Nine

I clutched my bright yellow cloth jhola a little tighter and looked anxiously at the entrance of the departures lounge. There were ten minutes to go for boarding and Neil hadn’t arrived yet. I was off to Delhi for the last leg of the market research on the new Bright Biscuits film and Neil was coming along too. Or at least he was supposed to. I sighed and looked at my watch for what seemed like the millionth time. If he didn’t get here in the next five minutes he wasn’t going to make the flight.

‘I just don’t get it with these creative types,’ I grumbled aloud, turning back to my much-thumbed copy of Wodehouse’s Girl in Blue. ‘Why can’t they ever make it to the airport on time?’

‘I’m five whole minutes early,’ a voice said gruffly in my ear and I spun around to see Yudi looking at me in mock anger.

‘And that says a lot about my commitment, considering you booked us on this godforsaken flight!’ he continued, sprawling out as much as he could on the uncomfortable steel-grey chairs that graced the lounge.

‘Well, you should be used to it, considering you’re a regular on the midnight Friday flight! And what are you doing here anyway? I thought Neil was attending this research?’ I put my hands on my hips and glared down at Yudi who had leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

‘Regular on the midnight Friday flight, huh? I see you’ve been doing some research on me. How flattering!’ he said, opening his eyes and grinning at me while I felt myself blushing.

‘Oh, stop being so deluded! What happened to Neil?’ I snapped impatiently, desperate to change the topic. I totally did not want to get into a conversation on all the Yudi-centric detective work I had undertaken in the past!

‘He has the flu,’ Yudi said shortly, shutting his eyes again. ‘So he asked me to attend in his place. I would have sent you a mail asking for permission if I’d known you were going to be so uptight about my coming along.’

‘Uptight my sainted aunt’s ass!’ I barked angrily, but that seemed to amuse Yudi so much that I beat a hasty retreat to the restroom to calm myself down before I could go on and complete the prize jackass persona I had become so adept at projecting.

Once in the restroom I glanced anxiously at my reflection in the mirror. Not that I wanted to impress Yudi or anything—I was so over that—but he was looking so great in his rugged jeans and black tee, I didn’t want to come across as his flunkey! I gave myself a quick once over—I had worn faded jeans with a bright green-and-gold short kurti and simple gold sandals. The research in Delhi was scheduled in one of the traditional, middle class colonies in Lajpat Nagar and I had dressed conservatively to blend in. It would have to do for now, I thought to myself as I quickly applied some lip gloss and eyeliner. As an afterthought, I pulled out a few chunky gold kadas I had in my handbag and slipped them over my right wrist. I was hurriedly brushing my hair when the ground attendant announced that boarding for our flight had commenced, so shoving the brush back into my handbag, I ran out.