Page 121 of 12 Years
‘Ouch. Double, triple ouch. Where have you seen them?’
‘In porn.’
‘Oh, of course. Porn actors are the outliers in size. The top one per cent. It’s like they’ve cleared the porn-JEE.’
‘Well, you certainly wouldn’t clear that JEE. Good thing you took the other JEE.’
‘Ow!’ I said. ‘That hurts. You’re brutal, Payal Jain.’
‘It’s okay, baby,’ Payal said, patting my shoulder. ‘I still love you.’
‘You’re so bad,’ I said, grabbing Payal as she burst out laughing.
‘What happened?’ Neha said as she caught me smiling.
‘Huh? What? Nothing,’ I said, coming back to the present. ‘Anyway, when do you want to open your online bakery business? What’s the timeline?’ I said.
‘We’ll see. I’m quite happy with my job too,’ she said.
Okay, she never really wanted to open a business.
‘Tell me something. When you asked to meet me, was it to discuss business plans or something else?’ I said.
‘Like what?’
‘Like us dating potentially.’
She smiled. ‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘You’re single, right?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘How come?’ she said, tilting her head a little to the side.
‘As in how am I single even at this age? What’s wrong with me?’ I said.
‘No, nothing like that. Sorry.’
‘It’s okay. I’m thirty-nine. So, yes, I shouldn’t be single, but I am. I was married a long time ago. Got divorced about six years back.’
‘Any relationships since then?’
‘Yes, one. It ended a while ago.’
‘What happened?’
‘I …’ I hesitated. ‘I’d rather not talk about it, if that’s okay?’
‘Sure. Did it end recently?’
‘No, around five years ago.’
‘Oh,’ she said, probably thinking I was a weirdo who found it difficult to talk about five-year-old break-ups. She wasn’t wrong though. I was that weirdo.
‘And have you dated anyone since then?’ she said.
I shook my head.
‘Oh,’ she said again.
