The Bestseller She Wrote (11 page)

His hands had moved to her lower back. He subtly tugged at the t-shirt, which slid up her velvety skin as his hands felt her cool, bare back. Their lips were still glued together. His hands slipped under the T-shirt and worked their way up making her shiver in excitement. Her hands moved from his back to his chest. From there they slid slowly downwards. She tugged at his belt, but couldn’t pull it open. She let it be and moved further down. She could feel his excitement. The bulge was evident. Her palm came to rest on his bulge even as her fingers fumbled with the zipper. It didn’t take her long to force it open. Her fingers deftly slid in through the gap and pulled at the elastic of his underwear.

That’s when Aditya snapped out of the trance-like state he was in.

He suddenly let go of her and stood up. ‘No, stop. This is not right,’ he whispered. He walked to the window at the far end of the room. The sun had set by then. ‘No . . .!’ he screamed. He strode back to where she was sitting, picked up his bag, his jacket and walked straight out of the room, without saying a word. He owed it to Maya and Aryan. At least for their sake, he could not stray. He repeated this over and over again to himself, as he got into his car and drove home.

He parked in the basement car park and sat there for ten minutes as the events of the day played out in his mind, as if on loop. A couple of times he shook his head and muttered a few expletives under his breath. Finally he stepped out of the car and rode the elevator to his tenth floor residence. The bag was in his hand and the jacket was neatly folded over his forearm. He casually looked at himself in the elevator mirror. He could see a few strands of white hair. And then he saw it . . . He froze.

In his reflection he could see a small patch on his shirt. The portion of the shirt around his shoulder had become damp because of Shreya’s tears. Not only was it damp, it had also become blackish, for some of Shreya’s mascara had run onto it. He panicked. He tried to rub it off, but it only got worse. The lift stopped on the tenth floor. Sensing no other option he hurriedly wore the jacket and buttoned it up, so as to obviate any possibility of the damp patch showing up. The jacket hid the patch. In any case the shirt would go for dry-cleaning. So, as long as he was able to hide it when he got inside the house, and dumped the shirt into the dry-cleaning basket, Maya would be none the wiser.

When he nervously rang the bell, Maya opened the door. After hugging her briefly he quietly escaped to the safe confines of the bedroom to change.

‘Should I set the table?’ Maya queried as he was entering the bedroom. ‘Yes. I’ll be out in a minute,’ he said and shut the door. Once inside the room, he hurriedly removed the suit, dumped the shirt and changed into his regular shorts and t-shirt. The problem was solved for now.

Maya was waiting for him at the dining table. Aryan had gone for a sleepover.

‘So?’

‘So? What “so”?’ Aditya asked.

‘So your girlfriend kept you busy today?’

The colour drained from Aditya’s face.

23

‘
W
HAT ARE YOU
talking about?’ he asked even as beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

‘I just asked if your girlfriend is keeping you busy these days,’ Maya reiterated.

‘Rubbish. I don’t know what you are saying,’ Aditya responded. If he could, he would have run away from the table. He couldn’t look Maya in the eye. He looked around the room—the table, food, a copy of
Business Today
magazine, an AC remote and a few unopened mails.

‘Well you only said that your girlfriend is keeping you busy these days.’

‘Me?’ He was surprised. ‘When did I say anything like that?’ he feigned irritation.

‘Here?’ she handed him a copy of
Business Today
. Nervously Aditya took the magazine from her.

Maya had opened a page for him. The Grishams of Banking was the title on the page. It was an article on how Indian bankers were taking to writing books as if it were going out of fashion. There were interviews with Ravi Subramanian, Amish Tripathi and himself, all bankers. He knew this story was to come, but didn’t know that it was slotted for the current issue. On the marked page was a Q&A with him. Question number six had been highlighted with a blue highlighter.

Have you ever considered becoming a full time author?

Maya had highlighted the response too.

My job is like my spouse and writing is like my girlfriend. When I started writing it didn’t take up much time. But now with a lot of time being dedicated to promotions, my girlfriend has started demanding more attention and is taking up the bulk of my time. But my spouse is not complaining yet. The day the spouse starts complaining, the day I feel I can’t handle my job along with my writing, I will have to make a choice.

It was the last line, which Maya had circled and highlighted.
As of now I am very happy managing both my wife and my girlfriend.

He looked at her and smiled, relieved.

‘Why were you so shocked when I asked you about your girlfriend?’ Maya asked.

‘What else? I come home and the first thing you ask me is about my girlfriend. I got worried as to what happened to you.’

‘Oh my baby!’ Maya hugged him and led him to the table for dinner. ‘I am so lucky we have each other. It’s going to be fifteen years this August.’

‘Seems like yesterday, baby,’ a relieved Aditya echoed her thoughts.

24

T
HAT NIGHT, WHILE
working on his book, Aditya kept going back to his phone to see if there was a message from Shreya. There was none. Was she angry? Was she upset? Would she complain about him to HR? She hadn’t invited him home that evening. He had sought her out and gone.

But then wasn’t she the one who initiated the kiss? Or was it his doing? Irrespective, she was a willing party to it. His final reaction, though, had been sudden and rude. He should not have just picked up his bag and walked away like that. Poor thing . . . she was in grief. Rather than help her settle down, he made it worse for her by rushing out of her house.

He picked up the phone and typed a message.

He pressed the send button and looked at the clock on the screen. It showed 11.42 pm.

Till 12.58 there was no response. He typed three follow-up messages and deleted all three before he could send them. He didn’t want to push her. Till the time he went to sleep at 2.30, Shreya had not responded.

When he woke up at six he found a message waiting for him.

25

W
HEN
A
DITYA WALKED
into office the next day, his eyes went to the corner where Shreya’s workstation was—the only corner where the lights were on. To get to his workstation, he had to cross a stretch wherein Shreya could look at him directly. There was no way he was going to escape her. He walked on and looked at her as he passed her corner. She stared back at him. Without saying a word, Aditya walked straight to his room.

After dumping his bag, he sat down on his chair; his mind was blank. The best-laid plans can be foiled by the trepidations of an anxious and nervous mind.

He took out his laptop and kept it on his table. His mind was away, revisiting the incidents of last night again and again, when a knock on his cabin door, brought him back to reality.

‘You didn’t like the kiss?’

The question was like a bolt from the blue. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘You heard me. You didn’t like it?’ Shreya asked with a straight face.

Aditya looked at her, confused.

‘Why else would you not even acknowledge my presence and walk in without even saying hello?’

‘Oh. No . . . I don’t know . . . last night . . . I am . . .’

‘Aditya,’ she called his name firmly, ‘relax.’

Aditya stopped talking and looked at her. It was difficult to make out who the boss was.

‘What happened last night was in the spur of the moment. It was impulsive. So why are you killing yourself over it?’

‘It should not have happened, Shreya. I am your supervisor.’

‘Is that it? Just because you are my supervisor, we can’t kiss?’

‘That’s not the point, Shreya. I am married. I have a family.’

‘Shouldn’t I be more worried about it than you?’

Aditya was surprised at her belligerent approach.

‘I am not saying it’s a desirable scenario. Neither you nor I had any control over it. I always prefer going with the flow rather than planning ahead. It’s always worked well for me in life. See, yesterday you promised to get my book published. It means more to me than anything else in life. I would in any case have kissed you out of joy.’

Aditya was speechless.

‘Do you love your wife any less because you kissed me?’ she asked him.

Aditya thought about it for a few seconds, and then some more. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Then why do I sense regret?’

‘Hmm . . .’ Aditya didn’t know what else to say.

‘Anyway, think about it. I’m going to HR. I’ll come back and talk to you.’

‘HR?’ For a moment Aditya was terrified.

Shreya giggled. ‘Not to complain, silly. They called for some forms. I’m going to complete them.’

‘Oh. Okay,’ he smiled for the first time that day.

‘And by the way, don’t forget your promise of helping me get published.’

‘Of course. I will do whatever I can,’ Aditya said, as Shreya turned to go back to her desk to pick up something. Before the door to the cabin shut again, she pushed it open winked at him and whispered, ‘Did anyone tell you that you are a fabulous kisser? Don’t know how you felt, but I loved what you did last night.’

‘Me too,’ Aditya said. He felt like an idiot having worried the whole night before about what Shreya might think of him.

Though he briefly regretted what had happened, his mind was a whirlpool of emotions. He couldn’t deny that he had liked it too. However, he was grappling with the effects that the counterfeit pleasure of an adulterous affair could have on his family.

Shreya was back in half an hour.

‘Coffee?’

‘No, Shreya. Give me some time. I need to send out this report.’

‘Can I help?’

Aditya smiled. ‘It’s okay. I have come to terms with last night. So you don’t need to indulge me,’ he said.

‘Ever considered the fact that I might like indulging you?’ Shreya drawled, and as an afterthought, added, ‘Irrespective of last night.’

‘I didn’t know kids these days were so smart,’ Aditya winked at her.

‘Kids? You go around kissing kids the way you did last night, Aditya?’ she said with a naughty look on her face.

The kiss had suddenly become a tool to tease each other.

‘Haha! Mad girl,’ Aditya laughed it off.

‘What did you do last night, after you went back? Don’t tell me you were thinking of it all through?’

‘I was. In fact, while waiting for your response, I wrote the last chapter of my book.’

‘Wow. Finished?’

‘Hmm,’ he nodded his head.

‘When are you giving it to me to read?’

‘It’s only the first draft.’

‘How does that matter? I want to see how star authors write. Whether their first draft is very different from what lesser mortals like me produce.’

‘Shut up. Just say that you want to read it before the others.’

‘Whatever gets you to sleep well at night. Have it your way. Happy? Now tell me when are you giving it to me to read?’

‘If you promise not to be in a hurry to judge it, I will send it to you right away.’

‘If I have to judge you by your writing, you must know by now, I will start with a bias. And after yesterday, if I have to judge you by the way you handle women, you will still hold an advantage,’ Shreya said. The corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled. She winked as she shut the door and moved back to her seat.

In the next five minutes Aditya logged into his iCloud and mailed Shreya a copy of his next book. Even Maya had not read it yet.

26

‘
H
AVE A SAFE
flight,’ Aditya said as he hugged Maya just before she entered the Mumbai international airport along with a team of fifty-eight students and two other teachers. Aryan was super thrilled about going with them.

After seeing them off at the departure gate of the Mumbai airport, Aditya rushed to the other side—the arrival gate. Shreya was waiting there for Sunaina who was arriving from Dubai.

‘Her flight has come. She is at immigration,’ Shreya announced cheerfully.

‘Great. So she should be out soon.’