The Bestseller She Wrote (33 page)

‘Happy birthday, sweetheart,’ she responded. Her eyes were trained at Aditya and a little towards his left, on Shreya who couldn’t really figure out what to do with her nervous fingers. She kept the glass of wine down on the table and walked to the safe confines of the restroom.

‘I can see you are still going strong with that tart, Aditya,’ Maya said the moment he walked up to her.

‘How are you, Maya?’ Aditya asked ignoring her jibe.

‘Good, good,’ she replied, nodding her head. ‘I’m doing good. God is great. He is kind too.’

‘Maya,’ Aditya started to say something. ‘I am . . .’

Hardly had he said anything when Maya interrupted. ‘Save it, Aditya. I am here for Sanjay, not to listen to any of your crap. So don’t even try to say anything.’ She turned away from Aditya and walked towards Diana. She had seen Aditya sitting right next to Shreya and that had ticked her off.

‘Maya, wait. I need to speak with you,’ Aditya called out. She walked up to Diana and stood next to her, talking to her friends. Shreya came back just in time to see Aditya trail Maya. Apart from some momentary awkwardness she felt stung by pangs of jealousy. The possessive streak in her came to the fore. She strode up to Aditya and stood right next to him, her shoulders brushing against his.

Maya noticed her. ‘Hi Shreya. Hope your toy is taking care of you.’

Shreya stood there silently. The visit to the washroom had calmed her nerves and she now looked ready to battle for her space.

‘When you are done and dusted with him, just throw him out of the house. Do not pass him on to someone else. He is not worth anyone else’s time,’ Maya said and turned away. Finding Aditya and Shreya together, she was beginning to lose her cool.

‘It is okay, darling,’ Diana stepped in. ‘Come. We have a minute left for midnight. Let’s find Sanjay.’ She pulled Maya and dragged her away from Shreya.

The clock struck twelve. A chorus of ‘Happy Birthday, Sanjay’ rang all around. The cake was cut and everyone celebrated. Maya quietly made her way to the bar and poured herself a large whisky. For a fleeting moment she considered the appropriateness of drinking but flinging aside all concerns for her own well-being she guzzled the whisky down. That she had a check-up scheduled with Dr Krishnan the next day didn’t even occur to her at that time.

Aditya scooped out a generous helping of the cake and plastered Sanjay’s face with it. Sanjay looked like a zombie with white and brown cake all over his face. Shreya went a step ahead and plastered even more creamy cake on his head and hair.

‘Are we done?’ he asked once the mayhem had stopped. ‘Can I go and clean up, you assholes?’

‘Go, go. You look pathetic,’ said Diana.

‘Come with me,’ Sanjay said, as he walked towards the bedroom. Once inside his room, he removed his shirt, emptied his pockets—his wallet, his phone, his car keys—on the dressing table and walked into the bathroom. Diana waited for him outside the door. Sanjay’s phone rang.

‘It’s Gregory,’ Diana called out. Gregory was in Sanjay’s team.

‘Pick it up. He probably wants to wish me. Tell him that I will call later,’ Sanjay’s voice came from inside the bathroom.

*

In the living room, Maya gulped down another peg of whisky in a hurry. This was the first time she was seeing Aditya and Shreya together after getting to know about the two of them. The facade of a bold, fearless female was being shattered by the insecurity of a middle-aged woman. She took a refill and gulped that down too. She was not a whisky drinker. At best she would drink two bottles of breezers through the evening, and here she had downed two large ones and was midway through her third.

‘Maya, please stop. Don’t do this to yourself,’ Aditya walked up to her and pleaded.

Maya didn’t respond. She picked up her glass from the bar counter and gulped the remaining whisky in one shot. There was a bottle of Laphroaig next to her. She picked it up and was about to pour herself another glass when Aditya stopped her. He held her right hand, which held the bottle, and forcibly took it from her.

Maya jerked her hand and freed herself from Aditya’s grip. ‘Don’t you touch me,’ she yelled. Her voice was loud enough for others to hear. Everyone turned towards the two of them. ‘Who the hell are you to ask me not to drink? Is this your party? Did you invite me here? Did I come with you? Then who the hell are you?’

Hearing the commotion Diana came out of the room. She was talking to Gregory on the phone, while waiting for Sanjay to clean up and emerge. He was taking a while. She cut the call, dumped the phone in the back pocket of her jeans, rushed back into the room and knocked on the bathroom door. ‘You need to come out quick. Maya is having a go at Aditya.’

The bathroom door opened and Sanjay came out. He hurriedly wore another pair of trousers and a shirt and rushed out of the room. By that time the battle had worsened. Maya was spiralling out of control. She had now started abusing Shreya. She called her a slut, a whore, a woman of loose moral character. She called Aditya an opportunist, a man who had scant respect for family, a person who would drop his pants at the slightest hint of a woman giving him attention. She seemed unstoppable. After her tirade, Maya picked up her bag and walked out of the house. She was in a bad state. Tears were flowing non-stop from her eyes. Aditya tried following her. She yelled at him to stay away.

Sanjay came out of his bedroom, just as Maya was exiting the house. ‘Stop her,’ he called out to Aditya as she closed the main door behind her. She is drunk. She will land herself in trouble.’

‘Someone go and bring her back,’ Diana said, a bit frantic. No one else spoke. When no one except Sanjay and Aditya seemed to be bothered, Diana dashed back into the bedroom, came out with Sanjay’s car keys and ran out of the door. Sanjay followed. The two of them caught up with Maya in the lift lobby.

‘Have a great life, Sanjay. You are a sweetheart. Don’t be like that slimy husband of mine.’ She smiled wryly at him. ‘I am sorry I made a scene but I couldn’t stay back with Aditya there. I have to leave.’

‘That’s fine, Maya,’ Sanjay spoke, ‘but you can’t go back home in this state. You are too drunk to drive.’

‘It is okay. I will manage.’

‘I will drop you, Maya. It is only a twenty-minute drive at this time,’ Diana volunteered.

‘Don’t be silly. You are three pegs down,’ Sanjay interrupted her. ‘I seem to be the only sober person here.’ He looked at Maya and held her by the elbow. ‘Come, Maya.’ He took the keys from Diana and walked to his car. ‘Leave your car here. You can take it tomorrow,’ he told Maya.

After some persuasion, which took a little bit longer than normal, for Maya felt guilty about pulling Sanjay out from his birthday party, she got into his car. ‘I should be back in forty-five minutes,’ Sanjay said as he drove off.

The party didn’t last for too long after that. Shreya and Sunaina left immediately. The other friends too left in the next fifteen minutes.

By the time Sanjay got back at around 1.15 am, only Diana and Aditya were left in the house.

‘I was beginning to get worried,’ Diana said the moment she saw him. ‘I tried calling you a couple of times.’

‘I think in the melee I left my phone behind or I would have called you. Bad traffic,’ he volunteered.

‘Aww. What a beginning to your birthday,’ Diana said. She walked up to him and hugged him again. ‘Happy birthday, baby.’

78

T
HE NEXT MORNING
, Maya walked into Dr Krishnan’s clinic for her first check-up post her release from the hospital.

‘Alone? Where is my friend?’ Dr Krishnan asked her, when he saw her walk in.

‘He is not in town, Dr Krishnan,’ Maya lied. Dr Krishnan did not question her further and did all the checks without any comments. He drew three syringes full of blood even as he informed Maya that most of the test results would come in by that evening.

As she got up to go, he called out after her.

‘Maya,’ he said, very softly. ‘You are a very bad liar.’

Maya looked on silently.

‘The guy who didn’t move from this hospital for a single day in the three weeks that you were here, would never let you come alone for a test, even if it is a simple follow up test.’ He walked up to her. ‘He is a good man who made some mistakes. But he loves you more than he loves himself.’

‘That’s the impression he has given everyone, Dr Krishnan. Don’t believe it.’

‘All these stories about him and that author friend of his are in the past. It’s over. He himself told me so. He regrets all his mistakes. There is more strength in forgiving than in walking away, Maya, especially when you see true remorse. Just remember that.’

Maya just nodded and left.

The results came in that evening. Everything was clear. Maya was free of Ebola.

79

T
HE NEXT FEW
weeks were extremely hectic. Preparation for a book launch is always chaotic, more so for a debutant author. The feel of the book, the smell of the paper, the thrill of standing on the podium in front of hundreds of people and unveiling a book along with some celebrity . . . each has its own excitement. But a lot goes behind the scenes as well.

‘Who should we call for launching the book?’ Shreya asked Aditya.

‘Hmm . . . How about Anurag Kashyap?’ he proposed. The Out of the Blue event was fresh in his mind when he recommended the name.

They fixed up a meeting. Anurag, given his relationship with Aditya, immediately agreed to do the honours. Not only that, he even agreed to buy the film rights for the book and said that he would announce it at the book launch.

The moment they were out of Anurag’s office and inside the safe confines of the car, Shreya let go. She shrieked with joy. ‘Awesommeeeeee. Aditya, you are absolutely awesome,’ she exclaimed and kissed him on his cheek. Aditya turned and looked at her.

‘Won’t this make a great media story? A debutant author’s work being picked up for a movie even before the book gets launched,’ Shreya said excitedly.

‘Media will lap it up. It will help push the book.’

‘How lucky I am that I know you,’ she gushed. Aditya didn’t respond. His eyes were trained on the road ahead as he drove towards Shreya’s house.

‘Care for a drink?’ Shreya asked him as they neared her building.

Aditya looked at his watch. It was well past dinner time. He had an early morning meeting with his team. But then he also felt that a couple of drinks wouldn’t do him too much harm. In any case he would be alone at home, Sanjay was travelling on work. He parked the car and walked up to Shreya’s apartment.

He made himself comfortable on the couch. Shreya poured out a large peg of single malt and gave him the glass. ‘I will be back in a jiffy,’ she said as she disappeared into her room to freshen up. He got up and walked around the room, glass in hand. He stepped out into the terrace and felt the cool breeze waft past his face. It began to drizzle. They were reaching the end of the monsoons. He walked back. A few books were piled up on the table in front—spillover from a large book shelf. He looked up and saw a copy of Eleanor Catton’s
The Luminaries
lying on the table. He picked it up and flipped through it. It was a big book. As he flipped through it, he saw a piece of paper stuck inside the book. He stopped and looked at it. It was a bill from Reliance TimeOut, Hill Road, Bandra. The place from where the book had been bought. The charge slip was attached to the bill. He glanced at it and kept it back. He would never read that book. It was over a thousand pages. He placed it back on the shelf and walked up to the bar. He had finished his whisky, and he needed a refill.

He switched on the TV and watched some inane discussion on a news channel, played around with his phone and responded to a few messages as he waited for Shreya to come back.

Shreya returned, freshly showered and wearing pyjamas and a T-shirt. She poured herself a glass of red wine and sat down next to him.

There was a long period of silence, when neither of them spoke. They just sat there holding their respective glasses and looking at something playing out on the television screen in front of them.

‘I was so thrilled at what Anurag told us today,’ Shreya finally said. She was still reminiscing about the meeting with Anurag Kashyap. Aditya just turned and looked at her, probably wondering which part of the discussion she loved. ‘When he told us that he will option the film rights . . . I felt like jumping and kissing you then and there. I was so so happy.’

Aditya was silent. He smiled.

Shreya gazed at Aditya. ‘Now I will become a successful author, as big as you. Won’t I, Aditya?’

‘Of course you will. Maybe even bigger than me.’

‘I love you for saying that, Aditya,’ Shreya squealed as she kept her glass down, turned and hugged Aditya. She released him from the hug and looked at him. Her face was inches away from his. She caressed his cheek feeling the evening stubble pushing its way forcibly through the smooth skin. She reached out to his lips and ran her finger along the periphery. She closed her eyes, bent down and in slow motion her lips touched his. Her lips engulfed his lower lip and sucked on them slowly. Aditya pushed her back.