Page 52 of Made in Mumbai

“Didn’t it?” He quipped dryly. “Anyway, I came here to tell you about Amber Raisingh. She will be coming here for a visit tomorrow. Her deliveries are due in batches over the next months, we have a schedule prepared at GK Textiles. You collaborate with them, the design team here, and prepare a presentation. Need not be a slideshow, but we have to give her a systematic update.”

“Why not ask Aarya? He has done all the grind work…”

“Do not be modest. It doesn’t suit you. I know who did what.”

She grinned — “Then would it suck you dry to say good work?”

“Language, Maya, language,” he pushed to his feet. “Call the GK Textiles people down to work with you, you don’t climb up. And if you do, make sure to take somebody with you.”

She kept grinning, cocking her head to see if her act-cute could get her another smile.

“And don’t do that. You look even more creepy.”

Her mouth dropped open. He turned and strode out of her office, that slight shake of his head telling her he was hiding a smile somewhere in front.

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“Ok, comrades, gather up!” Maya clapped both hands. Aarya saluted her and stood first in line, followed by everybody else who had helped her prep the conference room for the Amber Raisingh meeting. Some of the samples were neatly laid out on the long table behind her, looking luscious and creamy. That was her campaign — The Creams of Paradise. And all the fabrics sourced were in varied shades or embellishments of cream — Paper, Sand, Blossom, Rose Gold… such beautiful fancy names that had come from Amber’s headquarters. Maya was lowkey fan girling, she was about to meet Amber in 20 or less minutes.

“Now, for our presentation today,” Maya pointed behind her — “Humko Sand, Blossom, Mousse, Roasted Peach, hone ko chahiye.” Rustom reached behind her and held the pieces up. “Barley, Ivory, Paper — nahi hone ko chahiye. We don’t have their delivery schedules set yet, and what we cannot give a date on —“

“We do not show!” They repeated in perfect comrade-y sync.Wow,she had made them all like her! They not only understood, but even appreciated Josh references.

“Great then, let’s leave the conference room set. And nobody enters or changes this setup until Amber is here.”

One by one they all began to file out as she went around checking the screen connections. With Gautam’s blessing, she had foregone a powerpoint presentation, instead opting for mirroring her iPad and running the photos of these fabrics in the process of being developed. That would be a much more creative visual with her updates going on in the background.

“Maya beta?” Their head peon strode in, a cardboard box of Cornettos in hand.

“Whose birthday?” She frowned. How did she not know it…?

“Sia Madam bought a new house.”

“That was last week…”

“She got ice cream for everyone today.”

“Hmm…” Maya reached into the box and selected a double-chocolate Cornetto. The butterscotch was closest to salted caramel but the baby did not seem to like salt and caramel together. Weird baby. Maya began to follow him out of the conference room when Sia passed by — “Hey,” she peeped into the room over Maya’s shoulder. “All set?”

Maya stopped in the process of unwrapping the paper over her cone. Now that she thought about it… she eyed her Cornetto suspiciously. What if Sia had poisoned it?

“Go eat with everyone, I will wait here.” Sia offered. Not nice but not nasty either.

“It’s ok,” Maya took her steps back, not trusting the witchy-bitchy Sia. She quietly shut the door and sat down on the sofa farthest from the table of fabrics, biting into her ice cream.No, nobody would be so mean as to poisonthiscream of paradise.But…Sia would have gotten up to some mischief if she had been left alone in this room. Not about to happen, Maya smirked, licking her ice cream and the fresh chocolate waffle cone that tastedsoooogood. She couldn’t wait to reach the end where a pyramid of chocolate waited.

“Did you find traffic on your way here…” the door opened and in walked Aarya, followed by Amber Raisingh herself. Maya shot to her feet, starstruck by the aura oftheAmber Raisingh, in person. She was in her fifties for sure, but the botox had pulled her face taut. The heavy eye liner and kohl, coupled with her unique shade of red lips made her suck all the attention in the room, not to mention her long, sweeping cream kaftan… or was it ‘Whole Wheat’ kaftan that ‘flowed effortlessly down her toned body.’ Maya swooned, unable to take her eyes off Amber. Her hair was out open, perfectly blowdried, sunglasses pushed up into her hair. She carried an Hermes Desordre Mini Kelly 20 andwow, wow, wow. She was perfect.

“Hi, I am May…”

“Why is this woman eating near my samples?”

Even her voice was creamy. Super rich.

“I asked you, Aarya.”

“Oh. Umm… Amber,” he glanced at Maya, eyeing her ice cream with wide eyes. “She was eating sitting there on the sofa.”

“What is my rule when working with material?”

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