It was over all too soon and I found myself feeling a little despondent as we reached the hotel.

‘We should do this more often,’ Yudi smiled at me as the cab slid smoothly to a stop just outside the hotel foyer. ‘So I’ll see you at work next week?’

‘Huh?’ I looked at Yudi, perplexed. ‘Aren’t you checked in here as well?’ There were a bunch of standard hotels where the GF brand teams and agencies normally put up when in Delhi, and I had assumed that Yudi and I would be booked into the same hotel.

‘Nope, I’ve made my own arrangements,’ Yudi said cryptically, leaning over to open the door for me.

‘Oh. Okay. Good night then. So I’ll see you tomorrow?’ I hitched my jhola over my shoulder as I got out of the cab.

‘Nope. Good night,’ Yudi said as he gripped the handle on the door to pull it shut.

I felt a flash of irritation as I watched him. Why the hell was he behaving like I was some human miasma and he couldn’t wait to get out of my presence?

‘What do you mean?’ I snapped, gripping the handle from the outside and forcing the door to stay open. ‘You’re supposed to attend the research tomorrow. And can you please reply properly when I ask you something?’

‘I’m not supposed to attend anything, Megha,’ Yudi snapped back, looking at me coldly. ‘Attending research is something I do of my own volition. I’ve seen what I needed to today and there’s no need for me to be there tomorrow as well.’

‘Fine! Go to hell! It’s not like we need your brilliant inputs at the research anyway!’ I glared at Yudi who made like he was about to say something but then held back.

‘Fine,’ he nodded, suddenly looking very bored. ‘Good night, Megha.’ He slammed the door shut without another word and I stood looking after him—an empty, heavy feeling churning within me—as the cab sped off into the inky blue night.

Ten

The entire room broke into spontaneous applause and I felt exhilarated and then a little stupid as tears pricked the back of my eyes. It was a hit! The first Bright Biscuits ad film was an undisputed success, a hands-down winner all the way! We had just presented the finished ad film to key people from the sales, media and agency teams and the verdict was out loud and clear: we had a winner on our hands!

‘Awesome job, guys! This is one of the best ad films we’ve turned out in recent times. In fact, I think you guys can give even the Dinky Chips team a run for their money!’ Shiv smiled around at the room before turning to me. ‘Great job, Megha. Well done!’

I beamed back at Shiv, fighting the lump in my throat. ‘Thanks, Shiv! I think I was lucky to have such a fantastic team. We all did it together!’ I smiled around at my team— Shubhra and Suketu beamed back and Neil looked like he was about to explode any minute. The only person in the room who seemed less than happy was Vile Varun who looked as though someone had slapped him across the face. He had been out of action with a bad bout of jaundice for the last couple of weeks, which had confined him to bed, and as a result, had not been involved with any of the work on Bright Biscuits. While this had worked splendidly for me, allowing me to focus on the film without having to worry about Varun, it obviously meant that he couldn’t take credit for any of the work. And given that the new ad was proving to be such a big hit, this turn of events wasn’t going down too well with him.