Page 28 of One Indian Girl
You better skip lunch tomorrow, mini-me said,there is no point in waxing fat legs. Elephants don’t wax, do they?
‘I love how you eat. You are enjoying this,’ Debu said to me.
‘Sorry. I haven’t had Indian food in weeks,’ I said.
He wiped my lips with a tissue. I smiled at him.
‘There are a couple of Indian restaurants in Brooklyn too, where I live,’ Debu said. He was referring to another borough of New York, south of Manhattan.
‘You live in Brooklyn?’ I said. Most of my Goldman class planned to take apartments in Manhattan. They considered Brooklyn too far.
‘Yeah. Told you. Advertising is glamorous only on paper. They don’t pay. That’s the only place we can afford a decent apartment.’
‘We as in?’
‘I share it. Two other guys from work.’
‘Oh okay. I need to find an apartment soon too,’ I said.
The bill arrived. I paid this time, a total of eight dollars. We stood up to leave.
‘You want to see a movie next week? Shah Rukh’sDon 2is releasing,’ Debu said.
‘They have Indian movie theatres here?’ I said in excitement.
‘Just a couple. But they do,’ he said. ‘Next Friday?’
I nodded. The food in my mouth prevented me from talking.
Date two, baby, I said to myself and mentally high-fived.
7
One month later
On the last day of associate training, I received an email from my training manager, Jane Rosenberg. She had called me to her office.
I wondered if I had done anything wrong. I had skipped class to meet Debu a few times. Had they found out?
Debu and I had watched two movies, one Yankees baseball game and one Broadway musical calledThe Lion King. We visited quaint restaurants all over Manhattan and ate Italian, Middle Eastern and Indian food.
I had fallen in love with New York. I had also started liking Debu, even though things weren’t romantic yet.Why wasn’t he making a move? When would I have my own boyfriend? Would I ever have my own boyfriend?Perhaps it was because of these insecurities inside me, but I wanted things to change soon.
Our next date was tomorrow. I had picked a short wine-coloured dress, my boldest so far.
‘Jane asked you to come to her office as well?’ Mark, an American associate about my age, came up to me.
‘Huh?’ I said, as I came back from my thoughts about what shoes to pair with my wine dress. ‘Yeah. How do you know?’
‘You are copied on my email. It’s you, me and another associate, Carl Wong.’
I reached Jane’s office on the sixteenth floor of 85 Broad Street. Jane, in her forties, sat at her desk, lost in her computer.
‘Welcome. You must be the new associates,’ Jane said as we sat down.
I looked at Mark and Carl. They seemed relaxed in contrast to a jittery me.
‘I have called you here because I have fresh offers for you. The three of you have been selected for the Distressed Debt Group.’
