by Nikita Singh
Maahi nodded, sniffing quietly. ‘It’s all … in the past.’ Exhaling loudly, she rubbed her face. ‘Anyway, you’re right about this guy. I don’t want to settle and it’s unfair to him too. He shouldn’t have to settle for someone who’s settling for him. He deserves better too.’
That brought a smile to Laila’s face. This was why she loved Maahi so much. Even in a situation like this, where she wasn’t responsible for a stranger’s happiness or owed him anything, she still thought about his feelings. ‘Exactly!’
‘But I’m not giving up. I won’t settle for good enough. And I won’t give up on great either.’
‘You’ll keep dating?’
Maahi nodded. ‘I want to keep trying. I can’t be that bitter, once heartbroken, twice terrified person—I’m too young for that. I have to keep trying. I can’t give up hope.’
‘Aw, relax, you drama queen!’ Laila said, wrapping an arm around Maahi and squeezing her. They laughed, but Laila sobered up and said in a whisper, ‘You’ll be fine.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because I still see the twinkle thing in your eyes,’ Laila said. And sure enough, it was right there. Maahi hadn’t lost it; her eyes still shone with a twinkle of hope.
After a moment of quietly standing side by side at the counter, under the soft light from the lamp, holding each other, Maahi stretched her arm and asked, ‘You want to taste my third attempt at Creative cupcake today?’
‘Most definitely!’ Laila said, forcefully cheerful. ‘How sucky is that one?’
‘Not even a little bit.’
‘Also, you still haven’t told me why you were in a bad mood in the morning. If not the dude, what was it?’
‘Ugh, it’s my parents. They’re driving me crazy. I really can’t date if I have to also be here at Cookies + Cupcakes every day—you know, living my dreams—and then go back home to Vaishali. The commute is long enough as it is without trying to squeeze in a date after work,’ Maahi said. She extracted cupcakes from the display and placed them carefully on a plate. ‘Are there forks at the table?’
‘Yeah,’ Laila said. ‘Are Uncle and Aunty worried about you getting home late?’
‘Understatement of the year. I wish I was like other kids who either move away for college—which, by the way, I did before I was dumb enough to come back—or move away for work. But again, I decided to work here too! I have no escape.’
‘Technically, your home’s in UP and your work’s in New Delhi.’
‘Not far enough to move out!’ Maahi cried, flopping down on a chair and pulling out a fork from the stand in the centre of the table. ‘Three hours of commute to and from work every day is a lot though. I wish I lived closer to work.’
Laila sat down next to Maahi and pulled a fork as well. She dug into the curiously blue cupcake, which turned out to be much better than the coconut one from the morning. ‘That one’s easy to solve. Move in with me,’ she said, digging her fork back in the cupcake just as Maahi yelped in excitement, ‘Oh my God, really?’
4
THE HOVERER
Over the weekend, Maahi brought her stuff over to Laila’s place in instalments, which Laila stored in a corner of the living room. On Sunday morning, Maahi arrived with the last few boxes and her parents. Laila was happy to see them. Irrespective of the conflicts Maahi intermittently had with her parents, Laila had always liked them. They were warm, caring people who had been especially sweet to Laila right from the beginning. They might not understand Maahi’s perspective on things sometimes or support her plans, but they always wanted the best for her. Laila thought of them as two of the very few people who didn’t have a single mean bone in their bodies and were genuinely good. Now that she thought of it, she realized that that’s where Maahi got her kindness and compassion from.
‘Namaste Aunty,’ Laila said, pulling the door open. She moved back to allow them to enter with their boxes and closed the door behind them. ‘Namaste Uncle.’
‘Namaste beta,’ Maahi’s parents said at the same time.
‘Kaisi ho?’ Maahi’s mother asked.
‘I’m great! No longer alone now that Maahi’s moving in,’ Laila said, winking at Maahi, who followed her parents inside, dragging an oversized suitcase behind her. They had decided that the best way to convince Maahi’s parents to let her move in with Laila would be to pretend that it was for Laila, not Maahi. ‘My mom left just a few days ago and the house feels so empty without her. I’m already getting lonely.’
‘Don’t worry, beta. Now Maahi will be here to keep you company, no?’ Aunty said, her forehead wrinkling as she added, ‘She told us about your mom. It’s good for her that she’s working again, but I do hope she takes care of her health.’
‘Me too,’ Laila agreed.
‘How long is she going to be in Patna for? Maahi said she’s only joining the school temporarily?’ Uncle asked.
‘For a few months, maybe longer, depending how soon the teacher she’s covering for gets better.’
‘Cancer,’ Aunty said, shaking her head.
There was a pause before Maahi said, ‘Let’s get everything in the room, shall we?’
‘Which one is it?’ Aunty asked.
‘It’s the one on your right,’ Laila said, pointing to it. She took one of the bags from Aunty and led the way. ‘It’s a guest room, but it’s always empty. We rarely have any overnight guests. It has two huge windows and gets a lot of sunlight in the morning, so Maahi won’t be able to sleep in till late, which is good for business.’
Everyone laughed.
‘She turns her alarm off and doesn’t wake up even when it rings twenty times,’ Aunty said, complaining fondly. ‘You will have to wake her up every morning—’
‘Ma! I can wake myself up,’ Maahi interjected.
‘Then why don’t you? Why does Aunty have to wake you up every morning?’ Laila asked, tongue-in-cheek.
‘The truth is always bitter,’ Aunty said wisely.
‘Whatever,’ Maahi said and set down the suitcase she was slugging next to the ancient bed. She looked around the room, taking in the white and gold curtains, the desk shoved in a corner against the wall, the rather large wooden cupboard opposite the bed, and nodded approvingly. ‘I’m feeling it.’
‘Feeling what?’ Uncle asked.
‘The place. I feel it.’
‘What do you mean by that … ?’
‘Just that I like it!’ Maahi said.
‘Then why didn’t you just say that?’ Aunty asked.
Maahi opened her mouth to speak, thought better of it and let it go.
Laila chuckled and said, ‘Weird girl, this one. Says the stupidest things.’
‘You only teach her something now,’ Aunty pleaded with Laila, as if sick and tired of her unruly child. ‘She never listens to us. Very stubborn she is.’
‘I know.’ Laila shook her head in disproval.
‘Laila! You traitor!’ Maahi cried, her eyes wide with horror.
‘Don’t talk to Laila like that!’ Aunty came to Laila’s defence. ‘She’s older than you and knows better. Listen to her. Learn something from her.’
‘Why don’t you just disown me and adopt Laila?’ Maahi said heatedly.
‘We—’
‘For now, let me adopt you,’ Laila said, patting Maahi lightly on the back. ‘Don’t worry, Aunty, I’ll take good care of her.’
‘I know, beta,’ Aunty said fondly.
‘How much should we … ?’ Uncle said. He paused, cleared his throat and spoke again, ‘How much do you suppose we should pay you … as rent?’
‘Oh, don’t worry about that, Uncle. I’m not taking money from Maahi for living here—’ Laila said, slightly embarrassed to be discussing money with her friend’s parents.
‘You’re not taking money from Maahi. We’ll pay—’
‘I can’t take money from you either!’
‘No, no. We can’t allow that!’ Aunty said.
‘Seriously, Aunty, it’s okay.
This room was empty anyway. And Maahi is coming to live here to help me out, keep me company—’
‘Are you joking?’ Maahi said, pausing in the middle of opening up a carton. ‘Of course I’m paying rent! I can’t just live here for free.’
‘You can—’ Laila began, but was cut off by Maahi’s loud protest.
‘No, I can’t. If I pay my share, like I would if I lived anywhere else, we’ll be roommates. If I don’t, it’s just charity and I don’t want charity.’
‘It’s not charity! It’s friendship.’
‘Which is why money shouldn’t come between it. Just let me pay,’ Maahi said, in a very end-of-conversation sort of way. Laila had rarely seen Maahi so determined.
‘Yes, beta. Maahi is right. We’ll pay the rent—’
‘Papa! I don’t want your charity either!’
‘Taking money from your parents isn’t charity,’ Aunty said, looking horrified at the thought. ‘We raised you—’
‘And you did a good job at it. Now I’m all grown up. Not taking money from my parents any more should be a good indication of it,’ Maahi said. ‘You should be proud.’
Nobody spoke about the matter after that. She didn’t know about Aunty, but Laila did feel proud of Maahi and how much she had grown in the few years they’d known each other. From the unsure, easily overwhelmed girl she had been three years ago when she first came to the coffee shop Laila worked at looking for a job, she’d now become a spirited, headstrong young woman. A lot of it was the result of finding her passion in baking and working so hard to pursue it building Cookies + Cupcakes. She was now a businesswoman and an artist who’d been hurt many times but still hadn’t lost hope, who had dreams and made plans and followed them through.
Maahi was presently bent over her open suitcase on the floor, seething. Laila went over to help her put her clothes away in the cupboard, but Aunty intervened, muttering about how unorganized Maahi was. Everyone got out of her way and watched as Aunty unpacked all of Maahi’s stuff and organized the room. Laila made tea while Aunty asked Uncle to throw away the boxes and cartons and told Maahi to sweep the floor. She herself went about stacking Maahi’s books on the desk. Once they were done, they had tea in the now-ready room and Maahi’s parents left immediately after. They had a lunch to get to at their friends’ home and Maahi could not look more relieved even though Laila could tell she was trying.
As soon as Laila closed the door behind them, Maahi let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. ‘God, that was torture!’
‘Oh, shut up. You know you’re glad they came to help you out,’ Laila said, making her way back to Maahi’s new room.
‘Glad? She compared me to you twenty million times. I don’t get how despite doing the exact same thing with our lives, you are in better graces with her.’
‘Look at it this way—if she approves of what I’m doing, and you and I are doing the same thing, it means she approves of what you’re doing. Hence proved.’
Maahi rolled her eyes. ‘It’s just double standards. Anything you do is great, everything I do is stupid—even when we both do the exact same thing.’
‘We don’t actually do the exact same thing.’
‘What does that mean? We both bake, own the same bake shops, go there every day and do the same thing—’
‘Not precisely the same thing. We have different sets of responsibilities.’ Laila leaned against the doorframe and studied Maahi’s room. She could picture Maahi living there. It could even be fun. It had been a long time since Laila had lived with another person apart from her mother. ‘This will make the commute more convenient for both of us—we could go together and take turns driving. It would also give us extra time in the car to discuss work. We can plan things in the morning on our way to work and then go over the day in the evening on our way back.’
‘That’s what you’re excited about?’ Maahi asked, looking a little hurt. ‘Work stuff? You’re not excited that I, your bestest friend in the whole world, am going to be living with you?’
‘Meh.’
‘Laila!’
‘Maahi!’ Laila said, mimicking her tone. ‘Of course I’m excited, you idiot! I’m just saying that there are other positive things about this. One downside may be that I basically never get rid of you. You’ll be there when I wake up, there when I have breakfast, there when I go to work, there when I get to work, still there when I leave work, and still there when I get home—I don’t think I thought this through.’
‘We’re basically married now,’ Maahi said, very pleased with herself.
‘Except that this is not a marriage between equals. I’m your landlady. And you haven’t paid your rent yet, so technically, you’re in my debt.’
‘Technically, you’re a mean person.’
Laila laughed. She joined Maahi on the bed, lay down next to her and looked at the ceiling. ‘How bad do you think things are at the shops right now?’ she mused.
‘Javed and Aparna are probably fine at Two.’
‘Ram, on the other hand …’ Laila didn’t need to finish that thought. Not only was Ram new, he was also kind of hopeless without supervision. They had hired Javed when they’d opened the first shop. They moved him to Two because he was seasoned and capable of setting up a new shop, and left One, a well-oiled machine by then, in the new hire’s hand. Two was only four months old and from time to time, Ram still had problems holding the fort down by himself. ‘He’s a good kid. But we should probably hire someone to help him.’
‘Probably. Can we afford it?’
‘Not really. Not yet. But maybe someone part-time to come in for the first four hours or something, help with the customers perhaps? I’m sure Ram would appreciate it.’
‘We could post an ad on job sites. I’m sure there are plenty of college students who have afternoon classes and can come in from 8 a.m. to noon or something. They won’t mind the extra money,’ Maahi said. ‘And not that we are in a position to pay them much at this point.’
‘Yeah, but as soon as we get more stable, we will. I’d like to keep our people close.’
‘Human resources—I hear you,’ Maahi said. ‘They taught us all about it in college.’
‘See? The value of education. You know all about the value of humans now.’
‘Sure.’ Maahi sat up on the bed and looked around. ‘Moving into a new place is so much fun when you have a little money. Last time I moved, I was going to college in Bangalore, living in a hostel, and it was awful not just because I didn’t want to be in Bangalore or study engineering, but also because I was broke. I couldn’t make that place home.’
‘And you’re going to make this place home?’ Laila asked, turning on her side and supporting her weight on her arm.
‘Damn right. I could get some nice bedsheets and cushions. Maybe an area rug here—something to match those pretty curtains. A mirror, maybe in that corner, with a dresser—oh, there are so many possibilities. Photo frames, lamps, flowers, string lights—I could do so much with this place!’
Laila watched the glee on Maahi’s face, which seeped under her skin too as if through osmosis. ‘Maybe one of those magazine holders that we can bolt to the wall? Those are cute. Or a bookshelf? Never really thought about decorating before, especially not this room. Not even my own room for that matter. I grew up here in the same house, same room, and it just, sort of, changed over the years. It grew up with me. But I guess it isn’t until you move in somewhere new that you actually look around and see the place and plan.’
‘We can decorate your room too!’ Maahi said excitedly. ‘We’ll make it all new and beautiful. Leave it to me.’
‘If I leave it to you, it’ll be all pink and purple!’
‘First, what is wrong with pink and purple? And second, I know your style and I can customize my services based on your needs.’
‘Can you?’ Laila raised her eyebrow, but she knew that Maahi could. She was responsible for designing everything at Cookies + Cupcakes from the décor to the logo, webs
ite, napkins, cutlery—everything. So they went to her room and explored the possibilities briefly before rushing to C+C.
As Sundays at bakeshops go, the day wasn’t half bad. Ram was holding fort alone and managing to keep his head above the water. They had a steady flow of customers all day and no crisis situations. The kitchens were stocked with baking supplies, the displays were stocked with baked goods and Laila and Maahi had a fun but productive day baking together while Ram handled the counter.
At closing time, after everyone else had left for the day, Laila and Maahi went to Two to check on things. Considering that they had to plan for the menu for the whole week ahead and order ingredients accordingly, they were pleased to find that there was still light outside when they walked to the car afterwards.
‘So, what now?’ Maahi asked.
‘Now, we’re done for the day,’ Laila said, frowning.
‘That I know. But like, what are we doing now?’
Laila grinned thinking about how Maahi was trying to follow her routine now that they were living together. She said, ‘Well, when I’m lucky enough to leave work at a decent hour, I usually go to the gym. I’ve anyway gone only three days this week and I make it a point to go at least four times.’
‘Gym? Are you serious?’ Maahi said, looking appalled at the thought.
‘Yes. You know, it’s what some people do to stay fit.’
‘I would love to get a lecture on fitness and health from you right now, but this is my first night of freedom! How can you do this to me?’
‘I’m not doing anything—’
‘The gym,’ Maahi repeated gravely. ‘Fine. If that’s what you want. Who knows—maybe I’ll lose some weight and be skinny like you in a month or so.’
‘I’m not making you come and you don’t need to lose weight.’
‘Have you seen my butt?’
‘I try not to but occasionally, yes,’ Laila chuckled.
‘It’s big. And my thighs and my boobs. I’m curvy—’
‘Which is awesome. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You’ve got what most women want. You’re curvy and slim. Do you know how rare that is?’