The Bestseller She Wrote (15 page)

‘Says who?’

‘How does that matter?’

‘Somebody might be misguiding you, Aditya. It’s not like Diana to do such things.’

‘Oh is that so? Why don’t you ask her?’ Aditya gritted his teeth in anger. ‘If she wants to play god who everyone has to pray to for survival, then I am an atheist.’

‘Of course I will ask her,’ Sanjay said, as he walked away.

By the time Aditya got back to his office he realised Shreya had left. She had sent him an SMS just before leaving.

<8.30 pm, Out of the Blue. Cya.>

32

S
HREYA AND
S
UNAINA
were already at Out of the Blue when Aditya landed up at 8.45. The girls were feasting on their sangrias. Apparently it was their fourth already.

‘Someone is looking gorgeous,’ Aditya commented when he hugged Shreya. She was looking festive and lovely in her black and orange dress, which went well with her hair which was streaked red. The short-sleeved dress did nothing to conceal her ample curves. The dress featured a cut out at the shoulder and the back. With boots to complement her look and hair tied into a neat pony at the back, she looked a sight for sore eyes.

‘Hello,’ Sunaina waved her hands in front of Aditya’s eyes. ‘If you have finished admiring her, I am here too.’ Aditya smiled and gave her a quick hug. They settled down and Aditya ordered his single malt. These days, with the younger generation, he knew that for girls, girlfriends were a lot more important than men. Men would come and go; girlfriends stoically remained at each other’s side.

‘Top it up, please,’ Aditya instructed when the steward brought him his whisky. He always had single malt on the rocks, with ice cubes filling the glass.

Shreya looked exceptionally happy, almost like a kid at a birthday party. She was full of excitement and energy, laughing at every joke he cracked, fussing over him and taking care of what he wanted to order. All the attention that was being showered on him made him feel young all over again.

‘You should tie up your hair like this even at work. It looks very elegant.’

‘Really?’ Shreya asked.

‘Oh yeah. It looks awesome and quite classy. Isn’t it easy for you to tie it this way? You have seen how that girl in the marketing team ties up her hair. She puts in so much effort and yet it looks repulsive.’

‘Who, who? Which girl in marketing?’ Shreya was
curious.

‘Oh that girl . . . what’s her name . . . the one who handles deposits. She ties up her hair like . . .’ Aditya lifted his hands and brought them up to his head, and twirled them in a crazy manner. While turning his head to the right, with hands over his ears, he saw someone and immediately stopped. ‘Give me a minute,’ he said as he got up.

‘What happened?’ Shreya wanted to know.

‘Nothing. Just wanted to say hi to that guy . . . be right back,’ Aditya responded. He walked to the table at the far end of the room.

Shreya and Sunaina looked at each other, perplexed, wondering who it was he was meeting. The suspense didn’t stay for long as Aditya immediately returned and said, ‘Give me ten minutes, I will be back.’

‘Who is it?’ Shreya asked.

‘Anurag Kashyap.’

‘Anurag who?’ But by the time she finished her question, Aditya had already disappeared, back to the table in the corner of the room.

When he did finally come back after about twenty minutes he found Sunaina alone. Shreya was nowhere to be seen. He asked Sunaina, ‘Where is she?’

‘She left.’

‘What?’ He was taken aback. ‘When?’

‘Just a short while back.’

‘Why?’

Sunaina just shrugged her shoulders.

Aditya hurried out of the restaurant. The traffic was heavy. He searched frantically, just in case Shreya was still around. He saw her. She was about thirty metres ahead of him trying to flag down an autorickshaw. ‘Shreya!’ he called out. She heard him, looked back and saw him. He waved. She ignored him and got into an autorickshaw and disappeared.

Aditya came back. Sunaina was still there. She didn’t look half as stressed and anxious as he felt.

‘It’s okay. Chill,’ she said. ‘Let her be. She will be back to normal tomorrow.’ Sunaina smiled reassuringly.

Aditya was a bit taken aback by Shreya’s behaviour. He tried calling her but her phone was switched off.

‘It’s off, right?’ Sunaina asked him. She had a wry smile on her face.

‘Hmm.’

‘I told you. Wait till tomorrow. It will automatically resolve itself. When she is angry, it’s better to stay away from her.’

They finished their respective drinks, settled the bill and walked towards Aditya’s car. Aditya dropped Sunaina back, and in deference to Sunaina’s request didn’t come up. He went back home. He messaged Shreya but she didn’t respond.

33

V
AISHALI CALLED HIM
the next morning when he was on his way to work.

‘Aditya, something is weird here. Actually many things are weird here.’

Aditya stretched back and ran his hand through his hair. It was growing unmanageably long. He needed a haircut. ‘What happened?’

‘I have read this manuscript before.’

‘Maybe she did send it to Kiwi.’

‘Maybe. But I can’t trace it. A hard copy had come in. I guess we would have decided not to publish it and someone might have put it in the shredder.’

‘Possible,’ Aditya agreed. ‘Don’t know why she did not tell me that she had sent it to you already. In any case, what’s weird about it?’

‘Who is she, Aditya?’

‘Oh, she is a colleague; a fresher, just out of college.’

‘How does she know so much about naxalites and Chhattisgarh? This sounds like a true story. The earlier one did even more.’

‘Earlier one?’

Vaishali ignored Aditya’s question and rattled off another one. ‘Aditya, are you in a relationship with her?’

‘What? Hahaha . . .’ Aditya laughed nervously, as if he had been caught with his pants down. ‘No, no. Why do you ask?’

‘Sorry. Even if you are, it is none of my business. I’m only asking because the earlier manuscript was slightly different.’

‘English, sweetheart. Publishers must learn to speak in a comprehendible manner,’ Aditya’s tone was sarcastic.

‘Okay, so there are three key differences from the earlier manuscript. In this one the male protagonist’s name is Aditya. It was different in the earlier one. I would have let it pass, had it not been for a second reason. Aditya, the character, was the rapist, in the initial manuscript. In this he becomes the saviour. And to top it all, in the earlier manuscript he was single. In this, he is married and his wife leaves him after he becomes the protagonist’s saviour. She eventually dies and he marries the protagonist. Do you get what I’m trying to say here?’

‘I noticed the fact that the male lead was called Aditya. He is a good man and the female lead gets married to him in the end. I didn’t have this backstory that you are giving me now, but despite that I don’t think there’s too much to it. I had mentioned to her that a tragic story with a happy ending will do well. Maybe that’s why she changed the plot a bit. And I am her supervisor, Vaishali . She probably is just trying to keep me happy. Don’t waste too much time thinking about it. Sucking up to supervisors for benefits is quite common in the corporate world. Don’t tell me it doesn’t happen in the world of publishing.’

‘Hmm.’

‘And what is an author without a few quirks. We have seen worse, haven’t we? I know of at least two authors who insist on having a character named Aditya in their books. Don’t I insist that we price my books in such a manner that the sum of the digits in the MRP of the book is five? Let her evolve her quirks, Vaishali . It’s harmless.’

‘I just wanted to let you know . . . Sorry if you think I intruded,’ Vaishali didn’t sound entirely convinced.

‘Don’t worry, Vaishali . In any case, what do you think of it?’

‘In its current form it is promising.’

‘Make it happen, Vaishali . Please. I will put my weight behind it.’

‘With you backing it, there is a good chance that we will buy it. Let’s see.’

‘Great!’ he said as he entered the basement parking of his office building and Vaishali hung up.

34

A
DITYA HAD BARELY
settled in his chair, when Shreya was at the door.

She knocked; something she usually didn’t do.

He looked up and nodded.

‘I am sorry, Aditya,’ she said as she walked in.

‘Sorry for what?’ He didn’t look irritated at all.

‘For what I did yesterday.’

‘It’s okay. Long forgotten.’ He smiled. It didn’t look like he was pretending.

‘No. I am an evil bitch. I . . . I . . . don’t deserve to be forgiven.’

‘But it’s . . .’

‘No. I was very selfish.’

‘Fine. You were. But it’s forgotten.’

‘Don’t you want to know what got me pissed?’

‘Does it really matter? Something I did got you worked up. Now you feel you shouldn’t have reacted quite so severely. So we are quits now, the matter dead and buried.’

She smiled. Her smile alone could light up a room, Aditya thought to himself.

‘Did the publishers call back?’ she asked all of a sudden.

‘Oh.’ He was about to tell her about the call with Vaishali but changed his mind. ‘Actually, not yet . . . no.’ Seeing the smile disappear, he added, ‘In any case, we only sent it the day before. Give it at least a couple of weeks.’

‘Do you think endorsement from a production house will help?’

‘You mean a movie deal?’

‘Hmm . . . yeah.’ Almost as an afterthought, she added, ‘That’s what upset me yesterday. You went and met Anurag Kashyap alone. You could have taken me to meet him. It was a golden opportunity to tell him about my book. Before I could even tell you to introduce us, you had disappeared. At least the thought should have struck you.’

Aditya could see her eyes glistening. He knew that she was about to burst into tears. He walked up to her and put his arms around her. Through his peripheral vision, he was constantly on the lookout to see if there were any people around.

‘Shreya. You need to relax. You have it in you to be a great author. Chill. Everything has a time and place. Had I got you to meet Anurag yesterday, it wouldn’t even have registered. He was three drinks down. I would rather speak to him about the manuscript and the possible film options once things work out on the publishing side. Going to him now will be premature. You need to trust me.’

She looked up and smiled. ‘I don’t have anybody to trust but you, Aditya. I don’t know anyone else.’ She planted a quick kiss on his lips, before he even had time to react. ‘I will make up for my behaviour yesterday,’ she said as she walked back to her desk.

A few minutes later, a message sprung up on his office chat. ‘Thank you for being such a wonderful person. I am glad I have you in my life.’

‘In your life?’

‘Shut up, not over here. On SMS’.

And within seconds his phone beeped.

He messaged back.

Aditya went on flirting with Shreya, enjoying their time together.

Maya and Aryan came back that week from the US.

35

T
HE FINALISTS FOR
the Crossword Book Awards, one of the premier book awards in India, were announced. Aditya’s book had made it to the shortlist. He was on cloud nine. It was normal for any author who had reached the pinnacle of commercial success to look for critical recognition. Aditya was no different. And for him this was a big one—a shot in the arm for his self-esteem. The actual awards ceremony was still a month away. The moment he got to know of it, he wanted to call Shreya. He pulled up her number from his contact list and stopped. He did not press the dial button. He called Maya instead.

When he told Shreya about it later, she was super thrilled.

‘Wow, Aditya. This is such great news. I am sure you will rock it,’ Shreya enthused while Aditya just smiled.

‘Is everything okay, Aditya? You are behaving very strangely these days. You still haven’t forgotten the Out of the Blue event, right? I said I am sorry,’ Shreya made a face.

‘You are mad. I was just wondering how nice it would be if your book wins the award some day.’ He tried to divert her attention.

‘Oh, Aditya, I love you,’ Shreya squealed with joy. ‘I so wish your prophecies come true.’

‘But for that, you must focus on getting the book in perfect shape. Focus. Focus gets results.’

‘Of course, grandpa. I will do it after two weeks.

‘Why? Why after two weeks?’

‘I am off this Thursday for two weeks. The management trainee induction starts this weekend. While I am away I can’t do anything on the book. I told you. You don’t listen to me at all these days.’