"Heyyyy…..last nite was amazing! Thinking bout u! <3"
Ru read the text in his mind, deleted the heart emoji, and read it again. For the last half hour, he was lying on his springy bed and contemplating the perfect text to send Aarav. His back, specifically his asshole, was hurting like seven hells, but he had never felt so light and cottony. Aarav was so insanely handsome, Ru wanted to scream from the balcony of his tenth floor apartment. He was glad he and Aarav got together right in time for his sister's wedding, which was in three months. Now, he could bring his bollywood hero type boyfriend to his sister's wedding and show him off to all his cousins, who said he could never find a man.
Ru looked at the screen of his smartphone once more.
"Hey. Last nite was great. We should do this again."
He was not sure if it was the best sounding text to send but hit send anyway. The alarm clock rang at that moment, and Ru jumped from the bed and began his two-hour morning routine, brushing his teeth and a coffee with two vegan oatmeal cookies he had baked that weekend. Morning yoga and pranayama. And then a long relaxing shower, followed by putting on his favorite La Mer moisturizer, hair gel, Tom Ford Cologne, his light make-up, gloss and woala!
For that day, Ru chose a simple white-t with a floral patterned, navy blue jacket and brown khaki pants. He did not like navy blue or brown, but the ensemble had earned him quite a few compliments. He wore his Gucci Ace sneakers instead of his usual boots, and he was ready to begin his day! Ru glanced at the phone, and still no response to his text. But no matter. He would see Aarav in the office anyway, and he had this whole list of things memorized that he wanted to chat to him about.
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Aarav's door was closed when Ru arrived at the office. He set down all his stuff and looked at the clock. 9:30 AM, right on time. He turned on his computer and checked the office staff's emails bitching about other office staff. He replied as professionally as he could. Checked his calendar and found it completely empty for the rest of the day, so he decided to do some online shopping. He checked his clock again, 9:45 AM, still not a peep from the phone.
Ru opened whatsapp, and his heart skipped a beat. His message was still unseen and unread. He looked at the door and contemplated knocking but then remembered how his ex before his immediate ex had broken up with him for being too clingy. So, he waited, surfed the net, and bought a sweatshirt and a MAC coral lip color in the meantime. An hour later, a girl came in, flashed a smile at Ru, and walked right into Aarav's office.
Ru only knew her as one of the junior architects who worked in the cubicles at the far end of the office. Only the senior management and team leaders like Aarav had their own offices, and Aarav's was sort of secluded from the rest. Ru was the only one with a desk in that office corner.
Soon he heard some loud exchange and sharp disagreement coming from behind the closed door. The noises were so loud it was impossible not to eavesdrop. The girl barged out, all of a sudden, and slammed the door behind her before rolling her eyes. Ru only had an awkward smile to offer. She smiled back.
"I am Sonia," she reached out with a hand that Ru accepted. "Oh wow, you have really soft hands."
Ru giggled. "Thanks to La Mer," he said and the girl jumped.
"Oh my gosh, that's my favorite moisturizer too!" She then studied Ru more closely, "I have not seen you before."
"I started last week."
"Ah, we must go out for lunch," the girl generously offered, and Ru was more than happy to accept the invitation.
"But I am vegan, and there aren't a lot of good vegan places in the city."
"Don't worry," Sonia said. "I know just the place. I will invite Gul too. She loves that place. She is the HR manager."
The place that Sonia was talking about was not too far. It was a bracing fifteen minutes walk from their office building, and to Ru's pleasant surprise, it was a huge Haldiram's restaurant. Haldiram's restaurants were famous all over India and abroad for making the best vegetarian dishes and one of Ru's favorite, Chhole Bhature. As a Punjabi guy, his heart craved for quality Chhole Bhature, and he hadn't had one in a long time. But all that was about to change today.
"Aww My God!" Ru could barely control his squeal soon as they sat at their table. "I loooove this place. We had only one in Delhi, and it had the best Chhole Bhature."
"You moved from Delhi?" Gul asked. She was one of the junior architects, and as Sonia put it, her work wife. They indeed seemed like quite a work couple, like chopsticks and bowl. While Sonia was tall with a long face and barely any fat or muscles on her, Gul was the opposite, short and plump with a round face and full cheeks. They only shared their neck-length haircut and taste in food.
It was a busy lunch hour at the restaurant. With all the families coming in with their dads and moms and children, the three of them stood out in the homely environment of the restaurant, the two girls with their corporate jackets and skirts look and Ru with his hot gay look.
Ru nodded at Gul's question. "Yeah, I moved here a couple of years ago to pursue my singing career. Just started this job to pay my rent while I search for a good singing teacher here."
"Oh wow, that is…." Gul paused, contemplating the right words, "brave."
Ru scoffed. The server came with three plates of Chhole Bhature. Ru's stomach did a somersault at the tempting smell of ghee and warm spices.
"How did you find out about our office?" Sonia asked curiously, around a morsel of the bhature dipped in the chhole sauce.
"Umm, Aarav Sharma is in my friend circle. He mentioned," Ru said passingly. The thought of Mr. Grumpy made him want to check his phone, but he did not want to kill his appetite with disappointment.
"He is your friend?" Sonia was surprised to hear. "Well, then you can't be our friend," she sniggered, and Gul slapped her arm.
"He is not too bad," Gul said hurriedly, giving Sonia a side-eye.
"Not too bad, just the devil." Sonia quickly countered. Ru must agree. What kind of man fucks you and then never says hi the next morning! He felt anger boiling up in his chest, or may be it was the spicy Chhole gravy.
"I, for one, just hate the guy," Sonia continued trash-talking Aarav, and turned to Gul. "Did you know he called me into his office this morning and then shouted at me for an hour for following his own instructions. Now I have to do the entire floor plan from scratch!" She raged.
Ru swallowed a mouthful of iced water. "Why do you have to follow his instructions? Aren't you all architects?"
Gul nodded. "Yeah, but he is the lead. We have three leads, and he is one of them, although he graduated the same year as us."
Sonia bobbed her egg-shaped head. "Uh huh. But the senior management made him the lead only because he graduated from a US university. We have architecture degrees too, and even though it is from here, we read the same books. And if our parents were rich like his, we could have gone to US universities too." She tirade left her fuming.
"Oh yea, sure. I agree." Ru thought he should never bring up how wealthy his own family was to these girls.
Then, Gul giggled as if at a private joke. Ru raised his brows in a wordless question.
"Well, last year, we had this stupid game where we all voted for who we think best suits the title. Aarav was voted for Mr. Grumpy!"
"No wayyyy," Ru exclaimed, "that is exactly what comes to mind when I see him." He was quite surprised others felt the same.
"Trust me. None of the juniors want to work with him. Grumpy, arrogant, sanctimonious."
"All right, all right," Gul stopped Sonia before she cussed in public, "that is enough thesaurus for a day."
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Ru had given up on getting his whatsapp message seen. He called Aarav all sorts of names in his mind, spat on his mental image a thousand times, and decided he would never ever ever see that guy's face again. And just as he was about to pack up for the day, his phone pinged. It was the whatsapp message tone. He opened the notification.
[I will drop you off] – Aarav.