To be fair, this was a punishing commute for anyone, let alone someone who was used to cruising around town in a Mercedes and had probably never set foot in the suburbs. The fact that he had made it this far was actually kind of impressive. Wait … was I softening up on him?Thousands of people do this commute every day, Kavya,I reminded myself.Neil Desai doesn’t get a medal for surviving itonce.
‘Just the one.’ I ushered him into the vehicle. ‘Kalakar studio,’ I instructed the driver.
Neil slumped back in the seat, exhaling. ‘I don’t know what I could’ve possibly done to deserve this.’
I smirked. ‘You mean besides blackmailing your boss and ruining the lives of hundreds of people with unnecessary scandals?’
‘Okay, the first one … fair. Wasn’t my finest moment.’ I blinked at him, suspicious of the sincerity in his tone.Is heactually taking accountability?Before I could figure out what to do with his admission, he went on. ‘But the purpose of @devilwearscolaba has never been to ruin anyone’s life.’
‘Whatisits purpose, then?’ Warm air whipped in through the open sides of the auto, offering a faint, sticky kind of respite from the Mumbai heat.
‘To educate and entertain,’ he said, turning in his seat to look at me. ‘And, maybe, occasionally, to humble a few people who need to be taken down a notch.’
‘Like Aditya Jindal?’
He nodded.
‘But isn’t he your friend? You were at his party, after all …’
‘That creep?’ He scoffed. ‘It’s just for appearances.’
I looked away from him, tucking a tuft of flying hair behind my ear. I don’t know what I’d imagined went inside Neil’s head, but this was nowhere near close. A knot twisted somewhere in my gut.
‘What about my flatmate? Did you ever think about how devastating your little post could’ve been for her?’
‘So was she?’ He wanted to know. ‘Devastated?’
I slowly met his gaze again. ‘Well, not exactly …’
He gave me a knowing look. ‘That’s what I’d thought after I did my research.’
I raised an eyebrow, ready to shoot him with another question, but the auto lurched to a halt.
‘I’m not evil, you know,’ he said as we walked through the studio gates. ‘Just a little devilish.’ Then, he winked at me.
And, for some reason unknown to mankind, that made my stomach flip.
eleven
Peace Offering
Officeparanoia was at its peak on the morning of Rajat’s team meeting.What if he announces layoffs? Has the company been acquired? Maybe someone’s getting promoted … Or fired? It could be about performance reviews. I think we’re getting a new boss. No, he’s probably bringing in consultants again.
It was safe to say that no work was going to get done until the mystery of the calendar invite had been solved. Saloni was fluttering from desk to desk, trying to gather intel. The sales and performance marketing guys were taking criminally long smoke breaks in the balcony. Nitya and Jiya had already tried going into Varun’s office two times to check if he was in on it, but he’d sworn he knew nothing. Tanya and I were glued to our chat boxes, sending each other memes about corporate doomsday. The only person who didn’t seem to care was Neil.
He sat next to me with his AirPods plugged in, blissfully unaware of the collective spiral happening around him. If yesterday’s ‘outing’ had humbled him, it didn’t show—he looked as self-assured as ever. You’d think the flower market, the train ride and seven hours of Tanya screaming at him to ‘smile with his eyes’ might’ve done a number on him, but apparently nothing could faze Neil Desai, which made it harder to writehim off as the poster boy of lazy privilege. It was actually quite infuriating.
‘Must be nice,’ I muttered under my breath.
‘Sorry?’ Neil plucked an earpiece out. ‘Did you say something?’
‘I said it must be nice to go through life this unbothered.’
‘Um …shouldI be bothered about something?’
He was Ranveer Singh fromDil Dhadakne Doand I had given him a taste of theGully Boylife. Would it kill him to be butt-hurt about it for more than five seconds?
Gayatri, Rajat’s assistant, appeared by our bay before I could list out all the things he absolutely should’ve been bothered about, ready to herd us to the conference room.
