I peered at him, trying to figure out what he meant. So, what? He just wanted to take off and come back to collect his internship letter in two months? This guy reallywasused to getting free rides, huh? But even if I could disregard howIfelt about that, what was I supposed to say to my boss?
‘I’m not sure how Varun will feel about you suddenly going MIA …’
‘I’ll come to the office, obviously,’ he said. ‘I’m not some spoiled brat.’
Before I could laugh in his face, a knock on his window made me jump. A young boy held up a bunch of red roses, mouthing something we couldn’t hear. Neil shook his head, but the boy continued to knock enthusiastically. When he refused to leave, Neil sighed and rolled down his window.
‘... get them for your girlfriend, please bhaiya,’ the boy was saying.
‘She’s not …’ Neil trailed off as the boy chucked the flowers inside and they fell squarely in his lap. ‘Brilliant,’ he muttered, fishing out a five hundred rupee note from his wallet and handing it to the kid, who ran off grinning like he’d just won the lottery. Instead of presenting them to his ‘girlfriend’, he tossed the flowers on the back seat without a word.
I pressed my lips together.Chivalry really was dead.
‘You’re telling me you’ll come to the office everyday ...’ I said, steering the conversation back again. ‘Andpretendto work?’
‘You do catch on fast, don’t you?’
I shot him a glare. ‘But why?’
He only shrugged.
‘And what the hell will you do all day?’
‘Whatever I feel like. That’s not your concern,’ he said, brushing me off.
I frowned, genuinely confused. Why would anyone want to waste months of their life sitting at an office doing absolutely nothing? ‘You do know you can just quit if you don’t want to be here, right?’
He just shook his head and said, ‘Nope, can’t.’
I stared at him for clues, but his face didn’t give anything away. Nothing about this made sense. If he didn’t want this internship, why use his pull to get it in the first place? And if all he was after was a neat little line on his resume, I’m sure his Rajat ‘uncle’ would’ve obliged him … why go through all this trouble?
Sighing loudly, I said, ‘There’s a mountain of banners sitting on our desks. Who’s going to design them?’
‘Hmm, let me see …’ he said with a finger on his chin to mock me. ‘You.’
My response died in my throat when he slammed his foot on the accelerator. My head hit the back of the seat as the car shot forward, tearing past the traffic signal at a speed unfit for Mumbai roads.
The city blurred past me as I scrambled to gather my thoughts. What did this mean for me? Varun had tossed me this so-called intern as a consolation prize, a placeholder to keep me afloat until they made some real, qualified hires. But if Neil spent two months warming a chair while I killed myself over the same endless to-do lists, what would that prove? There would be no spike in my productivity and would show that I couldn’t handle even the smallest team. My boss wouldn’t see a girl pulling double shifts to cover for a useless intern. He’d see someone who was failing the leadership test. And I couldn’t let that happen.
‘Neil, you were assigned to me to help me get through this ridiculous workload,’ I began, trying to reason with him. ‘If I stillcan’t get things done, no one’s going to think you’re useless … they’re going to thinkIam.’
He cocked his head to one side in agreement. A small smile played on his lips as he said, ‘True. Not my problem, though.’
As we merged onto the New Prabhadevi road towards Worli, the tall towers of Lower Parel started giving way to old school buildings and bungalows. Much like the shifting skyline in my rearview mirror, my thoughts raced by until the uncomfortable realization settled like a rock in my stomach. He was using me. And there was very little I could do about it.
‘Will you at least tell me what you’re getting out of this?’ I finally asked. ‘I mean, aren’t you a little old to be wasting your time on an internship you don’t even care about?’
He didn’t respond for a few moments. When he did, he was clenching his jaw. ‘I don’t need to care about the internship. I just need to finish it.’
But why? What could possibly make this farce of an internship matter so much?I wanted to push, but his expression made it clear he was in no mood to open up to me.
‘That’s not really an answer,’ I muttered, more to myself than to him.
‘Well, it’s the only one you’re getting,’ he said, just as a kaali-peeli swerved dangerously close to my side of the car. He swore under his breath and cut the wheel to the right, letting the taxi screech past. For half a second, he flicked his eyes towards me, the faintest trace of concern there. It vanished immediately when I nodded at him.
‘One last question,’ I said, looking down at my strappy sandals.
He clicked his tongue in mock exasperation.
