Ritwik shook his head as he laughed silently. "You've got to be kidding me. Really? My brother? Come on."
"Listen.."
I couldn't do it. It was pretty funny and my sense of humour was dumb. That's one of the things I bonded with my stupid boss. I burst out laughing.
"It's in the water or something." I chuckled as I began to walk towards his room.
"Honestly, didn't think my brother had it in him."
I turned my head back and shrugged. "I didn't ruin your name in case you're wondering. I needed a little help and that was it. It was pretty intense though."
"I can tell."
"You're handling this pretty well compared to the tantrum you threw yesterday." I sat down on the bed and looked at him.
He closed the door and turned towards me. "Yeah, sorry about that. I was irritated because I was supposed to defend you and get you out of that situation or at least chase after you not Pratyush. I just took it out on you."
"That wasn't fair."
"I know." He scratched the back of his neck. "I didn't ask her to come into my room."
"Hmm. Don't care. Do you know where Meenu is? I need my clothes. Surya said Naira gave them to her."
He looked at the clock on the wall. "She's probably sleeping. You'll have to cross my parents' room before you can get to hers. And that's not a very good idea in your ..... situation.."
I groaned. "Why? Just why? Why do I have to deal with these fancy ass clothes? It's so unfairrrr. I have to sleep in these while you get to relax."
"If you want to sleep topless, go ahead. I'm not complaining." he winked at me.
I contemplated it for a bit. Then shook my head. "Nah. I'm not putting out that easily."
He shrugged and threw his discarded shirt at me. "Worth a shot."
I grabbed the bedsheet and pulled it over my head covering myself completely. "You call that a shot? Come on, pet. You can do better than that." I emerged from under the sheets wearing his shirt.
"You look ridiculous." He chuckled.
I flipped my hair back. "No, I look sexy." I unbuttoned the first button while batting my eyelashes at him.
He rolled his eyes at me. "Go to sleep. We have work tomorrow."
"Noooooo. I'm taking another day off."
"Yeah, no. We have an important meeting tomorrow." He began to get under the covers.
"No, you have an important meeting."
"And you're my assistant. You have to be there."
"Come on, please."
"No."
"I'll suck you off."
He stared at me. "I thought you said that wasn't on the table. You'd feel dirty."
I shrugged. "I'm a whore for off days. You work me too much. I need my beauty sleep."
"As tempting as that offer is, no. You can't have a day off."
"I hate you. You're so annoying. This is exactly why people hate their bosses."
"Trust me, it's better for you to go to work instead of staying home. Most of my family is waiting to chew you out."
"And? You think, that bothers me? Ha. Please." I snorted.
"I'm trying to avoid conflict. How about this, you come to work and I'll buy you lunch. Deal?"
"What, I don't have to pack your lunch like a good little wi-partner?"
"No, I'd rather not have food poisoning."
I flipped him off. "Whatever, good for me. Now turn around, I wanna be the big spoon."
"Don't you mean tiny jetpack?"
I hit him with a pillow. "Shut up."
"As you wish, Ma'am." He turned around chuckling.
I draped my right arm and leg over him. He pushed closer to me. "You stink."
"No, I don't." He grumbled.
"You do. The stench is bad." I fake gagged a couple times.
"No, I don't. You're just being mean." He huffed and turned around to face me.
"Ye-"
"Just go to sleep."
"I want to but your smell makes it hard."
"I will murder you in your sleep."
"Just make sure to take a few good pictures for my socials before you burn my corpse."
He grabbed my hand and wrapped it around himself tighter. "Sleep."
I never expected for us to fall back into our routine so easily. It was almost as if the last month or so of me ignoring him beside work hadn't even happened. It reminded me of our first business trip together that caused our intimacy. Sure, it was reckless of me to sleep with my boss within the first week of my employment but hey, it worked out! Plus, I got my first cuddle buddy out of it. So, it wasn't entirely a bad idea.
After finishing the part of justifying my reckless behaviour to myself of my daily routine and setting my alarm, I took sometime to come up with a scenario to fall asleep to. But they quickly started morphing into some not so safe for work memories of the man in my arms. I restarted the scenario in my head. After a few failed attempts, I finally fell asleep.
********†********†********
I'm a naturally guilty person. It doesn't matter what for, but I always feel guilty. I wake up in the morning feeling guilty. So, of course, I woke up feeling guilty that I was staying at the Sinha's. That guilt made me feel like I absolutely had to do something for them. I tried to wake up at 5 a.m. to make breakfast. I managed to actually get up at 6 a.m. and realised that it wasn't sustainable but I could pull it off for a day. I ran downstairs to look for the kitchen. I prayed to the universe once again, hoping this time my prayers would be answered and I'll actually find the person I needed. Turned out I was in luck and I bumped into Meenu. She gave me a once over then began giggling.
Fully aware of what she was thinking, I decided to get to the point. "Please, I need my clothes. I have no idea how to put that fancy thing on."
"It's in your closet." She managed to say between her giggling as if it was the most obvious thing.
"My closet? I don't have it here. It's supposed to be here."
"It's in your room. The one you're staying in. Babu Da's room."
"Oh. Yeah. Right. Right."
"You didn't check the closet?"
"Didn't think to..."
She giggled again. "Were you busy?"
"I'm busy now. Bye."
I didn't respond any further as I went upstairs and used his attached bathroom to clean up. I checked the mirror cabinet and found a new toothbrush. I made a mental note to buy a new one to replace it when I buy the dustbin. I looked for my work clothes but couldn't find them. So, I picked something randomly to wear it for a while. Then went back downstairs to prepare the breakfast.
Meenu was already in the kitchen moving stuff around.
This is going to be awkward. No, wait, awkwardness isn't real. I just have to ignore it all. Yeah. Right. That's what I'll do.
Luckily, Meenu didn't bring anything up and simply asked me what I wanted. I told her I wanted to help with breakfast and she showed me where what was.
The thing about breakfast was that they all preferred different things and had a shit ton of allergies between the 14 of them. But good for me, I already knew each of their preferences. I had to know them by heart so I didn't accidentally kill someone off the groom's party when arranging for the caterers. Meenu filled in the rest of the gaps.
By the time we were done, it was 8 a.m. and apparently it was time for everyone's bed tea. Meenu tried to convince me to take it to them but I refused. I wasn't going to let the whole thing turn into some sort of a habit. I absolutely refused to become a proper Bouma of the family. Just no.
As we argued back and forth, Mishti entered the kitchen. She looked shocked to see me in there and was about to make some comment but stopped herself when she realised Meenu was there too. She then looked at Meenu and asked, "Did you start the tea?"
"It's already done, Mishti Boudi. Notun Boudi made it."
"Why would you allow that?! You know that everyone has a special type of way they like their tea. Now, it's all wasted. So much waste for what?!"
I knew housewives were important. They did a lot of things for the house but I still hated people who made that their personality. I knew it was probably coming from my personal bias of having to deal with someone who needed chores done in a specific way and would still shame me for it, but it still bothered me. I tried my best to ignore it as I reminded myself of Ritwik's words last night.
I'm trying to avoid conflict.
I wasn't going to cause unnecessary drama for his family and him.
"She made it according to everyone's preference." Meenu tried to defend me.
"Yeah right. Like she would know them."
"She did know them. I didn't even have to tell her anything."
Oh poor thing. Bless her heart for trying so hard to stand up for me.
"You're speaking a lot. You don't know what they like. How would you know if she got them right?!"
"Meenu, could you show me a tray? I'll take my part upstairs."
"Your part? What? Already causing divi-"
"I'm trying to be patient with you. I'm really trying. But you're getting on my nerves. If you keep being rude to me or Meenu for no reason, I will cause problems for you. I have way too much shit on you for you to keep acting like this."
"Are you threatening me?! How dare you threaten me?" Her high pitched voice was like nails on a chalkboard. That wasn't her normal pitch. She was purposely doing it to be dramatic.
"What's going on?" Surya's voice cut in.
"Your Notun Boudi is threatening me."
What in the elementary school playground bullshit is this?
"Why?"
"Because I called her out for wasting our things and trying to cause a rift between everyone!"
Surya made a face. It was clear he didn't believe her.
"No, I mean why have you made it your life's goal to harass her? What did Dyuti do to you?"
"You are blaming me? Well of course you are. I can see why you would defend her. She's just as uncultured and rude as you."
"Not nearly as uncultured or rude as entering someone's bedroom on their wedding night at least." I snapped.
"Excuse me?!"
"I'm still pissed at you for calling Naira and Pratyush dogs and now you have the audacity to insult Surya. I-" I moved closer to her until I was right in front of her. "- am seconds from ruining you. You throw one more insult at any of my friends and I will not hesitate to drag you through the mud."
"You-" She turned her head to look at Meenu who looked away and then back at me. "-you will pay for this. You can't keep getting away with insulting me like this."
Tears streamed down her eyes. She ran out the kitchen and into Ritwik, who appeared out of literal thin air.
What the fuck?
He stabilized her. She sniffed and looked at him with teary eyes. She let out a pained sob. "I hope you're happy with her." Then ran away dramatically.
He walked into the kitchen and looked at the of us. "I don't even want to know. It's too early for this shit. I need my tea."
Being petty little hoe that I was, I decided to be passive aggressive. "Make sure you get the right tea and not the wasted one."
He just stared at me for a second and muttered to himself. "What have I done?"