me not to ask you guys to bat for me ever,’ Melissa muttered, and turned back to her computer to pound savagely at the keys.
She was unswervingly loyal to Brian, and she didn’t understand how everyone else wasn’t the same. Brian had done so much for each of them—Melissa knew that he’d given Devdeep a job when he’d been sacked from another agency, and that he’d advanced Neera a pot of money to pay for her mum’s bypass surgery a year ago. Their criticising him was a bit like a bunch of Kolkata street kids saying that the Sisters of Charity could do with a make-over and a new uniform.
* * *
‘I thought you hadn’t yet told your staff about the buy-out?’ said Samir.
‘I haven’t,’ Brian replied. ‘But it’s a small office—the finance guys guessed something was happening and the word must have spread.’
‘Evidently,’ Samir agreed, his voice dry. ‘I’d suggest you talk to them. Those women were looking a bit jittery.’
Or at least one woman had been—the other had been anything but. For a few seconds his mind dwelled on the coolly challenging way in which she’d spoken to him. She’d known who he was, and it hadn’t fazed her in the least.
As it turned out Brian didn’t have to speak to the team as Devdeep had called everyone into a room and was in the process of giving them a pep talk. Brian didn’t object—he was already looking forward to a life of retirement, and anyway, Devdeep would be managing the bulk of the agency work until the sale went through.
Samir Razdan was a corporate restructuring expert, not an adman—there was even a chance Devdeep would get to head the agency once Samir got it fully integrated into the Maximus empire.
‘It’s all very well for you,’ Melissa told Brian crossly as he dropped her at her hostel in Colaba that evening. ‘You and Aunty Liz will have the time of your lives, going off on cruises and world tours, while all of us slog away for Robot Samir.’
Brian gave her a quizzical look. ‘You met him for all of five minutes,’ he pointed out. ‘Surely that’s not long enough to start calling him names?’
‘I looked him up before that,’ she said. ‘He’s a businessman through and through. I don’t think he has a creative bone in his body. He won’t do the agency any good, Brian, he’ll only try and squeeze out the last possible rupee of revenue he can. And you can tell a lot in five minutes—he’s pretty cold-blooded, and he obviously thinks he’s God’s gift to womankind.’
‘Ah...’ Brian said. ‘So that’s it. Paid more attention to Neera, did he?’
Brian was in his mid-fifties, and he still admired the fair-skinned, luscious beauties of his youth—Neera was a pretty fine example of the type.
‘No,’ Melissa said, exasperated. Apart from trivialising her concerns about the takeover, it wasn’t even true. Samir had hardly noticed Neera, and while he might not have been bowled over by Melissa she’d at least caught his attention.
Unbidden, her thoughts drifted back to the second their eyes had met...then she shook herself angrily. Brian’s habit of reducing everything to a simple man-woman equation was as annoying as it was infectious.
‘Look, I’m sorry I took off at you,’ she said. ‘It’s just that you and Aunty Liz have been like family to me, and I don’t know... I’m just a bit...’
The car had stopped outside the working women’s hostel where Melissa lived, and Brian reached out to give her a clumsy pat on the shoulder.
‘Sorry,’ Melissa said again, taking in his anxious expression. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not about to start howling. Just...stay in touch, OK? Even when you’re off living the high life,’ she added as she climbed out of the car, smiling at him before she closed the door.
‘Yes, of course.’
Overall, Brian looked rather relieved to be rid of her, and she couldn’t blame him. Emotional scenes weren’t really his thing.
‘I’ll ask Liz to call you. Fix dinner with us this Sunday, maybe, and we can talk things over.’
He was about to drive off when something struck him and he rolled the window down. ‘Don’t judge Samir too hastily, OK? He’s a great guy—just a little reserved. Wait till you get to know him better.’
Melissa waited while he drove off and then walked into the hostel, uncharacteristic tears pricking at her eyelids. She was distantly related to Brian’s wife, and two years ago, when her family had turned against her, Liz and Brian had brought her to Mumbai, given her a job and helped her settle down. Brian insisted that she’d more than repaid the debt with the amount of hard work she’d put in since joining the agency, but she felt more grateful and connected to the couple than she had to anyone else in her life. Brian’s announcement had come as a shock—it felt as if her last source of emotional support was now gone.
* * *
Three weeks later, when Samir moved into the Mendonca Advertising corner office, he found himself automatically looking for the dusky elfin woman he’d met the first day he’d visited the office. Brian had spoken to him about her later, and he was intrigued by the few things that Brian had let drop. He didn’t see her for the first week, though, and it was only at the beginning of the next week that he thought to ask someone where she was.
‘Is everyone in the office, Devdeep?’ he asked.
Devdeep wrinkled his forehead. ‘Yes, I think so,’ he said. ‘Was there someone you’d like to meet in particular? Because I’ve already lined up discussions with the team heads, but I can rejig them if needed.’
Distracted for a second by a vivid mental image of jigging team heads, Samir shook his head. ‘No. There were a couple of women Brian introduced me to the first day I was here. I can’t see either of them around.’
‘Ah, Neera and Melissa,’ Devdeep said. ‘Neera’s not well, but Melissa should be around—actually, she should be here already. I’ll speak to her about it. She’s normally never late.’
Samir heroically resisted the impulse to tell Devdeep not to get his panties in a twist and said instead, ‘Don’t worry about it. I was just wondering if she was on leave today.’
Ten minutes later he was left in no doubt as a pink-cheeked Melissa bounced into his office.
‘Devdeep said you were looking for me,’ she said. She’d already had a bit of a spat with Devdeep, and she was all set to do battle. ‘I got little delayed because there wasn’t a single cab on the roads today. There’s some kind of a strike. I’d have called and told someone if I’d known you needed to talk to me.’ She came to an abrupt halt, realising that it sounded as if she was making excuses. Damn, she’d wanted to come across as being completely cool and in charge of the situation.
Samir waited patiently till she was done. ‘I asked where you were because I was looking around for familiar faces,’ he said. ‘I didn’t see you all of last week.’
She was even prettier than he’d remembered—large, expressive chocolate-brown eyes in a piquant little face framed by masses of spun-silk hair. Right now, she looked defensive, and a lot less fiery than when he’d first met her, and he smiled at her reassuringly. The last thing he wanted was to terrorise the junior
