Page 29 of That Same Old Love

“Oh. Nothing. I have invited her to my birthday party next week. She wanted to be friends with you again. She feels really bad about how she was mean to you all those years ago,” Srishti answered her mother chirpily.

“It was years ago… .Mahi talked to you about it?” Ananya asked her calmly, which sounded a little eerie to Mahi.

“No, no. Mahi Aunty didn’t. I found out from some other means, which is… uh… not important now. But please can she come? You’ve always been telling me that we need to forgive people and be nice to everyone. Please, Mummy?” Srishti cajoled.

“Srishti, it is your birthday. You are welcome to invite anyone you like within reason… ” Ananya was trying to let her know that inviting Mahi was not a good idea.

But Srishti was insistent. “But even Samrat uncle likes her and he is her friend now. She’s already apologized to him and he is okay with it. Let’s ask him if she can come.”

Mahi winced even more hearing that, and didn’t think she would be able to hide in the kitchen for long. She went towards the living room.

Srishti saw her first.

“Oh hey, Mahi aunty. Good you are still here. I was just telling mummy that I invited you to my tenth birthday party.”

Mahi felt that the plan to go to Srishti’s party to apologize, now sounded a little farfetched. She looked at Ananya apologetically and told Srishti, “Srishti, I don’t think—”

“You should come,” said Ananya abruptly. Composing herself a little more, “Srishti wants you there at her birthday party, and you should definitely come, Mahi.”

Meantime, Samrat came down the stairs with a frown and joined their meeting. He looked at Srishti and a smile broke on his face.

“So Srishti, are you ready for your tenth birthday party?”

Srishti looked at him with a grin. “Why shouldIbe ready? I’m the birthday girl. Everyone else better be ready, and rushing around, and then putting some thought into buying me something good. And Samrat uncle, you better get me something great this year too!”

Ananya frowned. “Srishti!”

Samrat smiled. “It’s okay, Anu. Srishti and I have an understanding. Don’t we?”

Srishti laughed in conspiracy and then looked excited. “Oh by the way I invited Mahi aunty to my birthday party and she has accepted to come. Mummy said it was okay too. Isn’t that cool?”

He replied with a short. “Yes.” He was now watching Mahi expressionlessly.

Mahi felt like an intruder between their family dynamics and couldn’t wait to get away.

Ananya picked up her purse from the table. “Okay, I have some more things to do this evening and it’s getting late. Srishti let’s go. Samrat, I’ll call you.” She looked at Mahi and said, “See you next week, Mahi.”

Mahi nodded and went out with them and then waved bye to Srishti, before going back to her house. She leaned against her closed door.

“Oh God. Ananya wanted to bury me. Now I better start planning on how to apologize to her,” she muttered.

That night when she was preparing to go to bed, she got a call from Samrat.

“Hello, Samrat.”

He didn’t greet her back. “I don’t know how you managed to get invited to Srishti’s birthday party, but I want you to behave there,” he warned softly.

Mahi was not surprised, but even though she knew how he felt, she still got angry at the warning. Before she could come up with a cutting reply, he beat her to it with some shocking news.

“Oh and by the way, you are not fired. You can continue with your job from next week,” he stated before he hung up.

She stared at the phone and wanted to call him back for more answers. But she didn’t want to rock the already fragile boat. She was both glad and nervous about the following week.

CHAPTER 8

The following Friday, Mahi was nervous when she arrived at the party. She had no idea what to buy for a ten year old girl. So she bought her an assortment of things that she thought Srishti might like, a perfume, a brainy snap circuit board game, a book about how teens dealt with the world around them and a gift card to purchase music or e-books.

She held her gift box gingerly in her hand and walked towards the bustling party. Even though it was a teenager’s party, there were a lot of adults and young kids talking loudly and walking about busily.

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