Tissue For This Issue

Chapter 5

A few days had passed, and Priya had gelled right into the "Ram Kapoor Carpool Gang." Though she had known that Shardul and Ram were not on the strict side, it amazed her to see how jovial and sometimes child-like they acted. However, she found it to be refreshing and began enjoying her morning and evening commutes.

It wasn't that she hadn't enjoyed her commutes with Yuvraj; he had been her boyfriend after all, and she had loved having the opportunity to spend more time with him. But spending time with the gang made her realize that she would sometimes hold herself back from fully being herself with him. For instance, Yuvraj had never truly been a morning person, and Priya could now recall the times where he would shush her if she was too chirpy or energetic. He would often do the same during their evening commutes, citing fatigue as the reason he preferred mostly quiet rides home.

On the other hand, it seemed like her two bosses were always energized and up for banter. Even Alekha, who was also not a morning person, threw in a few snarky yet playful responses when she wasn't dozing off in the back seat. Priya now felt comfortable enough to not only giggle at everyone's jokes—even Ram's groan-worthy ones—but also crack a few of her own.

Today was a bit different. Priya had felt uneasy and nauseous the entire night and had thrown up a few times as well. While her family insisted that she stay home and rest, she convinced them that she was feeling better and could manage to go to work. Fatigue set in as she sat in the car, but she willed herself to power through and make conversation with the others.

Around lunch time, Priya felt the tiredness grow substantially, and she internally rejoiced when she saw her coworkers head to the lunch room. She wasn't feeling too hungry, so she created a makeshift pillow out of her sweater so that she could get some rest and feel energized enough to get through the rest of the work day.

"Hey Pri, you coming for lunch?" Alekha asked as she walked by Priya's desk.

"Yaar, I'm feeling too groggy. I think I'm going to take a short nap to tide me over until we get home."

"Chal, come with me."

Priya sighed and stood up, her limbs feeling heavy as she trudged behind her friend, who had begun walking back towards the Human Resources office.

"Here, sit down," Alekha said as she pulled her chair out. As Priya sat down, she closed the door and dimmed the lights.

"Take this and recline the seat," Alekha continued as she took out a small cushion from one of her drawers. "Mumma must have packed you some lunch, na? Let me bring it here so you can eat it once you're awake."

"Alu, I'm not feeling too hungry. I'm surprised that I was able to keep down breakfast after having such a terrible night. You can have it; I know you love when Mumma makes masala pasta."

"Listen, I'm not going to let you go hungry. I'll eat your lunch, but I'm also going to order you something for when you wake up. Does the baby like Thai coconut soup?"

"The baby doesn't like anything, just like their father," Priya grumbled. "But I still do. You'll order from-"

"Your favorite Thai Palace. Even if you didn't tell me to, I'd have placed the order from there anyways. And listen, just because that ex-boyfriend of yours has bad taste doesn't mean that the baby will too. Now I'd love to continue trash-talking him, but you seriously need to get some rest. Can't have you falling asleep on me and making me suffer alone through Ram's terrible jokes and his bickering with Shardul."

"Achha theek hain, I'll get some rest now. But please make sure to wake me up on time. I don't want to take advantage of my accommodations this early on when I know I'll need to use them more often later."