chapter 6

6 When I woke up the next morning the bed was empty. I pulled on my clothes, grimacing at their crumpled, damp state, and walked to the kitchen. With light pouring in through the glass wall and bouncing off the marble floors, the apartment looked beautiful despite the harsh lines of the glass and dark wood décor. In the living room, I couldn’t take my eyes off the large sketch of a nude woman done in charcoal. I wanted to walk around and open every door to make sure this was all real when my eye caught a Post-it on the fridge door.Off to work! XXX was scribbled across in a crisp handwriting. I checked my phone; it was ten to ten. Pulling the door shut behind me I rushed out of the apartment. When I reached the lobby, the guard who had let us into the building last night was standing there, a knowing smile on his face.As I ran to my car, somewhere at the back of my head I wondered if he had seen her do this often.After a quick stop at home for a shower and a changeof clothes, I got to work. I called Aanya as I walked up the stairs. I wanted to check if she knew I had gone home with Cara.‘Hi! Where are you?’ she asked‘Where are you?’ I retorted, slightly impatient.‘In the office, in a meeting,’ she began to whisper. ‘Can you get me a coffee, please?’ I asked lamely. ‘Uff, Sid. Okay.’I knew if Aanya knew, her first question would’ve been a mischievous, ‘So how was last night?’‘Super,’ I replied. As I hung up, I heard her on the other side saying, ‘Sid is here, sounds hung-over.’‘SLEEPY,’ I said loudly, knowing full well she wouldn’t hear me.I walked into my office and deposited my bag on the sofa before going over to the desk, on which stood a large crocodile skull someone had gifted me a while ago, holding things in its cavernous mouth. As I dropped my car keys in, I noticed another set of keys and picked them up. They were attached to a small patch of jeans, cut out from the midriff, with the key ring looped through the buttonhole. I smiled.Cara, I thought to myself.I went around the table and sat down. The insurance shoot review was scheduled for this morning. I picked up the phone to call Cara and ask if the keys were hers, and what this meant, and then wondered if it would become a morning-after phone call, and if indeed the night required a morning-after call. Then realizing I was thinking aboutit too much, I put the phone back. About twenty minutes later Aanya entered with a mug of coffee.‘You have a meeting this morning,’ she began. ‘I’ve blocked the boardroom.’‘That was quick,’ I complained as I took the mug from her, though I knew I had no right to say that.‘I was in a meeting, Sid. C’mon!’ ‘Someone’s not in a good mood.’‘I am, no problem there,’ she replied.Then it struck me. ‘Hang on! Weren’t you taking Matt out shopping and then bringing him over to the office today?’ ‘JWT called to say they’ll drop him here at three,’ shesaid, sounding annoyed. ‘Strange guy,’ I responded.‘Not at all, considering he went back to his hotel with one of those Ukrainian models,’ she scoffed.‘Aah, that’s why you are angry! It’s okay . . . Actually, I’m relieved,’ I added.‘Why, didn’t you want him to like us?’‘Of course I did, but our work. Not because we had you babysit him before the meeting. And clearly he’s creepy.’‘Sid, not everything is that black and white.’‘It is, you know, ask my camera,’ I replied, winking. ‘Whatever,’ she said and, squinting her eyes, added, ‘Sid,that is some rash on your neck.’I touched my neck, knowing exactly what it was. The memory brought an involuntary smile to my lips. ‘Is there?’ ‘Sorry!’ Aanya said, giving me a knowing smile, andwalked to the door. She stopped and turned around. ‘And thank you.’I shook my head, thinking about how the people in Alpha almost always tended to tread that thin line between friendly and familiar. But Aanya was different. She knew she could take liberties with me. We had been friends for a long time, even had a brief moment one evening in Goa. We had just begun Alpha and I was still getting my head around putting a team together and was spending quite some time with the group, mentoring. Fortunately, she had seen that ‘moment’ for what it was: the result of a playful evening, and not something to be pursued further. And that was not because we were embarrassed. Over the years we had become very fond of each other. (I had become quite protective actually!)At one Roy called to remind me the meeting was about to begin. I picked up a set of the shortlisted images from the shoot and went over to the boardroom. Nat, Roy and CD were already there, having an animated conversation.‘Guys, we might be very good photographers, but I don’t think we’ll make the cut on videos,’ CD was almost yelling.‘C’mon, CD!’ Nat objected.‘Natasha—’ he never called her Nat, wasn’t one to use nicknames—‘we may want to be brave about this, but we are talking about GM here! You think they don’t know about putting a good video together? And why us? We’ve won awards for our stills but our videos—? We’re always told the ideas are great but they lack the edge. I really think we should be careful about what we pitch in a potential million-dollar account. Besides, these shoots will be costly exercises.’ ‘I hate to admit this but he may have a point, Nat,’ Royadded.Her head in her hands, Nat turned to me in despair. ‘Sid? Help me here.’I pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘Guys, Nat is right but so are you, CD. You are. We aren’t really kicking ass on the videos, haven’t ever. But Nat wants to, and I think that is important, so we should get the right crew together and give it a shot.’‘What’s the point, Sid? I don’t want us to try and be number two in the game, then come out short and lose the print window too!’‘CD, no one can screw us in photography, we are the best! He is the best,’ Nat said, pointing at me. ‘We will get the print window,’ she pleaded. ‘I know JWT; we always get our cards right and they know it too.’‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Nat,’ CD disagreed. ‘EXCUSE ME!’ Nat yelled, beginning to get angry. I had to stop this from getting ugly.‘CD, what’s bothering you?’ I asked, interrupting them. ‘It’s not the videos.’Everyone went quiet.‘Nothing.’ He paused and then said, ‘Okay, I didn’t like this whole party thing last night. A, it wasn’t the normal JWT way . . . they were hitting a new low with the girls and everything, and B, Rubicon was also there.’‘But JWT have worked with Rubicon before, so what’snew? I saw those guys too,’ Nat objected.‘Natasha, I don’t like to be in a race for something, especially not with so many players,’ CD continued. ‘I saw Jay Arora and Matt at the bar quite late. He was laying it on.’That’s when I figured out what CD was getting at. ‘CD, I know I came in late and left early coz I hadto drop Cara home. Nat had left too. Roy was having a good time – you can’t blame him, it’s his work they were celebrating. If you expect us to strap up and play hungry ghosts all the time, chasing the next buck, then I’m sorry but that’s not how I think of Alpha. At the heart of it all, we have to have fun. A little less money . . . yes, but fun. And I am never going to be desperate enough to hunt down clients. You know that.’Arms crossed, CD stared back at me superciliously but kept quiet. Roy raised an eyebrow. He knew as well as I did that it was CD’s hard-earned savings that had helped us kick-start Alpha. And I had said ‘I’. All of a sudden CD pushed back his chair and stood up. It worried me just a bit, before he said, ‘Coffee, anyone? I definitely need one, and we have to look at those insurance shots before the great Matt comes in.’ It was his way of indicating that this conversation was over for the moment but it would be continued another time. Everyone got the message.Nat leaned over and put her hand on my arm. ‘It’s fine, CD, I’ll think about this carefully. We’ll make sure we have the print in, and make it clear that we’d like to pitch for the videos too.’CD’s eyes lingered on Nat’s hand, then he smiled, and said, ‘Thank you. Coffee?’Nat smiled back and said, ‘No, medication, thanks.’It seemed that all was well again. But CD had given me something to think about. And I also told myself that at some point I would ask Nat what her medication was all about. She’d been saying that for more than a fortnight.As soon as CD stepped out of the boardroom, Roy let out a huge sigh. ‘What’s gotten into him?’‘He has a point. I think we should think about how we can keep all the fires burning. Nat is right too. We need to up the ante and look into doing more videos.’‘We don’t have that skill set, Sid, not in-house. Unless of course we change gears,’ Roy said reasonably.‘That is exactly what I want to do, Roy,’ Nat started. ‘If we get this contract, and I know this is a BIG if, then we’ll have enough dough to set up and hire a new crew for videos. To make that happen we only have what we are showing today, but I think we can swing Matt to our side. He knows we can think as a team.’‘That we can!’ Roy agreed. ‘If you think we can do this, Nat, then let’s do this.’‘Guys, we don’t have much time before he gets here and I do want everyone to see the insurance shoot, especially since we’ve had to can the girl. Can everyone please give this a quick run?’ I asked.CD walked back in at that point, and somebody switched on the projector and the slideshow began.‘The brief was to get something that would get parents to think about a good long-term plan for their kids, not education or health, but a fund plan, stroke insurance, like we have for retirement. So when the kid turns sixteen, he’ll start getting a monthly payout. The challenge is that everyone has one such scheme. We need a really strong print campaign as a differentiator.’‘Let’s get Cara over,’ said Nat, almost as if she had been looking for an opportunity to bring her into the meeting.‘Who’s that?’ asked CD.‘New intern. She’s from New York, smart kid, and I think, especially given our conversation prior to this one, it will be good to have someone additional to think about and begin to sell our work,’ Nat told him.I wanted to say something but kept quiet. I really wasn’t prepared to meet Cara, at least not yet. I had met her last evening for the first time, and then gone home with her, where we fucked like bunnies . . . okay, made love (too much?) . . . and now we’d be in a meeting together? That simple? Really? And since when did Nat believe an intern could sit in on a review meeting?‘Nat, don’t you think we should give her some time to learn the ropes and meet everyone around here before we throw her into meetings to look at work?’ I asked, feigning an attempt to differ.‘I know it’s your shoot but I think she’ll be fine, Sid. Besides, you are the last person I expected would say things like “learn the ropes”, or at least you used to be. Now yousound like CD. Sorry, CD, no offence,’ she said, turning to him.‘None taken,’ CD mumbled, clearly unhappy. ‘Who taught you the ropes?’ Nat glared at me.Roy started laughing. I looked at him and smiled, feeling sufficiently stumped. ‘Okay, get her in.’Cara walked in wearing an elegant yet simple black sheath dress cinched at the waist by a slim silver belt; it looked like she had walked straight off a fashion shoot. Roy immediately turned to me, wide-eyed, and mouthed FUCK! Clearly he hadn’t paid attention to how gorgeous this girl looked last night. With almost no make-up and her hair styled to look like a well-thought-out accessory, Cara looked astonishingly beautiful. Even CD, who isn’t affected by these things normally, adjusted his collar nervously.She sat down next to Nat, and said her hellos around the room. When it was my turn, she said, ‘Hello. Thank you again for dropping me home yesterday,’ and smiled.All I could muster was, ‘No problem.’Clearly there was some kind of a giveaway on my face, because Nat turned to me and gave me a quizzical look.Fortunately, before I could say anything, CD cleared his throat and said, ‘Let’s do this, guys.’The shots began to roll in twelve-second intervals, slower than usual, which in a review meeting gave everyone time to take in the pictures and play devil’s advocate, if required. On an average, particularly if there was a regular stream of work, we would maybe reject a shoot once a quarter. Not more.It was simple actually – the photographers were allowed to pursue personal artistic projects but when it came to working for Alpha, the client got what he wanted and we were to stick to the brief. It kept matters simple, costs low and avoided confusion. The crew could then work with the agency and deliver exactly what they needed. Sometimes clients came into the office and sat in on editing too.I think we were ten or eleven pictures down when Cara asked, ‘These are all boys . . . didn’t we shoot any girls?’Nat turned the knob for the lights to brighten the room.Roy said, ‘He did, but the girl had a strange pout so I knocked the photos off the shortlist.’‘Shouldn’t we see them too? I don’t think we should present just these to any client, they don’t seem balanced,’ Cara said.Roy began to say something, but Nat cut him off and turned to me, ‘Where is the rest of the shoot?’‘I am sorry,’ said Cara, suddenly embarrassed about causing a fuss. ‘I just thought . . .’‘It’s fine, Cara, that is exactly why we do reviews. We should see the other images too – you do have a point about excluding the girl,’ Nat reassured her.Roy kept staring at me. I smiled back.Nat called the crew room on the speaker phone. ‘Hey, it’s Nat. I am in the boardroom. Can one of you bring all the shots from Sid’s insurance shoot here please?’‘Sid just picked them up,’ replied Kunal, who managed the crew.‘Yes, we have those pictures. I want the full shoot.’ ‘Roy’s shortlisted them already,’ Kunal said.‘Kunal, baby,’ Nat was getting irritated, ‘can you bring Sid’s full shoot on a stick, please?’‘Yeah, sure,’ replied Kunal, getting the message.Nat disconnected the call and began doodling. Roy and CD turned to their phones, and Cara stared blankly at the table, twisting her hair around her finger. We sat there, unusually quiet, until Kunal brought over the images and set them up, and the slides began to roll again.It was my first cut, and I had set them up to appear in a certain order. Seeing them again, the girl did make sense, despite the pout on someone so young. These were black and white with spaces in the frame, part of the shoot itself, where the client’s logo, bright yellow and purple, would be placed, as I saw it.‘Is the shoot in colour too?’ asked Cara. ‘Yes, of course,’ I replied.‘I think we should present both and let them choose. These are super sexy, but I think we should go traditional, full colour, keep the girl and not show those pictures where it seems like one of the boys and the girl are a couple, not cool! Insurance is a conservative product,’ Cara said in a rush. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound that way. Shouldn’t we?’CD had a wide grin plastered on his face.‘How different would it be from what we’ve seen elsewhere?’ asked Roy. He made it sound like a genuine question rather than an argument.‘That is my point. I think there is a reason why insurance ads don’t look radical,’ Cara replied.Despite coming across as arrogant and pushy, she was right. In retrospect, this was the kind of thing I’d had in mind while shooting. Nat turned to look at me and even in the low light I could tell she wanted to make sure I was okay with the way things were going.I nodded, assuring her that I was fine.Satisfied, Nat turned the lights on full and said, ‘Great! Cara, will you edit these then? Your first assignment and you get to slash this man’s work! Even we don’t have that privilege.’ ‘If he doesn’t mind, that is?’ Cara gave me a questioninglook.‘Why would I?’ I looked at Roy, who added, ‘I am happy.’ It had been his edit after all.‘Good.’ Nat ended the conversation and the meeting.Just then Cara’s phone rang and she excused herself and left the room.‘What exactly happened here?’ Roy began the moment she disappeared.‘It’s fine, Roy, she’s a young girl and she gave her opinion.We are fine with that, aren’t we?’ ‘I don’t like her,’ Roy replied.‘C’mon, Roy, she’s a kid. Don’t worry about this. You have a CLIO to win and we’ve got to plan the GoaFest trip, it’s not that far away,’ Nat said. ‘I am not defending her because I brought her in, but if you think about it, it is why I brought her in.’My phone beeped; I’d received a text message. It was not a number in my contacts.Are you going to work late today? I think you should. C. I smiled but before I could come up with a reply.Nat asked, ‘Who’s that?’I felt like I had been caught red-handed and fumbled for words, finally saying, ‘Nothing. A joke.’She smiled. ‘Jerk. One can never find out with you.’ ‘It’s nothing, Nat,’ I said, smiling, and went back to myphone.Am I supposed to be working late? Yes. And make sure no one else is. Right.BTW did you lock the apartment before you left?I panicked because I didn’t particularly remember checking after pulling the door shut behind me.!!!!:|‘What do you think, Sid?’ someone asked.Startled, I replied, ‘Sorry, I wasn’t listening. What was that?’‘Are you fine with the girl going in and Cara making the presentation?’ asked CD. ‘I don’t see why not . . . you shot her.’‘I am fine, CD, no problem. Don’t worry about it. It’s natural I think. Normally only Roy would have said something about this, but now we have someone who’ll keep saying things, from the look of it,’ I replied, smiling.‘Good, that sorts it. Roy, you might have to work with her too.’‘Not might, he will have to at some point,’ Nat added. ‘So, Roy, be the darling you are and welcome her in. You know, I think I know what the problem is – when Roy finds someone very attractive, he goes around saying he hates them.’ She leaned over and poked him.‘Stop it,’ said Roy as we all laughed and stood up to leave. ‘Can someone find out if Matt is coming over?’ CD asked before we dispersed. ‘And do we have our stuff readyto show him?’‘Aanya was going to take care of everything Matt, so let me check with her,’ Nat replied as we walked out of the room.I was headed back to my room when Roy caught up with me. ‘Man, what’s with that new chick?’‘C’mon, Roy, I met her last evening too. I don’t know, but I think she’s good. Don’t you?’ I prayed he wouldn’t ask me about me dropping her home last evening. He didn’t.‘Yeah, whatever, but you can’t come in guns blazing to your first meeting, can you?’At that point I really didn’t know what to say; it was strange discussing her like I didn’t know her and it was definitely something I didn’t want to do with Roy.‘Interesting times ahead, Roy, let’s see how long she lasts and what happens. She’s an intern who’s a plane ticket away from filthy rich parents in New York. Either she’ll get bored or they’ll want her to come back. Let’s not worry toomuch about th—’‘She’s hot man!’ Roy blurted out before I could finish. ‘Definitely yanked my chain,’ he winked.‘Sure, Roy, sure,’ I said, grinning. And as I looked at him I thought to myself, If only he knew!