Tewari & Sons, 23, Chandni Chowk

Chapter 17: The Non-Date

Khushi's entire attention was on Leher who had now developed enough motor skills to grab things and put them into her mouth. She now had Khushi's bag's handle and was generously adding all her drool to it. Khushi grabbed the handle from Leher and picked her up and put her on her lap. She was such a cute baby. Though, all babies were cute, she supposed. Now that her features were developing a little more, she could see how Leher looked so much like Preeto, inheriting her mother's impish eyes.

"Khushi, are you even listening to me?" Preeto said impatiently and she looked up at her friend.

Preeto was standing next to her wardrobe and had thrown a pile of clothes on the bed. She was going through her clothes on the shelves and was essentially creating a mess.

"Kya kar rahi hai, Preeto, Sab kuch uthal puthal ho raha hai," Khushi said, finally putting Leher down on the floor, handing a plastic toy to her and walking towards her friend.

"Like I said you can take all these clothes. Most of them are very new. Some I have never worn and a few I have worn once or twice. You can throw them away if you want," Preeto said, finally closing the cupboard and almost collapsing into the bed. A young woman came in just then and picked up Leher and took her to the other room. Preeto had found a full-time help, which is why she had to make the sudden trip to Amritsar. Preeto was keen to get back to her job soon and that was only possible if she found someone to take care of Leher. Ginny's business had been slow lately and Preeto was worried that they would run out of their savings soon and have to do lifestyle cutbacks that she was not ready for. So finding someone to care for Leher became very important.

"Why are you giving away your clothes? I can't wear these? And who will I give them to," she said to her friend.

"I don't fit into any of them. I am never getting my pre-pregnancy body, so you keep them. I know they are hand-me-downs.." Preeto trailed off, looking a little unsure now.

Though Preeto was not very rich, she was comfortably well-off and she was always conscious about not making her feel alienated because of this. Though Khushi sometimes felt that Preeto who could be best classified as bindaas, but in matters of class and economics she was always sensitive. At times a bit too sensitive.

"It is not that.. these are not my type of clothes.. they are so.. Preeto. Besides, you have almost lost all of the pregnancy weight gain. You will start working soon and you will need nice clothes. Keep them."

"What do you mean they are so Preeto?" she pounced on that one little thing she said.

Khushi did not answer Preeto's question and instead offered her a grin. While in college, she realised that the politics of the university determined how people dressed there. The more left-leaning the college, the more fashionable and edgy their clothes choices were. The more right-leaning the politics, the more conservative the fashion was. Alchemy's political ideology was a Centrist one and therefore fitted into neither categories. And much to Khushi's delight, nobody really cared that much for what people wore. In college, perhaps Preeto was one of the better dressed people with her distress jeans and loud-printed kurtis. Khushi's easy-going sense of dressing mostly made up of knock-offs that she got from Sarojini Market or Janpath did not attract any mocking from her classmates. Strangely enough, in New-Ons even in an uniform she stood out. But most importantly, Khushi was an athlete, nobody expected hi-fashion from her. Once out of college, when Tewari & Sons fell on her lap she dressed a little differently, but still kept it simple. Preeto's fashion sense changed considerably after her marriage with Ginny. She wore Punjabi suits, with shimmery fabric and tightly tailored so that it fitted her snugly. No, she could not wear that.

"Acha, at least yeh Arnav ke swath jo tumhara date hai uske like toh ek dress le le. How about this one?" Preeto said holding a white kurta with embroidery in silver. It was very pretty, delicate and feminine. Absolutely not her. But the more important thing was that she was not going on a date with Arnav. But there was no point arguing with Preeto. She should have thought of this before telling Preeto about her dinner plans with Arnav. Trust her to attribute romantic intentions to where there were none.