Page 103 of Stumped

“Well, duh. You won.”

“That’s the second reason.”

“What’s the first?” she asks, head tilted.

“Having you here with me. Knowing you love me.”

And we’re kissing again. I don’t care if the whole world is watching. Because tonight and for the rest of my life, I’m a fucking winner.

Epilogue. Stumped you, huh?

Vera

August, Two Months Later

In the months since the Chennai Renegades won the 2024 ICL Championship, life has been moving at the speed of light.

First, they did the whole drive along Marina in a special bus with the trophy and the entire team and management. It was a day-long spectacle that blocked traffic and caused so much chaos, I gave everyone at Lucky Shot the day off.

Then there were talks about next year’s team. Every ICL team can retain a certain number of players, but a lot of the time they have to go through the whole auction process to snag other players they might want. It’s similar to the ‘free agent’ situation in other professional sports. There was a lot of confusion about whether or not Elias would be retained and they kept him on tenterhooks for weeks before announcing that he wasn’t going anywhere. Farhad was ready to burn everything down.

And finally, Elias was asked to join Mr. Jaishankar on a trip to Texas. Trust me, nobody is more surprised than I am at the knowledge that the US hasMajor League Cricket. Multiple ICL team owners have invested in American teams to form this league and after two moderately successful seasons, they’relooking to get their act together. So Elias, Bash, Samar and Florian flew out for three weeks to train theTexasRenegades.

The unfortunate part of this was that his original plan to join his parents at the Paris Olympics had to be scrapped. He was in the process of trying to convince me to go with him too and make a holiday out of it. But with the trip to Texas and other scheduling conflicts, his parents went off on their own.

With him gone mostof July, I buried myself in work. Thanks to everything we did with the Renegades, more sports teams have approached us for work. But I made a hard decision to be very picky about new clients. Money is good and so is the recognition, but if my team’s falling apart and burning out, it’s not worth it. So our plan is to go over our workload and make a decision based on whether or not we can actually take on anybody new right now.

We’re now in the early days of August and Elias has been non-stop party planning. Since he couldn’t make it to Paris for the Olympics, he’s hosting watch parties on the days his siblings have matches. He sent out invites to everyone—his teammates, my parents, brothers, Tamara, my friends and their partners—and opened his house up for the gatherings. Everyone has been showing up regularly, which is the best part.

We’ve watched Patrick and the Indian team on New Zealand and Argentina. And tonight is the team meets Ireland on the pitch. I don’t know a single thing about field hockey, but I’m learning on the go. And Elias is a really good teacher when he’s not groaning at missed opportunities.

Tamara’s sitting by herself and frowning at the television, where they’re showing us the team line-ups. She’s terrible at controlling herself whenever Patrick appears on the screen, yelling instructions at him like he can hear her from across the world.

“There has to be something better than destroying that cushion,” I tell my cousin as I sit on the arm of the sofa she’s hurting.

“Ugh. Sorry. I’m stressed.”

“For him?”

She nods, still staring at the screen. “He called me a few days ago, then sent a voice note.”

“Saying what?”

“I dunno. Haven’t listened to it yet.”

“Tam,” I sigh and she groans.

“I know. Iknow. Why can’t he just leave it alone, though? The sex was good and we had a fantastic time. It doesn’t have to be anything else.”

I kiss the top of her head and smile. “I think it’s unfair to not give him a chance to explain things. Maybe you could still be having fantastic sex together.”

She makes a face and before Tamara can protest, I walk away. I make the rounds, playing hostess with the mostest by checking on everyone. I refill drinks and clear away plates. I stop to talk to everyone and check on my parents who are canoodling in the corner of the living room. I head to the kitchen to get more food and squeak when two people jump apart. Blushing, I walk out and leave everything on the table.

Before he went off to the States, Elias brought Kuriakose’s wife to Chennai to work for him. She’d been looking after her aging mother and after she passed, there was nothing keeping her in Trivandrum. So now husband and wife are reunited and living in the quarters behind the main house. She’s been cookingfor Elias, stocking his fridge with delicious Malayali food that I take with me to the office whenever I stay the night at his place.

Filling up a plate with finger food, I turn around and bump into the man of the hour.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

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