One wants to own me, one wants to stone me, one say's she is a friend of mine...

"After Aditya...I really shut myself off.
I'll be honest...I didn’t feel for you the way…you felt for me. I always knew you were deeper into it...than I was."

This wasn't the first time she had told him this. But it seemed 'final' now. Almost like signing off a long rambling letter.

"Can I ask you something...will you be honest with me?"

"Yeah", she said. He wished they could have this discussion face-to-face and not on a crackling Korean cell phone.

"Would you have married me...?"

"See, I wouldn’t say no. Just that I didn’t feel it..."

A woman's ability to be practical, he thought to himself, always surpassed his own.

Strangely enough, the only song that played all evening in his ears was Billy Joel’s 'River of Dreams'. Why 'River of Dreams'? It doesn't even fit, goddammit! This is one of life’s moments...right? And the background score is all so tangential, same guy...different song. 'You are always a woman to me', would have fit in...the girl walks away and the guy serenades here for the last time.

He lit a cigarette.

-------- x --------

It was the last day of the Sale. The trousers going at 30% discount were all piled in a heap. One had to rummage to find the right color, the right size. This would work very well for shop-aholic women, rummaging through stuff to lay their hands on the real bargain, "adds to the kick", he thought to himself. But it didn't quite work for him.

That was when the college chic, walked up to him. She wore a white shirt with vertical stripes and a wonderfully well-fitted pair of jeans.

"Excuse me, you are Abeer Sen, right?" she said with an embarrassed half giggle.

"Yeah".

"Oh ... I have read both your books. I think you are amazing..."

One-to-one situations, when he was accosted at shopping malls and theatres, were kinda odd.

Firstly it was embarrassing, cause he didn't ever quite know, what would be the appropriate way to respond. Secondly, ideally he would have liked to have a chat...ask women for example, whether they identified with Sayantoni? What were their favorite parts of the book? Did the love making sequences emote or titillate? But again he was too self-conscious to ask, even worse what if the girl thought he was flirting?

-------- x --------

The afternoon seemed to go on forever, the curtains were drawn and the fragrance of the scented candles hung like a warm cloud over the room.

Toni had her eyes closed, but he knew she was listening to the music.

"Tell me, what's it like…what do feel when you dress up for a date? Like when we are going out, you get dressed...what is it that you are thinking, feeling...do you think of me. Anything I mean...?"

She smiled, with her eyebrows arched. He knew that smile, he grinned "Toni tell me... its important...".

Labels: Fiction