Page 90 of Stumped

I have to wait until dinner?

Peaches

Didn’t you hear? I’m a ballbuster of a boss who works too hard and has no time for genuine connections.

Fuck, she read the article.

I’ll show them a genuine connection.

Peaches

And I adore you for it. But I’ve got a few meetings this afternoon. Then I’m all yours.

You’ve always been mine, you didn’t know it.

Peaches

Maybe you can remind me tonight.

See you soon, sweetheart.

Kuriakose picksus up at the airport and after dropping Bash and Samar off at their respective places, he drives me home. With Nina off in Bengaluru for training, I’m surprised to find Patrick in front of the television when I walk into the house. Once I’ve dropped my things off in my room, I join my brother on the couch as he watches hockey highlights.

“Congratulations, E,” he mumbles, not taking his eyes off the screen.

“Thanks, Pat. What’s going on?”

“The usual.” I nudge him and he slumps back, turning the TV off. “Saw your match and started to get nervous about Paris.”

“Why?”

“Good question.”

We share a laugh and I say, “You can do this in your sleep, so what’s the issue?”

“I keep wondering if this is going to be my last year, if we don’t win, will they force me into retirement. I’m not ready to stop playing.”

At thirty-seven, Patrick is probably the eldest member of the Indian hockey team. I might be biased, but he’s also one of the best players. He’s mastered the sport and makes it look so easy. I tried it once and failed miserably. But not Pat. He goes out there every single practice session and runs loops around the younger guys.

“You always tell me to not think about the last game, so maybe you should take your own advice.”

“Blergh. That’s boring. Advice is meant to be given, not taken.” He grins and shakes his head. “How did things go with Dhruv?”

“As well as you can imagine.”

I sent my family a long voice note telling them what was going on, not leaving a single detail out. Between practice, the game and trying to keep my head on straight, I did the best to answer any and all questions. My parents had already changed their tickets so they could make it home for the finals, but my mother kept insisting on showing up earlier to deal with things. After much assurance that I had everything under control, she relented. Like me, they weren’t expecting Dhruv to turn out to be an asshole, so they were shocked. In fact, I’m still reeling from this weekend.

“Having the termination papers helped, so he couldn’t fight us on it.”

“I hate this for you, man.”

“I know. I keep wondering if this was going on for a while, but I only found out because of Vera.”

Patrick shrugs. “The past doesn’t matter. Make sure your new guy wipes all of it away so you can start fresh.”

Farhad’s already drawing up new contracts and putting everything in clear lines so there’s absolutely no confusion about what is expected of me. Obviously we need to meet face-to-face and finalise everything, but I see this as the right kind of relationship.

“You holding up okay?” I ask my brother, noticing the wrinkles on his forehead.

---