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“What friends?” I had asked absently, wondering whom the guy who played Pablo Escobar reminded me of.
“Oh ho! You know… the people you meet every Thursday. Aryan, Arshia and the rest,” she had explained.
My head snapped around fast enough to give me whiplash, and I stared at my mother as if she had lost her mind. In whatuniversewere Aryan and Arshia my friends?
Arshia was a conniving cow who could fool the whole world with her helpless, damsel in distress act, but she could never fool me. As for Aryan, he was an overbearing, obnoxious jerk. Who made my heart pound whenever he got within six feet of me.
“They are not my friends. They are my colleagues, Ma.”
She waved that off as if it was an inconsequential detail.
“You need more friends, beta. And who better than this group of people who finally helped you find your purpose in life.”
This time, I was sure my mother had lost her mind. Maybe it was early-onset dementia or something. Why else would she be talking such tripe? Purpose in life, my ass.
“I’ve always known my purpose in life, Ma! And I’ve been involved with the Devgarh Foundation since I was sixteen, volunteering for vaccination drives, and hospital cleanups. Don’t you remember the time I directed that street play advocating the use of condoms in all the lanes of the red light area? Whose idea do you think that was?” I snapped.
“I thought that was Nivy’s idea,” she said with a frown.
I rolled my eyes at that.
“Nivy might have starred in the play, but it was my brainchild. Did you really believe I was whiling my life away all these years, Ma?”
She shrugged.
“There’s a difference between a hobby and a purpose, Jessie. And it was only when you found your purpose that you fought for your seat on the board of the Foundation. Until then, it was still a hobby. And look at you now. You’re the chairperson of the board! The point is…,” she said over my squawk of outrage. “The point is that you did find your purpose.”
“And that sorry lot had nothing to do with it,” I snapped, curling into the sofa with a scowl.
They didn’t. Except… Aryan. It wasn’t that he had guided me towards my purpose in life. No one can do that to you. You have to find your own way in life. It was just that seeing him devote his life to helping people made me more aware of my privilege, and the fact that I could use that privilege to make the world a better place.
“You can say what you like, Jessie. I still think you should have your friends… yourteam,” she corrected hastily at my glare. “You should have them over for dinner as a thank you for the wonderful job that they do.”
I sighed at the unfairness of it all.
Ma was right. They were doing a wonderful job, and it would be a nice gesture. But I didn’t want to socialise with Aryan and his new girlfriend.
They had been dating for a couple of months now, and seeing their growing closeness during our weekly meetings made me want to throw up. The shared smiles, Arshia’s hand resting on his arm, the stolen glances. Blech! It made me want to throw up in Arshia’s linen-clad lap.
And now I was supposed to put up with it in my own home!
I finally realised whom Don Pablo reminded me of - my high school principal. A horrible, horrible bully of a man. I should have known that even seeing his doppelganger on TV had the power to ruin my day.
The day of the proposed dinner party finally arrived, and I wondered if I could run away to Mumbai like my best friend, Nivy. But I couldn’t let the side down. And I didn’t want to give Arshia the satisfaction of knowing that she had routed me from my own home.
Ma had planned an intimate dinner with the team, but I convinced her to expand her guest list considerably, and move the event from the dining room to the ballroom. With thirty other people around us, I could stay away from the golden couple of Devgarh General Hospital. Or so I thought.
Arshia kept seeking me out as if I was her new best friend, and Aryan kept staring at us nervously as if he was worried about what I might do to his precious, until he was called out for an emergency just before dinner was served.
I was on my best behaviour, and even when she called me ‘sweetie’ and ‘darling’, I just smiled through gritted teeth and refrained from stabbing her with my fork.
I finally made my escape when she got cornered by one of the richest patrons of the Foundation and found an empty table close to a French window that led onto the courtyard. I was supposed to be on a low-cal diet, but Arshia’s jabs about how I looked sonicewith a few extra pounds on me drove me to the buffet, where I piled my plate high with chicken chilly and noodles.
I had a pounding headache and when I settled down to eat, I found that I couldn’t eat anything. I was staring at my plate glumly, when Zombie sidled up to me, looking at my plate hopefully. He was on a diet, too, but I couldn’t bear to deny him when he gave me those starving puppy eyes.
I tossed him a piece of chicken and wondered if I should just tip the plate over the side of the table. Just then, Arshia came over and plonked her ass down on the chair next to mine.
“Finally,” she groaned, taking off her spike heels and rubbing her feet.
