CHAPTER TEN
The Hindi word for girl is lardakee.
Kishore had been in the photocopying/faxing room and was heading back down the hall to his office when he caught sight of Julie and Linda on their way towards the lunchroom.
Was this his chance?
He decided he’d spent more than enough time thinking about her and trying to pluck up the courage to talk to her and he couldn’t think of any more lame excuses as to why he should join Julie and Gillian in the boardroom.
Every time Julie walked past him, smelling undeniably of vanilla musk, he’d been stuck for something to say, which he felt made him look silly in her eyes. If he did find the words they were only silly, blabbering outpourings.
If something wasn’t done soon then his chance would slip by. Today was the day and this was the time, he was sure of it.
He knew what he felt called for desperate measures but what?
With his empty mug in his hand, at least it would look like he had a motive, he convinced himself to go to the lunchroom. It was just his luck Linda was coming out. It was now or never, he could feel it in his bones, he couldn’t lose his courage and talk himself out of it again.
Julie looked so sweet sitting at the lunch table with her head bent over her work, her hair shimmering, like flames dancing in a fire. As she glanced up and smiled at him, it gave him the courage to go on. Kishore felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest as he stealthily picked up one of the carnations from the vase on the table. Feeling sick with nerves, he gave the flower a quick flick to shake it free of any water, thrust it towards her and managed a smile.
Just as Julie raised her head, saw the flower and took it from him, Linda came back into the lunchroom. Kishore, like a stunned deer, retreated as fast as he could, half running down the hall, he just arrived at his office door when Linda caught up with him. He was glad she did. If it were left up to him, well, he would probably still be trying to pluck up the courage to talk to Julie. Linda, acting like the boss she was, drilled Kishore as to why he gave Julie the flower. He could only manage to answer a tiny ‘yes’ in answer to Linda’s questions but in his head it was a different situation, the reply he was desperate to shout was, “YES! THIS COULD BE MY ONLY CHANCE, PLEASE GO NOW AND GET HER PHONE NUMBER, HURRY!”
He believed, as a man, if a girl gives you her phone number it constituted as a ‘yes’ - yes she would go out with you. She wouldn’t give her number to just anyone, would she?
As Kishore entered his office to wait for Linda’s return, he felt pretty wound up and his heart was beating far too fast. He couldn’t sit so he paced backwards and forwards, taking his handkerchief from his pocket, he wiped his sticky palms and forehead, the anticipation was far too great. After an extremely long ten minutes, Linda finally came back with a triumphant smile on her face - she was clutching a slip of paper in her hand.
As Kishore took it from her, he felt so happy, it was as if he had just been handed the Nobel peace prize, He wanted to jump up and down with joy but he managed to control himself long enough to thank Linda once or twice or ten times over. As he opened the paper and peered down at Julie’s phone number written in her loopy handwriting, he knew a whole new chapter in his life was about to start.