Page 158 of 12 Years

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‘Oh, okay, of course. I’ll come do it in a few minutes? Let me wrap up this meeting with Saket first?’

‘Oh, yes, of course. No problem,’ Payal said and left.

Mudit looked at me. ‘It’s going fine with Payal, right? It’s all quite professional?’

‘Yeah, I guess,’ I said.

‘I guess, as in?’

‘Did you know she got divorced? Two years ago?’

‘What?’ Mudit said in a high decibel.

‘Shh, keep it down. I just found out about it. I had lunch with her the other day, to discuss our future strategy.’

‘Ourfuture?’

‘Very funny. SecurityNet and CloudX’s future strategy. Neeraj set up the meeting, remember?’

‘Yeah. But how did her divorce pop up in that discussion?’ Mudit said, raising an eyebrow.

I recounted my entire lunchtime conversation with Payal for Mudit’s benefit. ‘That’s it. She asked me how I was doing. I felt obligated to ask her the same. That’s when she told me she got divorced.’

‘And she also said she wants to meet you separately to discuss personal stuff? Wow.’

‘“Let work meetings be work meetings.” That’s what she said.’

‘Bro, she clearly wants to hang out with you.’

‘No, she doesn’t.’

‘She’s the one asking all the personal questions. Sharing stuff about herself. Suggesting you meet outside of work.’

‘She’s here in Dubai. She doesn’t know anyone. Maybe that’s why … Maybe she just wants to meet me as an old friend.’

‘Perhaps. Suits her now to make you “an old friend”.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Be careful, that’s all. Don’t get affected or involved, bro. And did you say Tania called you during lunch?’

‘Yeah, but I didn’t take the call.’

‘And you said Payal saw her name, and her picture?’

‘I think so.’

‘Excellent. She should know times have changed. You have options. Great, hot, upgraded options.’

‘There’s nothing like that happening with Payal anyway, Mudit.’

‘That’s even better then. You’ll meet her outside of work?’

‘She pretty much asked me to. Besides pure curiosity and nothing else, I do want to know what happened between her and Parimal.’

‘Oh, that was the loser’s name, right? Parimal Jain,’ Mudit said.

‘Yeah.’

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