It takes two to tango Chapter 13

Next morning, a light drizzle woke up Akhil. Ashmi threw towel out of her wet hair and swung her head back on the face of Akhil. Several droplets of water  fell down on his face as smell of Macau Honey began to fill in the room from her freshly washed hair. He woke up a bit irritated, but when he saw her, his anger dissipated. Dressed only in a towel, Ashmi kissed him and gestured towards the clock.

‘Do we have thirty minutes?’ he was back to his last night’s negotiation.

‘I told you that I need more,’ she said jauntily, as she began to drape a sari.

‘You are wearing a sari today,’ Akhil noted with a bit of surprise on a weekday. ‘Any special reason,’ he asked.  Didn’t I tell last night that I have two crucial meetings scheduled today? Janhavi, the PR girl would introduce me to Meenu Sehgal, the lifestyle editor of the popular daily. I might get late,’ she said.

‘I think that I will drive to work and you take the driver to work.’ Akhil offered.

‘That’s so sweet of you,’ Ashmi said, but then you to go to Noida and moreover, if we put in late hours, we have the facility of office cab, she reminded him.

‘Melissa, get tea,’ Ashmi hollered, fixing her palla..  Akhil looked at her intently.

‘You need help,’ he asked her after many moons.

‘No, I can manage,’ she spoke but wished otherwise.

He obliged.  With expertise he fixed her palla and put in two safety pins to help it stay put.

There are a few things that are better left unlearned, he commented.

The moment Akhil sneaked inside the bathroom, she, put in her laptop bag a negligee.

Right at eight Laily honked. ‘Today, she is driving you to work,’ Akhil noted.

‘Yes,’ she said, and ran out.

Mathias woke up at the crack of the dawn. He had a vivid dream. He and Ashmi were together. They were walking together hand in hand at the sea shore at dusk. The sea waves lapped their feet. Suddenly, Ashmi ran. She was wearing a flowing white dress. She looked younger. She picked sea shells. From nowhere Akhil came in the horizon and she left with him, leaving him alone. He couldn’t sleep after that.

His roommate dropped him at IIFCO Chowk. The moment, Ashmi sat inside, Laily gave a call to Pristine Resort and talked to Chandini, the manager. Laily had interacted with her when she was fixing things for the retreat. 

‘Hey! Chandini, two of my friends will come to the resort today. They will be leaving in the evening. They are on a spiritual trip and they will go to Hrishikesh from here. They are wanting a place to stay, which was a bit away from the city. You know these spiritual guys,’ Laily had the background ready.

 Ashmi almost suffocated on the suppressed laugh. ‘Where are they coming from?’ she asked.

‘Varanasi’ she said.

 So, I understand that it’s all fixed,’ Laily wanted to be sure. She wouldn’t leave anything to chance. Jain’s training had made her fool-proof.

‘Yes,’ and the cab has been sent to IIFCO chowk too, as you suggested.

‘But, why they have asked for a cab at a place on the road,’ Chandini was a bit confused at the choice of the place.

‘This is so because they had gone to meet their respective relatives and you know, they belong to the genre of live-in people, but they are my good friends.’  The whole fib was beginning to sound convincing enough to her.

‘Such things don’t matter these days,’ Chandini said.

‘I know, but for oldies such things make a world of difference. My friend didn’t want to get married, neither her boyfriend. Then they stumbled on each other. They both are spiritually inclined people. She works as an interior design consultant and operates from her own studio. She takes a sabbatical of three months every two years, and her boyfriend is an architect.’ Chandini took a mental note of details.

‘Woman, you cook a story, so fast,’ Ashmi said admirably.

‘Because that sucker needed details and those had to be convincing enough. Remember you are an interior designer and he is an architect. Earlier, I thought that you could camouflage for me, but then, we keep dealing with Prisitine Resort and just may be in future someone could figure it out. Hence, I didn’t want to take risk,’ she said.

 Ashmi thanked her. 

‘She got down at IIFCO,’ she noticed Mathias standing at a spot and disembarked from the car.

 Ashmi called after him and Laily sped off. Five minutes later another car stopped. It had the poster of Pristine Resort all over it. Ashmi rang the driver’s number. He stopped the car.

Both Mathias and Ashmi got inside it with an empty overnighter and a laptop bag. The overnighter bag was brought by Laily, so that they look like genuine travelers.

At the reception, everything went smooth. The receptionist was already informed of their arrival. ‘You two look spiritual too,’ she commented as she looked at Ashmi dressed in an off-white crepe sari.

Once inside the room, Mathias bolted the door and put the sign of Do Not Disturb at the door.

Her heart was beating wildly. She sat on the farthest corner of the bed. Mathias sat by her side. They both were adults. He held her hand gently and entwined his fingers with her.

I couldn’t sleep last night. I was afraid, you would cancel our rendezvous today, he said with downcast eyes.

In the silence of the room, she could hear his heartbeat.

What makes you attracted to me? She asked him.

‘I know you are out of bounds for me. You have a family, but I have immensely soft feelings for you. The days when you are sad, my mood also spoils. When you talk to me, my dull days also brighten up.’

Ashmi absorbed his words. Slowly, his finger began to trace a line from the temple of her ear to the nape of her shoulder. His fingers had magic.

In a fraction of a second, he stretched himself on the bed with his head in her lap. Ashmi nudged him to get up. Live in the moment, he said. He began to bend her head towards his face. She closed her eyes. Image of Akhil began to form on her mind. Immediately, she opened her eyes. Mathias looked at her with eyes brimming with love. Is it possible to love two people at the same time?

With Akhil, things had become monotonous, but then they continued with it, because there was no point rocking a sailing boat. ‘Hey! Love where are you?’ He nudged her back to reality and his hands fidgeted with the safety pin of her sari palla.

Delicately, he began nuzzling her collar bone. The act sent shivers through her. For the next forty minutes, the couple on spiritual retreat was a mass of writing bodies. A tear drop escaped her eyes, as she achieved orgasm, something that had eluded her for many moons.

Wrapped in each other’s arms, she gently began to stroke his back, as she noticed a scar running down his back. She tentatively touched it, then, ran her finger on it.

‘It doesn’t hurt anymore,’ he said.

‘How did you get it?’ she was eager to know. He was a secretive personality. He spoke very little about himself.

‘My childhood was not that happy and it comes from there,’ he said. She didn’t probe further. ‘I noticed that you have a series of moles on your belly on the right and they run in straight line,’ he  said.  Ashmi blushed. ‘Stop it Mathias. You are embarrassing me,’ she spoke.

‘No, I am not,’ he snuggled close to her and settled his head in the crook of her shoulder.

‘Mathias, I am hungry,’ she nudged his head that was settled in the crook of her shoulder.

‘So am I,’ he said indicating another hunger that had begun to build inside him.

‘No Mathias,’ she said.

‘Why Ashmi? You are pretty good at it, he told her, and what can be done once can be done better, the next time,’ he teased her.

‘You have this unique habit of setting restrictions on everything. Why are you depriving yourself  and me all the time,’ he said from his observation.

‘Was I as good as your girlfriend?’ she couldn’t stop herself from asking this.

‘You were better than her,’ he told her honestly.

‘Stop it Mathias,’ she admonished.

 ‘Why do you address me by my last name?’ he was keen to know.

‘Because I love the sound of it,’ she said perusing the menu.

‘What would you like to have? she asked  casually.

‘Whatever you decide,’ he said not willing to be disturbed by such trivial details.

‘Stop it,’ she warned him when his hands began to stroke her bare back.

Ashmi picked the phone and ordered two grilled mushroom cheese sandwich with a bowl of French fries, along with a chilled bottle of mineral water. She wriggled her way out of the bed all covered in bedspread till the wash room frowning at the same time at the idea of wearing sari once again. Picking the discarded clothing was not an appealing idea either, as they were all over the place. Suddenly she remembered the negligee that was lying pretty inside her bag and walked up to her purse to fish it out.

Dressed just in scraps and straps Ashmi felt quite awkward. She looked at  the neckline that plunged deep.  She ran out of the bathroom and zipped to Mathias ignored shirt to cover herself.

‘Why so modest?’ he questioned.

‘That’s how I am, but what made you dress in jeans,’ she wanted to know.

 The room service, guy, he said, and pulled her in his lap to feed the sandwich to her.