The Yorkshire Biryani

ONE:MAYFIELD CHARACTERS part-05

Day 3:

They had been up until 1 am and the next morning, Alistair woke up late.

"Fucking hell!" He exclaimed, and immediately called Greg. No answer.

He rushed to the bathroom, got ready with a hangover, and then called Greg again. Greg answered with a yawn. "Morning laddie," he replied. "You up?"

"What is going on mate? We should be going."

"Ahhh, I have a bad hangover from last night. I need to rest."

"We've got just a day to make preparations. How do you think the marriage is going to happen if we don't arrange things for it?" Alistair was rapidly losing his cool.

"Alright mate, we'll go. Come over to Shivaji Street and we'll purchase the rings there. Meet you there in half an hour."

Alistair got up and left for Shivaji Street. Greg arrived 35 minutes late.

"I'm not in the mood to purchase now," exclaimed Greg.

"Why?"

"Because I'm just not in the mood. We'll arrange for the cooks first. Hey, hold on, let's cook for the wedding. We can make some more money that way."

"Mate, they are looking to have a Punjabi style wedding. Do you have any idea about Punjabi dishes?" Alistair was getting all the more worked up.

"Khojsaagar mate. Don't you worry."

Greg had a confidence beyond words. Nobody really knew how good he was at keeping up his promises though.

"I'm not happy mate, you seem to be unnecessarily complicating things."

Greg smiled at Alistair's frustration. They decided to go around the shops and Greg was getting even more annoying, drinking throughout the course of the shopping trip. When Alistair threatened to cancel the deal, Greg annoyed him even more by saying he had the money now and there was nothing he could do about it.

XXX

It was evening when they finally reached Alistair's house. Alistair was pretty worried that they had accomplished practically nothing during the day, and that the marriage was now going to be an absolute flop show. As they arrived, his dad came out smiling.

"Tusī kivēṁ hō?" he asked.

"Was that Punjabi?"

Greg gave his friend a "what the hell" look, and Alistair passed on the same look to his dad.

"Oh it means "how are you?" in Punjabi," his father explained.

"So, Tusī kivēṁ ,the preparations lads?"

Greg gave a smile to Alistair; a smile that meant many things. To Alistair, it was a smile of despair. A smile that meant, "What do I say now," and "We are screwed." However, it didn't turn out to be that way.

Greg was, in fact, scoffing all the way. He had made all the preparations in the morning and had just been fooling Alistair throughout the day. He produced a set of neatly stapled bills, gold rings, photographs of sample decorations, Gurudhwar details and everything else needed for the marriage. Alistair was speechless. He gave him a blank look, then an angry look, then finally he found some words.

"You played me all along, you clever bastard."

"Mind your language son," exclaimed his dad, before continuing "Nice work Greg, how much did you guys spend on everything?"

"2 lakh and 86 thousand pounds," Greg handed over the balance.

"Keep it son, use it for you Kusthi expenses,"