Page 122 of One Indian Girl
Let’s pretend nothing happened. That would be a mature way to deal with it, right?
‘About last night?’ he said, puzzled.
I shrugged my shoulders.
‘Haven’t really had a chance to think about it,’ I said.Yeah, more like, haven’t thought of anything but that.
‘Well, I have been thinking about it all day.’
Good, mister, at least it freaking matters. Go on, I said in my head as I continued to look at him.
‘And while I am still working through my thoughts, I just wanted you to know that last night was special for me. I can tell you, haven’t felt that way before.’
‘Oh,’ I said, my mouth open. I did not expect that. ‘Oh okay, well,’ I said and went into clueless and silent bimbette mode. I looked at him with a blank face.
‘Yeah, it was tender and wonderful and touching and so many things,’ Neel said, moving his hands around as he spoke.
‘That’s interesting,’ I said.
Okay, what kind of an idiotic response is that? Interesting? Like really, Radhika?
‘Interesting?’ he said, surprised at my stupid response.
‘I better go. See you later,’ I said. The driver opened my car door.
‘Sure,’ he said and waved at me. He looked pained at what would have seemed to him my indifference. The car drove off the airport terminal. I noticed him continue looking at my car until he went out of sight.
My car zipped along the highway as Hong Kong’s flickering skyscraper lights became visible again.
Pretend it never happened, maybe that will mean it never did, I said to myself as the car reached my home.
28
Two weeks later
‘Okay, enough. We do need to discuss what happened,’ Neel said.
‘Why?’ I said. Neel had called me to his office. We sat facing each other at his desk.
‘Because it’s not good to not talk about it. You’ve been avoiding me ever since we came back from the Philippines.’
I studied my fingernails. ‘What is there to talk about? It was wrong.’
‘Well,’ he said and paused before he spoke again. ‘Define wrong.’
‘It was wrong, Neel. And you know it,’ I said, looking up.
‘Okay, maybe it was a little wrong. But it felt right.’
‘Really?’
‘Didn’t it? Didn’t it feel just right?’
‘It doesn’t matter, Neel.’ I started counting on my fingers. ‘I work for you. You are married. You are a dad.’
‘I am aware of that.’
‘So then what is this all about? Let it be a one-off. A one-off blunder. And let’s move on.’
