Chapter 26

That night, Samar tiredly staggered up four flights of stairs to his mother's apartment. He generally preferred to stay put at his club until six in the morning to supervise the change of employee shift, but today neither his heart nor his brain was in the business. In fact, after his chat with Rizwan last evening, he had spent all his time devising scenarios where he could revive his interactions with Maahi. 

It was a difficult situation, he conceded after many hours of contemplation. He cannot present himself at Vaghela House without ensuing explosive violence or at the least, giving Lalaji a coronary. Maahi seldom ventured out of her house these days, the proof of which was she hadn't taken her best friend out anywhere in the city yet. The phone call and messages were clearly not getting through her anger towards him. He was at his wit's end.

He would have preferred