Conversation at a Party

"I was feeling great until the phone rang."

"And then?" Sandhya took another bite of her chutney sandwich, and looked inquiringly at Divya. The two of them had filled up their plates at the buffet and moved away from the other guests so Divya could tell Sandhya about yesterday's happenings.

"It was Srikanth. He said he couldn't make it for the event."

"So?" Sandhya took a sip of lemonade, almost dropped her glass, and managed to balance it on her plate before it spilled. The two of them spotted some empty chairs in the balcony and sat down before more damage could be done, food-wise.

"Well, Srikanth had all the costumes. If he wasn't coming, who was going to bring those?"

"Yeah, that would be a worry." Sandhya said, carefully chewing on a bit of pizza.

"So I decided .." Divya looked at her friend, who was now chomping on the pizza slice with relish. "Oh, never mind, you're not really listening. You're like Ron Weasley, you are, eating your way through another's troubles."

"Listen, we came to this party for the food. And this is damn good food. And you are letting yours get cold. And as a matter of fact, I saw the TV coverage of your event last night and I happen to know it went really well. So wherever you're going with this, I know it ends well. I saw those kids in some brilliant paper costumes."

"Yeah. You're right." Divya took a bite of pizza. "This is damn good food. And it was all on TV?"

"You kidding me? You got two minutes of coverage each time by the hour, for three hours, and they showed different clips each time, though the commentary was the same. That's six minutes of clips you got."

"Was the sponsor's logo well visible?" Divya was now on the chutney sandwich.

"Very well. I'm sure they'll be back next year -- they got some good visibility."

"So anyway, we made those paper costumes, on the spot, Bhuvana, Kalyani and I. We worked like maniacs. Hey, you didn't take any of the rice. It's fantastic."

"Next helping, sis. You made the paper costumes?"

"Three of us made twenty paper costumes in under an hour. And you saw how good they turned out. Almost as good as this rice."

"I'm ready for the second helping now, you coming with me? You've got me all agog about this rice."

"Yup. And I'm going to get more pizza. It's divine."

"Don't forget to leave room for dessert. I believe there are four kinds, two Indian, two Western."

"How are we supposed to eat so much dessert after all this great food?"

"You're not supposed to eat all kinds, you're supposed to pick the one you like best."

"What if I like all four best?"

"Anyway, you were telling me how you gals made those costumes in less than an hour."

"Who cares about that? You saw it all on TV. Let's discuss more important stuff. If I eat more pizza and you eat some rice now, we can split the dessert. You take one Western, one Indian ..."

"No no. If we're taking two desserts each, it makes sense for each of us to get it at the same table. You take the two Indian,I'll take the two Western, and then we'll split all four ..."

"Sounds like a plan."

The two friends soon had plate-loads of dessert, carefully placed so as not to get squished up with each other. They settled comfortably on their balcony chairs, only to realise they needed a couple of empty plates to do the sharing.

Plates fetched, portions all shared out, they got to the serious business of eating dessert. "The chocolate mousse is absolutely gorgeous."

"Try the Mysore Paak. It melts in the mouth."

I'll wait a bit. I have chocolate taste in the mouth."

A half-hour later, they were too full to talk any more.

"And you give me a call tomorrow and tell me all about those costumes, I'm eager to hear."

"I'll do that."

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Thanks for Review of "Conversation at a Party" , elizjohn !