The Best Bride

8. ROBBERS

The next day when Éclair met me in the restaurant, his first question after the morning greeting was; "Did you find me on Saathiplus?"  

I didn't even know what Saathiplus was. I answered him simply, "no". The flicker of disappointment painted his face for a second, which he masked quickly with friendly look again. "You can try sometime later," he said brightly. 

I nodded at him, and rushed to the kitchen to carry out the first customer order.  

Around twelve as soon as I beheld Amuna walking through the entrance door, I grabbed her hand and, ushering her in the kitchen where Éclair wouldn't be able to see or hear us, I asked her about Saathiplus. She gave me one weird look that suggested how dumb I was like eight out of ten.  

"Do you really not know what's it?"  

I shook my head.  

"It's actually Saathiplus dot com, a traditional social networking website where you can add known and unknown people as friends," explained Amuna. "You can chat, share your pictures, videos and status anytime you like with them. All you've to do is log in this website, open an account and then you can use all its features. Sound good?"  

"Sounds interesting," said I, although I was confused with few terms like 'status' and 'account'. I didn't hassle Amuna to explain me these terms, though.  

"If you've never known about this Saathiplus before," said Amuna, "what made you suddenly interested in knowing about it all? Did someone, perhaps, a man, ask you to add him on this website?" 

"It was Éclair."  

"Éclair? You mean our boss?"  

"Mmhm." I nodded with my lips pressed together.  

"Oh," said Amuna, her excitement fading away. "He's on my friends list too. We rarely talked online though."  

"What are you two talking about in the corner?" Roman dai questioned us, over the hissing of pans and kettle.  

"We're just having our age related talk." Amuna joked, "You aren't allowed to listen to girls' talk." 

Roman dai returned to his work after that.  

"Give me your cello phone," said Amuna, holding out her palm up to me, "and I'll teach you how to use this website real quick."  

Whatever she was asking, I knew from its name that I didn't have it. "You can do that later," said I, instead of telling her the truth.  

Éclair walked in the kitchen closely followed by Isaac and Maya who had just arrived. He looked at Amuna and me in particular and said, "Customers in Table-Thirty and Table-Twelve are expecting someone to attend them -"  

"I'm on it," said Amuna, and left the kitchen. I went after her only stopping in the doorway to greet Isaac and Maya "Hi." I felt the burning gazing heat from Éclair on my back. Or was it my imagination? I wasn't sure. 

*** 

"What are you doing tomorrow?" Isaac asked me in the lunch break.  

"I'll be busy here same like today," I replied. 

"You must be too busy not to realize what day is tomorrow, then?"  

"Why do you say so?"  

"Because tomorrow is Saturday, and the restaurant remains closed on Saturdays."  

"Then, I guess I'm free whole day tomorrow," said I.  

"Great," said Isaac. "Come to the Kathmandu City Mall at two tomorrow. I'm giving treats."