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Full or Half Franchise
She nervously pushed her chair back completely at a loss to how to react to that one.
She hadnt seen it coming. She was too nervous and afraid to look at him now
"You can have as much money as you want if you will marry me" he said quietly
To the people walking outside the conf rom, these two were deep in conversation.
She looked visibly stunned
She pushed her chair back some more, causing the chair in the back row to tip over
"Umm.. I am not sure" she mumbled collecting her things, bent over the chair by her
"Let me know what you decide" he said quietly
She looked at him now in disbelief
And then sat down
"I am sorry... if this is a joke" she said frantically looking at her phone to see if it was suddenly April 1, nope it was July 7th
"Its not easy I know" he said softly
She heard him exhale
She felt a sudden rush of some emotion
"I dont need money... . Mr Narang" she said visibly shaking, with as much dignity as she could muster
"I understand" he nodded.
She was in a daze, she didnt know what to say, she was here for a seminar. Things like this happened to people in movies not to her.
She understood the usual threats to personal safety and security in big cities but had no clue how to handle a marriage proposal.
From a man about who she had not given one thought in the last month, well... until today.. she had unwittingly checked the door each time it opened during the seminar
But that didnt warrant a wedding proposal.
"I have a boyfriend" she paused by the door
He nodded
"The man you were crossing the road with?" he asked
She looked shocked when she realized he had remembered seeing her and Jayadev crossing the street.
She lowered her gaze
And walked out
She later admonished herself for letting him know she was "taken".
As if otherwise would she have agreed...
She walked out as fast as she could towards the intersection to wave down an auto.
She turned and looked at the high rise. the windows gleamed in fresh rain
Her face was still flushed when she looked at her reflection in the train's mirror
Her heart was racing, mouth was dry
She had no idea what she did to solicit such an offer. Her father would be horrified. He knew of nothing outside Ullal
He must have traveled to Bangalore twice in his entire lifetime of 66 years
She walked back to her berth in a daze and sat down, burying her face in her hand towel
jayadev!!!
She hadnt even thought about him
She picked up her phone
"I will be back at 7 AM" she texted Jaydev and leaned back to let her hammering heart simmer down.
It didnt... she reached Mangalore a sad mess.
Forgetting the tote bag under her berth at first running back into the coach to retrieve it after walking halfway down the platform
The days afterwards would be the same, she felt distracted and afraid as she dealt with the news by herself.
Wondering WHY THE HELL would some stranger offer marriage to her
What was in it for him?
Why HER?
Why MARRIAGE?
By Sunday July 9th she was almost convinced she had only imagined the proposal and it didnt happen for real
It sounded too ridiculous to be real.
One of the gas cylinders had sprung a leak so Mr Shanbag shut down the restaurant Sunday June 9th
Just as she reeled from that shock and lost revenues she learned Mr pai was not coming back.
"How are you going to manage?" she asked her father in panic
He patted her shoulder gently. "We will be OK gas leaks have happened before. We cannot afford piped gas, so we will have to bear with it"
"You never told me about your trip?" he said eagerly "Was there progress? Anything?" he asked
"Umm... I attended a class" she mumbled finding herself blushing
"That boy also never came" he said sadly
"WHO?" she panicked
"Who else? Jayadeva" her father was amused
"Dont worry you did everything you could. I will cook if I cannot find a replacement for Mr pai. The waiters are good boys, we have 4 now. They also help clean and in merchandising" he reassured and coughed and lay back down and snoozed
"We should put a steel grill and cover up the verandah" "You can sleep here through the night if it doesnt rain?" she offered
"Hahaha... we cannot afford piped gas where can we afford to wrap the porch around in steel?"
She picked up his bournvita glass and went in
"I am not going to apologize when I didnt even say anything" she texted Jayadeva
It rained when she went out back to use the toilet... it was the famous Konkan monsoon rain
It would rain all night now
She quickly went back up and locked up. She forgot to ask if her father wanted to use the bathroom before that
She went out to the front porch and found him fast asleep with his head tilted... she sighed and rolled down the worn out coir chic between the two red pillows
And went back into her room and turned on the light and sat down on the bed by the window
The windows were split in half the bottom usually shut the top open on both sides folded... at the hinge
The guava tree by the window rustled as rain lashed.
she didnt think it was right for her to greet him when she was asking him such a ridiculous question based on an equally insane proposal.
To be asking a clarification question about such an idiotic idea?
"Is it for full franchise?" (Will the marriage allow my Dad to have a new fully functional Ready Noodle eatery? or will it just be to bail him out of the current fiscal crisis?")
she emailed Ashvin on his work ID
"when will the marriage be?" she wanted to ask but did not
That would mean her answer was a yes. She didnt want to give him that impression. Nooo
Her father did not know. She would keep it that way.
Its no big deal.
Nothing was going to come of it anyway.
Ashvin responded as usual within minutes as if he waited for her email...
"It will definitely be a full deal" he promised politely
That answer brought her heart to her throat... PLOPPP, Slimy and choking...the words were
very ominous.. as she "unwillingly" imagined a real marriage with such a good looking man.
she tried not to read more into it, it was about the franchise not about the terms of marriage...
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