Every Time It Rains

by Nikita Singh

  ‘Hmm?’ JD looked up.

  ‘Whatever this is—you and I. It’s all new and exciting and silly now, but the one thing I’m certain it’s going to be is complicated.’

  ‘Because I’m guessing everything is complicated with you?’

  Laila smiled sadly. ‘You have no idea.’

  ‘It’s okay. I’ll get an idea soon enough, and you’ll hopefully get the idea that I can handle it. I can take complicated and with you especially, I’d take super-mega-absurdly-complicated too. Anything. Because like I said, I’m falling in love with you and I’m rarely ever practical about that stuff. Simple’s no fun anyway.’

  Laila came very close to tearing up. Even though he spoke nonchalantly, as if he were talking about the weather, Laila felt a shiver down her spine as she realized that he meant every word of it. It was evident how much he cared about her and just how selflessly.

  ‘Okay,’ she said softly. He was falling in love with her and there was nothing she could do about it other than let him. She knew it was a bad idea, and most likely wouldn’t end well, but she couldn’t stop herself from falling in love with him either. She could feel it happening, feel his charm seep right under her skin, slowly but surely.

  A second later, he suddenly began singing loudly, startling Laila and a few passers-by. ‘Dil kya kare jab kisi se, kisi ko pyar ho jaaye, Jaane kahan kab kisi ko, kisi se pyar ho jaaye…’

  Laila tried to stop him by covering his mouth with her palm, but it only made him sing louder and attract even more attention. Finally, she let him sing. He always did whatever he wanted anyway—the same way he had entered her life one day, out of the blue, and made it his home.

  16

  FIRST DATE

  Laila felt Maahi’s grip on her hand tighten under the table, and she squeezed back reassuringly. She, however, wasn’t very reassured herself. The meeting had gone as well as they could’ve hoped, but now that they had finished presenting their plan and were sitting in front of the seven intimidating corporate employees sitting on the other side of the long oval conference table, the momentary silence in the room made her anxious.

  Maahi released Laila’s hand and glanced at JD, who was sitting in the very corner, opposite Maahi. Laila caught the kind smile he offered Maahi before winking surreptitiously at Laila. She hastily looked away from JD and at the other important, but less playful looking members of the Roast House team. The CEO smiled at them, but Laila could tell that behind that smile was his best poker face, giving absolutely nothing away.

  ‘Thank you for coming in,’ said the CEO, rising from his chair and extending his hand towards Laila. ‘We’ll get in touch with you soon.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Laila and Maahi said as they got up and shook his hand. They smiled at the rest of the team, and Laila tried not to look in JD’s direction as they left the conference room and made their way wordlessly to the elevator.

  ‘Fancy office,’ Maahi whispered under her breath, looking around at the brightly lit corridors. ‘Everything’s so, like, sharp and clean. And shiny—definitely shiny.’

  ‘Fancy CEO’s fancy office,’ Laila said as they got into the elevator.

  They discussed the meeting as Laila drove them to Cookies + Cupcakes. They’d done their very best, and were aware that it still might not be good enough for Roast House, a concern elevated by JD’s revelation that they were the last on the shortlist. However, they were what they were and they’d gone out of their way to prepare for the meeting—not being limited to just research and planning but also physically going out to meet with and talk to people who had been successful doing similar things, visiting factories, talking to their advisors and mentors and everything else they could think of. Maahi had even involved their customers online, conducting mini surveys with them on social media to get a better picture of their wants and expectations from Cookies + Cupcakes in order to discover what they were doing right.

  ‘We played to our strengths,’ Maahi said, her head resting against the closed car window. ‘People like us for our innovative, strange recipes and if RH doesn’t want that then I guess we don’t want to sell basic chocolate chip cookies and red velvet cupcakes either. That’s not who we are.’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with the basics, but it’s definitely not our USP. If they only want a couple of basic ones, we’re not what they’re looking for.’ Laila frowned, thinking about it. It was easy to get carried away with the instant scaling up and the increase in their reach, popularity and money that it would bring with it. But when she looked at the big picture, that was not what they built Cookies + Cupcakes for. They built it to experiment with new ideas, bake fun, innovative recipes and make a living out of doing something they loved. ‘We don’t want the basic recipes representing us in all these cities and states RH would be distributing to. We want our original, creative ones that people love us for to symbolize our brand! Like the cupcake you bake with lemon zest and Italian meringue frosting, or the other one with dark chocolate and bourbon vanilla buttercream.’

  ‘But definitely not the cookie you make with carrots and apricots.’

  ‘Carrots and walnuts,’ Laila corrected, laughing. ‘But yeah, maybe not that one. How about the glazed apple crisp or a deep dish one filled with potato chips or something?’

  Maahi nodded thoughtfully, looking out the window again. ‘I hope they want us, and we want what they offer us, but there’s so much that could go wrong.’

  ‘Hey, if they don’t want us, or they want us for something we don’t want, it means that this wasn’t for us. We’ll still have what we have, and that’s pretty damn awesome.’

  Even though Maahi agreed, Laila could tell that she really wanted this collaboration with Roast House to work out. Laila, however, was tired of thinking about it, and looked forward to a day of baking and normalcy at Two. After being only a businesswoman for a week, she needed to put her baker’s hat on and relax—and that is exactly what she did.

  Customers came in a steady flow throughout the day, but Laila remained in the kitchen, leaving Aparna and Javed to handle the counter. She baked a variation of a new recipe she’d come across on Pinterest, making thick, round logs of dough containing cream cheese and pecans, and then slicing them into thin cookies. She placed the rounds on a baking sheet and after they were baked, she topped them with jam in the centre. Javed said they almost tasted like raspberry cheesecakes, but crispy.

  After the long day of work, Laila found herself happier and more satisfied than she had been in a long time. As much as she loved running a business and was successful at it, the pleasure she derived from baking brought her a whole other kind of joy. She noticed a similar joy in Maahi when they drove home together.

  ‘We should really hire more people as soon as we can afford to so that we could rotate shifts and all get a couple of days of break. This seven-days-a-week thing is killing me,’ Maahi said, unbuckling her seat belt as Laila parked outside the house. ‘The rest of the team at least gets one day off every week!’

  ‘The price of being the boss,’ Laila patted Maahi on the back.

  The gate creaked again when Laila pulled it open. She groaned and reminded herself to oil it soon. As they circled around the small patch of grass in front of the house and reached the steps leading up to the main door, Laila came to an abrupt halt, pulling Maahi back with her. There was a man sitting on the topmost step in the dark.

  ‘JD!’ she exclaimed. ‘You creep! You scared the shit out of me!’

  ‘Why are you sitting alone in the dark?’ Maahi asked curiously.

  ‘I thought that wasn’t creepy at all,’ JD told Maahi and grinned at Laila. ‘Right, Laila? You, of all people, shouldn’t find sitting alone in the dark creepy.’

  ‘What’s he talking about?’ Maahi looked from JD to Laila.

  ‘He’s just being dumb. Who sits outside other people’s houses, so quietly, in the dark?’

  ‘He does, clearly.’

  ‘Like a thief.’

  �
��I feel very left out and attacked by this conversation,’ JD pointed out. ‘You girls should perhaps involve me more and consider being less mean.’

  Laila laughed.

  Maahi was still looking from JD to Laila suspiciously, as if trying to figure out what was going on between them but missing a piece of the puzzle. She tilted her head towards JD. ‘What are you doing here though?’

  ‘Picking up Laila for our date,’ JD said simply.

  All eyes turned to Laila, who felt stupid. Of course JD was going to hold her to the date. What the hell else had she expected? ‘Right,’ she muttered. ‘But just so we’re clear, I remember saying maybe, which is not a yes.’

  ‘It’s also not a no, so I took my chances. You coming or not?’ JD asked.

  Laila studied him. She knew she was going to say yes—what else could you do when the only person you’ve been able to think about all day, all week was sitting outside your home, waiting to take you out on a date?—but she wanted him to suffer for just a few more seconds before agreeing.

  ‘Maan jao, yaar,’ Maahi said, sitting next to JD on the topmost step in the dark. ‘I’ll keep him company while you get changed. You’re not going in that,’ she gestured to Laila’s outfit with her face scrunched.

  ‘What’s wrong with this?’ Laila challenged, looking down at the power suit she’d worn for the fancy meeting with the RH CEO and team.

  ‘You’re not going to a romantic date with my boy over here dressed like Batwoman,’ Maahi said with an air of finality. Laila opened her mouth to argue but Maahi said, ‘Or Catwoman or Batgirl, or any other kind of superhero dressed menacingly to kill.’

  ‘Whatever, dude,’ Laila said, walking up to the door and unlocking it. She left the two of them outside and closed the door, catching JD saying something along the lines of, ‘I actually find the whole menacing superhero outfits thing hot, to be honest…’

  Laila shook her head and rushed to her room. She was going out on a date. A date. With a person she actually liked. For the first time in so long. Her throat tightened when an image of her and Abhishek lying on the living room couch of their tiny apartment flashed into her mind—noise from the TV in the background, half-empty pizza boxes and a Pepsi bottle on the table, her head resting easy on his shoulder—vivid as if it had happened yesterday. She shook her head and pulled open her cupboard.

  Five minutes later, she was pulling on a pair of pumps and rushing outside, wondering what Maahi and JD had been talking about. Hopefully not about her, she thought as she pulled the door open and stepped out.

  ‘Much better,’ Maahi nodded her approval at Laila’s dress and got up. ‘I’m going to let you guys go now. Have fun!’

  ‘Bye,’ JD said, getting up too, his eyes fixed on Laila. After Maahi disappeared, they walked out of the creaking gate and to JD’s car. JD still wouldn’t look away from Laila.

  ‘Stop.’ Laila grit her teeth to stop herself from blushing.

  He looked as if he’d just won the lottery. ‘You’re so beautiful,’ JD muttered, finally looking away as he got into the car.

  They didn’t drive too far. In under twenty minutes, JD was pulling up outside the restaurant he’d chosen, one that he told Laila had the best seekh kebabs in Delhi. His excitement as he handed over his keys to the valet and stepped inside the gate, pulling her hand, seeped into Laila too. They walked on the gravel path, which curved around the restaurant building and to the back, where painted wrought iron tables were set on the grass, surrounded by pure white tapestries and lamps that dimly lit the garden, creating a relaxed, charming atmosphere. They were led to a table by a tall potted plant, where some sort of welcome sherbet was waiting for them. They thanked the server and sat down rather awkwardly, not speaking. They hadn’t spoken much on their drive over either. This real date thing always tended to become quite awkward.

  Laila smiled at JD but when he smiled back, she couldn’t hold eye contact and looked away at her beautiful surroundings instead. ‘This is lovely,’ she said, gesturing nervously.

  ‘Lovely?’ JD raised an eyebrow.

  Laila let out a laugh. ‘I guess that’s what people say on dates?’

  ‘Lovely seems to be a date-appropriate word, yes. A word I personally choose never to use under normal circumstances, unless sarcastically.’

  Laila smiled at that but soon, a silence fell between them once again. This was hard. Everyone was always talking about how hard dating was, and Laila herself was well aware of the many pains that accompanied it, but she’d hoped it would’ve been easier because it was with JD. Everything was easier with JD. They had met several times before, talked easily about most things under the sun, and even though they never called it a real date, their relationship with each other hadn’t started off in a platonic setting. It had been romantic from the very beginning. It bothered Laila that they were silent now, glancing at each other occasionally, smiling warily, just because this time they’d labelled it a real date.

  ‘Umm,’ JD said, and Laila looked up from her menu. He looked nervous, but he was fighting it. He said casually, ‘What now? Date-appropriate conversation? Small talk?’

  ‘Just as long as you don’t ask me my hobbies!’ Laila said, and told him about her date with Ronny. JD, in exchange, told her about a girl he went out with, who insisted on wearing five-inch-heels everywhere, all the time, but could barely walk straight without clutching his arm and leaving nail marks all over. Talking about previous unsuccessful dates seemed to break the ice, and they found themselves laughing comfortably after that.

  ‘We’re horrible people—making fun of other people when they’re not here to defend themselves,’ Laila said.

  ‘We just convert personal disasters into funny anecdotes. That hardly makes us horrible,’ JD countered. ‘Hard to believe that you’ve ever done anything truly horrible anyway.’

  ‘You’d be surprised.’

  ‘Yeah? Tell me then. What’s the most horrible thing you’ve ever done to another person?’

  ‘Well, okay.’ Laila thought about it for a minute. The response she had in mind was truly too deep for their light-hearted conversation, but then again, this was JD. And he did say he could handle complicated. Laila chewed the inside of her cheek for a second, before deciding to go for it. She spoke swiftly, ‘Not exactly something I did, but felt. When Abhishek, my husband, when he got hit by that car, I was there. He was follo—I mean, he was behind me. I heard the crash. I turned around and saw him lying there in the middle of the road in a pool of blood, and the first emotion I felt was relief. It passed in a second, and I felt all levels of shock and sadness and grief for a very long time, but the first thing—relief.’

  ‘Wow. Shit just got real.’

  ‘You asked.’

  ‘Were you unhappy in the marriage?’ JD asked. He looked up as the waiter arrived and they ordered their food. Once they were alone again, JD looked at Laila expectantly. ‘You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want—’

  ‘No, it’s okay, I don’t mind,’ Laila said. ‘And no, it wasn’t an unhappy marriage. Minus a couple incidents, things were as perfect as they got.’

  ‘Some incidents they must have been.’

  Laila shifted the focus on him. ‘What about you? What’s the most horrible thing you’ve ever done?’

  ‘Me?’ JD rubbed his chin. ‘I didn’t know we were playing this game.’

  ‘Seems like date-appropriate conversation.’

  ‘Very. Hmm, let’s see. The most horrible thing I’ve ever done … that would be not going to my best friend’s funeral. And not because I was too devastated by the loss, which I was, but because after months and months of battling the tumour in his brain that made him an asshole to everyone around him, including and especially to me, because I was the only person apart from his parents who stuck around, when he finally died, I felt free. I had an obligation, as his friend, to be with him and support him for as long as he lived, but when he took his last breath … I guess I felt relieved t
oo. He was dead anyway—what did he care if I made it to his funeral or not?’ JD laughed dryly.

  Laila could tell that he was trying very hard to sound nonchalant and not actually feel the words coming out of his mouth, so she decided to help him with distraction. She sat back in her chair and tilted her head to the side. ‘I’m so winning this.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Mine was way more horrible than yours. I saw my husband die in front of me and felt relieved. You only stuck with your best friend and supported him as long as he lived and didn’t show up to his funeral. Funerals are designed for the living anyway; the dead don’t give a fuck about them. So, that wasn’t exactly horrible, was it?’

  ‘I didn’t know we were competing,’ JD said. He pulled back when the waiter arrived with their dinner and spread it on the table. When he’d left, JD said, ‘But okay, let’s do another round. Your turn.’

  Laila picked up her fork and pierced a piece of kebab, which smelled delicious. She put it in her mouth and nodded her approval. ‘This is really good, just as you promised. Anyway, the second most horrible thing I’ve ever done is make someone fall in love with me, literally, without returning his feelings. This was way back in school though. Everyone had a boyfriend, and life was easier if you had one too. I knew this guy from my class had a huge crush on me, so I encouraged it. And we did the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing kids do in class eleven, you know, behaving as if we’re grown-ups, falling in love, committing to a lifetime of togetherness. But we finished school, and I did love him, but not enough to spend the rest of my life with him. I’d known it all along, but I still didn’t stop him from falling in love with me, because I was selfish and I liked being his girlfriend in that pretend world.’

  JD’s jaw was hanging open in utter shock, but a small smile hung around the corners of his mouth. ‘Dude, that’s messed up. Brutal.’

  ‘Yep. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself for it. I found him on Facebook years later, and convinced myself that in what I could see of his profile, he looked happy. He didn’t accept my friend request though.’