‘As you wish,’ Suketu shrugged. ‘I think we can manage just as well without him, but I’ll leave the final decision to you. I will have a word with him, though, to pre-empt any scenes like the one we had today.’

‘Thanks, Suketu. And Neil, I’d like to apologize for my rudeness again.’ I flashed a smile at Neil who raised his hand in the peace sign. ‘All right, guys. Let’s get back to work!’

I found myself thinking about Yudi as I slouched over my laptop later that evening in a corner of the office terrace, a cool breeze caressing my hair. I desperately needed to clear my inbox of what seemed liked gazillions of unread emails. We were leaving for Goa early the next morning and I didn’t want a ton of pending work piled up to greet me on my return. Besides, I was in no hurry to rush home. Even though the Momster and I had made up long ago, she hadn’t given up on Gautam and me yet. Several veiled references about Gautam being a great find had been made and she had even mentioned keeping in touch with him online, suggestively leaving his email ID scribbled on a Post-it note on my pillow.

Gautam had apparently provided his own mother with glowing reports about our dinner date, making it apparent that he was interested in getting to know me better, which had given the Momster a fresh burst of hope. Thankfully, he was safely ensconced in the US now and I was really caught up with the million deadlines on Bright Biscuits, using work as a convenient excuse to avoid any form of contact with him.

Work had been smooth sailing so far too, until Yudi had suddenly blown up in my face. He had just vanished after our argument that afternoon, not returning to the meeting at all, even though we had wrapped up pretty late. Typical Yudi behaviour, as Suketu later told me. Yudi, apparently, had been known to just disappear from meetings—and even film shoots—after arguments with brand managers and return only when he felt like it; even wild horses couldn’t drag him back otherwise. Strangely enough, he had never had a tiff with a creative person; he could handle the toughest nuts in the creative business without so much as raising his voice and his own team within Blue Strawberry was fiercely loyal to him.