Good Idea
The rains were slowing down, humidity was up, Fall and winter were great for business traditionally at Yeh & Yang
There was another part time cook now to help Rao Anna out. There was a a lot of waiter turnover, Sumant had two new helpers, Manjunath and Dinesh.
Trisha chopped onions in breakneck speed, cutting veggies was her favorite thing to do, she hated cleaning fish or meat
Prakash Shanbag would often tease her "We need to employ a cleaning person and send her with my daughter to her marital home so he can clean her fish every afternoon"
"Did you hear the rains last night?" Rao Anna tried to chat
She was not as chatty as before.
"I was thinking it would rain all morning" Trisha mumbled peeking out the prep room window
It was still somewhat cloudy but not as bad as last week
The sun peeked out once in a while
Prakash was wiping down tables as Sumant hadnt come in yet
Where the bar used to be was now a wall with cheap framed art of foriegn historical locations
The cherrywood like laminate counter the shelves that held the bottles
now were holding inexpensive Eiffel Towers and Golden Gates bought in the Thursday market
It was intended to bring nostalgia to the tourist crowd
The place did not smell like a Chinese restaurant or a Punjabi one, it smelled like a south Indian eatery, incense and spices
Prakash was content with what he had. He was either at home or here, both places extremely dear to him
He wasnt about to let go of either
French tourists in dreadlocks occasionally walked in even before lunch asking if they could get black coffee or matches to light cigarettes
He would sternly scold them for smoking but make the Konkan coffee black ask them to smoke away from the entrance in the morning
Rao Anna would scowl Prakash was handing out coffee when they werent even officially open for business well until Noon
"I am going to take a break chop up tomatoes and spinach and coriander and then go back to onions" Trisha spoke
with a face puffy like the tomatoes themselves, eyes bulging with tears, swollen
"Good idea" Rao Anna nodded chuckling
"I love dicing onions but they make me cry so much" she sniffled loudly
"You should let Manjunath chop it" Rao Anna smiled
"I like cutting them like the foriegn cooking shows on StarWorld TV" she giggled
He patted her head fondly and watched her smile wipe out slowly
"You are a good girl" he said suppressing tears
She nodded and smiled
Two weeks and two days after the kiss, Shanbag had called her one morning to say he will not be able to use the franchise funds.
As if the universe was conspiring to end the sham when she approached him that evening was when he asked if they could talk
Oz's persuasion was finally beginning to affect him, he had let her talk
"My father does not want to do franchise" she had come out and told him directly
They stood in her balcony looking down on the kids playing
The cat curled up on her bed snoozing waking up every now and then to scowl at a passing shimmer of setting sun as it hit the opposite wall
"you should wait to let him change his mind?" he offered politely
"No, he has thought for almost two months no?" she nodded
"What did you wantt o talk about?" she asked turning towards him
"That the whole thing is his... you dont owe me anything" he couldnt bring himself to say "Leave if you want to"
She looked at him shocked
"Thats too much money" she whispered
He didnt exactly nod "You dont owe me anything Trisha" he said always ready to say her name😳
"Maybe its a good idea for me to go?" she asked him, he couldnt say "Oh yeah fabulous idea I cant wait to be free of this mess"
He stood staring at his feet, rocked on the balls, hands tucked in his pockets
They looked at each other one time, not saying stuff may they should have?
He took a step back as if he didnt want to stop seeing her face
The next morning she packed up her small suitcase and the backpack, the shelves were filled with her schoolwork
"I can ship them to you" he reassured in a somber voice
"I can ship the binder" she nodded realizing thats one thing she owed him too
Edited by Nisha0604 - 6 years ago
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