Fling Read Free Page B

and wife?”
    “Shut up!”
    “As brother and
sister, mother and son, what?”
    “Can’t we just pray
together like good friends?”
    So we prayed, and
afterwards gave each other the benefits.
    ***

Trick
    By Christmas I had
found a girl I liked. She was a very quiet girl, always absorbed in
her work. And she was beautiful beyond words. That rare, pure
beauty from which cosmetics only detract. I think one half her
charm was her devotion to work. But that was also a hurdle in
getting to know her. She didn’t mingle outside her project team. I
would steal a glance at her and sigh but my breath didn’t carry my
heart’s message to her. I had become withdrawn, aloof and SHE
noticed it.
    “You’ve been
off-colour for some time,” she remarked one evening. We had just
sat and gossiped but not got down to our business in bed. The past
few times I had stopped before she told me to. My heart wasn’t in
it anymore. In fact, I felt guilty, not towards her but the new
girl, whom I saw as my first true love in years.
    “You are in love,” she
said and I jumped, almost. Had she read my thoughts?
    “Who is it?”
    “Who is what?”
    “Out with it, you
cannot fool me.”
    “Shut up,” I said and
tried to turn the talk around to office, but it was a weak
attempt.
    “WHO IS IT? Someone in
office? Tell me or I won’t leave you tonight.”
    I told her. She knew
her. They had worked together briefly on a project.
    “She’s a very nice
girl,” she said, “congratulations!”
    “Hey, it’s just my
fancy, she doesn’t know about it.”
    “Why don’t you tell
her?”
    “Tell her what? How?”
It wasn’t a question to her. I was thinking guiltily about all the
evenings in my room. The benefits. Had I just been telling this
woman about the girl I loved? Where did that leave her? What was
her place in my life now? What was she doing in my room at that
moment? What was she thinking?
    I searched for answers
in her eyes, and reminded myself of our pact at the start. She had
no business to be offended or feel hurt. It had been clear from the
start that we were just friends, sex buddies, but there was nothing
long-term between us. We could go our ways as soon as one or both
of us found love. My mind shouted those arguments but they still
sounded weak.
    “Don’t tell anyone,” I
said.
    “Of course, you think
I’m crazy? It’s none of my business.”
    I hugged her for
that.
    But she went and told
the girl, and told God knows what else. That girl started avoiding
me like the plague. She would change course if she saw me, leave
her table if I entered the office pantry. Before the week was out,
it was clear to me that she knew. And I knew how she knew.
    “Why did you tell
her?” I asked one Sunday morning when she came to see me in her
shorts and vest. She had started visiting me in smaller clothes
after that evening when I told her my secret.
    “Oh, I wanted to see
you happy. Has she spoken to you?”
    “No,” I said, “I don’t
think she will, and I don’t think I’ll like what she may have to
say.”
    “Oh! I’m sorry. You
know I did it for the best.”
    “Of course, you are
the only friend I have.”
    That morning I gave
her her benefits, and she made good my loss with a fair bit more
than the usual.
    ***

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