mr sweet

Sitara was having the worst day in the world.

Once a lawyer, she had thought life going over endless reams of legal documents could not be worse than *not* getting a story and being yelled at. So she switched over to the media. Newspapers, to be precise. Her written test was excellent, she charmed the heck out of her future editor at her interview and even managed to talk her way out of getting a beginner’s salary.

Which is why, when she *did* make mistakes, he got really mad. Forget red cheeks. The man had a round face, he was short and plump, but refused to accept it. So he wore t-shirts that were too small for him. When he was angry, these t-shirts seemed to expand around his tummy and shrink around the chest because he would inhale that much. And then he would explode. The man’s voice could carry across the ground floor of our editorial building. Besides that, his extremely long, grey ear hair almost curled up like Malayali cinema villain’s curly moustaches.

So the day that Sitara screwed up for the third time in two days, his ear hair really got curly.

“How, how, HOW can you miss environment day?! We had a fucking supplement out today? The Indian Times printed a GREEN NEWSPAPER!!!”

Sitara shuddered remembering the force of the man’s temper against the already-heavy load she was carrying. Although she couldn’t blame him. What so-called environmental reporter didn’t plan ahead for these things? Especially because she was busy planning a romantic evening for her one-year anniversary with her boyfriend. Now, she would forever remember that the day coincided with World Environment Day.

“Shame on me,” she muttered, while packing up her things.

The boss came in at that moment. She froze. His eyes were bulging out of his face as he stared at her, he was not blinking.

“Y-Yes, sir?”

“What the fuck are you doing?” His voice was very quiet.

“Packing my things, sir……?” She was almost whispering.

Then she saw it. He inhaled.

And then he exhaled.

“What the HELL are you? You goddamn lawyer people never give up! And now.. now you mess up and think you can just LEAVE?! FUCK no! I want a page one story for tomorrow! Give it to me in time for the city edition!”

She swallowed. “Sir, it’s already 3.30.”

“Well, you’d better work fast then.”

Sitara never worked harder and faster on her one-year anniversary. It also helped that her boyfriend left her her favourite flower, an orchid, on her desk when he left. [This was one of the few times she appreciated having a boyfriend in the same building.]

So at 9.47 pm that night, when she finally got home to the elaborate dinner she had planned, she gave him an anniversary he would probably never forget.

As they were falling asleep, she muttered, “You are the sweetest. I don’t even know where you got an orchid from. Our goddamn office is in that hellhole of an industrial area.”

“Uhm. Truth? You’ve been talking about that flower a lot, so…”

“Huh?”

“Well, the truth is........ a boyfriend would look for a place where he could get it no?” And Sitara melted into his dimpled chin as he grinned down at her.

There was a collective roar from Paul’s friends when he got to that part of the story about their anniversary.

“Dude! Nicely played!”

“What the fuck, man, how come these things don’t happen to me!”

Among all that, “Wait, wait, wait, wait!!”

The decibel level dropped slightly. “Yes?”

“So if it wasn’t you, who left that flower for her, Mr Sweet?”

“No idea, dude. If I ever find out, I’ll thank the dude, though. The sex has never been better!” And he dimpled at his dudes.