Tentative Moves
By the time Roopa came out of the Railway Station with Raja Rao and Sandhya, the auto-stand wore a deserted look. Moving away from them to locate an auto, Roopa hailed at a passing one. The auto driver as though to show her, her place in the love triangle, drove in to form a wedge between her and the wedded couple. As Roopa got in from the right, Raja Rao stepped in from the left to place the luggage in the space behind. As he was about to step out to let Sandhya get in, he found himself pushed in by her, unmindful of the protocol. As Sandhya nudged him for more space for herself, he was pushed closer to Roopa that filled her heart and thrilled his senses.
Pressed between his wife and the woman he enamored, Raja Rao realized that his sex life would be dull without bedding the latter as well. The jerks of the journey thereon that jostled their man closer to them sharpened Sandhya’s sensuality and deepened Roopa’s desire.
‘If a mere thirty minute ride with him could be so exciting, how exhilarating a lifelong journey would be then?’ Roopa thought, reluctantly getting down when the auto reached her place.
Once they got in, Raja Rao went into the bathroom to shower himself, while the friends were engaged with the marriage albums.
‘One might think,’ said Roopa finding herself in every other picture, ‘I’m photo-crazy.’
‘On the other hand,’ said Sandhya affectionately, ‘we thought you’re a value addition.’
‘Who else?’ said Roopa.
‘Can’t you guess?’ said Sandhya pointing to her husband with her eyes as he came.
‘Madam, I feel you’ve kept watch to catch me at mischief,’ he said, making Roopa blush to the roots.
‘I was only trying to measure,’ said Roopa, composing herself readily, ‘my friend’s fortune in the making.’
‘What a compliment!’ he said, thrilled at that. ‘Though it’s said that beauty and brains won’t coexist in feminine frames, both of you seem to have appropriated most of both.’
‘Thank you,’ said Sandhya thrilled by the romance of the moment. ‘But you better stop this madam business. Don’t you know she has a beautiful name?’
‘Won’t she feel,’ he said, looking at Roopa, ‘that it strikes a familiar note?’
‘Roopa,’ said Roopa, matching his gaze.
‘Roopa,’ he repeated, thrilling her senses.
‘I’ll go for a bath,’ said Sandhya, and left.
‘Roopa,’ he addressed her as she buried herself in an album. As the ardency in his tone signaled a note of urgency, she shifted her loving gaze from the groom in the pictures onto him in her presence.