Half Girlfriend (1)

We went to her kitchen. She cooked dinner and I made a salad of
tomatoes and cucumber with salt, pepper and lemon juice. I set the
table while she cooked the food.
We sat down to eat, facing each other at the dining table.
‘When will you arrive in Dumraon?’ I said as I mixed the daal and
rice.
‘You won’t freak out if I’m there, no?’
‘Are you stupid? Just come with me tomorrow morning.’
‘No, no. I can’t. Too much work,’ she said.
‘So when?’ I said.
‘Tuesday morning with the Foundation people.You’ve told them
about me, right?’
‘Yes,’ I said. I had already given Riya Samantha’s number. Riya's
car would follow the Foundation’s contingent. They would all come
together.
‘The salad is nice,’ she said.
‘It’s nothing. So simple,’ I said.
‘Simple and nice. I like it. I like simple and nice, Madhav.’
Is that how she sees me too—simple and nice? Or am I too simple
and too nice?
*
Post dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen and washed the dishes. We
came back to the living room. Riya reclined on the diwan. ‘I’m so
tired.’
I checked the time. It was ten.
‘I better leave,’ I said.
Riya coughed again. I got her a glass of warm water.
‘After this speech, your treatment is our first priority. We need to
find that allergen or whatever,’ I said.
‘I’m fine. See, it’s gone now,’ she said.
She shut her eyes and patted the mattress, signalling for me to sit
next to her. She then put her head on my lap and turned on her side
towards me, her eyes closed, by all accounts fast asleep.