Page 133 of 12 Years
A few moments of silence followed as she nodded at the screen.
‘I’m in the lounge. Waiting. What else to do? I did shop though. Bought some shirts for you and your dad,’ she said.
Parimal said something on the other end.
‘Yeah, I’ll show you. I bought eight. Had to buy a trolley bag to keep them.’ Payal rested her phone against a glass on the table in front of her. Then she picked up the Tumi bag and kept it on her lap. She opened the bag and lifted the shirts out one by one.
‘Forget about the bag and focus on the shirts,’ Payal said to Parimal. ‘I needed the bag anyway.’
After a pause, she spoke again, ‘I know Tumi is expensive. It’s okay. I can afford it … The price is for the brand, Parimal. You can’t compare it to American Tourister … Can we not argue over this? Please, just look at the shirts. I can still exchange them if you don’t like any particular one.’
She showed all the eight shirts to him again.
‘You’re being picky for no reason. And just forget about the price no?’ she said at some point during the conversation.
‘Yes, I’ll update you about my flight status. Yes, I’ll return these three shirts. Bye,’ she said, ending the call.
She let out a big sigh and, keeping her phone aside, turned back to me. ‘Sorry, that took a while,’ she said.
‘Everything okay?’ I said.
‘Yeah. Turns out, I bought too many shirts. He doesn’t need so many. I’ll just go return a few,’ she said, standing up.
‘I can come with you,’ I said.
‘No, it’s okay. I don’t want to bother you.’
Before I could respond, a female Emirates staff member approached us, holding an iPad in her hands.
‘Hello. What flight are you on?’ she said.
‘EK203. To New York,’ I said.
‘Okay,’ she said, tapping a few times on her iPad. ‘Sir, ma’am, I’m sorry, but your flight to New York is cancelled due to bad weather.’
‘I’m not on the same flight actually,’ Payal said.
‘Oh?’ The woman looked at both of us, surprised.
‘We’re not together,’ Payal said.
Thanks for that, Payal. I needed the reminder.
‘Which flight are you on, ma’am?’ the staffer said.
‘EK500 to Mumbai.’
‘Okay, give me a minute,’ the staffer said, checking her iPad. ‘Sir, for New York, you’ll be booked on the same flight tomorrow night. You’ll receive a message confirming this. Meanwhile, we’ve arranged a hotel room for you near the airport.’
‘I won’t be needing that,’ I said. ‘I live in Dubai. I’ll just go home.’
‘Oh, okay. In that case, I can help you exit the airport.’
‘Thanks,’ I said.
‘And for you, ma’am, you’ve been shifted to EK506 to Mumbai, scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. A room has been booked for you at the airport transit hotel, which is in the terminal building itself.’
‘Okay, thanks,’ Payal said.
