Raja looked at Sanjay.
Then Vivek.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The thirty thousand suddenly looked different.
An hour ago they had willingly spent it for one night.
Now they were hesitating over helping three people they had known their entire lives change theirs.
The irony wasn’t lost on any of them.
Puja noticed too.
She smiled faintly.
“Interesting, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“You spent thirty thousand without knowing the woman’s real name.”
Nobody responded.
“But helping three women you actually know…”
She pointed between them.
“…now everyone suddenly wants a feasibility report.”
Raja winced.
“That was brutal.”
“Was I wrong?”
No one answered.
Puja nodded.
“Exactly.”
Vivek leaned forward.
“Suppose we agree.”
Puja looked at him.
“No.”
“What?”
“Not tonight.”
He frowned.
“You just proposed it.”
“I proposed that we talk.”
She pointed at him.
“Nobody promises money while emotional.”
Then Raja.
“Nobody promises to control his sister.”
Then Sanjay.
“And nobody decides my future for me because he’s feeling guilty.”
Sanjay gave a tiny nod.
That was fair.
“So what happens?”
“Tomorrow we talk to Sonam and Akariti.”
Raja immediately reacted.
“Together?”
“If they agree.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then they don’t.”
Raja clearly hated that answer.
But he accepted it.
Puja continued.
“The six of us sit somewhere private.”
She looked around.
“Preferably somewhere without condoms and Viagra on the table.”
Vivek laughed.
Raja protested.
“Again, we weren’t planning on actually—”
Puja raised a hand.
“I don’t need the explanation.”
Sanjay muttered:
“Thank God.”
Puja continued.
“We figure out what each of us actually wants.”
Jobs.
Higher education.
Business.
Training.
Rent.
Savings.
Whatever it was.
Then they could put numbers against reality.
Not emotion.
“And if we’re serious,” Puja said, “then we make rules.”
Vivek smiled slightly.
“Now you’re speaking my language.”
Raja rolled his eyes.
“Of course.”
Puja counted on her fingers.
“No more bookings.”
“Okay.”
“No taking money and secretly continuing.”
“Obviously.”
“No brothers checking our phones.”
Raja immediately frowned.
“That’s negotiable.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
“No calling parents unless we choose to tell them.”
Sanjay nodded reluctantly.
“Okay.”
“And…”
She looked at all three.
“…you don’t treat us like ruined women you’re rescuing.”
That sentence landed heavily.
Puja’s voice became quieter.
“We made mistakes.”
She looked down.
“Some things happened to us that shouldn’t have.”
Then back up.
“Some choices were entirely ours.”
She didn’t hide from that.
“But if we leave…”
She paused.
“…we don’t spend the next twenty years being punished for what we did before.”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then Sanjay said:
“Agreed.”
Raja looked at him.
Sanjay nodded.
“Agreed.”
Vivek followed.
“Agreed.”
Raja was last.
But eventually:
“Agreed.”
Puja smiled.
Not triumphantly.
Relieved.
Then she noticed the table again.
Her eyes landed on the absurd collection they had purchased.
Condoms.
Lubricant.
The questionable male and female performance pills.
ORS.
Mints.
Cold drinks.
She looked at all three.
“So.”
Sanjay immediately knew trouble had returned.
“No.”
Puja smiled.
