I swallowed. The thing about my mother’s anxiety was that it wasn’t just irrational panic—it also made her hyper-aware of the smallest shifts in my tone, my breathing, the pauses between my words. ‘I’m fine, Ma,’ I lied smoothly. ‘Just a long day at work.’
‘Hmph.’ She wasn’t satisfied with my answer, but she also knew better than to push when I wasn’t ready to talk. And so, she moved on to her favourite topic. ‘When are you coming home, Kavu? Did you speak to your boss about taking a leave?’
‘Not yet, mom. But soon,’ I said, brushing her off.
‘Bhaiya’s returning from his MBA soon and you haven’t even planned anything yet? You know how much he’s been asking about you.’
I shifted uncomfortably, the knot in my stomach tightening at the mention of my older brother. It’s not that I didn’t want to go back to Mussoorie. I really,reallydid. And I had enough leaves saved up to take a week-long break, maybe even ten days. But the thought of spending time with him ... Well, it wasn’t exactly a warm, fuzzy feeling.
My brother and I had been close growing up. He’d always been the overprotective one, the guy who’d drop everything to make sure I was okay. But things started to shift when I began dating his childhood best friend, Arjun. And they completely changed when I ended up breaking up with Arjun.
Now that he was visiting home after completing his MBA in Ahmedabad (and had no looming semester exams to keep him from meddling), I knew he’d try to talk Arjun and me into getting back together. What’s worse, I knew it wouldn’t take much to persuade Arjun. So, yeah, I was putting off going home until my brother had left for his new job in Delhi.
But I couldn’t tell my mom that. So, I assured her I’d talk to Varun in a day or two and try to figure out the leave situation. After a few more rounds of questions about my health, and whether or not I was eating and sleeping on time, she finally hung up. The conversation left me unsettled, and thoughts of Arjun continued to linger in my mind. But my ex could wait. Because a much bigger disaster was waiting for me inside the office.
The walk back to my desk felt unnaturally long. It was almost as if my legs knew how much trouble I was potentially in and wanted to delay what seemed inevitable for as long as possible. But Neil wasn’t at his seat.
I sighed with relief and settled in my chair. A quick scan revealed that he was sitting inside Varun’s office. An overwhelming wave of panic washed over me.Had he figured out my lie about NYU? What if he was ratting me out to my boss right now?
Craning my neck to get a better view, I tried to decode their body language. Varun looked calm and collected, as always. His elbows were on the table, and he was engrossed in whatever my intern was saying. Neil’s back was to me, so I couldn’t read the expression on his face. His broad shoulders stretched the fabric of his shirt as he leaned slightly forward, but his posture wasn’t threatening. After a few more minutes of blatantly staring at him for cues, I let myself get back to my computer screen.
In all likelihood, they were probably just having a chat about Neil’s first day. I’d seen firsthand how much importance Rajat had given him. Perhaps he’d instructed Varun to suck up to Neil as well?
I forced myself to stop overthinking.Breathe in. Breathe out. It’s going to be okay. Everything will be okay.
I tried to focus on the banner I was supposed to be designing today, but my eyes kept darting back to Varun’s office, to Neil’s muscled back. My fingers hovered over the mouse and the cursor blinked back at me, patiently waiting for me to snap out of my thoughts. I opened Pinterest for inspiration, but my mind was spinning too fast to focus on the images in front of me.
A ping went off and a chat box appeared on my screen.
Tanya: Your intern is the new office heartthrob!I just heard Saloni gushing about how cute he is.
Two seconds later, another message popped up.
Tanya: And she’s married!!!
It was just like Tanya—always so light, so carefree, so ... oblivious. I wanted to respond, maybe point out that his looks were probably just God’s way of distracting us from his complete lack of skills, but I couldn’t bring myself to type. Not when I was in the middle of a full-blown crisis.
I had never told Tanya the truth about NYU. At first, I simply thought it was ill-advised to share a secret like that with a coworker, even though we were fast becoming close friends. And later, it just felt easier to go along with it. There was no real reason for me to make that kind of a personal revelation or burden her with my confession. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her; it was just ... easier this way. At least, that’s what I had told myself.
I looked at my watch. It was 4 p.m. One hour before the end of my shift. My eyes flicked towards Varun’s office. Surely, Neil would be back soon enough. The thought of facing him again and answering his questions made me feel nauseous. And what if Kenzo had responded to him already? No, I couldn’t do it. I needed more time to come up with a plan.
But if I left right now, today would be counted as a half day. That was our office’s stupid rule. Every employee had to spend a minimum of seven and a half hours in the office for their full-day attendance to count. It didn’t matter if we left one minute before the cutoff.
A half-day deduction on my salary wasn’t as much a financial blow as it was a personal insult. My salary, honestly, didn’t even merit that term. It was more like pocket money. I was pretty sure the chai-stall owner under my building made more than I did. So, the thought of giving the corporate gods the satisfaction ofdocking my already ridiculous pay cheque on a technicality felt like a bigger loss than it actually was.
I glanced back at Varun’s office. Their conversation seemed to be winding down. Neil was pushing his chair back, ready to get up.
I shook my head and reached for my bag.
Screw it. Half day it is.
four
Tick Tick Boom
Thealarm blared at 6.30 a.m., but I was already awake. I had been for hours. Sleep was out of the question. I had spent the first part of the night wrestling with my blanket, oscillating between wild optimism (maybe Kenzo had suffered a convenient bout of amnesia, wiping out every memory of NYU) and unhinged panic (What if I got publicly exposed as a fraud in a viral LinkedIn post and was blacklisted from every company, forced to sell detox teas in a pyramid scheme?) before giving up trying to sleep.
At 2 a.m., I was frantically Googling everything I could about NYU (Key findings: Their mascot is a forty-one-year-old bobcat; they have an actual world-champion Quidditch team; and their alumni list includes the likes of Anne Hathaway, Lady Gaga, Timothée Chalamet, Adam Sandler … and now, apparently, me). An hour later, I was strategizing with ChatGPT, trying to craft the perfect set of lies to get me out of this mess. By 4 a.m., I was mindlessly applying to every job on LinkedIn. And by 5 a.m., I’d surrendered to my fate completely and started watchingMunna Bhai MBBS. If Sanjay Dutt could lie his way into posing as a doctor, there had to be hope for me, right?
