Page 109 of One Indian Girl
‘Are you kidding me?’ Neel said and counted on his fingers. ‘You are smart, successful, fun to talk to, young, hard-working, funny and, well, I shouldn’t be saying this as your senior, but you know...’ He paused mid-sentence.
‘You know—what?’ I said.
‘I don’t want to talk out of turn.’
‘It’s okay.’
‘Well, you know, you look pretty good. Very good, in fact.’
Wow, did Neel Gupta just try a line on me? But wait, did Neel Gupta actually find me good-looking? And did he mean all those other wonderful things he just said?
I felt loads of self-esteem shots being injected into my bloodstream.
‘You are just saying all this to make me feel good,’ I said. It meant,say more.
‘No. Why would I? I mean it. You are, professionally and personally, one of the most amazing people I have ever met,’ Neel said.
I swear I felt the sand shift beneath me. Neel stared me right in the eyes. We had a moment of silence as I heard the splashing waves. I absorbed his compliment. Someone as cool as Neel found me attractive. It was all too much. Something had to short-circuit in me as I gave the most idiotic response.
‘It’s okay if I send Marcos the term sheet by tomorrow evening, right?’ I said.
One month later
‘Whole-wheat toast.Faa sang zoeng mat,’ I said. I had finally learnt to order breakfast at the Goldman café. Neel and I were the early arrivals, at 7.30 a.m.
Neel took his black coffee and a bowl of oats. A month since our Philippines’ visit, we had the term sheet signed. We had also reached settlement with the banks.
‘I can’t tell you the details. But I have good news,’ Neel said.
‘We have a buyer?’ I said, excited.
‘Shh!’ Neel said and placed a finger on his lips. ‘Yes. We could be going to meet Marcos soon and finish the deal.’
‘Cool,’ I said. ‘Take over the loans on one side and sell the company on the other.’
‘What we call back-to-back deals. No risk on books. Best deal ever,’ Neel said. We gave each other a thumbs-up. He reviewed the deal-closing documents.
‘Looks good. Fingers crossed. Buyer on board soon,’ Neel said.
I put the documents back in my laptop bag. These last few minutes of our daily café meeting had become my favourite part of the day. It was when Neel and I discussed things apart from work.
‘How is your new apartment?’ Neel said.
‘I love it. Thirtieth floor, great view. Still doing it up,’ I said.
‘Check out IKEA, they have good home stuff. Neat designs, good price,’ Neel said.
‘Sure. Will go there. Need to join a gym too.’
‘Have you tried yoga?’
I shook my head. ‘Maybe at school in India,’ I said, ‘when it was compulsory.’
Neel laughed.
‘Check out Pure Yoga. They have a great studio. I go sometimes,’ Neel said.
‘Okay. My birthday is coming up next week. Maybe I will treat myself to a membership.’
