The shark and the saint

10. Just business

Prerna brought Kukki home and after dinner put the girl down to sleep. She was with Kukki when Rishabh came home. Rishabh went up to his room to put away new work files, but when he opened the drawer, he found his files out of place. He sighed and took out files to rearrange them the way he liked. The last file in his hand was of Siya.

Rishabh sat holding the file for some time, quietly talking to himself in his head. Reluctantly, he was going to put away his late wife's file when he saw the Basu file on top. Rishabh sighed and replaced the files, taking the Basu file with him.

Mr. Bajaj went downstairs to see Kukki, and stopped at the door seeing his daughter sleeping on her new mother's lap. Rishabh swallowed hard; how he wished that had been Siya sitting there. He shook his head and went in, sitting beside Ms. Sharma.

"Yeh, Basu file hai. Aapne abh tak Kukki ke liye bohot kuch kiya hai. Aap apna promise nibha rahi hain, and I'll keep my promise," he placed the file beside her. "Main Mr. Basu ke piche nahi jaunga. Main Basus ke saath apne past ki karwaahat bhulane ke liye ready hoon, bus koi mere present ko na touch kare."

That last bit got to Prerna. "Past ki karwaahat?"

Rishabh sighed, catching himself. "Har baat bataane ka sahi waqt hota hai. Abhi nahi," he finally turned his attention to his daughter, stroking her sleeping face. "Abhi bas aap Kukki ke saath rahein. Yeh khush rahe, isse pyaar milta rahe. Kukki ke aage nothing else matters."

After a few moments of silence, Rishabh left and Prerna fell asleep beside Kukki.

In the morning, the nanny woke them up for school and Prerna helped her get ready. They ate breakfast with Rishabh before he took Kukki with him to drop her off at school.

Later in the day, Kukki was home and taking a nap while Prerna was doing some housework. Suddenly, a man from the office came in looking huffed.

"Aap ko kuch chahiye?" Prerna asked him.

"Mr. Bajaj ghar par hain?" The man asked, half scared.

"Abhi tak nahi aaye. Koi problem hai? I can help?..." Prerna volunteered.

"Woh, sir ne kaha tha ki American bankers ko baahir dinner pe leke jaana tha."

"Okay. Toh phir?"

"Jo hotel sir ne bataya, us mein aaj shaadi hai, to woh last minute accommodate nahi kar sakte." The man was sweating. "Agar sir ko pata chal gaya to meri naukri..."

"Kuch nahi hoga aapki job ko," Prerna calmed the man down and called for the housekeeper.

"Yes ma'am?"

"How quickly can we set up the backyard? Aaj raat office ka dinner hai."

"I can make them set up before the party, ma'am."

"Thike, aap saare workers ke saath baahir set up karwao, main khaane ko manage karti hoon."

Prerna turned to the man again. "Suno, office ke konse log hain?"

Prerna got the information from the man and invited the wives of the men who were coming. She then called her mom, asking her to send the street food vendors to her house, telling her she would pay for everything.

By 8pm, the backyard was arranged nicely with lights and curtains and outside couches. The vendors put up their carts at one end of the yard, ready to serve. Prerna had even gotten a bartender.

The ladies Prerna had called started coming one by one with their husbands. They marveled at the decor and commended their boss's wife for her last minute getup. Even Rishabh was shocked to see activity in his backyard.