Page 85 of Not Safe for Work
‘Yeah,’ I said, staring at the cracks in my bedroom ceiling. ‘They’re fine. The lighting’s a little flat in the opening shots, but I can ask the editor to fix that in post.’
‘Okay, cool.’ The relief in his voice was apparent. ‘Thank God. I was worried you might hate them.’
‘I don’t.’ I picked at a loose thread on my duvet. ‘Is there anything else?’
‘Uh …’ He hesitated. ‘Is everything okay with you?’
‘Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?’
‘I dunno, maybe because you sound like you’re two seconds away from throwing something at me through the phone?’
Unbelievable, I wanted to yell at him.So you can seduce me and then subsequently pretend like you didn’t give me the most glorious orgasms of my life, slip right back into corporate mode, go hours without responding to my texts and I can’t even sound a little bit cross about it?
There was no way my pride would let me say all that, so instead I went with, ‘Forgive me for not sounding more warm and fuzzy when you went completely MIA on me yesterday.’
I could hear him exhaling loudly through the phone. ‘I wasn’t gallivanting around, Kavya,’ he said, his voice low and defensive. ‘I was at the shoot all day trying to keep it from falling apart. The actor was late so we lost the light we wanted, there was a one-hour powercut and Tanya had to leave before dark so I had to shoot half of the social media content myself.’ He let out a humourless laugh. ‘It was mad.’
My stomach clenched as I gave in to the grudging awareness that he wasn’t wrong. Not about this anyway. As far as the launch campaign was concerned, he’d been super helpful. An asset, even. It wasn’t fair to lump the work stuff in with everything that was bothering me about him. ‘Okay,’ I said, dialling back the edge in my voice. ‘Sorry … and thanks for holding down the fort.’
‘It’s cool.’ He sighed, settling back into his usual, easy tone. ‘Did you find another location for tomorrow?’
‘Yeah, a friend offered his place … for free.’
He let out a low whistle. ‘That’s very resourceful of you.’
I ignored his tone. ‘When does your flight land?’
‘Around 7 tonight … will you come to pick us up?’
I snorted. ‘Are you mad? It’s a two-hour drive from my place.’
‘So?’
‘So, no!’ I laughed. ‘I’ve booked you a cab. It’ll drop you, Tanya and the team straight to your hotel.’
He hummed. ‘Right. And where are you staying?’
‘With my family, of course.’
‘Oh.’
He hung up after a quick goodbye and I was left wondering if I’d imagined the disappointment in his voice.
Despite my many assurances that we’d be fine on our own, Arjun had decided to stay back and help out at the shoot. And by ‘help out’, I mean he’d been rearranging half the guest house’s furniture without complaint, accommodating every odd request the crew threw at him, and keeping everyone fuelled with endless rounds of chai and cookies.
We had set up camp in the master bedroom on the first floor, the one with the wide glass window that opened out to the valley. The crew had dragged the study table closer to the light, turned the coffee table into a makeshift prop station and were currently arguing about whether the curtain should be half-drawn or all the way open. The actor was touching up her lipstick in the corner while the director, Abhinav, paced behind the monitor, muttering about cloud cover.
Tanya, Neil and I were perched on stools just outside the doorway, taking a brief breather while the shot was being set up. Arjun had disappeared down the hallway again, probably to hunt for another extension cord or an extra chair. Tanya nudged me lightly with her elbow as he passed by, carrying a stack of fresh cushions.
‘He’s quite the team player, isn’t he?’ she murmured.
‘He’s just making sure we don’t burn the place down.’ I took a sip of water, pretending this was all perfectly normal.
‘I doubt he’d mind if we did,’ she said, laughing. ‘As long as you asked nicely.’
I threw her a pointed look and she clamped her lips shut, trying to hold back her next quip. ‘So … he’s an old friend, huh?’
Next to me, Neil shifted his weight on the stool as he studied the shot list. The thought of glossing over my past with Arjun for his benefitdidcross my mind, but then a more sound logic presented itself:Why would he care? It’s not like he likes me or anything.
