Sorting Out Sid (34 page)
‘W
ell, I think it looks fine now. Very nice, in fact.’
Sid was muttering to himself as he fingered his French beard. He was doing his mandatory quick-check in the car’s rear-view mirror. Emboldened by his thickening facial hair, Sid sprang out of the car and shut the door. He turned the key in the lock and then whipped around purposefully.
‘Hello,’ Aditi said, her curious face about a foot and a half away from his.
‘Aaarrgghh!’ He cut himself off abruptly. First Rukmini, now Aditi. Why were women springing at him out of the shadows tonight? He recovered. ‘Hello, Adu.’
‘Hello, stranger, where have you been? I hardly get to see you these days.’
‘Just been busy,’ Sid said. ‘Oh, er, big news … we signed the papers this week. And Mandira’s moving out. She’s … almost done.’
Aditi raised her eyebrows in surprise. ‘Oh … Wow … Finally.’ She looked as if she was going to say something else, but then changed track. ‘So, here to see Neha?’
‘Er, yes. Just going up.’
‘Okay,’ she said. Then a thought seemed to strike her. ‘So, then, who’s that guy I saw her go up with? About half an hour back.’ Sid froze. He tried to figure out how to frame his response, but she continued in a petulant tone, ‘You guys having a dinner party? Why am I not invited?’ She sighed and batted her eyelashes. ‘He’s handsome.’
Sid said drily, ‘Hey, is that Krish there behind you?’
Aditi’s head whipped around and after a quick scan she looked back at Sid sheepishly. ‘Ha … ha … Very funny … Such an old one,’ she said and continued breezily, ‘Got to run. Anyway, I shouldn’t be so nosy … I know how you feel about me interfering. I’ll leave you to your little threesome then.’
She waved at Sid and took off, a bounce in her step.
Sid, on the other hand, started walking towards Neha’s building with the slowest steps he had ever taken in his life.
He had changed his mind about a dozen times by the time the elevator
–
he was too distracted to take the stairs
–
reached the thirteenth floor. But he decided he would do what he had planned to. After all, if he had come this far, there was no point going back without at least saying hello to her.
And trying to find out what the fuck was going on.
Sid rang the bell in a determined manner, pressing the switch harder than usual. The long, loud chiming filled his ears.
Within three seconds the door opened. Neha’s face was a little annoyed, but her features relaxed when she saw it was him. ‘Sid! Hi,’ she said in a whisper.
‘Hi,’ he whispered back, unconsciously imitating her. He added, ‘Why are we whispering?’
‘Oh.’ She giggled, leaning against the doorway. ‘I don’t know. I was afraid the bell might wake Kippy
–
she’s asleep. She’s been quite sick the last few nights.’ Something seemed to occur to her. ‘Hey, sorry, I couldn’t respond to your last message, I’ve barely had time to breathe…’
‘That’s okay.’ Sid felt a bit better already. She didn’t seem mad at him
–
that was a relief. Then Sid remembered her mystery guest. He said, ‘Mind if I come in?’
She seemed a bit uncertain, but then said, ‘Sure, why not? I’ve got someone over, come in and meet him.’
She led the way and he sauntered in behind her as casually as possible.
‘Sid, meet Shiv.’
Sid gave the stranger a cool, challenging look and said, ‘Hello.’
He was the clean-shaven, chocolate-faced, traditionally good-looking variety with spiky, short, gelled hair. He looked too young, maybe in his twenties. What the hell was Neha doing with a child? But then, she was barely thirty herself. Besides, some women did seem to have a strange fascination for younger men. Sid looked at the intruder with an air of superiority, trying his best to look intimidating.
In return, Shiv gave him a friendly grin that revealed perfect white teeth. In what seemed to Sid a surprisingly and rather unnecessarily deep voice, he said, ‘Hello, Sid.’
Sid’s heart sank as Shiv rose to shake his hand … and kept rising … further … and further. The guy was at least six-four, a full six inches taller than he was. Sid took his hand to shake it, and squeezed much harder than usual, but Shiv seemed not to notice. His own grip was vice-like. Bloody, good-looking, overconfident, overgrown twerp.
Sid racked his brains for something to say. Just then there was a whimpering cry from the other room. Neha hurried away, saying, ‘Oh, Kippy’s up again. Excuse me for a few minutes.’
‘Of course,’ said Shiv.
Sid repeated, ‘Of course.’
Now it was just the two of them. Shiv sat down and gestured politely to Sid that he should sit too. Sid stared for a second. He wanted to grab this guy’s neck and use it as the pivot for some sort of karate move that would end up with slamming him down on the floor hard. Sid sat down slowly on a chair, and gazed at Shiv in what he hoped was an imposing manner. Shiv didn’t see it though
–
he was busy examining his well-manicured nails.
‘Sissy,’ thought Sid.
‘Excuse me?’ Shiv said in his deep, polite voice and Sid realized he had said it out loud.
‘Pissy,’ he explained. ‘I’ll be right back from the … uh, loo.’
Shiv inclined his head in a courteous gesture, giving no indication that he might have preferred not to receive so much information. Sid made his way to the bathroom, thinking about what his next move would be.
He had no frickin’ clue yet how he would do it, but this guy had to go.
When Sid emerged from the loo, Neha was still in the bedroom. Shiv looked up at him with a friendly smile and said, ‘This is a beautiful residential area, do you live here too?’
‘No,’ said Sid, ‘but close by.’ He decided to add, ‘
Very
close by.’
Shiv’s smile wavered ever so slightly but Sid was watching closely for his reaction and noticed his momentary confusion. He decided to continue along the same lines since it appeared to be throwing Shiv off a little. ‘We’re very close … Neha and me … Me and Neha.’ He was pleased to see that the fellow was looking flustered by this, so he couldn’t resist adding, ‘In fact, she’s told me lots about you.’
‘Oh,’ Shiv said, surprised. ‘I didn’t realize. I’ve been a little out of touch with her for the last few years. I’ve been based in America and moved back only recently.’
‘And thought that you’d get back in touch now, eh? Of course, of course,’ Sid said in a snide manner. He was beginning to enjoy himself. He glanced around once to make sure Neha was still in the other room. ‘Well, then, you don’t really know what’s going on with Neha, right?’ He had a strong feeling that this fellow didn’t know about Neha and him being a thing. He briefly wondered why Neha hadn’t told him. But, then, he had told her that he didn’t want too many people to know. One had to give her the benefit of doubt.
‘Not really,’ Shiv admitted, ‘but I am hoping to change that. We were pretty close earlier. And I know things haven’t been easy for her after the divorce. But we haven’t had much chance to talk about it yet.’
Sid narrowed his eyes. This guy clearly thought he could just waltz in and take advantage of the situation. He had some gall. Just like any other over-confident, America-returned pseud. But he had to think fast and handle this properly. The kid thought he was a smooth operator. Well, Sid had his number. Operator. Number. Huh. Wait, he had to concentrate. Subtlety was the thing. Sid had to drop some subtle hints, that was it. He opened his mouth to say something, but Shiv spoke first.
‘I think I might end up staying the night, and so we’ll hopefully get a chance to catch up on everything.’
Sid’s blood ran cold. Stay the night? The idea. The nerve. The cheek. The … The bastard.
Subtlety be damned. Through gritted teeth Sid got the words out. ‘Well, well, well … Young Shiv. You’re obviously a Man with a Plan.’
Shiv looked at him blankly and then his smooth face scrunched up in confusion. ‘Sorry? … I don’t quite get what…’
‘Of course, you wouldn’t.’ Sid’s words came out in a low hiss. ‘And I might as well tell you now, you’re not going to get
anything
around here.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Shiv looked a little fearful now apart from confused. Sid smelt blood and it emboldened him to continue his attack.
‘Listen, pretty boy…’ Sid had never used that phrase before, but realized only now that he had always wanted to
–
it gave him a bit of a thrill. Till now, he had always been at the receiving end of all the bullying. He leaned in closer towards Shiv with what he hoped was a menacing leer. ‘What Neha needs now is a Real Man … Someone older and wiser … Someone who’s going to be around … Someone who’s divorced himself, ideally, so that he can really understand what it’s like.’ Sid paused before delivering his grand finish. ‘Not some fresh-faced…’ He tried to remember the phrase that had occurred to him. ‘Overconfident, opportunistic, America-returned pseud.’
Till this point, Shiv had been cringing and edging away from Sid as far as he could go without falling off the sofa. But at these last words he stiffened.
‘Pseud?’ he cried indignantly, ‘What do you mean? I’m not a pseud … never been one. You can ask Neha didi about it.’
There was an inordinately long pause.
‘Excuse me?’ Sid choked out weakly. ‘Neha
didi
?’
‘Of course.’ Shiv looked indignant. ‘We may be cousins, but I’ve always thought of her as an elder sister. She did so much to guide me when I was a kid, and I know I haven’t been around, but I just moved back! I’ve never been married or divorced, but I will help her in whatever way I can!’
‘Okay, shhh, ’ Sid said in a panic. ‘Look, it was just … I thought you were someone else.’
But Shiv was still bubbling over with indignation. ‘But you yelled at me! And called me a pseud!’ It was clear that Sid had hit a nerve with this one. ‘No one’s ever…’
‘Oh no, yaar.’ Sid was getting desperate. ‘I didn’t say pseud, I said … dude!’
‘You did not!’ Shiv’s voice was getting even louder now and he stood up as he said, ‘You said I was an overconfident, opportunistic, fresh-faced, America-returned pseud.’
‘Look,’ said Sid, getting quickly to his feet too, wishing the fellow would just keep his voice down, ‘look, let’s not upset Neha with this little … misunderstanding, okay? She’s going through a lot … because of the divorce and stuff.’ He searched for the words that would calm this fellow down. ‘We don’t know how she might react, okay?’
Shiv looked doubtful now, so Sid pressed on. ‘She looks calm on the surface, but she really has trouble handling herself these days.’ He knew it was grossly untrue, but he had to try and stop this kid from squealing to Neha didi. How on earth would he ever explain insulting a young, baby-brother type
of Cousin Shiv to her? So he finished in a dramatic whisper, ‘The doctors have said the slightest sign of conflict, and she’ll go over the edge. You don’t know her, she’s a real nervous wreck.’
‘What?’
Neha’s voice, from behind Sid, was confused and angry. ‘Who are you talking about, Sid?’
He felt the blood draining from his face and the tips of his ears flush. At what point exactly had she come in? Sid took a deep breath to centre himself.
