When Hari Met His Saali Read Free Page B

bathroom
    A smile crossed Tia’s face as she relived the MHC encounter. Ah, sometimes life’s most pleasurable moments bring on the most miseries. But should that dilute the pleasure? Should that be a source of guilt and shamefulness? Even if it screws up work? As she looked intensely into her own eyes in the mirror, she decided no. No, it need not.
    Not if you undo the screw up by going over and above expectations.
    That is how Tia was going to make it up to Stephan. Suddenly she sprung into action. She opened her bag — a rather large bag that could qualify as luggage — and looked for the fresh underwear she had packed that morning. In her bag was an iPhone, a small notepad and pen, a pack of sticky notes, a small digital voice recorder and other essentials like lipstick, a compact, chewing gum, mints, a small deodorant spray, a pepper spray for safety and a fresh bra and panty set. They say that a woman’s purse tells a lot about its owner. And such was the case with Tia. Her life was split between things-to-do’ lists and looking pretty and
“hawt”
(as Jenny called her) for Hari.
    Tia had rarely missed or carried over her to-do’ list beyond its scheduled dates. She was organized. Confident. At the same time she was often unsure how she should present herself when she was with Hari. Not just in her look, but how she should position herself during sex. For example she had no clue if she should be the carriage to his horse, or whether she should be the horse. Hari was no help. He didn’t care as long as they were together. Hari was rather uncomplicated that way. She was thankful and knew there could only be one diva in their relationship. Yes, she was definitely the horse. But she was petrified of making all the decisions. Then again, she was glad that if the decisions were to be made, she was the one making them.
    Hmmm.
    Tia seesawed a lot. Especially when it came to understanding what type of woman she should be in her relationships. She wavered, but where her work was concerned she was effortlessly focused. Stephan used to joke that she was like a ballerina.
    ‘At such a young age you handle things so effortlessly and make it look easy — like a ballerina.’
    Tia had worked hard to be like a ballerina at the firm and she was certain that she was close to being made a junior partner. And that was exactly why she felt that she let herself down by missing the most important meeting of her career. She wished someone could just draw a chart or something to help her balance her work and her love life. This kind of misshap could not happen again.
    This will not happen again.
    Tia resolved to land the New York contract — but not just for two million dollars. She was going to go for a much bigger amount. Tia quickly changed into her fresh underwear and left the bathroom. She had a plan and she was going to rock it. Everthing was going to be OK. She was going to set it all right.
    Later that evening
    ‘You slut!’ Jenny said it so loudly that everyone else in the restaurant heard it and stared at Tia. What Jenny had actually said — with great excitement — was: ‘You slut! You had sex on the plane? Gosh, Tia, I don’t know if I should be proud of you or be jealous of you!’
    By now Tia had concluded that in spite of the major SNAFU at work, the MHC encounter was worth it. SNAFU stands for the sarcastic expression Situation Normal: All Fucked Up! It means that the situation is bad, but that this is a normal state of affairs.
    Further encouraged by Jenny’s reaction, Tia was even feeling proud. Jenny’s exclamation attracted some attention from other patrons in the restaurant. Tia liked attention.
    What was the point of joining the MHC if it doesn’t turn some heads?
    Earlier, when Tia walked into The Buffalo Club on Olympic Boulevard — more famously known as the street with Nakatomi Plazain the film
Die Hard
—Jenny was already there. Tia had picked the place, of course. Jenny wanted to go to an Indian