The next day

An assortment of things including tweezers, an extinguished candle, a large tub of Vaseline petroleum jelly, lighter and a hair dryer along with the velvet boxes from the returned order cover every part of the linoleum floor. Somewhere between the rolls of wrapping paper and boxes, Dhruv is sitting on the floor holding a pair of scissors and a spool of cello-tape, helping Maya pack the boxes.

'The hinge is still stiff,' Maya says, opening and closing a box.

Dhruv puts the scissors on the floor and peers over at the box.

'Well, do something!' Maya snaps, looking at him as he stares at her, a small piece of tape stuck to his finger.

'What do I do with this?' he asks, wiggling his finger.

Maya shoots him a sharp look.

'Fine!'

Dhruv begins to stick the tape to the floor, but Maya shouts so loudly that he falls onto his butt.

'Yaar, di, I am not doing this! Ek toh, I am helping.' He places a hand on his heart, staring at her in disbelief.

'Helping? Did I ask you to cut the tape? Why did you cut it?' Maya demands, clearly incensed. She holds out her closed fist. 'Stick it on my hand.'

Dhruv obeys, then snatches the box from her hands begrudgingly. Maya hands him a tub of petroleum jelly, and he applies it generously to the hinge before opening and closing the box a few times to check if it eases.

'Tell me you got these for cheap,' Dhruv says as Maya double-checks the order and places a moonstone ring inside the box.

'Free,' Maya mumbles, writing a "Thank You" note for Shreya, the buyer.

Dhruv checks the other boxes. 'Wow! That cheapo gave away the whole batch for free? I can't believe it!'

Maya smirks, capping the marker pen. 'We lucked out and had the good sense to inquire about the last batch. Thank God he didn't scrap it—or whatever he does with it.'

'But giving it away for free... isn't that too generous?'

'Okay, I may or may not have played dirty by mentioning his competitor, Hardik,' Maya admits with a shrug.

'So that's what you weren't telling me, huh!'

Dhruv starts packing the box.

By evening, Maya has dispatched eighty percent of the backlog and updated the shipping information on the website.

As Dhruv orders Chinese from Zomato, Maya finally gets a moment to relax.

She picks up her phone, swipes down from the top of the screen, and sees a notification.

WhatsApp . Siddharth . 57 min

Can we meet tomorrow?

Maya opens the chat and types:

Busy tomorrow.

Oh

The day after?

Deal!
Where?

Hauz Khas
Same place
Same time

Great!

Maya opens Instagram. With notifications muted, she hadn't noticed that interactions on her profile had spiked nearly tenfold. Her follower count now stands at 2,502. She smiles faintly before swiping left to the chat section, where Akshay's chat is emboldened with a new message. She clicks on it and reads.

He will tell you once you meet him

*******

A/N

Hold onto your socks because the GRAND REVEAL is coming!!! 🤯🎭

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XOXO,
Your resident chaos gremlin,
Shailey 💃💀