The Benefit Season (12 page)

I have kept the apartment
dark as I wait in the balcony for the two mates to return from
office. Lily enters after Lele and flicks on the switch. She lets
out a howl as she sees the profusion of flowers; flits from vase to
vase in joy while Lele stands gaping; his arms hanging limply by
his sides.

Her eyes brimful of tears,
she turns to him; running her palms down the front of his shirt,
she says; ‘ you cruel, cruel man; you kept me waiting so’. Grabbing
his collars she pulls his face close and plants her lips on his,
and rising on her toes curls a shapely leg around him, making small
whining sounds; as her future master and provider stands transfixed
to the spot, his breath sucked out of him by her roving tongue.
Then she breaks loose, regards him at an arm’s length and still
holding on to his collars, walks backwards to lead him unto her
verdant bower. Realizing where he’s headed, the man in Lele stirs
and awakens, and bending down slightly, he lifts gentle Lily in his
strong embrace, and walks to her bed where he throws her, to lie
beside her, and to ravish her till she’s spent.

I tiptoe into the house
and chance upon the open card on one of the bouquets, that
carelessly says, “Best Wishes of the Day- Love, Arjun”. Clumsy me
had forgotten to tell the florist to put Lele’s name on it. Luckily
Lily hasn’t seen it- I hastily remove it and slip it out of sight
under the bundle of papers on my desk. I take a bath and change
into something Khosla would find little blunder in, and tiptoe back
to the balcony. Silly me though- I needn’t have bothered about
making a sound- so quiet otherwise, they are a real noisy couple in
bed. No one would hearken a tall man striding comfortably across
the hall in rubber-soled boots in the racket they’re making right
now. I grab a carton of full-fat blackberry yoghurt and sling it
over to the balcony for comfort while the two lovers run each
other’s floods dry. Lele comes out to the balcony presently,
looking very pleased.

‘
Ever been with a girl’,
he asks, grinning from ear to ear.

‘
Been there, done that,
still there… doing it…’ I tell him, pausing between the
scoops.

‘
Flowers have a…’ he
struggles for the words.

‘
An effect’, I
suggest.

‘
Yes, an effect on women
that is…’ his emotions have overwhelmed him and he is
incoherent.

‘
Flowers have an effect on
women that is at once magical and powerful; like therapy, like
prayer…’

‘
Exactly’, he snaps his
fingers. ‘Funny- I don’t remember ordering them though.’

I scrape the remnants of my nourishment with
the spoon and avoid his searching gaze.

He is slowly coming back to his senses after
the emotional and carnal catharsis.

‘
Hey! You ordered them!
You too! You too are in…’ he cups his mouth in horror, unable to
speak the despicable thought.

‘
No I am not. I am not in
love with her- you are. I am already spoken for, child marriage and
all that. Most amazing girl- you’ll see her tonight’.

He shrinks back, grasping the armrests till
his knuckles turn white. ‘ You mean you ordered them to…’ he
mutters, still short on the verbal crutches.

‘
No and yes. I ordered
them because I knew you wouldn’t, though you should’ve. You guys
feed me, clean after me, lean in on me and keep my house. So for
the world I didn’t want her hurt this day. I had a clue of what she
wanted- from you- so as a grateful friend I sent for them. Bringing
you two nuts together was the collateral damage I was no doubt
hoping for.’

If Lele had a tail he would have wagged it
then. He just got by with rolling his eyes, because Lily made an
entry at that moment. She leaned against the sliding panels and
like an indulgent tigress, looked upon Lele as if he was something
that had been just plucked out of hiding and fed. At me she smiled
wanly as at someone who’d missed the bus. For the first time she
was dressed in shorts revealing pale long slender legs that ended
in slim ankles and chubby toes. She reclaimed no underwear either,
and her full breasts pushed against Lele’s check shirt tied
carelessly at the rise of a curvy hip. I plucked my eyeballs with
difficulty off the soft insides of her silky thighs and turned to
the surging tides yonder, catching a jealous Lele glaring at her
and me in turns. He didn’t have the balls to tell her to cover up
and me to look down. Lily, with fruit, was aware of what was going
on and seemed to revel in being the sudden cause of so much turmoil
in men who had hitherto barely passed the geeky, spectacle-clad,
homely girl a cordial glance. She yawned happily; her shirt knot
rising a trifle to reveal a darling navel set in the midst of a
smooth belly anointed with the oil of myrrh; and thither my
shameful and his shamed eyes darted.

‘
He got me the flowers;
what did you get!’ she scolded, swinging a bent knee till the
frayed insides of her shorts reached the ends of her lush cove;
like denim flaps blowing in the wind against a dank opening. She
knew my tongue was there, so she let me be smothered between her
supple thighs. That was all a man with a flood in the loins and a
ring on the third finger could take. Squaring the old Pasricha
shoulders, I hooved myself erect, and avoiding all eye contact with
her replied, ‘ I got us a dinner reservation at
The Zodiac Grill
tonight. Happy
Birthday’; and slinked away before she could scald us both in a
burning embrace.

What is it with women, I wonder. There is no
such thing as a faithful man or husband ‘tis true, but women…women
like whoremongers must not lure and ravage and plunder the
affections of men that are strangers to the beds of their
husbands.

ϖ

An hour later, dressed in
purple best, the four of us are seated in the hallowed wood-paneled
womb of The Zodiac Grill- the epitome of celebrity dining in
Colaba, where a meal for two can easily rack up to a cool 25,000
bucks. I have arranged for a Jaguar Meal for all of us; they sent
Jaguars to pick up both the couples separately for the meal. We are
seated under a large blue dome with sparkling stars and are ready
to be spoiled with the famed personalized butler service that
includes silver cloches, Barnadaud crockery, Christoffle cutlery
and Reidel glassware. As the host, only I get the priced menu while
the others have the prices blanked out. They believe it is beneath
them to trifle their high culinary art by putting a price on
it.

Aarti wants to try their
degustation menu to sample the chef’s specialties - only her, mind
you- as a stern eyebrow slightly raised suggests. She seems unhappy
that I am splurging so much on someone who’s just a roommate, and
worse, a competitor at the work place. It doesn’t help that today
the light within is illuminating Lily to a resplendent sheen. Aarti
looks uncomfortable with the off-shoulder, low-hemline sequined top
that keeps slipping off Lily’s dainty shoulders, revealing a
delicious chasm keeping two rising swells from mingling their
flavors. Leave alone fitting a filled champagne glass and a hungry
mouth that goes along with it in that slippery gully, Aarti
wouldn’t even let me park my eyeballs there; she is keenly
observing how many times I glance at Lily and for how long. She
undoes a button on her blouse and pushes up her breasts
self-consciously when she thinks I am not watching. She tilts the
chin, throws back the mane of her hair to present her best profile
and the vision of her long, slender ivory neck. No matter the faint
cleavage, the petite breasts, the athletic hips, she’s my girl and
I love her. I like the ferocity with which she possesses me; I
adore everything of her: the endless olive complexioned legs with
the pointy knees, the slim wide shoulders, the fine delicate hands,
her frank laughter and the warm embrace that makes me feel at home.
I pump her hands and she’s glad and she knocks off her shoe and
slides her toe up my legs till they’re planted reassuringly at my
crotch- both checking and calculating if I’m affected by Lily’s
immodesty. She tries to sneak away my priced menu but I have an
elbow planted firmly on it; Mr. Khosla will surely have something
to say on this vain outing, something that will dwell on faulty
genes and wastrel instincts.

Our butler, who has
mysteriously teleported himself by my elbow, recommends French
Goose Liver, Fresh Enoki and Caviar rounded off by Kahlua Mousse,
and I am inclined to agree; considering that I have nothing to
disagree with Escargots De Bourgogne, Chilled Asparagus Vinaigrette
or Camembert Dariole either; all of them being equally Greek or
French to me; languages that I have not had the pleasure of making
acquaintance with as yet. He suggests Karl Lagerfeld edition for
Dom Perignon, and I, proud master of the cold platinum card
nestling assuredly in my wallet, accept the excellent suggestion,
to the further chagrin of my number-crunching fiancé.

A wait staff brings around data cards for
all of us to fill.

Lily who knows all, says,’
they maintain a client database here. They even know where your
kids study. You get a homely feeling, of continuity; they treat you
with familiarity and even make sure they get staff who have waited
on you earlier to serve you again.’

‘
Why should I fill this?
I’m never coming back here again’, Lele, who regards eating Vada
Pao by the wayside as fine dining, says. Lily tweaks his ear and he
relents and attacks the card with the seriousness of one signing up
for the meal ticket.

Dom Perignon has done a
hell of a job with the bubbly and after the tiger prawns have been
washed down, a warm glow settles upon our table: Aarti puts the
prices and Lily’s slippery blouse behind her and concentrates on
teasing with her chubby toes my rising tent pole till it’s ready to
burst, while Lily is sucking at Lele’s third finger, getting it
ready to slip smoothly through a ring. Lele looks like he was far
better off with Lily sucking on him elsewhere.

‘
How come they didn’t send
someone else to Mukut Chand’s native place’, Lele asks nobody in
particular, to draw the ladies away from their single-minded
pleasure seeking. ‘There are so many old hands who could have done
the job’.

‘
So now
you want a hand job’, Lily, a little glad now with the heady wine,
asks, raising her head. ‘I don’t think there is anybody who has her
wrapped around the little finger like our
desi
stud
here’.

‘
What do you mean’, Aarti
asks, withdrawing her foot and paying close attention to my office
gossip now.

‘
Arjun has seen a
meteoric rise in the company. I know he’s got a couple of lucky
breaks, and he’s sincere; but a new apartment, company car, a
raise, bonuses; so soon? Look where we’re sitting right now. We
can’t afford to come here even in the next couple of years’, Lily
says.

‘
Are you saying it’s
because his boss, a married lady, has fallen for him? That’s gross.
Even for you’, Aarti says; a little more hotly than I would have
her speaking to my guests when I’m hosting.

‘
I wouldn’t go so far as
to accuse people that way,’ Lele says, coming to my rescue. ‘And
certainly it’s not fair to either Arjun who has been doing a
fantastic job, or to Monal who has a knack for smelling a success
story and going all out to lend a shoulder to people who take big
chances. But my question in the first place was; why Arjun, why a
rookie, when there are so many experienced people already sitting
around? He’s not the only guy built like a rock in our company, or
the last man in a tearing hurry to stick his neck out for rapid
promotions.’

‘
Then why him’, Aarti
asks.

‘
I don’t know the answer
to that, but I do know; I wouldn’t have gone. Who goes into the UP
badlands and stands up to a warlord all by himself? Or let’s say
with two ladyfingers for backing?’

‘
You mean they staked him
out as the guinea pig?’ Aarti says.

‘
Hey, it wasn’t like that
at all. It was my idea right from the beginning. She did not for
once suggest I do anything foolhardy or stick my neck out’, I
reply.

‘
But she
never stopped you from going ahead either, did she? She knew what a
foolish plan it was in the first place to try and relieve a family
from bondage, singlehandedly. What came over you Arjun? I have met
her and I know she’s smart enough to fool you into believing her
crazy plans were
your
ideas in the first place. You are such a
simpleton, Arjun,’ Aarti says, concern writ large on her pretty
face.

‘
But I did manage it,
didn’t I? Everything worked out fine, didn’t it? That’s why we’re
sitting here; young people who’ve arrived early in life. Look
around, you see only old folks’.

‘
I know, but when things
go wrong, they go horribly wrong. I want us to be these old folks
Arjun; don’t be in a hurry, please. Don’t let her fuck your mind
Arjun. Don’t let her set you up again’, she says.

‘
I can take care of
myself’, I reply, a little hot under the collar. If I had hoped for
a little congratulatory word or two from my dear company on my last
adventure, I know that word is not coming by any soon.

‘
I know you can baby, I
know you can. I am proud of you, papa bear’, Aarti says, sensing my
hurt around my friends, circling her fingers softly around my nape,
anxious to see me relax.