I went in and started to make tea. I boiled the water. It felt good to stand and wait for it though my leg was hurting and my head felt really dizzy because I was so hungover.
Who would I be, what would I do? That thought made my head spin in a good way. I dropped the teacup and slipped on the spilled water. I wasn’t sure if I was fainting again.
‘Well, that’s a sight I didn’t expect,’ Tejas said, entering and helping me up. He saw the broken cup and talked while he cleaned up.
‘I bet Ruhi you’d be fine by January. She told me you’d be fine before the New Year.’
‘Well, you won. Thanks for betting against me.’
‘Let’s get you something to eat, other than chocolate,’ Tejas said.
‘Chocolate?’
Then I noticed the counter.
There was a framed photo of myself from Bhutan, happy with Ruhi and Tejas on either side. There were chocolates all around the photo and a card from both of them saying they were looking forward to me being my ‘happy self, not this ghost of a girl’.
It all made sense, it just fit.
‘Tejas, I don’t know where to start,’ I said. ‘You’ve stayed here, you’ve cleaned, cooked, I just…’
‘For now, just chill.’
‘I don’t know what to do, there is so much going on.’
‘I know, I know. It’s okay. You got through it. I’ll help you figure out the rest. Are you ready to let go?’ he asked me, and I followed him outside.
He gave me his lighter and said to start when I was ready. So I took the first magazine from fifteen years ago and lit it and threw it into the barbecue. I threw all the magazines in one by one. Then my clothes. Then my diaries. I got my weighing scale
too but Tejas put that in his car, saying he’d get rid of it for me.
‘Now what?’ he said.
‘Breakfast,’ I replied.
27
A Real Sweet Life
– RUHI –
Sunday, 18 February
To Do:
Zero in on online model to adopt from final selection Brainstorming sesh & team drinks on Wednesday Explore possibility of app in this year Consider going for low-residency publishing Master’s end of year
‘I finally did it.’
‘On vacation?’ Aisha asked me. Tejas was looking at his hands then his shoes, unsure of where to settle his gaze, at Aisha or me. We were sitting in the cafe in Khan Market, Tejas’s favourite.
‘If not in Bhutan, then Singapore it is,’ I said, nudging Tejas.
‘It’s okay, we can laugh about it now.’
The three of us were meeting after two months. I had extended my holiday in Singapore and spent some time there. I’d never travelled on my own before and I had a lot of time to think and figure out things.
Aisha had written a long email to me at the beginning of the year, telling me how she’d come out of the bad place she was in.
She looked serene, a word I never thought I’d use for her. Her face was filling out and she’d started learning yoga and had been managing her diet again. She still had gym nightmares though, she’d said, but according to Maya, they were just old fears, and would slowly fade.
Tejas was still staying with her and they were finally having fun. They insisted they weren’t dating. I wondered how long that would last.
‘What are your plans?’ I asked him.
‘All the scribbles I’d been making for months, it turned out I had to write what was happening around me. I’m not the kind of writer to pull things out of thin air, at least not yet. I’m already on my second draft,’ Tejas said.
‘No prizes for guessing whom the book is about,’ Aisha said.
‘It’s loosely inspired by you guys.’
‘Do you want me to look at it?’ I volunteered.
‘Only if you want to,’ he said.
‘And you, Aisha?’
‘Well, I had a long talk with Maya in January, came clean about all of last year. I’m setting up a food and fitness blog with her. It will be a one-stop shop for eating and living well. So I just won’t have the time.’
‘And your own blog?’
‘It’s back online. My real fans have stuck around. I’m going to continue with it too, for fun. And you? What is Ruhi Singh going to do, after leaving Litracy in style?’
‘I’m starting my own publishing house.’
‘What, really?’
‘Well, e-publishing and a combination of print-on-demand. WD is closing the Litracy imprint, but I’ve retained my author network and designers. A lot of them and upcoming authors are keen on being online.’
‘Way to go, Ruhi. That’s awesome,’ Aisha said.
‘I can consider your manuscript for it, Tejas.’
‘Wow, really?’
‘If I like it.’
‘You know you will.’
It was going to be a real sweet life.
Acknowledgments
I thank Fay Weldon, my writing mentor for being the ray of sunshine during my gloomy winter writing days in England; Bambo Soyinka for being a wonderful source of encouragement always; Priya Kapoor and Neelam Narula for making my days at Roli Books a joy to write about; Kanishka, Neelini, and Lipika for championing me more than my book at times; Prerna and the entire
HarperCollins team without whom this book wouldn’t have been possible; my four wonderful grandparents and extended family for their regular encouragement; Avneet, Saloni, Devyani, Vijayraj, Suhani, Gaetano and Simi for their constant support during the writing of the book; my Bath Writer’s group of Mary, Celia and Kay for reading the first draft; Madhavi and Kyoshi Rahul for helping me focus with yoga and karate respectively; all the well-wishers I came across while writing the book; and lastly Simba, my writing dog.
About the Book
Social media manager and popular blogger Aisha is flirty and flamboyant … even as she battles personal demons that tell her she must stop eating if she wants to stay pretty.
Ruhi couldn’t be more different from her friend Aisha. Working at Litracy Publishing, she feels grossly underappreciated by the editor-in-chief, who happens to be her mother. What keeps her going are her own ambitions – and her handsome author Tejas.
Bestselling novelist Tejas has a bad case of writer’s block. He leans on Ruhi for emotional support before getting enamoured by Aisha as he struggles to live up to everyone’s expectations, including his own.
BOLD AND UNAPOLOGETIC, THIS IS A STORY OF LOVE AND SELF-DISCOVERY, HEARTACHE AND BOOK LAUNCHES.
About the Author
Neharika Gupta is a martial arts practitioner, yogi, poet and writer. She worked in publishing for a year before shifting to writing full-time. She lives in Delhi with her parents and three dogs. She holds a B.A. (H) in English Literature from Lady Shri Ram College for Women and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, UK. Adulting is her debut novel. She also writes at neharikagupta.com .
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P-ISBN: 978-93-5357-149-8
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