chapter 13

13 I woke up alone again. She really was an early bird. Getting out of bed I pulled on a pair of boxer shorts and walked into the bathroom. On the mirror was a note. Half out of sleep I watch your sleeping face. Behind your eyelids’ restlessness I seeA dream that waking may not quite displace:If there were equity you’d dream of me. The words brought a smile to my face. I didn’t know she read Vikram Seth. I would have thought this a man’s way of saying I love you. That night when we had stood on her terrace in the rain came to mind; her gorgeous body, wet and willing to be loved in every way, those beautiful breasts, her flat abdomen and her long legs. The way she made love you knew she was thinking about every next move, using her body for the singular purpose of deriving and giving pleasure. Just thinking about her made me hard and I turned on morecold water and hurried through my bath.Getting out I towelled myself dry and texted her. VS. Nice touch. Didn’t know you knew him.Duh. Who doesn’t? I also know Nat Geo.Ha Ha. Thanks to you my shoulder still hurts ;) She texted back instantly.Thanks to you I’m sore. It hurts when I pee.The girl was delightfully naughty but I didn’t continue the conversation, I had to get ready for work where I’d bump into her anyway. Cara was blessed with the ability to convert any casual conversation to sexting and using it as foreplay. Just when I was about to lock the door on my way out the phone rang again. It was Nat.‘Hey, I am just leaving for work.’‘Great. I was beginning to wonder. How are you feeling?Is your head okay?’ ‘Yes.’‘Did you eat something? There are some pills for the morning,’ she continued, concerned.‘Didn’t feel like breakfast.’‘That’s silly, Sid. Okay, I’ll order in a sandwich. You bring your prescription and the pills, and get here quick,’ she instructed, almost. I smiled.‘Okay, Mommy.’‘Shut up,’ she said, and laughed.I really like this woman, I thought to myself.The taxi ride to the office was bumpy and gave me a headache by the time I reached. The sudden stab of pain inthe middle of my forehead as I bent down to pick up my bag had me worried. Did the doctor tell me everything? I wondered if I should ask Nat to speak with him. Will I be able to make the trip to NY? As I got off the lift and stepped into the office, Aanya waylaid me and gave me a hug.‘You don’t look so great!’‘Thank you, that’s very comforting,’ I replied, smiling. ‘No, I meant you should take some more time off, yougot out of the hospital just yesterday.’‘I can’t stay alone at home, Aanya. It’s here that I feel the best, you know that . . . Can I please go in now?’ I asked. ‘Sorry, sorry!’ she replied, smiling, and stepped out ofmy way.Lying on the bed in the hospital, it had crossed my mind many times that the accident could have killed me. And the thought scared me. There was still so much I wanted to do with my life; so many more images to make, so many ideas buzzing in my head all the time. Things to do, places to see. The saving grace was that I wouldn’t leave anyone behind, making them sad by my departure. I had nobody, nobody but Alpha.Yet in the past two days Nat had shown me how simple it was to lie back and be taken care of, to feel wanted, and how having someone around to worry about was a good thing. And . . . easy. That’s it. She made things look so easy. I guess if I had grown up with people I wouldn’t necessarily consider these things special. Cara was wonderful too, and in her own little ways let me know that I was always on hermind. It could be as simple as bringing me a cup of coffee, inconspicuously, in the office. I was particularly touched when I discovered, completely by chance while looking for a fresh towel in her bedroom one morning, that she had bought men’s clothing in my size, just in case.I had a past too, but no, this wasn’t the time to open that door. Here, in front of me, was my life’s work, well, up until now. I stood right there in the entrance for a minute, looking at the office. We had gone industrial – red brick and wrought iron décor and open-plan work spaces. The glass offices around the corner were for CD, Nat and me. It wasn’t revolutionary or anything; the industrial look had been doing the rounds forever. On the far wall facing the lifts, on the only plain white wall in the office, was the word Alpha and its Greek symbol which served as our logo. I smiled when I saw it because I couldn’t remember the day or the moment when we had agreed, CD and I, to go with it but I remembered knowing in my heart that it had felt right. I thought about how quickly we had gone from the back of a napkin to a full-size agency and how fond of each other we had become.Cara was bent over her neighbour’s desk, discussing something. I turned around instantly towards Nat’s office and there she was, also engrossed in something on her computer screen. For a minute, I wondered what they thought of me, and then checked myself for being vain.I knocked on Nat’s door. She looked up from her screen and beamed when she saw me. Her obvious delight at seeing me made me very happy.‘Hey! Okay, sit down here while I ask someone to get you a sandwich. I want to see you pop those pills,’ she said.I didn’t resist and sat down.‘Have you seen the video idea for GM?’ I shook my head.‘Oh . . . Cara told me she might show it to you when she was going over to your place last evening.’I panicked, wondering what else she had told Nat. ‘No, she did come over but we ended up chatting andshe left pretty quickly,’ I lied.‘Kid’s done a fantastic job. I was surprised, I mean I wasn’t, but I was.’ She called the pantry about the sandwich and came over and sat next to me.She took my hand in hers and asked, ‘How are you?’ ‘You know, when I walked in I stood there thinkingwhat if I had died.’‘Don’t ever say that again!’ she said, visibly shocked. ‘What the fuck is wrong with you . . . why would you say something like that?’‘I am just saying.’‘You don’t just fucking say such things.’ She was furious now. ‘Moron!’I was surprised to see her so angry. ‘I’m sorry, Nat.’ ‘You bloody well should be. Here I am, worried aboutyou all the time and you go and do stupid things like getting hit by trucks and then say idiotic stuff about dying.’I was slightly amused because I hadn’t known Nat toswear so much and I wasn’t sure about this ownership she was exercising.‘It’s okay, Nat.’‘Sid, for the last time,’ she almost yelled, ‘it’s not okay! And you need to be a lot more sensitive. It’s one thing to be funny—’I cut her off. ‘Nat, I’m sorry!’Someone walked in with the sandwich and a Coke. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you,’ Nat apologized assoon as the pantry boy left.I ate in silence, watching as Nat walked around the room, took the medicines out of my bag, checked the prescription, then took the right pills out and threw away the foil in the bin behind her desk, stopping to check email and answer the phone in between. And she went about it like it was completely natural to have someone in the room to worry about and fuss over.It seemed odd when I realized, again, that I was enjoying being taken care of.Stuffing the last bite into my mouth, I wondered what the rest of the office would think of all this. I return from a day and a half in the hospital and the first thing I do is hole myself up in Nat’s room. Standing up to take the pills from her, I asked her if I could leave. Realizing how silly my asking for her permission must have sounded, I stuck my tongue out at her.She started giggling. I chuckled.‘Bye, Mommy,’ I said and we burst out laughing. That’s when she said, ‘There are people out there.’I shook my head and walked out of her office and into CD’s without bothering to knock.‘Hi, Sidharth. Welcome back.’I plonked myself on the sofa opposite his desk.‘I spoke to the doctor again and he said a slight headache is normal. And that you need some more rest before you start overworking that brain of yours. Otherwise, he says, you are fine.’I shook my head. He didn’t care if I agreed with the doctor. I smiled.‘Okay, I have been thinking, what do you want to do about your car? I don’t think you are going to get back much from the insurance and in any case you’ll need to buy a new one.’‘I guess,’ I replied, still bummed about losing my car.‘I know both of us put in all we had to set up this place but we are doing fine now, so maybe you should get a nice car,’ he went on.‘CD, what are you getting at?’ I asked.He smiled at me knowingly and said, ‘See this, what do you think?’I got up and walked over to his desk. On it was a brochure for the latest Audi A4.‘Are you serious?’He nodded. ‘I know the guy who owns the dealership; he’s practically family. And . . .’ he paused.‘And?’‘He’s throwing in a seriously large discount.’ I didn’t know what to say.‘So?’ he asked.‘I think so,’ I replied, immensely pleased. I had been mulling over this since the accident and wasn’t sure if I should go for an SUV or a sedan but this made things easier. It was a fantastic car and the bloody thing would come with a discount.‘Okay. Done. Let me know when you want delivery and I’ll organize the paperwork. I’ll ask them to give you a shout so you can choose the colour and specs. We’ll get them to deliver the car here or at home, don’t worry,’ he assured me.Roy walked in. ‘Hey, buddy. Look who’s back! What are you having delivered?’‘Hey, Roy,’ I said, turning around. ‘We are talking about a new car. Mine is finito, pretty much,’ I explained.‘That’s a shame! What car are you considering? And how’re you feeling, man?’‘I am good, Roy, glad to be out of the hospital.’Roy made a face. ‘I hate those places. I know they make you well all right, but I really hate them. Good to see you. Am off for a lunch meeting, just swung by to say hi,’ he said and walked off.‘Okay, why don’t you go settle in your office?’ CD suggested. ‘Don’t worry about a thing, everything is under control. Sit back, relax. I’ll take care of the car.’ And as I turned to leave, he added, ‘You have to plan the New York trip.’I waved goodbye, shut his door behind me and went over to my office. I was looking forward to New York, especially after the accident. It was my favourite city in the world and I was even more excited that Nat was coming with me. I wanted to show her the Big Apple and make sure she had a great time. I got to my desk and called Cara on the intercom.‘Hey.’ ‘Hey back.’‘Nat mentioned the video.’ ‘Yes, it’s kinda ready.’ ‘You didn’t say.’‘It’s nothing. I don’t want to talk work when I am with you at home. You’ll see it today.’‘Hmm.’‘Come back to my place today?’ she asked. ‘I’d love that.’‘Super.’Later that afternoon we were in the conference room. We had zeroed in on the model GM was going to run with, positioning others as upgrades. It was a fully loaded luxury sedan with a new, award-winning engine and was finally going into mass production for the first time. Cara had put together a fantastic concept for the launch. It was an animated video of a typical family, with a dog, standing and staring at the car and individually imagining what they would do with it.Both grandparents were picturing a long drive along the coast with each other, which was, in a way, a testament tothe many decades they had spent together. The father was thinking about what it would mean to him as a symbol of affluence and the mother saw how it would be able to carry the whole family together, including her adult children. The son – and this is where all of us disagreed but decided to revisit it later – was eyeing the rear seats where he could make out with his girlfriend. The eighteen-year-old daughter imagined the car as her ticket to freedom, allowing her to go anywhere she wanted, and the animation was mocked up on a highway somewhere in Spain. I particularly loved the fact that the animation ended with a close-up of the dog, smiling. It was fantastic, and to think Cara had had barely two weeks to come up with something.When the six-minute animation ended and even after Roy had turned on all the lights, the room was quiet. Cara had even incorporated subtle breaks through fade-outs, which meant one could play one and half minute ads for each member of the family. I was sure everyone in the room would realize that Cara, despite her status as an ‘intern’, was as good if not better that some of us. I definitely did. The animation video was also a smart trick – almost all agencies routinely used very good-looking models or actors to shoot videos, but in this case we wouldn’t have to fly a whole crew around the world to make the ad.With a six-minute video Cara had scripted Alpha’s transition from a photo agency to an ideas company.CD was the first to break the silence. ‘This calls for a drink!’ It was unusual coming from him—suggesting a drinkat three in the afternoon meant he was really pleased.Nat clapped and was visibly proud; after all she was the one who had batted for Cara to take on this project. Cara was thrilled that we loved it, but I could see that she had known we’d love it.‘This is brilliant, Cara. Did you drop the idea of doing a Who’s Alpha?’ I asked.‘I thought she should,’ Nat answered. ‘Let’s show them our work.’‘If this doesn’t make the cut I don’t know what else will,’ said CD. ‘Even if we don’t get the nod from JWT or GM, I must admit this is great work. I am sorry I was cynical to begin with.’‘We really are set for New York now, Sid,’ Nat said, grinning. ‘Take a bow, Cara.’Roy gave her a thumbs-up.Cara stood up and sweetly took a bow, smiling her bewitching smile.That’s my girl, I thought to myself, unable to take my eyes off her.