Nandita laughed. “Yeah, but he didn’t seem like a stalker. I mean, I have to admit that, at first, he had kind of a scary, intense look about him, but once we started chatting, he was very sweet and seemed kind of shy.”
“Of course he’s shy—he’s a freaking stalker! That’s why stalker’s stalk: they don’t have the nerve to talk to anyone! Get a clue, Nan!”
“No, I’m serious. He was shy and embarrassed, and I have to tell you, Sally, he was, in your words, ‘freaking hot.’”
Sally raised her eyebrows. “Do tell.”
“He had amazing hair—like, all black, tumbling curls—and these crazy-intense eyes you could fall into, I swear.”
“See, crazy eyes! Stalker!”
“I said crazy-intense Sal, not crazy-insane. Anyway, by the end of the conversation, I started to think maybe I'd made a mistake and that he wasn’t the same guy. When he walked away from me, though, I was sure. I’ve seen that sexy, retreating back so many times it would be hard to mistake.” Nandita sipped her tea and wrinkled her brow. “Why do you think he’s following me?”
The cell phone on the coffee table rang suddenly, and they both jumped and then laughed. “See, you’ve even got me spooked!” Sally said as Nandita grabbed for the phone.
Over Sally’s giggles, she heard, “Hello? Is this Nandita Bhatt?”
She held up a finger to shush Sally and replied. “Yes, this is Nandita Bhatt. May I help you?”
“Yes, hopefully. This is Christopher Jones from Allied Graphics calling. We have an opening here for a graphic designer, and we were hoping you could come in for an interview on Wednesday morning at 11am. If you are available, I can email you the details.”
“Yes, of course,” she looked up at Sally and grinned, “I’m available for an interview. Please go ahead and email me the information.”
“Wonderful. I’ll send it over now. We are looking forward to meeting with you tomorrow.”
She hung up the phone and Sally gave her a high-five. “Whoop! Good start, buddy, but I think we need a back-up plan.”
What was it with these people and their obsession with options and backup plans? Nandita knew where Sally was about to go and she started shaking her head. Yesterday, while she'd been standing amongst all those rabid, hungry, well-qualified job hunters, Sally’s crazy green-card marriage idea had started to seem not so crazy. Now, however, she had a real, honest to goodness interview.
She shook her head again. “It’s a crazy idea, Sally—like comedy movie crazy!”
“Not so crazy, my love.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a glossy brochure. The front page was a collage of happy-looking couples with one member of each couple holding a green card in the air triumphantly. She shoved it at Nandita, who took it and laughed.
“Seriously?”
“Look, all I’m saying is to use it as a back-up plan. Just don’t tell Claire, whatever you do—she’d kill me. Read through the brochure and call me, so we can chat. I spoke to my friend and it’s all legit. You’ll be able to tell by the fees that they aren’t messing around—but don’t worry about the money. I’ll cover the cost. You know that, if I could hire you, I'd do it in a New York minute, but they’ll never give me a visa for a gallery assistant. I want this to be my contribution to keeping you around. I need you here, Nan. Just think about it?”
Nandita flipped through the pages of the expensive-looking brochure and winced. She couldn’t possibly do this, could she? I mean, it went against everything she believed. Was she desperate enough? She placed the glossy brochure in the center of her coffee table. “How about this? I’ll leave it there, and if the interview is a flop, I’ll take a quick look.”
“Good enough for me,” Sally said as she pushed her swollen feet back into her shoes and moved toward the door. “Just don’t leave it too long. See you later.”
Nandita gave a little wave and sat back on the couch with her tea. The grinning faces mocked her from the middle of the coffee table. Crazy, thought Nandita. The idea is nuts!
15
Claire – The Confession
It was a little warm to be sitting at an outside table today, but Claire didn’t care. The heat felt good, and fortunately, Sally wasn’t here to bitch about it. This girl’s lunch was their weekly unbreakable tradition; if you missed it, you’d better be close to dead. Sally had begged off this week, saying she wasn’t feeling well. She never missed lunch, though, and Claire missed her sitting next to her, complaining about how late Maureen was.
Only a few years ago, the idea of Maureen being late to anything had been laughable. She had been Little Mousy Maureen, so intent on pleasing everyone that she had forgotten about pleasing herself, but her boyfriend, Stephen, had changed all of that. Claire adored him because he was so good for Maureen. He understood her self-doubts and recriminations, but never let her believe a word of what she told herself. Maureen had transformed from a quiet girl who had just escaped from a toxic relationship with a married man to a confident, secure woman.
Maureen and Stephen worked together in a company he had started, but it had become a perfect partnership. Once he had managed to persuade Maureen that a lifelong career at Telco would not provide the challenges she craved, she had quit her job there and joined him. She had moved quickly from a systems analyst to a partner, and Stephen often said the true secret to the company’s success was Maureen. She was the detail-oriented finisher, while he was the big picture starter. It worked like a dream.
Now Maureen rushed toward her, looking harried. She flopped into the chair opposite Claire. “Sorry, sorry. I know we said 1pm, but I just wanted to finish the specs on Stephen’s new app proposal before I left the house. Stephen was at a meeting, so I wanted to surprise him and have it waiting when he got home.”
“How romantic. Here’s an app proposal for you, darling.”
Maureen laughed as she swatted Claire’s arm. “Don’t be a meanie. It is romantic! I’ll read it to him later… naked.”
“TMI, Maureen! TMI!”
Maureen signaled for the waitress and asked for an iced coffee and her usual sandwich. Claire had already ordered—it was an unspoken agreement not to wait on each other to order because of their busy schedules. “So, tell me the news. How’s it going with Nandita?”
“Uh, don’t even remind me.”
Maureen gave her a wince of sympathy. “Not good, huh?”
“First of all, I love Nandita, but can I tell you how much I was looking forward to having Satish all to myself? We had this all worked out perfectly. Nandita would go to Princeton, and be thrilled about it, and Satish and I would have two months of pre-marital bliss—not a care in the world.”
“Naked and reading app proposals,” Maureen interjected.
“Yes!” Claire laughed, “Or something different, but equally romantic.”
“And?”
“Once again, every conversation we have is about Nandita, as it has been for the last… I don’t know how long.” Claire picked up her iced coffee and took a deep gulp. “I really don’t need this caffeine—I’m already so jumped up. You know what Satish is like, Maureen. He loves her, he feels responsible, and he’s excessively worried.”
“I thought he’d be happy, though. This rejection means she has to go back to India, right? Isn’t this what Satish wanted?” The waitress arrived with Maureen’s coffee and Claire’s sandwich.
Claire raised a finger and leaned down to take a bite.
“Sorry, I’m starving,” she mumbled through her full mouth. Maureen waited patiently for her to finish chewing before she went on. “I had lunch with Nandita last week, and I think she’s up to something. Nandita is so single -minded. Satish thinks she might just go ahead and do something stupid.”
“Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know, run away again, I guess. I mean, she’s done it twice, already. The first time was admirable, obviously—an arranged marriage would have been a nightmare for Nandita—but the second time? We were luck
y she didn’t get into some real trouble, Maureen. Thank God for you and Stephen being there to save her.”
She thought back to that weekend four years earlier. A crook who had whisked Maureen off for a vacation in the Bahamas on his yacht, which turned out not to be his, had also persuaded Nandita and her friend to run away for a ‘vacation.’ Luckily, Maureen and Stephen had already discovered each other; being the dynamic duo they were, they had rescued Nandita from certain peril. Satish had almost had a nervous breakdown.
“He takes this responsibility very seriously, Maureen—he doesn’t want to see her get hurt. Plus, she’s his only family member now that everyone else has stopped talking to him—except for his mother, of course.”
“He speaks to his mother? I didn’t know that.” Maureen’s sandwich arrived, and she tucked in.
“Yep. Every day. It’s the only good thing that came from him breaking off his marriage to marry me, that dastardly American. He hadn’t been allowed contact with his mother for years—his father kept them apart—but now that he isn’t talking to his father, his mother started sneaking calls to him. They are starting to develop a close relationship, which is why I thought telling Nandita that her mother wanted her to come home would work. It didn’t. Do you know she blames her mother for not protecting her from her father? At least, that's what she said. I wasn't convinced she meant it. It’s all so sad.”
“Has Satish introduced you to his mother? Do you talk to her?”
Claire put down her sandwich and stared at Maureen. She had to tell someone. “I’m not supposed to.”
Maureen took in the serious tone of Claire’s voice, put down her own sandwich, and wiped her hands on her napkin. “What do you mean?”
Claire sighed. “Satish calls his mother from work. I asked if we can call her another time, so I can meet her, but he said no for two reasons. First, his mother can only be available once a day at 6pm. Second, and more important, he doesn’t want me to. I guess he’s like Nandita and still harbors some resentment toward her… I don’t know. He said he doesn’t want me to meet her until he’s sure he can trust her, or until he’s sure she won’t try to blame me or make me feel bad for what happened. He says she sometimes even tries to persuade him to go back to India and marry that other girl. He thinks he has to protect me from his family until they accept me completely, and he won’t have it any other way.”
“That makes sense,” Maureen said. She paused. “So… what are you hiding?”
“Don’t you think Satish should have his own family at the wedding, Maureen?”
“Of course he should, and he will: he’s got Nandita.”
Claire waved her hand in the air, irritated. “Of course he’s got Nandita.”
“And?” Maureen asked. Claire took a deep breath and held it until it burst through her pursed lips in an anxious rush. She asked again, “And, Claire?”
“She reached out to me secretly, and I've been chatting with her via email.”
Maureen gave her a look of confusion. “Wait, who have you been chatting with?”
“Satish’s mother.” Claire put a fist in front of her mouth and waited for Maureen to say something, but she didn’t. “It's just that she was eager to see how things are going with Nandita. She’s worried about her, and according to her, Satish won't discuss it. She said he told her it was Nandita’s news to share, not his. So, she found me—I’m not sure how—and I’ve been emailing her because I figured that, if I got to know her, I might be able to persuade her to come to the wedding and maybe get Satish’s father to come, too. Am I wrong?”
Maureen picked up her iced coffee and sipped slowly. “You’re not going to like this, but it sounds like a Sally move to me, getting involved with other people’s business and thinking you are making things better when most of the time you’re not. We love Sally, but is that the character trait of hers you want to emulate?”
Claire put her hands into her lap and looked down at her trembling fingers. She knew it was wrong to go behind Satish’s back, but she also knew that, if he would just let her get involved, she could help fix things. Yes, it was complicated and this situation was years in the making, but she would be his wife soon; she wanted to be an active participant in rebuilding his family relationships.
“I’m just saying be careful. I mean, it’s a bit weird that she’s emailing you, isn’t it? Are you sure her intentions are honest?” Maureen leaned over and put her hand on Claire’s arm. “I understand why you’re doing this, but I don’t think Satish will be happy when he finds out—and he will find out. Be careful how much you try to help. You could be making things worse.”
“I know. What are we going to do about Nandita?” Claire pushed her plate away, not hungry anymore.
Maureen sat back in her chair. “I’m going to be very honest with you about Nandita. She’s an amazing human being. She’s ambitious and adventurous, but she’s driven to a fault. When Nandita wants something, she’s like a giant with massive, steel-toed boots and goes marching toward her goal, squishing villages and knocking down everything in her path. You can understand why she's like that: she's young and she’s had to fight for everything she has, even to the point of leaving her family, friends, and everything she knew. It’s selfish, though, Claire. It’s not fair to you or Satish, and it’s not fair to Nandita. She is so focused and single-minded that she misses the opportunity to enjoy the life right in front of her. You need to step back and let her go her own way—so does Satish. She’ll come back to you eventually, but right now, you have to let her go.”
Maureen was right. Claire knew she was right. She would stop emailing Mrs. Bhatt, step away from Nandita, and try to persuade Satish to do the same. Her phone dinged, and she picked it up from the table to check the notification. It was another email from Satish’s mother, full of questions about Nandita’s interview. She looked up at Maureen, who dug back into her sandwich, problem resolved, and put the phone down. The notification glared at her, but she would not answer.
16
Nandita – The Interview
How could she have screwed this up? Nandita knew the interview was at 11am—she had even written it down in her diary as 11am—but for some reason, she had 11:30am in her head this morning. It was that stalker, Ravi, who was the problem. Ever since she had bumped into him at the job fair, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. Last night, she had even dreamed about that handshake, and it was probably one of the most erotic dreams she’d ever had… about a handshake. She needed to get over herself.
Anyway, there she was in her apartment, having a cup of coffee and obsessing over a handshake, when the time of 11am wafted into her consciousness. She had jumped out of her chair so quickly that she’d knocked her left hip hard into the metal railing and spilled her cold coffee down the front of her new Talbot blouse. It had taken her ten minutes to change and calm her nerves, and she hadn't had time to ice her hip. It was throbbing in time with the pounding of her feet on the pavement as she half-ran, half-walked to the address she had memorized yesterday. She was now officially late to her only interview—her only chance for that elusive work visa. It was so unlike her.
She walked as fast as she could while trying to read the numbers above the doors on the buildings she was passing when she hit something hard and stepped on something soft at the same time. She went flying onto her tush and tumbled off the pavement and into the gutter, where she felt the brown run-off water seep up the back of her skirt.
She was instantly aware of whimpering, and she looked up, expecting to see a scared baby, but instead saw a large, shaggy yellow lab. She was lying on the pavement, leaning over her right foot and frantically licking while she cried. Nandita had stepped on a dog.
“Oh, my poor baby,” she said as she crawled quickly out of the wet gutter. She felt gravel bite into her knees, but she ignored it until she could get a better look at the poor dog’s paw. She hoped she hadn’t broken it.
“I think I can handle it, thank you,” came a
n angry voice from above her head. She looked up into familiar eyes, stormy with emotion, this time, and froze. Him!
She felt a rush of desire, even under the gaze of his hard eyes. “You! What are you doing here?”
Ravi huffed and pushed her aside a little roughly; she almost landed back in the gutter. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” He knelt and cradled the dog’s paw gently in his hand, and she watched his whole demeanor soften. A moment before, he had been stiff and intimidating, her stalker, but now he was compassionate and tender, her hand-shaker. “It’s okay, Sandy. Just let me have a feel. I won’t hurt you, sweetie.” He gently probed the dog's paw with his fingers. It had seemed bent out of shape when she had first glanced over and feared she had broken it, but she could see now, as he straightened it with soothing fingers, that it was just twisted. She heaved a sigh of relief.
“Are you a vet?” she asked.
He jumped slightly and looked up at her quickly with guilt on his face. “Of course I’m not a vet! Why would you say that?” he snapped.
She got up from the dirty sidewalk and brushed off her knees and the back of her skirt. It was no good, though; she could feel a pool of wet on her backside and water dripping down the backs of her legs. Her heart clenched in frustration. That was it, no interview today.
She turned to Ravi, “I’m not sure why you’re jumping down my throat. You’re the one who followed me, ran into me, and now made me miss a critical appointment.”
Ravi straightened in haste, and she found herself only a few inches from his barrel-chested anger. He towered over her, and she realized why her collision with him had been so unyielding: he was built like a firefighter.
“I did not run into you. You literally ran into me because you were looking elsewhere instead of at the sidewalk in front of you, like any normal person would do. I didn’t have enough time to get out of the way, okay?”
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