Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake (6 page)

‘You lucky cow,’ she almost shrieks when I tell her. ‘Fancy Mr Sharma chasing you!’ she says.

‘Hold on! He just happens to be this side of town. It is not that he is coming here especially for me. Besides, he is just using me as a toy to make his time at the party more bearable. I must just be an amusement for him,’ I quickly say. I am not a fool and I can see reality for what it is.

‘Don’t be such a pessimist, Nisha! He wouldn’t have
asked you out a second time, had he not enjoyed your company.’

Maybe she has a point there. But I really do not want to dwell too much on it. I ask her to tell me where I should shop and mentally make a note of her suggestions.

Five hours and three thousand five hundred bucks later, I am back home with a whole new wardrobe and a whole new look.

This is the first time I am actually feeling good ever since the day I lost my job. It makes me feel like I have something to look forward to once more.

And as I try out the different outfits and heels that I just acquired one after the other, posing happily in front of the mirror, I feel quite pleased with my transformation. For the first time I also understand why women call shopping therapeutic.

Once again, I can’t wait to meet Samir, and this time I am determined to make it a grand success and not fall flat on my face like I did the last time around.

The Unnamed Feeling

W
e slip out of the party in exactly ten minutes like he promised. He looks even more handsome than the last time I saw him. He looks so gorgeous that I have to forcibly tear my eyes off him. I am happy that I agreed to accompany him. Last week’s events have seriously created a large dent in my self-esteem and Samir treating me like I am really interesting pleases me no end, although the little, niggling voice in my subconscious mind does scream that he is just amusing himself with me. Whatever it is, I am now out with him, and I am determined to have a good time. I don’t often get such opportunities.

The party turns out to be a grand affair. Living in Mumbai, one does get used to seeing celebrities every once in a while. After all, this is the mecca of Bollywood. But this is the first time I see so many up close and am able to recognize quite a few. I am not really in awe of them, but I do feel like I have stepped into some television show or a film set. I am suddenly glad that I splurged on my fancy clothes. No longer do I feel like ‘Nisha-plain-Jane-in-borrowed-clothes’.

Samir introduces me to his friend whose restaurant is being inaugurated, congratulates him, and poses for a few photographs which he wants me to join in, but I mouth a no, quietly fading into the background. After the pictures are clicked, Samir whispers something to his friend and gestures for me to join them. Then he quickly excuses himself and me. As we slip away, he smiles at me and says, ‘There, that wasn’t too bad, was it? Hope you weren’t too bored.’

‘This is the first time I am seeing so many celebrities up close,’ I confess.

‘It’s such a fake world,’ he says, his expression darkening slightly. He offers no more explanation and I don’t ask either, as we make our way towards his car.

The music that he is playing is an eclectic mix of strange names that I have never heard before. It is soothing and calming. When I ask him what it is, he says he picked it up in one of his favourite haunts in Bali. He asks me if I have ever been to Bali. I say with a little laugh that I have never been outside the country, let alone to an exotic destination like Bali. His world and my world are truly poles apart and I don’t think he has a clue. But he is nice enough to not show his surprise and he says, ‘Oh, it is a lovely place. You should go sometime,’ and I nod and say I must, secretly smiling to myself, thinking that if it was that easy, I’d have visited Bali and many more destinations some fifty times by now.

This time, Samir drives us to a lovely little cafe that overlooks the sea. Again it is tastefully done, discreet and very exclusive. I can’t help thinking that he does
know some great places in Mumbai. Of course, he has the money to splurge on them too.

When we are comfortably seated, he asks, ‘So did you like the songs?’

‘You mean the music you just played in the car? I loved it.’

‘No, no, I meant the CD I gifted you the last time we met.’

It is only then I remember that I had rushed out of his place without leaving him a note, and that he had gifted me a little something that I had not even opened and which was still lying in a drawer at home. How could I have forgotten?!

‘Oh my God, Samir, I am so sorry. I forgot all about it. I haven’t even opened it,’ I say sheepishly, a little embarrassed now. Samir throws his head back and laughs.

‘You are so honest, Nisha! I like that about you,’ he says.

I squirm as I think about how my ‘honesty’ got me thrown out of my last job. But I smile and say nothing.

Samir bowls me a googly just then.

‘Nisha, I need to confess something,’ he says.

My heart starts beating like the drumbeats of a death metal band. What is he going to confess now? That he fancies me? Is Chetana right after all? It seems impossible to believe. I clench my fists under the table and try my best to appear cool.

‘Yes, go on,’ I say, trying my best to conceal my trepidation.

‘Well, I called up Point to Point, and when they told me you left, I made a call to Parinita.’

I am horrified now. The one thing that I did not want Samir to know was that I had been
thrown
out. In case he asked about my job, I had been planning to tell him the same thing that I had told my dad, that I was simply taking a break. Well, searching for a new job does count as a break, doesn’t it?

‘Oh,’ I say and I feel the colour rising to my cheeks. I realize that Parinita might have told him the whole story of my conversation with my colleagues that day. I am dying to know what she told him and how much he knows. But I am too terrified to ask.

‘She really did not tell me the whole story. But from what I gathered, I do think she has been harsh, and when I questioned her as to the exact details, she got irked and implied that how she dealt with her employees was none of my business,’ he says, as though he has just read my mind.

I swallow twice and then I say nothing.

‘Look Nisha, I am really sorry about what happened and I think I am partly responsible for this,’ he continues.

‘No Samir, it really isn’t your fault,’ I finally manage to say.

It truly isn’t. I am too shamefaced to confess to him that it was my big mouth and my petty need to rub Prashant’s nose in the dirt that made me lose my job.

‘Well, I somehow feel responsible, Nisha, and please allow me to make amends. How would you like to work at Magellan International as an Executive Assistant to the senior partner?’ he asks.

I cannot believe what I have just heard. Is Samir really offering me a job?! That too at Magellan? And not just at the ticketing desk but as an Executive Assistant! This must be my lucky day!

Samir mistakes my utter shock and disbelief to be disinterest on my part.

‘Hey, there is no compulsion to take it up. The person working right now is serving her notice period. She quit as her husband has moved abroad and she is expecting, and we do need someone with a travel agency background to fill up the position. But I completely understand if you have other plans,’ he says.

It takes all my self-control to not jump up and down right there and shout out that I will take the job.

‘No, I am definitely open to it,’ I say. Secretly I am dancing. I am thrilled.

‘Oh, that’s great then. Just call up the office and ask to speak to Smriti. She will brief you about everything, including the pay and other details. See if it suits you,’ he says.

Oh it would suit me all right! Samir has no idea how desperate I am for a job and how hard the last week has been. But of course I tell him none of that, and instead say that I will contact Smriti.

The rest of the date goes off as smooth as silk gliding across marble.

When I get home, I get a call from Akash. He asks me how I am doing and says he misses me at Point to Point. I tell him that I do miss working there and also tell him how unsuccessful I have been in my job hunt, and how finally I have now got a chance at Magellan.
He is genuinely happy for me and wishes me all the best and asks me to keep in touch.

I want to call up Smriti right then. But that would seem too eager, and so I wait until eleven the next morning. The original plan was to wait till evening, but I cannot control myself, and so I make the call.

Smriti is friendly and says she was expecting my call. She says that Samir had spoken to her and she knew I would call. She asks a few quick questions about where I studied, what my diploma is on, and how much work experience I have so far. She asks nothing about my previous job. I am guessing that Samir might have briefed her and asked her not to.

Then she gives me a brief job description and lists out what I am expected to do. It sounds nothing like my boring desk job at Point to Point. Even though I have no experience at the entire job, I am quite confident that I can do it. I am supposed to be coordinating with the senior partner and generally organize all his schedules and appointments. I am also expected to handle the mundane office correspondence. She also says I have to screen visitors, handle communications, and coordinate with various departments in the organization, take care of travel arrangements, hotel bookings, flight bookings, as well as arrange for airport transfers and car rentals, track other tasks, and also handle important visitors as part of my duties. In short, I have to be like a right hand to the senior partner. She asks if I would be able to handle it all. She says the person from whom I am taking over would train me for two days. I answer that I am quite confident of being able to do it. It sounds exciting.
Also, this is
real
work, not just passing on bookings like I did at Point to Point. Here, I would actually be responsible for so many things. I do a double take when I hear what my pay would be. It is three times the amount I have been earning at Point to Point! I truly can dance now. Smriti says they need a person urgently and asks when I can join. I tell her that I can join immediately and she sounds pleased with that. She says she will inform Latha, the lady serving the notice period. She also asks me to come in the next day at 9.30 a.m. sharp and asks me not to be late. Of course I won’t! She has no idea how much this job offer means to me.

Then she asks me if I have any questions. I cannot think of any questions at this point, but then it occurs to me that I don’t even know who the senior partner to whom I will be Executive Assistant to is.

So I ask Smriti for the name of the senior partner point blank.

There is a surprised silence at the other end.

Then she says, ‘Oh! I thought you knew. The senior partner is Samir.’

It is only then that the realization comes whooshing down on me like an unexpected shower of rain on a very hot summer’s day. I had no idea I would be reporting to Samir. Somehow, I had presumed that senior partner meant some old guy in the organization and not the charming and suave Samir.

On the one hand I am pleased about it. But on the other hand, I must be the only employee in the world who has dated her boss-to-be, and even spent a night at his home, not to mention fallen down undignifiedly in
front of him, flashing her underwear, all this even before she has started working. But still, all this is not reason enough to turn down such a fabulous offer.

Especially when I have no other offers in hand.

I mutter that I will be there on time tomorrow and hang up.

When I lie down that night, it takes me a long while to fall asleep. I am filled with excitement and trepidation, and I feel something in my life is about to change, and it is not just a change of job. I feel that this is a life-altering decision, but at this point, I just cannot put a finger on what exactly it is.

Happily Unhappy

N
ext morning when I walk into the offices of Magellan International to report for my new job, I feel on top of the world. I finally have a
real
job. I am eager to start, and I am very eager to prove to Samir that I am efficient at my work. I reach the office well on time and go to meet Smriti.