Chapter 28

—Thursday, February 3, 2022—

Imlie stood up slowly, carefully extracting her hand from Aryan’s hair. It was surprisingly soft, she smiled to herself thinking what shampoo and conditioner The Aryan Singh Rathore must deep worthy enough for him to use. She tip toed out of the room, and before she closed the door, she looked back at Aryan, sleeping peacefully. She’d heard him pacing, or typing, or doing some other work in the middle of the night before. Her room was only a couple down from his, and any time she woke up in the middle of the night for some water, she’d been able to hear Aryan awake. She shook her head at his silly request, but smiled thinking that maybe tonight, he wouldn’t be awake at 3:00AM working. As she walked to her room, she cursed herself quietly, she’d forgotten to talk to Aryan about Radhika. He wasn’t in the mood tonight, but she should have brought it up. She climbed into her bed and told herself she’d remember to bring it up tomorrow.

—Friday, February 4, 2022—

Aryan woke up later than usual, it was six-thirty.

Damn it, he thought, The paper would already be delivered.

He clambered out of bed and almost sprinted downstairs. Aryan ran into one of the staff and quickly asked him, “Where’s the paper?”

“I’ll get it for you Aryan Babu.” The staff member walked to the other room to get the paper, and Aryan waited, tapping his foot.

He grabbed it from the staff member, surprising him, and started skimming over the front page, then he looked back at the man who handed him the paper, “Sorry, I’m in a little bit of a rush.”

Aryan’s smile got wider and wider as he read through Aditya Kumar Tripathi’s once in a lifetime byline. It was exactly the piece he was expecting. He was practically skipping as he made his way to the gym. He chuckled, thinking he’d hit at least twenty kilometers today.

Imlie felt the sun streak through the windows of her room on her face, and she opened her eyes slowly. She grabbed for her phone and checked the time, it was seven in the morning, but thank you Sita Maiya, it was a Friday. She just had one more day of work, and then she’d be able to relax for two days. She groaned and sat up, undoing the braid from her hair and getting up to brush her teeth and shower.

Imlie dried her hair and walked downstairs to the mandir, and almost tripped over what she saw. Aryan was pacing in front of the mandir, clearly ready for work. Imlie walked over to him, and he stopped.

“I’ve been waiting for you for so long, where were you?” Aryan snapped.

Imlie looked at him, confused, “Why…were you waiting for me?”

Aryan suddenly looked shy and muttered, “You’re the one who does sets the aarti every day, right? Main…woh…I was waiting for that.”

Imlie was only more confused, “I was just joking yesterday, but did you seriously hit your head somewhere? You? Want to do the aarti? You don’t believe in this stuff.”

Aryan scratched his head, “I just, today’s an important day. That’s it. Why do you care? Just do whatever you have to do to set the plate, I have no idea how to do this stuff.”

Imlie put her hands on her hips, her eyes still narrowed. After a second or two of staring Aryan down, she caved.

“Fine.” Imlie kneeled down in front of the aarti plate and the other items, and gestured to Aryan to copy her. He raised his eyebrows, and didn’t move.

Imlie sighed, and pulled him down by his arms.

“Arre? I just told you I don’t know how to do this stuff.” Aryan said, rubbing one of his knees which was definitely bruised.

Imlie, in the sweetest voice she could muster, said, “Haan, ABP, I know. But you should treat everything in life as an opportunity to learn something new. You taught me that, right?”

Aryan groaned and rolled his eyes.

Imlie picked up the plate and said, “First lesson, no rolling your eyes before Sita Maiya.”

Aryan muttered, “How much do you charge for such an amazing lesson?”

“I heard that ABP, remember, your sarcasm is not only unattractive but it’s also not funny. Now hand me those flowers.” Imlie pointed to them.

Over the next few minutes she told him everything that went on the puja ki thaali, and then stood up.

Aryan followed suit, careful not to drop the thaali in his hands.

“Ok, now do the aarti, and then we can leave for work.” Aryan moved to hand it to Imlie.

Imlie gently pushed it back in his hands, “No. Today you’ll do it.”

Aryan blubbered, “No—that’s not what I meant, I don’t want to sing.”

Imlie grinned, “Why? You love listening to lullabies and singing them so much, sing the aarti.”

Aryan leaned forward, “Badla le rahi ho? Kal raat ke liye.” (Are you taking revenge? For last night?)

Imlie put on a mock scandalized face, “How dare you talk about badla, in front of Sita Maiya! Main sirf tumhe ek mauka de rahi hun. Tum hi hamesha kahate ho na, ek bhi mauka mat gavao?” (I’m just giving you a chance. You're the one who always says, never miss an opportunity.)

Aryan fought the urge to roll his eyes and turned to the Devi Maa murti in front of him, and started singing, nervously at first, but then he got into his stride. Imlie guided the plate clockwise for him, because he forgot to do that. He finished and offered the prasaad and aarti to Imlie, she smiled and took it.

“See, that wasn’t that hard,” Imlie said.

“Imlie, are you a magician?” Arpita called from behind the two of them.

Narmada and Arpita had made their way to the mandir, hearing Aryan sing for the first time in years. Arpita knew her brother wasn’t a good singer, but he wasn’t tone-deaf, and for years he loved to sing to tease Arpita about every little thing. Narmada, upon seeing her son doing an aarti for the first time, had to fight back tears.

Aryan and Imlie turned around, and Imlie smiled, “Arpita Didi, I can’t do magic, but I do think I’ve cracked the secret code on how to get this UNB of yours to do whatever you want.”

“Excuse me, you haven’t cracked anything.” Aryan interjected, but he was almost smiling.

He walked over to Maa and Didi and offered them the aarti too. Narmada took the plate from him after and offered it to him, putting a tilak on his forehead as well. Aryan didn’t fight it today. He bent down and touched Man’s feet.

When eh stood up, Arpita started laughing, “Wow, now are you going to learn how to cook amazing curry chawal from Imlie too? If she’s really on a mission to make you completely sanskaari, at least learn that recipe from her.”

Aryan rolled his eyes, “Didi, please.”

He walked to the front door and put his shoes on. “Imlie!” he shouted, “Let’s go, we’re getting late for work.”

Imlie looked at Kaki Maa and Arpita Didi, and whispered to them, “Did one of you drop him on his head as a kid, was he born like this?”

The three of them giggled, and Imlie grabbed her bag and headed out the door after Aryan. She didn’t know what was going on with him today, but she assumed it had something to do with his board meeting, or something else relating to work.