“Fine.”
He dialled.
The other two became completely silent.
“Hello?”
Raja’s confident expression vanished almost instantly.
“Yes… hello.”
Pause.
“Actually, we saw your listing.”
Longer pause.
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“Patna.”
Raja suddenly sat straighter.
“Tonight.”
Sanjay and Vivek leaned closer.
Raja pushed them away.
“Three people.”
There was a silence.
Raja listened.
“Yes, all adults.”
Another silence.
“Okay.”
He covered the microphone.
“Thirty thousand.”
Sanjay mouthed, total?
Raja asked.
“Thirty total?”
Pause.
“Okay.”
He covered the phone again.
“Thirty thousand for the night.”
Vivek raised his eyebrows.
“Ten each.”
Raja nodded.
Sanjay whispered, “Ask what’s included.”
Vivek immediately shook his head.
“No. Don’t start negotiating like we’re buying furniture.”
Raja struggled not to laugh.
The agent spoke again.
Raja returned to the conversation.
“Yes.”
He listened carefully.
“No advance?”
Pause.
“Okay.”
Another pause.
“You’ll send the location?”
Pause.
“Fine.”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you.”
He disconnected.
For perhaps three seconds nobody spoke.
Then Raja placed the phone carefully on the bed.
“Done.”
Sanjay stared at it.
“Done?”
“Done.”
Vivek said, “What exactly did we just agree to?”
“Thirty thousand.”
“Yes, accountant. I heard that part.”
Raja grinned.
“Tonight.”
The address arrived several minutes later.
It was elsewhere in Patna.
Not their hotel.
That somehow made the plan feel more real.
Sanjay read the message twice.
“Eight thirty.”
Vivek nodded.
“So we’ve got the whole day.”
Raja stood up.
“Preparation.”
Sanjay narrowed his eyes.
“What preparation?”
Raja looked personally offended.
“We cannot arrive looking like refugees.”
What followed became one of the strangest shopping trips of their friendship.
They began with clothes.
That had not been planned.
Raja insisted it was essential.
“If this is going to become a permanent memory, I’m not wearing yesterday’s jeans.”
“It isn’t a wedding,” Vivek said.
“Exactly. Weddings happen multiple times.”
Sanjay stopped walking.
“Multiple times?”
Raja shrugged.
“Statistically.”
“No statistic says that.”
They entered a clothing store anyway.
Sanjay bought a dark shirt.
Vivek bought a plain polo after rejecting six shirts Raja selected for him.
Raja spent almost twenty minutes choosing perfume.
“You already brought perfume,” Sanjay reminded him.
“That’s office perfume.”
“Perfume has occupations now?”
“This one is evening.”
Vivek muttered, “We’re going to miss the appointment because Raja is choosing fragrances.”
Next came toiletries.
Razors.
Shaving foam.
Face wash.
Deodorant.
Mouthwash.
New toothbrushes.
Sanjay held up the basket.
“We look like we’re relocating.”
“Personal hygiene,” Vivek said, “is the first intelligent decision we’ve made today.”
Raja added a packet of mints.
Then another.
“How bad do you think your breath is?” Sanjay asked.
“You drank the same whisky.”
“Fair.”
Back at the hotel, the bathroom became contested territory.
Raja wanted it first.
Vivek claimed he took the longest.
Sanjay said that was precisely why Raja should go last.
Eventually they established a schedule.
They shaved.
Showered.
Trimmed.
Shaved again when someone noticed a missed patch.
