Sorting Out Sid (26 page)

There was a moment of silence.

‘Sid!’ she said. ‘What did you just say?’

He realized it hadn’t sounded right. He didn’t really want to go into the details and relive the last week. After all he had come to visit Neha hoping to escape from it all. ‘He’s fine, he’s fine. I meant to say, we thought it was a heart attack, but it was only a false alarm.’

Neha’s worry lines had caused bits of the mud-pack to crack, but she now relaxed, ‘What happened?’

‘Long story,’ he sighed and changed the subject. ‘So! Where’s Kippy anyway?’

Neha looked as if she wanted to question him further. After a moment she just smiled. ‘Asleep … she went to bed early today.’ Neha eyed the package again. ‘So, er, what is it?’

‘This? Well … actually … it’s a Barbie
–
Fashion Barbie! It looked quite cool to me and I thought she’d like it.’

‘Hey!’ Neha protested,
‘
I’ve never let her have a Barbie and wasn’t planning to either … all the wrong ideas about beauty.’ Cracks in her mud-pack again, this time from a frown. ‘And how is Fashion Barbie a souvenir from Lucknow anyway?’

‘Oh, well.’ He searched for an explanation. ‘Actually, it’s a souvenir from the Lucknow Airport Gift Shop.’

Neha stared at him for a minute. Then his sorry expression appeared to make her melt and she smiled, ‘Well, thank you, Sid. That’s … thoughtful. I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful. Maybe I’m a little too strict with her sometimes. Listen, you mind waiting for a minute while I wash this off?’

‘Not at all.’ Sid had been hoping she would say that. The green mask really did look somewhat ghastly. She grinned
–
that wasn’t ghastly at all
–
and hurried off to the bathroom. Sid sat down and waited, feeling nervous, wondering if tonight he would manage to get out without making an ass of himself.

Neha came back and this time she looked the definite opposite of ghastly. Her skin was fresh and glowing, curly hair tied back loosely. Sid noted that her lips were naturally baby pink and so soft that they offset the sharpness of her other features. Now that the mask was off and not taking up all his attention, he also noticed that she was wearing a different nightie tonight
–
a satiny, sleeveless, purple number. How did this girl always make nightwear look like high fashion? Sid always slept in tatty, old, grey T-shirts and Boxer shorts, but she … she looked delectable. Sid shook himself slightly … this was not what he was supposed to be thinking.

‘Sid?’ She was sitting with him again and her voice caused him to snap out of his reverie.

‘Ya?’

‘Is that all? You came to give us this gift?’

‘Well…’ He fidgeted. ‘I also thought I should explain about … the other day.’

She waited for him to say something, but he couldn’t find the words.

She said gently, ‘Sid, you don’t have to explain anything.’

‘No, no…’ he began, ‘it’s just that … I wanted to say … I really like you, but I … I … Aditi told me I should be careful and not end up hurting you in any way.’

Neha replied with perfect self-composure, ‘I like you too, Sid, but I think I’ll be fine. I’m fairly good at taking care of myself.’

‘Good, GOOD,’ Sid said almost before she finished speaking. ‘It’s just that you know, you’ve been there. You’re divorced … and I’m going through a divorce … I’m not ready for … anything. And you said at the Oriental Kitchen
–
Kippy and you don’t need any men in your lives, right?’

‘Right,’ Neha said carefully, ‘I guess I did say that.’

Right. Okay. Fine. That didn’t bother him at all. He cleared his throat and continued. ‘And so … it’s something that could get a little messy. And we don’t need more mess in our lives, right?’

‘Definitely not,’ she agreed, but her tone was measured. ‘No mess.’

‘Great,’ he said. He felt relieved that they both seemed to be in perfect agreement. So what was that faint sense of disappointment that he felt beneath the surface? ‘So we’re good?’

‘We’re good, Sid.’ She smiled.

Good. They were good. There didn’t seem to be any point in sitting around staring at each other now, so Sid rose slowly. This time he was determined not to rush out. He had promised himself he would leave like a normal human being. As he turned around towards the door, something caught his eye.

‘Hey. Is that new?’

Neha nodded, expressionless.

‘Mind if I take a look?’

She hesitated for just a split second and then rose from her chair, walked towards the studio and switched on the light. He went past her into the room. She stood in the doorway, waiting.

‘Wow. This has to be the best one yet. It’s beautiful.’

Neha smiled politely, but all his attention was on the painting.

He continued, ‘I especially love how you’ve done the Gate, the colours of the sky around it are so much brighter, but it still stands out, almost jumps out at you.’

He didn’t see the expression on her face, but the long continued silence finally made him turn around to face her. She had moved closer; the look in her eyes was unmistakable.

Sid’s breathing almost stopped as she reached up, standing on tiptoe to wrap her arms around his neck. He wasn’t altogether sure why she was kissing him, but he wasn’t about to ask.

In fact, as soon as he recovered his senses, he busied himself with the only thing that seemed sensible
–
kissing her right back.

Part III

1

The Housewarming

‘H
i…’

Neha stood at her door, smiling at Aditi. It had been a while since they had met. Neha reached out and gave her friend a warm hug. Over Aditi’s shoulder, she grinned up at Krish who was lurking in the background. ‘Hey, Krish.’

‘Hey, Neha,’ Krish said. ‘Finally, your housewarming party, eh? After what … six months?’

Neha laughed as she stepped back to let them in. ‘Noooo … only five. Things have just been crazy.’

‘Ya,’ agreed Aditi as she led the way into the drawing room. ‘Must be … considering that we’ve barely seen each other lately despite being so-called next-door neighbours.’ Her tone became accusatory. ‘What happened to our plans of catching up every day, chatting in the pool, walks in the park … all the plans we made before your shifting here?’

‘I know, Adu.’ Neha picked the newspaper off the sofa to make place for her guests. ‘There’s just been so much going on.’

‘What have you been so busy with anyway? Why have you gone underground?’ demanded Aditi.

Before Neha could respond, Sid popped his head out of the kitchen door and said, ‘Hellos!’

Krish only looked mildly surprised, but Aditi almost jumped off the sofa. She stared at Sid’s disembodied head, and cried, ‘Sid! What are you doing in the kitchen?’

Sid entered the drawing room and stood next to Neha, grinning. Aditi looked at him more closely and demanded, ‘Is that … an
apron
?’

Sid looked down at the bright orange apron with a white flower embroidered on it. Completely unselfconscious, he remarked, ‘Oh yeah. Neha lent it to me. I didn’t want to mess up my new shirt. We’ve cooked up a great meal together
–
my exquisite Chicken-a-la-Sid to go with her lousy store-bought-wine!’

‘What nonsense.’ Neha giggled. ‘I’ve been trying to teach him to cook … but he’s a disaster, especially when it comes to slicing tomatoes.’

Sid dangled a spatula at her in warning. ‘Don’t bring up the tomatoes or I’ll have to tell them about what you did with the ginger-garlic paste.’ This sent Neha into a bout of uncontrolled laughter and she placed one hand on Sid’s arm for support.

Aditi said in an icily polite tone, ‘Well, these are all great stories, I’m sure … or they will be when we get to actually
hear
them someday.’ She tossed her long ponytail over her shoulder and added nonchalantly, ‘So, you guys cooked together?’

Sid nodded and Neha said, ‘Ya. I’ve promised to teach Sid how to cook, and in exchange, he’s going to give me some general gyaan about marketing, especially why clients like him are the way they are.’

‘General gyaan?’ Sid piped up indignantly. ‘I would appreciate if you referred to them in the manner we agreed
–
patented pearls of Sid-wisdom … you may go with Sid-dom for short.’

Neha groaned and Krish smiled, but Aditi didn’t look amused at all.

Krish said, ‘I had an early dinner, Neha, but you’re planning to offer us a drink, right?’

‘Yes, but who eats dinner before they come to dinner?’

‘I kind of figured the main course tonight would be non-veg.’

Neha smiled. ‘I didn’t forget you, Krish. There’s also rice and mixed veggies
–
I made those while Sid pretended to cook the chicken.’

‘Thanks,’ Krish said. ‘But I’m good with beer!’

‘Hear, hear … my beer-buddy’s here! So where’s the beer?’ sang out Sid. ‘I’ll get it
–
top cupboard, right?’

‘Yes, thanks, Sid.’

Sid trotted off and came back with the beer bottle and two large glasses. ‘Neha doesn’t have any proper beer mugs,’ he complained, handing one of the glasses to Krish. ‘But we will somehow make do with these imposters. I’m also going to have only beer tonight.’

As he sat down, Neha asked, ‘Why will
you
have only beer? You haven’t eaten.’

Before Sid could answer, Aditi butted in, ‘Oh, Sid never eats dinner when he’s drinking. He just starts off with the beer and then forgets all about the fact that his stomach also needs something solid. He’s been that way for as long as I’ve known him. Right, Sid?’

‘Right. In reality, beer is a much underrated super-food. It’s a little-known fact,’ said Sid, as he turned around one of
the dining table chairs to sit down on it. ‘Cheers!’ he said to Krish, raising his glass.

Krish glanced towards Neha and Aditi, ‘Wait, what about the girls, what are you having?’

‘Oh crap. I’m sorry!’ said Sid. ‘Wine? White for you, right, Neha? And red for you, Adu?’

Neha smiled gratefully, but Aditi was gritting her teeth as she said, ‘No, I drink white too Sid.’

‘Since when?’ Sid said, looking surprised.

‘Since forever and certainly in all the many years you’ve known me,’ Aditi snapped.

‘Easy, Tiger, easy,’ Sid said, rolling his eyes. ‘So I got a little mixed up … Sorr-ee!’

‘I’ll get the wine.’ Neha got up.

‘Sit, sit. Let me do the drinks tonight and you play the charming hostess.’

Sid practically skipped off into the kitchen. Aditi watched him go and looked as though she was about to say something, but then appeared to change her mind. She wasn’t listening as Neha and Krish began to discuss what food went with red wine and what with white. She just sat there, lost in thought.

Sid came back in, this time holding two wine glasses and the bottle of white wine. ‘For wine, she has proper glasses … not fair!’ he grumbled good-naturedly and then poured two glasses out, handing one to Neha and one to Aditi. He held out his glass again and said, ‘Cheers. Everyone got their glasses, right? Okay, good. Cheers! To Neha’s housewarming … and to Neha.’

‘Cheers’ were repeated all around and the four of them took sips from their respective glasses.

After a few moments of silence, Aditi asked Neha, ‘Kippy’s sleeping?’

‘Yes,’ Sid and Neha said at the same time. Sid looked at Neha and added, ‘She’s out early these days, isn’t she?’

‘Yes!’ said Neha stretching. ‘Good thing … otherwise I wouldn’t be able to sit with you guys like this. She’s become really clingy.’

‘It’s the age,’ said Aditi with an air of experience. ‘Ayaan went through it about a year back. It’ll pass in a few months. You just have to be really patient about it.’

Sid snorted. Aditi narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What?’

Sid said, ‘Well, I don’t know if anyone would say you were patient with Ayaan. And Neha doesn’t even have full-time help.’

Aditi looked stung. ‘I didn’t say I was patient with Ayaan, Sid. I said, “
You
have to be patient about it”.’

Krish cut in, ‘Aditi wasn’t so bad. Ayaan even had me going nuts some days.’ He turned to Neha. ‘What’s happening on the help scene, Neha? Still haven’t found a full-timer?’

‘Actually, I’ve been thinking, I don’t really need one. My part-timer Julie is great. We’re doing fine on weekdays between her and the day-care. It’s only the weekends that drain me out.’

The conversation turned to the situation with the domestic help in their respective households. Aditi didn’t say much, she just fingered her wine glass distractedly, her gaze flitting between Neha and Sid.

Sid was now telling the group about the maid Rukmini that Mandira had sourced. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She asked me yesterday if I wanted roti and I told her, “Nahin, parantha.” She just stared at me, so I explained, “Tel lagakar, parantha banao.” Next I went into the kitchen and saw she was making rotis … only with some ghastly smelling oil in her hair. I’m telling you…’

Neha stared at Sid for a second and then started to go into paroxysms of laughter. Krish protested that Sid was making it up as usual but chuckled appreciatively. Aditi only managed a distracted smile. She was still watching Sid and noticed that all his attention was on Neha. This, she thought grimly, was all very interesting.