Chapter 35 All is well that ends well

The first issue of Epicureans was out. She hunted high and low to find her replacement. In fact, Sid Halve did the ground work. After all, his revenue of 20 lac depended on it. They were fortunate to get hold of Mughdha Sinha. Priya Maity came handy and they eventually were able to poach her from the PR agency. She was paid almost double of what Ashmi was getting. It made her cringe a bit, but then she realized that she wasn’t working for money ever. It was a by-product, which was always welcome.

A year later

Mathias dad passed away after a month, he went back to Goa. He met Rosy, a beautiful, young woman at the beach on a beautiful sunset. Affection blossomed.  Marriage was still not on cards, but may appear at a later date. Currently, they were happy living in together. Mathias’ mom had problems, but she relented.  Laily got into the design aspect in Epicure Exports too. She was a born designer who had quit her Fashion Designing course to elope and get married. It was a different story that the love of her life didn’t turn up.  It gave her a high and Jain reluctantly agreed. Where else he could have found such an efficient secretary? She married and got a ready-made family. Her husband had a girl from the previous marriage. For strange reasons, his wife went to work and never came back home. Three years had gone by to this, until one fine day, he helped Laily parallel park her car, in Metropolitan Mall parking. They were there all alone and destiny brought them together. She had never been so happy before.  Ashmi took up teaching at Kinshasha. She taught pre-schoolers and was happy with what she did. Like all husbands, Akhil did ignore her at times, but now she had learned to deal with it. 

Chapter 34 To be or not to be

Today evening, salsa class was due. But there was no need to go. Mathias had become extra busy in his work. He had texted her. She felt relieved. The spring in her step was back.

The few weeks offered her respite.  She immersed herself in work. ‘That works well when you are trying to move out of flings,’ Laily reasoned with her from her experience. Mathias was too busy filling up for his boss. And one fine day he calls her prepared with ammunition. 

‘You are ignoring me,’ he said to her accusingly.

 ‘What do you mean? It’s you who had been busy throughout, cancelling salsa classes and now you are blaming me,’ she countered. She wanted to take charge of the situation, before it went out of hand.

 ‘You are behaving differently, and that’s scaring me,’ he said expressing her fears.  ‘Woman, you are making me mad, I am not able to focus,’ he said and she could feel how much it pained him saying this.

 It raised a lump in her throat. She fought her unshed tears. She didn’t want to show her diffidence. ‘One display and it would entangle the mess more,’ her mind warned her. But her heart went against the logic.

 ‘What time are you leaving for work today?’ she asked him, much to her shock. ‘I will leave sometime around 3 pm,’ he told her, his voice sounding hopeful. ‘Are you coming?’ he gave words to his emotions.

 ‘I will try to,’ she said honestly. ‘Do come over, it has been a long time,’ he said. ‘What about your flat mates?’ Now was her turn to ask. ‘At 3 pm, who will be at home,’ he told her.

 ‘I know,’ she agreed.

Now, came two difficult questions: escaping from the office was more difficult than LSR hostel, she thought with a smile.

‘Should I confide to Laily?’ No way, she thought. She is going to lecture me at my foolishness. ‘ I had just extricated myself out of this and now I am going to get stuck again,’ she thought.

‘What if Mathias wanted to become intimate with me, once again? Not that I mind it, is it possible to love two men at the same time?’ ‘There is a name for it, it’s called polyandry,’ her reasoning mind took over. She gave in. This is the drawback in me. I give in so fast, she chided herself.

 ‘How is the mood of Jain? ’she asked Laily on the phone. ‘Today he is in doggy days,’ she said and quickly disconnected.  ‘There was no point in going to him and listening his monologue, while I stared blankly outside the window pane, counting the number of cars that sped away on the road,’ she thought. At times, he would ask her, ‘Are you there?’ She would nod her head in affirmation and he would shut up. Both of them knew that she wasn’t hearing.

Sharp at 2, she left Epicure Exports. Today she had driven to work. Hence, she left the car keys at office, so that Laily would drive back her car and pick her car from her home. She had hired a cab.

‘Once settled inside,’ she messaged Jain. It worked well. She had to leave and all she needed to do was inform. ‘I had a meeting scheduled with Halve on Epicureans and am leaving, she wrote. An OKAY screamed on her mobile. Like Jain, the OKAY too was grumpy. But she didn’t care.

She rolled down the windows of the car to feel the nip in the air of the November weather. The sun shine was just perfect. Somehow the sadness seemed to evaporate. Her heart began to race, as she approached his apartment. With a taxi, there was no need to be afraid, and she got down at the parking. He was waiting there for her.

His forlorn eyes conveyed a lot to her. He looked dejected. Gently he held her hand as she got out.

 ‘I knew you would come,’ he spoke softly for her ears. At the entry, the guard requested her to fill in her name. Mathias smiled, as she held the pen. He knew that she wouldn’t write her real name. Ashmi scribbled her name and Mathias looked at her surprised. She didn’t take the elevator, normally that’s what she did, as if to hide inside its cage, so that nobody would see her. Today she wouldn’t, she wasn’t committing a crime. Together they walked to her second floor.

They sat facing each other on the bed. ‘Ashmi,’ Mathias spoke.

 ‘Yes, tell, I am hearing,’ she urged. ‘I am leaving,’ he spoke.

 ‘Where?’ she asked. ‘I am going back to Goa,’ he said.

 ‘You getting married, there,’ she managed to speak.

 ‘No, I am going back to dad. We have our own business there. We are not affluent, but we are comfortable. A fortnight ago my mom called me, just when my manager absconded.’

‘Correction,’ he resigned. Ashmi interjected.

The way he did, it’s called absconding, Mathias corrected.

Then, what did your mom say?, she asked.

 ‘Dad had been diagnosed with colon cancer. It’s in third stage. There is hope if you do radio therapy and all, but dad has refused for all this.’

 ‘You people are allowing an ill man to decide his course of treatment,’ she spoke with concern. ‘Decide for him, get him here, there are best cancer hospitals in the city,’ he will get well, she held his hands and used her soothing voice to comfort him, usually reserved for kids.

‘Don’t you think, I have argued? He is not ready to relent. All he says is just one thing, you come back Albert, I want you back,’ he said.

‘When are you leaving?’ ‘Tomorrow,’ she felt hurt. ‘You put in papers,’ she asked.

‘I did that day before yesterday,’ he said.

‘So you too absconding,’ she commented.

‘Sort of!’ he laughed. ‘Come I have got something for you, for the good times spent together. What is that? It is a ring,’ he said.  ‘I can’t take it,’ she said. ‘You have too,’ he insisted. ‘You spoil me,’ she said. Now I got to think excuse for this one. Last time I told Akhil that I won it from Fashion and You in one of their contests. This time, you tell him that you won it at a contest at Tanishq, said Mathias. Wouldn’t he smell a fish, he asked genuinely intrigued.

‘That you leave to me,’  You are a cunning woman, his eyes twinkled as he spoke.  Anything for you my love, she spoke. I love you and I have to admit that. He looked at her intently. 

‘I have also cooked for you,’ he said.

‘I am impressed. What?’ she enquired.

‘I cooked pasta for you. And what’s for dessert?’ she asked. What about you? he winked at her

‘What time is your flight tomorrow?’ she asked immediately to divert the subject.

 ‘Poor baby! You are always scared of me!’ he teased.

 ‘Yes, you are so intense,’ she said worriedly.

‘That’s how I am,’ he accepted. I can’t do anything half heartedly.

‘Ashmi, you live well, stay happy because that will make me happy,’ he said philosophically.

‘We met each other, because we had to, somewhere in previous lives, our paths had crossed and that’s what made us meet,’ he ruminated. She nodded her head. She seemed to agree.

All of a sudden she hugged him fiercely, with all her might. It’s so hard to let you go. ‘I cherish you as a friend, you talked to me, like no one ever did.’ Tears flowed and she made no effort to hide it. ‘Mathias, I can’t live in this city now. It will remind me of you all the time. But I guess I have to.’

‘Have pasta, or you will rush to leave,’ he reminded her. They had dinner in silence. Mathias dutifully lit lavender candles for her. Your favourite, isn’t it?

‘I will give you my new number, and we will stay in touch, where we met,’ he said in an effort to pep her up.

‘I must leave now,’ she said looking at her watch. You are wearing my time, he noticed. Yes, I had to, she smiled.

 It was going to be six. He came down to drop her. As she got inside the car, he stole a quick peck and she smiled.

She broke down in the car. The poor driver wondered what happened as he drove for the next 15 minutes. Just at the gate of Nirvana, she reapplied her makeup and got inside the home.

Kids were not there. There was a birthday party in the neighbourhood and they had gone to attend it. Solitude was what she needed the most. Just then Akhil parked his Fortuner. She pulled herself up.

‘Hi baby!’ his voice was buoyant. He seemed on top of the world. ‘You look so happy. What happened?’ she asked. ‘I got promoted. That’s excellent. You were in the fray, you never told me,’ she complained. ‘I thought I would surprise you,’ he said.  ‘How many surprises the day has in store for me?’ she thought, but didn’t say a word. 

‘Start packing your bags.’

‘Not again, I will not go to U.S,’ she said.

‘Who told you, we are going there?’

‘Because that’s the only country where you love to grow your roots, and I can’t survive there. I am too spoiled now Akhil, I can’t do everything, all by myself,’ she pleaded.

‘I know that baby. We are going to Kinshasha.’

‘And where is it? It is in Africa?’

‘Why?’ she whined.

‘Don’t do that, you will get help there,’ he negotiated with her. Then it’s fine with me. 

Chapter 33 Twist in the plot

Ashmi was waiting at Mocha for the designer to come. Actually, she didn’t need to take so much of trouble and could have easily asked him to navigate the deadly twists and turns of the rickety road that led to Epicure Exports,  but the man with whom she had been talking over the phone, had a baritone on which Mr Bachchan has the copyright. The informal surrounding could spark off a decent conversation, she thought, as she agreed to meet him away from the office.

Mathias had scared her with his obsession. God willing, his manager had put in his papers and resigned with two days of notice. He had to fill in for him, until they could find a substitute. She had given herself the deadline of one month to bring out the first edition of Epicurean and it was by no way a mean task.

‘Just may be Jain knows about your state of marital affairs, hence he never hesitates you to give extra commitments that no one else is willing to take,’ Laily explained to Ashmi when she got the extra assignment of creating a bi-monthly 32 page Epicureans where there would be connect with the employees, because most of the people who worked in export house were people from the lower rung and they needed to be motivated enough. Jain believed that they would get a sense of recognition and would feel delighted when they would see their name appeared in a magazine which would be a platform for the family to share their achievements, a by-product from the retreat.  The tiff between her and Maqsood over his wrong designation in Epicurean was wisely ignored by him. But like all bosses he thought of giving her an extra responsibility trying to make the most of it, as she wouldn’t be in a position to deny it, as he had magnanimously chosen to ignore her mistake. Now was the payback time.

‘I guess you are right, but this keeps me busy too, so that I can’t mull over the mess that I have created in my life,’ said Ashmi with honesty writ large on her face.

‘You look so happy but,’ countered Laily. How could you create such façade, she was keen to know. Just like you, Ashmi told her with a face that had smile plastered on lips and eyes that were deep pools of sorrow.

What am I doing at Mocha today, her reasoning mind asked her again. Because Priya Maity gave reference of Marksman and Sid Halve, owns the agency. And I have to bring this damn thing out, she was frustrated.  She wanted her rational mind to go on mute now.

Just then the man worth not the effort of looking at twice entered Mocha, and Ashmi who was too busy nibbling over the chocolate muffin let her gaze wander by him.  Sid Halve gave her a call as he entered and while talking to him on the phone, she saw to her shock that he was the same man whom she had chosen to ignore. Her expectations took a nose dive and she had clearly lost interest in all his professional capabilities. He moved towards her and extended his hand to her. He had a firm shake and Ashmi liked that about him. Though he fitted strictly in the tall and dark bracket of TDH, ‘handsome’ didn’t go with him at all. ‘In fact, calling him handsome would require a redefinition of the word,’ she thought. Actually, he belonged to the tribe of people for whom you needed to train your eyes to like them, just like my mother-in-law, she thought quite meanly once again. ‘By-the-way, no way he is going to get the job,’ she decided.

Sid on the other hand was quite excited about working with Epicure Exports. He had been involved in bringing out employee-connect magazines with other companies too and he could offer complete support from designing to printing to distribution and it certainly mattered for Ashmi who had to bring this out, and she had no experience in doing this. This meant there was just one man with whom she had to deal with when it came to production. After all publishing 5,000 copies and distributing it pan-India, wherever there were factories of Epicure Exports was not a mean task. Sid was her saviour, Ashmi knew that.

 Sensing her lack of interest Sid had to think of ways to keep her engaged, because she meant an annual business of 20 lacs for him, which were crucial for him at the moment to keep his company afloat, when most of his clients had not renewed their contract with him. She marked the difference between packing his bags and running back to Muradabad and joining his dad’s brass business which meant sitting on the rounded cushion like a typical seth ji. She was his savior. Ashmi wasn’t aware about his predicament. He had to grab her interest and quite fast. The presentations can wait.

‘Do you care for a brownie?’ he suggested.

‘Yes, I do,’ she told him thinking that it was badly needed to get over the emotional trauma you have caused me. After all, your baritone had offered hopes.

‘I am really thankful to you to make an effort to come and meet me at Noida, considering your office is in Gurgaon,’ Sid was trying to use his charms that had been lying unused for quite some time now, since he had entered in a steady relationship with Bhavya. But, Bhavya had bigger dreams and Sid’s tacky brass business from Murababad or Marksman, his fledgling printing company could no way fulfil her dreams as of now. May be if she waited and pinned her hopes on him, it could in future, but for Bhavya impatience was the new religion and it was good.

His voice had an effect on women, and he knew it. ‘I am feeling so famished right now and would like to have a sandwich too with the brownie,’ he said as a matter of fact.

‘Why not? I too didn’t have my lunch as I was in and out of meetings,’ Ashmi lied right away. She had come all the way from Gurgaon only for this meeting and wanted to do some shopping later.

‘What’s your preference in sandwich?’ he asked.

‘I would like to have grilled chicken and cheese sandwich,’ she said.

‘What about you?’ she asked him. ‘Well, I can give you company, if you insist,’ he said with a genuine smile on his lips. Ashmi too smiled and began to loosen up. He seems to be an interesting person, she observed. May be God granted him the gift of gab to compensate for looks, she pondered.

She is an attractive woman, but her eyes don’t exude the happiness her face does. They don’t call eyes the windows to the soul for wrong reasons, he thought.

‘What are you thinking Sid?’ she asked. 

‘Nothing, I  was just wondering when they are going to get the sandwiches,’ he said. By the way, it’s quite late almost going to be three, and you didn’t have anything, she enquired. I had a late night yesterday and I didn’t feel like eating anything, he told her while looking in her eyes.

‘You party on weekdays,’ she asked eager to unravel layers of his personality. 

‘Not everyday, but yesterday, I was celebrating a month of my breakup with my girl friend,’ he knew that now he had her attention.

‘I get your point. But if I don’t sound intrusive I would like to know, what made you breakup with her,’ she probed knowing fully well that it was just not an appropriate question to ask on a business meeting, but she didn’t care. It’s he who needs the business and he better not forget that, she thought.

‘No there is nothing to hide. We broke off because I wasn’t rich enough for her. We did live-in for a year, but then, she found someone who could take her to exotic vacations and take care of all future worries. With me this wasn’t possible, and this was the reason we broke off. Now you know why this deal is so important for me,’ he gave in the details.

She appreciated it. ‘I can’t assure you that I will work with you only, but you have credentials working in your favour,’ she spoke. Sid was hopeful.

‘Have you gone through my presentation?’ he asked.

‘No, Sid, I haven’t but I don’t need to. I have done my homework and I know you are good at what you do,’ she said.

‘You are a smart lady, indeed, I must say,’ he admitted with a twinge of appreciation seeping in his voice.

‘Good sandwiches came, now let’s attack them,’ she suggested, trying to deviate the subject.

‘The brownies will follow,’ informed the waiter, though you have ordered it first.

‘Never mind,’ interjected Ashmi and her chirpy self was coming back.

Sid felt that he could get the deal, but he was keeping his fingers crossed. Women are not that simple to understand as compared to men. The experience had taught him well.

How was the meeting? Laily chirped.

‘It was tolerable. Is he getting the account?’ she enquired.

‘Yes, he is because he is good at what he does,’ Ashmi said.

‘What about the harmless flirting that keeps the soul alive?’ Laily asked

‘To hell with it,’ Ashmi said resignedly.

Her Microsoft Outlook beeped.  A message had landed from Sid

‘It was my pleasure meeting you. Thanks’

There was no indication on the update. This warmed Ashmi’s heart. She hated when people followed up relentlessly.

She wrote back,’ The pleasure was entirely mine, Sid. Why don’t you send a formal quotation.’

 Sid knew, she would do just the same, Deals were all about psychology, and he had cracked hers.

By evening Sid had the purchase order for the first issue of Epicureans.

Chapter 32

‘Where are my brown-coloured socks?’ Akhil grunted the moment she picked her phone at work. ‘For heaven’s sake why can’t I find anything in this house?’

‘Why don’t you wear some other socks?’ she suggested. ‘Now, you are going to tell me what should I wear?’ he shouted.

‘I got the socks to office and I do that every morning,’ she said sarcastically and disconnected the line. Then she switched off her phone, so that he couldn’t contact her.

Her days were difficult. But today was miserable by her standards too. She woke up late and Rajul’s bus missed by a whisker. Then she drove her all the way to school. There was no point asking Akhil. He would have anyway refused. He got ready at leisure and disliked if he had to hurry up.  Sharp at 8, Laily honked to pick her up. She made her wait ten minutes before she emerged out. She was terribly embarrassed about it. The bio metric attendance recorded their thumb print every morning. Every week, Jain would get the printout of the attendance sheet and he would track the attendance graph of the employees at Epicure Exports. Being late by 15 minutes was not acceptable in his vocabulary.

When she reached, Jain had been in a nasty mood. And, unfortunately, Ashmi went to ask him, if he could give a quick look to the release that had to go in the media. Akshyata Sethi, the PR person from PR Speak was also going to meet her today. She needed a new story to feed the media. ‘How many times could you keep going to the media with the same story that you are expanding in the South?’ the grossly overweight, bubbly girl spoke to her.

‘If I have to give a quick look to everything, before they go out, then why have I hired people?’ Jain spoke at her request, but she felt that he cursed under her breath. ‘Everyone at Epicure Exports is in the habit of transferring monkeys on my back,’ he said.

‘No worries sir, I will check it,’ she said and beat a quick retreat. She had just reached her desk and her phone rang with Akhil on another end. He was in a nasty mood. The day had offered enough. She couldn’t take it and turned off her phone.

‘Today, I will not go home. I will board the bus to Manali, from Connaught Place. What she will do later, would be thought later.

‘Let them find me,’ she thought as she went through the emails of her day. She called Rajeev Bhatnagar, the domestic travel agent, who had been an Epicure Exports loyal for the last ten years,  and asked him to book a ticket in the Volvo to Manali for her. ‘Who is going?’ Rajeev enquired. He had this habit of digging information. Laily referred to him as drill machine.

‘Now, you started drilling,’ Ashmi said in a playful tone.

‘I am just enquiring, you know me,’ he said sheepishly.

‘I do,’ she admitted. ‘I want a ticket and please deliver it before 3 pm today. Of course, I will,’ he said.  ‘Tonight under no circumstance, I am going home,’ she said to Manjula. ‘Don’t be silly,’ she counseled her. But, today under no circumstance she was going to relent.

She dropped the conversation. She wanted to shock her family. So that they realize that she existed, as a human being too, who needed acknowledgement, affection and above all love. ‘Hey love, you are so switched off since morning,’ Laily said as she crossed her desk to go and ‘tumble-dry’ the administration head, over Jain’s coffee. It had reached luke warm. ‘Tumble-dry’ was the ‘office speak’ for dressing down.

‘I am terribly upset. No one loves me,’ she whined like her six-year-old daughter Rhea. When you don’t get love in real world then, it’s better to check it online. May be there is a surprise for you, she teased her and sauntered back to her desk.

‘This reminds me, I haven’t checked my Facebook for a while. Let me do it,’ she thought.  A friendship request awaited for her from Mathias

Chapter 31

Plan B Chapter 30

Around 4 pm Mathias  left for work. He was working as per US timings these days. Ashmi felt relieved.  ‘I will drop you till the parking,’ he offered. No, that wouldn’t be right, she said concealing her feelings. ‘We shouldn’t be spotted together,’ she reasoned. He found it plausible. Ten minutes after, Mathias, Ashmi left. She spent that time to retrieve all signs of her presence in her apartment. But, she was carrying his imprint, it had branded her soul. She was restless still careful and tucked the key below the floor mat of his flat. She ignored the elevator and took steps from the 10^th floor to come down. It was badly needed. She had to distract herself. As she came out of Maple Heights, there was a rickshaw waiting for her. She hopped on to reach the parking. Then, things went by in a haze.

‘Mom, all okay at your work,’ remarked Rajul. ‘What makes you think so?’ she asked.

‘You look so unwell,’ she said. ‘No, mom is tired,’ said Rhea and she needs love-infusion.

‘Yes, my darlings, I need love infusion and lots of it,’ she urged. Rhea left everything that she was doing and sprinted to her. She hugged her with painted hands and gave her sloppy kisses all over. ‘You two are too much,’ Rajul disapproved with a frown of their behaviour. Ashmi didn’t bother.

‘Mom, we need to buy a set of origami sheets and chart paper,’ Rajul ordered.

‘Didn’t we buy that two weeks ago?’ she said. ‘Yes, we did, but we need more,’ she said and rushed out to hop on her bicycle. Rhea followed her and so did Melissa to be with the girls.

She rang up Akhil to find out if he was on his way, and requested him to get the stationery for the girls. Then, she switched off her phone and broke down. After a while, she dragged herself to the shower. The thick stream of water wasn’t able to wash away his touch. She soaped herself vigorously to wash away all traces of his touch. Later, she ambled to the bed and struggled with a cotton dress. She looked in the mirror. A different woman looked back at her. Her eyes had changed. She sincerely prayed to get out of this mess.

Immediately, she texted Laily urging her to call up, when she had time. Laily was fixing her evening drink.  She called her. ‘Hi darling,’ she said.

‘Hi,’ she whispered. ‘Are you not well, or you had too much fun in the afternoon?’ she enquired with a  laugh.

‘I feel so cheap! I am trapped. Tell me a way to get out of this mess, please,’ she begged.

‘We have a remedy for it. It’s called the hair of the dog. To get out of this mess, you go for another fling.’

 ‘What?’ she almost shouted.  ‘This is like inviting complication,’ she tried to infuse reason.

I am so scared. It’s not hard to find Akhil’s whereabouts. Almost everyone is on Linked in these days.

You are right, said Laily. She sounded sober.

Start ignoring Mathias, she said as she tried to fumble with ideas. There was no fool-proof solution.

‘What if he came home? He is acting obsessive these days,’ she gave words to her fears.

‘What made him change all of a sudden?’ Laily was curious to know.

As if I know the answer, may be it’s a mix of lust and love? She said vaguely.

I am sure that he will not come to your home. He isn’t that courageous, had he been so, he would have fought with his parents for his girlfriend, Laily reasoned with her.

It sounded plausible, but right now to Ashmi’s heart nothing was convincing enough. She herself wasn’t able to rein in her feelings. Mathias began as a distraction for her, and may be the same was true for him too. But, it was getting out of hand now. If Akhil knew about it, she would lose everything: family, home, respect and dignity. If people got a whiff of it back home, there was too much to lose. Her heart began to thump wildly as she thought of the possible predicaments.

 ‘Should I ask Akhil to look for an overseas opportunity? May be a change of place could work, she spoke to Laily.

Laily shuddered at the thought of her going away, but it would do good to her.

It sounds like a good idea, correction it is a great idea, she said.

Ashmi looked at her reflection in mirror once again and defined her almond shaped eyes with a deft stroke of kohl and eye-liner. She put on her lipstick and pouted at the woman who looked back at her from the mirror. It still looked fake. Akhil could recognize it.

She consciously thought about Rhea’s love infusion. The smile gained life. Tonight, she would talk to Akhil about it.

Chapter 29 Two loves and three love bites

‘What do I wear to work today?’ she was standing in front of her wardrobe and nothing there seemed to serve the purpose, which was to hide three love bites that went in a row from the base of her throat to her collar bone.  She would love to flaunt it, like Santayani Ghosh, the young designer at Epicure Exports, but she was meeting Mathias and it wasn’t safe.

‘Had it been December, winter wear would have camouflaged it?’ she wondered, but not in summer. She took out a red coloured muslin cotton dupatta and wrapped it around her neck. It went well with crushed yellow top, that had ruffled round  neckline and bandhini long skirt.

Her day was hectic as usual. There was just a month for the release of Epicureans. And she didn’t have a clue from where to start. Contacts had to be dug to outsource the whole exercise and finally she got hold of the phone number of Priya Maity, a bubbly young woman, who was her friend from the LSR days. She was currently working as Account Manager with Lintas.

‘Hi Maity, how are you and how has life treated you?’ she spoke, when the woman on other end, said ‘Hello’ with a practiced Anglicised accent.

‘Hey! Do I know you from somewhere? Your voice sounds familiar,’ Maity spoke racking her brain at the same time trying to recognize her voice.

‘We studied together and shared the same hostel. You were in English Honours, and I was in History Honours,’ Ashmi gave the information.

‘Mishra!’ the woman on other end squealed now.

‘How has life treated you?’ she asked.

‘Quite well. And how are you?’ Maity wanted to know.

‘I am also in the same well,’ she joked.

‘I am sorry, but I have to rush in a meeting. I would love to chat with you, will catch up with you certainly, before the end of this week,’ she finished in a hurry.

‘Maity, I am digging contacts and may be you could help,’ Ashmi spoke without wasting a minute.

‘Why don’t you email me what you would need and I will certainly do whatever I could,’ she said.

‘Okay, you take care,’ Ashmi said and disconnected the phone.

A message beeped on her phone. ‘What time are you coming?’ It was from Mathias. She was disgruntled that he had tried to blackmail her. ‘You tell me the time,’ she messaged back.

‘Can you come around 2.30?’ he asked.

‘Okay,’ she wrote, and put her phone on silent and got back to her work, because she had to finish eight hours of work in only five hours today.

Mathias was shaving with his mobile on other side, saw her okay and realized that all was not well with Ashmi. But, she had grown as an obsession with her and he couldn’t help, he comprehended.

Sharp at 2.30, the doorbell rang at Mathias’ flat at Maple Heights. He was inside the kitchen boiling water for the pasta. Then, he remembered something and took out two cup full of hot water from the pot on the gas stove. ‘Ashmi enjoyed green tea and she needed it today, as she was sounding stressed,’ he thought. He had already ordered pizza for both of them. He ran to open the door for her.

She came in. Mathias realized he was bare bodied on the top, as he had bathed late. Then he had  put the house in order, ordered pizza and put a pot of water to boil on the gas stove. He scampered to put on a Tshirt. Ashmi spoke, ‘There is no need to do this. I have seen you like this before.’

‘Still! I wouldn’t be long,’ he came outside wearing a Polo Tshirt of bright yellow colour with white stripes.

‘So, you dressed like sunshine today, I wanted to match my tee-shirt with your top. That’s the only clean tshirt I have and that’s the reason I wore it,’ he said with a grin.

‘You look good. How is your headache?’ he asked. The door bell rang, ’Who can be here?’ Ashmi asked frightened. ‘Don’t worry, it must be the pizza delivery guy,’ he said.

She heaved a sigh of relief. The guy left quickly.

‘Would you care for green tea?’ he asked her. ‘Why not? ‘Do you know how to make it?’ ’ she said.  He rushed in the kitched and in less than a minute, he emerged out with two mugs of  green tea. He had made a heart on the surface of one of the green teas with honey for her.

She was fanning herself with a newspaper. The power had decided to do a disappearing act and September is quite sultry in Delhi.

‘Feeling hot. Get this dupatta thing off,’ he suggested. ‘No,’ she insisted. ‘You argue so much,’ he murmured and moved ahead. He grabbed the muslin fabric and took it off in a jerk. Her love bites glared at him. He observed it intently and then touched it gingerly. She didn’t say a word. ‘You were getting tea,’ she made an attempt to divert the subject and pointed towards the ignored pizza. ‘Let’s eat it. I am starving,’ she said.

He extended his hand to offer tea to her. The heat had melted the honey-shaped heart.  ‘What’s this?’ she enquired pointing at it.  ‘It’s my heart,’ he said.  ‘You had a rocking night yesterday,’ he asked. ‘Mathias, be reasonable, he is my husband.’ she said.

‘I know that, but I don’t know why I am so possessive about you,’ he was sounding different now.

‘How was it last night? Was it wild? Tell me, I want to hear it,’ he spoke softly only for her ears but every word spewed anger.

 ‘You are acting weird,’ she reprimanded him. ‘Yes, I am and you are doing this to me.

‘I dream about you, fantasize about you and you are controlling my every emotion,’ he admitted. Now was her turn to look shocked.

He bent down and began to kiss the love bite, as if he could erase the mark. He kissed all three. She was too overwhelmed to react or respond. This was getting murkier. There was too much to lose. What if Mathias went and spoke everything to Akhil? Will he forgive her? What should she do? The questions squelched her mind as he deepened his kiss.

He pushed the neckline of her top to examine if there were more love bites. She felt squeamish when he exposed her bare shoulder to his view. He tugged at her top to bring it down, She didn’t like it all but stayed quiet. ‘Mathias, I am hungry. This can wait,’ she said to   snap him out of his reverie like state.

 He wasn’t hearing. His eyes shone. She saw her face in his eyes, and his gaze bored her soul. She felt trapped