Yudi chuckled. ‘Must you find fault with everything I say, Miss Contrary? I know you’d prefer a nap too—you said so yourself less than fifteen minutes ago. And if team bonding is what you’re here for, why the hell have you been avoiding me ever since we got here?’

‘I have not been avoiding you! What the hell are you talking about?!’ I glared at Yudi in rage, but he just chuckled again and tapped my head gently.

‘Temper, temper! You’re a regular little hothead, aren’t you? Anyway, I was trying to talk to you earlier because I wanted to apologize for my behaviour yesterday. No hard feelings, okay?’

‘Really?’ I gaped at Yudi. This guy was full of surprises! ‘You mean you’re okay with my getting involved in the creative development of the Bright Biscuits ad film?’

‘No, Megha,’ Yudi sighed and I noticed some of the steel slip back into his brown eyes. ‘I’m not. I don’t want you getting involved in any of the creative work and you know why. You’re an assistant brand manager, not a part of the agency creative team. It will be much better if you do your job and let the creative team do theirs. But I’ll leave that decision to you.’

‘So why are you apologizing then?’ I snapped. ‘I bet Suketu screwed your happiness for your behaviour yesterday and asked you to say sorry.’

Yudi stopped in his tracks and looked at me coldly. ‘Suketu has nothing to do with this, Megha. I said sorry because I meant it. Obviously I overestimated your maturity to deal with a genuine apology.’

He strode off and I looked after him, feeling a little foolish. Had he really been sorry? But if he really was sorry, why was he still being so stubborn about my getting involved in the creative work even after Suketu had told him everyone else was okay with it?

‘Welcome everybody!’ Priyanka’s voice rang out from the makeshift podium erected at the head of the pool and I saw her getting ready to flag off the ‘Welcome’ event. She began with a cloying little address to Shiv and Puru thanking them for organizing this ‘sensational outbound programme in a tropical paradise’ and then began reading out the activities planned for the morning. The first activity was an icebreaker which required people to randomly come up on the podium, tell the audience something about themselves and then showcase any hidden talent they may have that nobody else knew about. Maybe Priyanka had a hidden talent for vanishing into thin air that she could demonstrate, I thought to myself bitchily, before slinking off into a little bamboo thicket next to the pool where I would be safely hidden from view. I found some poolside recliners in a shady spot and perched myself on one of them, wishing I’d brought along a good book. There was nobody else around apart from a lovey-dovey couple in the pool, honeymooners from the look of it, who seemed intent on practising the various postures of the Kamasutra in their swimsuits. I sank back on to the recliner and closed my eyes, shielding my face with one hand from the rays of the sun. The welcome activity was supposed to carry on till lunchtime, after which there was a short meeting where Shiv and Puru would share GF’s strategy and plans for the next quarter. After that there were some team-building exercises till evening when we would break for a large gala dinner along with some Goan dance performances by the poolside.