.

‘I just never thought of that. I still think of him . . . even you . . . as small kids. If he did leave a girlfriend behind and . . .’

‘Ma, you’re behaving like he went to war or something,’ I snapped at her, a little annoyed now.

‘Yes, but if he had a girlfriend . . .’

‘What girlfriend?’ Raghu’s firm voice interrupted Ma.

He looked squeaky clean after his shower and he was wearing shorts and that same pink vest I’d seen him wear so many times. But this time, the fluttering in my belly increased as he rounded the sofa and came to sit down. Since Ma was lying down on the long couch, he took the other single sofa near mine.

My stomach felt like it had caved in on itself. Stupid, stupid, I told myself in my head, not looking at him.

‘Your girlfriend,’ Ma said, wincing as she turned a little to look at him.

‘Are you okay?’ I found myself asking her even though I was desperate to hear Raghu’s answer.

‘I’m all right. These little aches and pains are going to be there until the baby comes,’ she smiled. ‘Raghu, I asked you something.’

‘Yeah what about her?’ he asked.

I tried hard not to look at him—so much so that my neck was straining with the effort. There was a her? There was someone? My heart sank. I wanted to get up and go to my room, but it would look odd so I stayed put.

‘Was she upset about you coming away to Bangalore for so many days? And now that you’re here again?’ Ma asked.

I wished I’d never broached this subject. Who was she, I wondered suddenly. Was she slender and tall and had long hair like Esha? Obviously. Raghu would have gone for that type, I thought bitterly.

I almost didn’t hear him speak then as he replied to Ma. ‘Understatement of the century,’ he said, rolling his eyes.