tales of Suchita

Girish had taken work from home that day. He was unwell and he had this intense need to cook a three-course dinner for his wife. Today was a special day for her, she was winning an award for employee of the year. He knew she thought she was being given the award because her organization had to show that a woman had won it this year but he was eager to celebrate nonetheless.

He loved celebrating things and this was an award. So, despite the way Sonam had narrowed her eyes like she would saw through his torso if he did anything big, he was going to make her dinner: wine with cheese, grilled fish with her favourite veggies and for dessert – carrot cake. It was his mother’s recipe that he had perfected over the years.

He was removing the ingredients for the cake when his phone rang. It was a video call from Sonam. He looked at the small clock in the kitchen. Sonam had got it for him for their anniversary. It had a little him inside and vegetables for numbers. She said it was to remind him not to spend too much time in the kitchen.

It was noon. It was too early for her to have received the award. Because it was a woman, they had organized a photo shoot at four. The global CEO of her company had been flown in to present her with the award and for the photo op. He chuckled remembering the way Sonam had rolled her eyes when she had received the email detailing out how her day would go. Apparently, there was also going to be a team lunch.

He answered the call. “Hi babe. Are you fed up already?” Her nose wrinkled and he laughed. “You have a bit of lipstick on your rabbit teeth. Might want to wipe it.”

Sonam didn’t even bat an eye, using the video call to wipe the lipstick. “Gone?”

“Just the thing I needed to see today, thanks.”

“What are you doing? I’m bored. They won’t let me work today and it’s…frankly it’s so embarrassing.”

Girish nodded. He had already given her a lecture on how her nemesis and colleague Rohan had basked in the attention last year because men were wired to the I deserve this narrative. But he knew now wasn’t the time to repeat it.

So, to distract her, he said, “I am making your favourite.”

“Cheesecake?”

“Ah no.”

“Oh…are you making the keema kebab?”

Girish started sweating. “No, not that either.”

Her forehead scrunched as if she was doing some insane calculations and not trying to figure out what her favourite was. “Are you making pasta?”

“Okay, how about I tell you I’m making grilled fish and you pretend it’s your favourite and be surprised when I serve it?”

She smiled radiantly. “But I do love grilled fish. I love everything you cook. You put food in front of me, tell me you have made it, and I’ll love it.”

His eyes went soft and that wrinkled expression came back on her face. He said, “Why are you calling? I was expecting a call at five telling me how horrible your meeting with Ekta went.”

“I’m having lunch with her actually. Plans have changed. She needs to fly to the Delhi office in the evening so they changed the team lunch to a her and me lunch. They want to take more aesthetically pleasing photos of us eating and sharing wisdom of what it takes to be a woman leader in today’s time.”

Girish felt a surge of pride. He controlled it and said neutrally, “Babe I know it may seem a lot of pointless posturing to you but think of your team members, who are all women, so proud of you for that, and what this conversation would mean to them.”

Sonam snapped her fingers. “That’s exactly why I called you. I needed that perspective. See, I knew I married you for a reason. You always make me feel better. Okay they’re summoning me. Need to go. Bye. Love you. Thank you, gorgeous. And I cannot wait for my very secret, very surprise dinner.”

She hung up the phone, not waiting for him to respond. He shook his head fondly and let his phone go dead. Okay, change of plans. Wine wouldn’t do. He’d have to remove the expensive whiskey. He hummed softly to himself as he went about his chores.

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Song: Renaissance by Paolo Buonvino and Skin

Check out the other posts for 2023 here. Written as part of #BlogchatterA2Z

Header image: Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash