Uptown Girl

Chapter 8

Abhi

We're all instructed to take our seats and I'm thankful Claire stuck me at her table with Deepti and Amelia as well as Claire's cousins who are similar in our age.

The only other man though happens to be her cousin named Jared. I've met him before and although I try and give him the benefit of the doubt, he's a total meat head.

He tries to talk to me about sports and as much as I'd like to blame it on the fact my family is Indian, truth is, I just don't enjoy many sports. Not that I've actually had the opportunity to sit down and watch it. It's frustrating to watch something you don't understand.

"Excuse me." I say before getting up from our table and head to the washroom. I hate opening speeches anyways. It's always the same shit.

There's nobody in here and I talk the chance to lean against the wall adjacent to the counters. I scroll through my phone until I find the app I'm looking for. Grindr.

Opening it, it takes a second to refresh but then I'm flooded with images of naked and partially naked guys. I always avoid the nude ones. I catch that one of them says we're 0 km away. He must be here at the event. I click on his profile and I smile to see his first picture is one of him in a suit, he blurred out the people beside him, but his smile is so bright it makes me instantly happy.

Scrolling to the next one I find a picture of him on a beach, in just his shorts and he looks to be mid laugh with an inflatable ball tossed in the air beside him.

Those were the only two images on his profile, but I decide it's enough to message him.

"Hey, so you're at the Oswald Charity Event too? Small world. Do you wanna meet up?" I tuck my bottom lip between my teeth as I think about this message. Anytime I send someone a message like this I worry about it going public. But something about this guy makes me feel like I can trust him. Must be the dimples.

I laugh to myself and hit send.

There's no reply from him in the few minutes I stay in the washroom, so I close the app after my interest begins to fade.

Walking back to the table I sit down just as everyone decides to clap for Denise's speech. She stands with Jordan beside her, proudly smiling at all they've accomplished.

I look around the room to see if I can see this Sam guy, but no avail. Maybe he's at one of the tables I can't see.

***

The crowd begins to diminish as I take my third glass of wine. The waiter looks a bit snarky as he has a constant face of anger on his face. As if he's mad about everything in the world.

I thank him nonetheless and continue searching for Sam. It says he hasn't read my message yet, but I just want to see him in person.

Okay that sounded a bit weird.

"Hey." Deepti catches me out of my attention block and stands beside me, "You okay?" She asks, "You seem off."

"I'm fine. I just was looking for someone. Where's Claire and Amelia?"

"Uh, Amelia is with Lennox and I think Claire is caught up with her cousins."

"Oh." I nod, "You ready to head home? Mama and Papa are saying their goodbyes I think."

She rolls her eyes, "Of course they are. They can never leave too late."

I laugh and we both smile knowingly at each other with a nod of our heads.

"But no, I'm going to stay back with Claire and Amelia to help with end of the night things."

"Like what... Finish all the booze?" I ask sarcastically, knowing Deepti and her drinking habits.

"Only the stuff that's open, of course."

"Okay, you convinced me to stay."

"Let's go find the girls."

I follow her towards Claire, probably knowing better than to interrupt Amelia and Lennox.

"Abhi's going to help for a bit. Are you guys staying too?" Deepti asks towards the cousins and I bite my lip to hold back a laugh.

They four of them stammer and find an excuse to walk away.

"Thank you." Claire mumbles and squeezes Deepti's hand. I wish I had friends that were as close as these girls. I feel like they would all cut off their arm for one another if it meant saving another's life.

"Don't mention it." Deepti says and I can admire the way she's fit in so easily in New York. Maybe it's because she was five when we moved, and I was seven. I've just always felt like an outsider. Especially in the beginning when I still had my accent and it was strange for my classmates to understand. Private schools in America sure have a particular type of student.

I'm glad that my speech has faded into an American accent. I only really slip into my mother tongue when my grandparents are visiting.

Claire and Amelia seem to be engaged in their own conversation and that's when I see him. Sam. He looks dressed up, less so than his suit picture in his bio, but it's the name tag that instantly tells me who he is. No wonder his phone wasn't on.

"Shit." I mumble and break into a cold sweat thinking about the fact he would actually have something to benefit from selling my messages. He could need the money, he could gain publicity, who knows what he could do.

I watch as he seems to direct the three men around him into picking up the plates and he looks to be picking up his phone from his pocket. My heart stops but then he raises it to his ear and takes a call. Maybe his phone is on do not disturb for unimportant stuff.

But even still. He's going to read it when he gets home. What if he tells his friends and they talk him into being greedy.

Oh fuck.