Yudi had known all along about Suketu’s creative ambitions, being among the senior and influential creative team at Blue Strawberry. He had seen Suketu’s ambitions play themselves out on the Dinky Chips script and later on Bright Biscuits when Suketu encouraged my creative involvement with the film in spite of it being a clear breach of protocol within Blue Strawberry. And when I had vanished from the scene a day before the final presentation, Yudi’s worst suspicions had been confirmed. It hadn’t taken him long to figure things out, and once they had fallen into place, he acted quickly. He approached Shiv to begin the long and arduous task of telling him the truth. For this, he needed to involve the creative teams on Dinky Chips as well as Neil and Shubhra, even though they were not told why they were suddenly being asked a series of detailed questions on Suketu’s behaviour. The final confrontation with Suketu and Varun had happened just that morning, leading to a massive showdown in which they had admitted to the truth. Then Yudi had rescheduled his own presentation and rushed to find me and get me to the conference venue. He had bent over backwards to help me, prioritizing my project over his own even as he battled with the crisis on the Dinky Chips script. And I hadn’t even thanked him properly yet.

I heard footsteps and looked up to see Yudi walking towards me as if he had read my thoughts. He had stayed back to have a word with Shiv after we had ended our surreal meeting. I had been waiting for him in the now semi-dark, empty hotel lobby. My heart began to race when I saw him approaching and the familiar roller coaster of emotions he always managed to evoke began their merry jig inside me.

‘Hey,’ Yudi murmured, kneeling on the floor beside the futon I was sitting on. ‘Megha? Are you okay?’

I felt my heart lurch as I looked into Yudi’s eyes. He had that same unfathomable look I’d seen earlier, the one that made me feel light-headed. I couldn’t bear it any more. I was feeling too raw and vulnerable to deal with all this stuff right now. Leaning forward, I buried my face in Yudi’s chest and burst into tears.

I felt Yudi stiffen in shock for an instant and then suddenly his arms were around me, pulling me close. ‘Megha… Please don’t cry.’

‘Shut up,’ I sniffed. ‘Stop being so horribly nice to me— it makes me cry and then I feel like a total idiot and you know that.’

‘All right then,’ Yudi said, pulling away and smiling down at me. ‘Hold still for a bit while I box your ears. That should sort us out.’

‘Just shut up,’ I sniffed and buried my face in his chest once more, letting his familiar Old Spice scent envelop me. I sighed as he put his arms around me again and nuzzled his face against my hair.