Fling Read Free

the clumsy way and
then lay together with just the sheet over us. She cuddled into me
and dozed off. And after a while I too slipped into dreams. The
room light was on and I woke up with a start around midnight.
    “Hey, wake up,” I
whispered shaking her. But she just turned the other way and kept
sleeping. I tried again, and she moaned, “let me stay tonight.” I
raised her bodily, and she clung to me. She was playing now.
    “Listen,
darling...”
    “Say that again,” she
said opening her eyes wide.
    I pinched her bottom.
“I’ll say it when you are clothed like a nice girl.”
    “Why can’t I
stay?”
    “Because we have to
stay here, among these people, for some months, maybe years.”
    I pulled her
underthings on and made her stand so that she wouldn’t keep falling
back on the bed. “Here now, hurry up, it’s very late,” I said
handing her the sari.
    I watched her
spellbound as she tied it slowly. She looked beautiful and I didn’t
want her to go. I also wanted to make love to her properly. I was
in love with her then.
    We went down the
stairs, and then she became very alert. “Now you go back,” she
said. “I don’t want the guard to see us together at this hour.”
    I couldn’t sleep the
rest of that night.
    ***

Lights
     
    There was less
passion the next time we were in my room. I didn’t feel in love
with her. We just satisfied each other, quickly. A job well done.
And then we drank coffee and gossiped. She had been to see an old
friend, a male friend, who had relocated that week, and was looking
forward to spending a lot of time with him. I felt jealous, I
wondered whether he too were a ‘friend with benefits’.
    “Cool, I can have some
time to myself now,” I said archly and then tried to laugh it
off.
    “What do you mean?”
she said.
    “Nothing, forget
it.”
    “No, tell me,” she
persisted setting her mug on the floor and crossing her arms.
    “Oh, at the rate we
are going, it won’t be long before you fall in love with me.”
    “ME, fall in love with
YOU!”
    “It can’t be the other
way round, you know it,” I countered.
    She got up.
    “Stay, you will come
back to me crying after two weeks.” I was being vicious but I
couldn’t help it.
    “This is the last
time,” she said slowly, “thank you for the coffee”.
    “And the rest?”
    “You’ve got more than
you’re worth.”
    “Yeah, I’ll give you
better than ‘fair’.”
    Mean, Mean, Mean. Our
eyes were locked throughout that spat.
    It was all over
between us. Finally. Crudely. We were sworn foes from that day. But
only outwardly.
    I missed her the next
evening. And the next, and the one after, and the whole week
ahead.
    Diwali was round the
corner and I was very homesick. It was the only festival I cared
for but I wasn’t going home. The office was closed and I had lost
the only person I could talk to. She had many friends, and wouldn’t
be lonely, and I hated her all the more for that.
    But it was a festival,
and I could apologize and patch up. She was moody, though, and
might insult me in front of her landlady. And there might be a
dozen guests at her landlady’s place.
    I tried to sleep late
but couldn’t. I tried to remain in bed but the birdsong and the
cool November breeze and the thought of breakfast made me stir. It
was only 7 o’ clock. I went out to buy milk and eggs, and walked
slowly hoping to see her come jogging round the corner of the
block. She jogged everyday. I paused at the gate, the minutes
rolled by. I quickly glanced up at her window and saw her running
clothes hung out to dry on a string. The sight of them filled me
with desire.
    I tried to read all
morning, and then wrote for a while. I turned on the radio and put
off lunch till 3 o’ clock, but the day seemed to have more hours
than usual.
    At 6 o’ clock, she
knocked. I was boiling milk for coffee.
    “Happy Diwali,” she
said. She had brought candles and a box of chocolates.
    I didn’t move out of
her way so she pushed me