Page 33 of 12 Years
‘I don’t know. Maybe you keep some high-protein wine or something,’ she said.
I laughed. She spoke like me, making smartass comments when you least expected them.
She kept the bottle on the kitchen counter.
‘Are we drinking this then?’ I said.
‘No?’ She blinked.
‘I thought we were going to have coffee or green tea, but wine is fine.’
‘Maybe, at your age, green tea is better …’ she said.
‘Ouch. Are you making fun of me?’
‘No. You’re supposed to be the funny guy, right?’ she said with a twinkle in her eye.
I laughed and poured the wine into two wine glasses.
‘Let’s sit at the window …’ she said.
We returned to the living room and sat on the ledge, facing each other, with our backs against the wall, our legs extended. We sipped the wine in silence, gazing out of the window. The gentle rustling of the tree leaves in the breeze and the occasional sound of vehicles passing on the roadbelow filled the space. My right leg brushed against her left leg.
Her phone rang a little later. She ignored it. But it rang again. This time, Payal cut the call and began typing a message.
‘Everything okay?’ I said. ‘Take the call if you want …’
She shook her head. ‘It’s my mother. She called earlier when we were having dinner. She calls every night, to check if I’m okay.’
‘Then take the call.’
‘No. She’ll ask too many questions. What did you eat for dinner? Who did you meet?’
‘And you can’t tell her you met me.’
‘Not unless your name is Sakshi instead of Saket.’
‘You can call me Sakshi. I could pass off as one.’
Both of us smiled.
‘I’ve messaged her. I wrote that I ate dal chawal, worked and then dozed off,’ Payal said.
‘Listen, if you want to call her back …’
‘No, it’s all right. It’s Sunday tomorrow. I’ll visit them anyway,’ she said and kept her phone aside.
‘Music?’ I said.
I connected the Bluetooth speaker in my room to my phone and opened the YouTube app. A.R. Rahman’s ‘Piya Milenge’ filled the room.
‘Nice song,’ she said, swaying slightly to the music.
‘It’s a new song, from the movieRaanjhanaa.’
She nodded and looked outside the window. ‘These trees. It’s so peaceful here …’ She sighed.
‘May I sit next to you?’ I said.
