Page 50 of Made in Mumbai

“Fine, fine,” she laughed. “Iwascrying. Your ‘may I come in’ made me laugh.”

“I did not say may I come in.”

“Really? I will remember it like that.”

He shook his head, taking a seat in one of her boring visitor’s chairs. His perfect black pants, with not a single piece of lint in this oppressive weather, stretched around his thighs.Don’t look, Maya, you cannot think impure thoughts about him.

“Why were you crying?”

“Suddenly you are so interested in Maya’s world of emotions?”

“If it is due to something that my staff has said or done, then I am. I don’t want HR nightmares.”

“Cool down, Rambo. Nobody has said or done anything ba…” she stuttered, remembering Siya's verbal venom vomit yesterday. “And anyway,” she changed tracks, “What’s happened to you all of a sudden? Knocking on doors, eating cupcakes, that too on a Thursday!”

“You were celebrating your good news, so I ate it. You offered.”

“I know…” she smiled, feeling tingly all of a sudden, talking about the pregnancy. “You were the one who instigated me to make this big announcement. Otherwise I was going to pull people aside in a khopcha and tell them one by one.”

“Khopcha?” He smirked.

“Corners. How have you lived in Mumbai for so long and not picked up tapori slang?”

“I didn’t meet you again, probably that’s why.”

“See, life gives you second chances,” she waved a circle around herself. “Now you have me to teach you all this, and just wait till my baby comes. I am on a mission to make a mini Maya in this darkening world.”

“God save us all,” he rolled his eyes. She laughed, reaching for the bottle of water close to him. He passed it to her, sitting back and getting comfortable in his chair. She poured water into her mouth, another pregnancy rule — massive quantities of H20.

Maya eyed him over her giant gulps. “Why are you getting cosy in my chair?”

“Because you are about to tell me why you were crying.”

She pursed her mouth. “Fine. I got emotional because Rustom offered something very sweet.”

“What was that?”

“He invited me to come and stay in his house.”

Gautam’s face tightened.

“He is married, stop thinking dirty.”

“I know,” he nodded. “Why would he invite you?”

“Because… wait, you can’t use this against me and taunt me.”

“I won’t. I am sorry for before. I shouldn’t have said some of those things.”

“Then why did you?”

“Because I couldn’t see you so clueless and helpless. You were going around in some different world ever since you discovered about it and that is not you. I just didn’t like it.”

“So instead of coming and nicely having a chat about it, you pulled my pigtails? Seriously, how old are you, G?”

“You were saying something about Rustom inviting you to live in his house.”

“Yeah, so… he got to know about my family situation and can you believe it? Rustom? He was so sweet and generous that he offered me to come and spend my pregnancy there. His mother and wife would take care of me…”

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