Chapter 40: Last Night

“You revealed it. Not my fault.” Aakash waved his hands, warding off Cabir’s accusatory glare.

“What’s Schei…whatever it was?” Aarav asked.

“Mind your tongue, Cabir!” Aanya criticised with a glare.

“As you wish, Ma’am! Whatever you say, Ma’am!” He rolled his eyes.

Aanya shrugged him off. Turning to Aakash she spoke, “I’m taking a day off tomorrow, you see. I’ve had a huge workload.” She smiled tiredly, “I just wanted to rest. You have work too. So, I was thinking we could order something from outside rather than one of us cooking.”

“I don’t agree! I want homemade food!” Cabir jumped in.

Aanya’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance, “Why don’t you cook for us tomorrow, then?”

“Nope.”

“Then you can eat out.”

“That’s not a way to treat guests. What about guest rights?”

Breathing deeply to not lose her patience, the black-haired woman flashed him a sickly-sweet smile, “Firstly, you treat this as your own home. So, decide whether you are family or guest. Secondly, you don’t have any guest rights.”

“You know…even family can be treated as ‘guests’.”

“That’s only when they are very distant, you know?” Aakash intervened.

“Aakash, ignore him.” Aanya told him. “And as for you…”

“Yeah?” Cabir grinned; he’d finally managed to get under Aanya’s skin.

“Va te faire foutre”.

“…What?” Cabir looked stumped.

“Mom…I know what that means.” Aarav voiced timidly from one side of the dining table.

“Is that what you learned when you studied French in school?” Aanya glared at him.

“You said it too…” The boy spoke reflexively.

“Are you talking back?” Aanya raised an eyebrow.

“No, no. I’m not. I’m not…” The teenager trailed off.

“Aanya remembered ‘Scheiβe auf’ though she never studied German. You studied French with us and you forgot ‘Va te faire foutre’? It’s French for ‘Scheiβe auf’, get it?” Aakash whispered to Cabir.

“French for Schei…Dafuq?!” Cabir’s eyes lit up. He mimicked Aanya, “Aanya, mind your tongue! There are kids around!”

His voice, coming out intentionally high-pitched, was irritating to the ear.

“Was that supposed to be mimicry? Pathetic.” Aanya cast him a scathing glance as she snorted. Her clear and pleasant-to-the-ear voice was worlds apart from Cabir’s ‘mimicry’.

Cabir shrugged as he cast a helpless look at his best friend…who looked at him as if some distasteful specimen had caught his eye.

“Don’t copy my wife if you are going to make her sound like a failed opera. At least operas are nice to listen to.”

“Woah…is that Aakash’s possessive side speaking?” Cabir widened his eyes, a huge smirk making its way onto his face.

Rolling eyes in derision, Aakash turned back to Aanya, “Ignore him.”

“That’s what I said.”

“That’s what she said.” Cabir echoed.

“Ugh…he doesn’t have any new jokes…” Aakash groaned.

“More importantly, he doesn’t know when to use whatever he does have.” Aanya facepalmed.

Aarav coughed inadvertently.

Three pairs of eyes widened and locked onto him. Aarav quickly looked down, pretending not to have heard anything.

Aanya drew in a deep breath, “Cabir…”

“I’m sorry! My mouth is zipped and locked! Key thrown away!” Cabir pretended to match action to the word.

“Not like we don’t crack these kinds of jokes…” Aarav whispered under his breath but didn’t dare say it loudly.

The four focussed on their dinner yet banter between the three elders sparked again soon enough…though without any more double meaning jokes much to Aarav’s regret.

*****

“Aakash?”

“Mmm?” The spectacled man raised his head from viewing the papers in his study when the door opened.

“Come down, it’s lunchtime.”

“So soon?” He glanced at the watch. The time was 12:30 pm. “Don’t we have lunch around 1:30?” He asked as he arranged the sheets before sliding them into a drawer.

“Actually, Jui called.”

“Jui?”

“Mr. Bala’s secretary. The one you met when you came to pick m up the other day. Remember?”

“Oh, her. What happened? Wasn’t it your day off?” Aakash nodded as he made his way over.

“Oh, she had some important documents that she urgently needed for me to check. Since I wasn’t going to the company, she asked if she could come over to our home. It won’t take long. So, I just wanted to have dinner earlier in case she arrived before 2 o’clock.”

Aanya made way for Aakash and as he stepped out, closed the door behind him.

“By the way, Cabir’s not back yet. He texted that he’ll eat out.”

Aakash sighed, “And he made all that fuss last night.”

“I texted him something similar. ‘After you moaned about it all through the night’."

“His reply?” Aakash had a slim suspicion when he saw Aanya’s expression while she was speaking.

“He asked, ‘When?’” Aanya rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t paying too much attention so I just wrote, ‘Obviously when you were with the two of us’.”

“Don’t tell me…” Aakash groaned.

Aanya shrugged and showed him her chat.

Cabir: Huh, what? With the two of you? Sorry, I don’t do threesomes. Now, if you are inviting me to one…I’ll have to politely decline.

Aanya: You love screwing around with me, don’t you?!

Cabir: Screwing you? No! False accusation. Never have, never will! Bros before…you know?

“I just stopped replying back that very moment.” Aanya smacked her forehead. “I mean, it’s not very funny or anything...but he still got me.”

“…Not a very bad comeback, I admit. The second one, I mean.” Aakash blew out some air from between his lips. “Not that it’s very good either.” He quickly added catching her glare. “Whatever. Let’s forget the idiot?”

“…I’ll call Aarav. You set up the table?” Aanya said blowing her hair away from her face.

“Sure.” Aakash smiled as he followed Aanya.