Page 119 of 12 Years
‘You’re welcome,’ I said.
‘I’d love to get more of your guidance. If you want to hang out sometime, for drinks or dinner or whatever …’
‘I keep pretty busy,’ I said, ‘with my own start-up.’
‘Oh, okay. Only if you want to,’ she said, looking somewhat taken aback.
I finally realized she had something else in mind. She wanted a date, not a business-advice session.
‘I hardly socialize,’ I said.
‘I understand,’ Neha said. ‘Shall we exchange numbers anyway?’
A few days after that party, she messaged me saying how nice it was to talk to me and that if I ever wanted to take a break from work, I could message her.
I wasn’t interested. However, perhaps meeting other people would help me move on. Maybe meeting Neha would help me deal with the PTs. Even Mudit kept telling me to go on dates.
‘What are you doing this evening?’ I messaged Neha.
‘An inside table, of course,’ I said to the waiter. I had done my hot sauna walk for the day.
Neha and I arrived within minutes of each other at Attiko, the rooftop bar and restaurant at the W Hotel in Mina Seyahi. The waiter led us to a table in the air-conditioned sectionindoors. Attiko has a stunning view of the Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island in the shape of a palm tree. Its fronds are lined with villas that have their own private beaches. From the thirty-second floor, however, the multi-million-dollar Palm villas looked like toy homes arranged along the water.
‘What an incredible view!’ I said.
‘I’m glad you like it,’ Neha said. She was the one who’d suggested we meet here.
Neha was wearing a short, fitted orange dress. Heads had turned when she entered Attiko with me. Despite her attractiveness, Neha stirred nothing in me.
‘Where are you originally from?’ I said.
‘Lucknow,’ she said.
‘Ah, okay,’ I said. Possibly, the dullest response a man could give, ever. I could’ve at least asked her something about Lucknow. Like if she fancied tunde kebabs or chikankari suits or something.
We ordered two tequila sodas.
‘How about you?’ she said. ‘Where were you before you came to Dubai?’
‘Mumbai. Although I’m originally from Chandigarh.’
‘Chandigarh … Nice city,’ she said.
Chandigarh is the quintessential ‘nice city’. Maybe it’s the planned roads that make people believe the place is nice. But nice also means boring, which is where this date was going anyway.
‘Yeah, Rock Garden and all,’ I said.
‘What?’
‘The Rock Garden? It’s this famous place in Chandigarh. Been there too many times. Every time someone visited usfrom out of town, we had to take them to the Rock Garden. Traumatic memories.’
‘Why traumatic?’ she said, sounding concerned.
‘I mean, not really traumatic. But I just went there way too many times. I was trying to make a joke.
‘Oh.’
‘That landed flat.’
