The bicycle ground to a halt suddenly after running into a particularly stubborn sand dune and, swinging down my foot to rest, I gazed out at the sea. The sun was slowly sinking into the increasingly turbulent water, leaving in its wake a desolate sky awash in a palette of inky purple and sombre orange with a few occasional flashes of red. The sea was slightly choppy now and I could see the jet skiing and parasailing people wrapping up operations for the day.

‘Sir, the sea is very rough now. We would not advise you to take the jet ski out by yourself at this time!’ I heard someone saying urgently; it was the lady in charge of water sports activities, an employee of the Park Splenda.

I spun around to see Yudi swinging his lithe frame onto a jet ski. He was saying something in a low voice to the water sports lady, who was now wringing her hands and casting despairing looks around.

‘Hey Yudi!’ I yelled getting on to my bike. ‘Wait up!’

I pedalled furiously towards him, willing him to turn around and look in my direction but Yudi was out of earshot and didn’t hear me. By the time I reached the spot from where he’d taken off into the waves, he was a speck in the distance, heading towards the sinking sun at a furious pace, his jet ski bobbing like a paper boat on the increasingly turbulent waves.

‘Yudi!’ I hollered one last time, gasping for breath as my bicycle swerved crazily and jerked to a stop. A couple of the GF guys strolling nearby were giving me strange looks by now and I suddenly began to feel very foolish. Why on earth was I making a spectacle of myself, chasing after Yudi, screaming his name in public like that?

‘Hey, Megha!’ Suketu bounded up suddenly and I began to feel a hot flush spread up my neck. Had he heard me yelling for Yudi?

‘What’s up, Megha? I heard you calling for Yudi. Something wrong?’ Suketu was looking at me strangely by now and I didn’t blame him. I probably looked frightful with my windswept hair and flushed cheeks.

‘Umm… no, uh, there’s, um, nothing wrong,’ I mumbled unconvincingly, smoothing my hair out with one hand. ‘Actually I heard that jet ski lady tell Yudi that the sea was slightly choppy and…’

‘Worry not, fair Megha!’ I heard a high-pitched chirp and turned around to see Neil standing beside me, grinning from ear to ear. He was dressed in bright red dungarees and a Winnie the Pooh tee and seemed to be swaying gently with the breeze. I looked at him in concern; it wouldn’t do for one of my key creative team members to get drunk the evening before an important meeting. I was about to tell him as much when he gripped my bike and continued in the same cheerful vein, ‘Yudi is an ace swimmer, Megha, and he’s a jet ski pro to boot, so don’t you worry about him. Now come with me, I have some, like, fundoo ideas on the new script, man! They’re gonna, like, blow your brains, okay?’