FF: New York times with Maan&Geet Thread 3 05/03 - Page 90

Right then Arjun's phone interrupted her stream of thoughts. She had volunteered to play their impromptu storyteller, but in no time she had regretted the commitment. She only welcomed the interval she got as Arjun and Annie stepped outside to the sidewalk from the cafe.

It was so strange come to think of it. She had never rehearsed or thought she would come to narrate the difficult situation that had brought them together. The angst and the theatricals was more than words can draw up a picture for her audience and she now felt, it was nothing less than drama only suitable for some Fan Fiction forum. Her lips curved instantly as she picked up on times from their past and crafted it mentally for her newfound friends. At that same moment, she couldn't help wonder how he would have done it, given a choice. Would he give out details? Were they close enough to know their private share of the story? What became trivial and what now classified as delicately intimate hung loose when it came to these strangers who were far more than pals to him.

She looked at Maan who seemed to have a frivolous glee plastered to his face. What was funny? She wondered. Did he trick her getting into a telltale game? The option did not escape her mind as she continued to peer at him. As she strained her eyes to examine his, that looked quite distracted and wandered off to every other corner when she came closer, her mind was quite sure of the doubts she had started harboring right after their friends had left them. His hands slightly fidgeted with his cell phone while he continuously gave out that silly smile at her.

Despite the fact that it was still his first, she was still nonplussed. Both her hands rushed to close her mouth as she realized what her thoughtless husband had done.

"Don't tell me you are high..." She dragged her chair closer to him in a quick step, while still being seated in it "Are you?" She bent in and examined his iris once again. There was perhaps no explaining that could help her make sense of her husband's sudden urge to guzzle alcohol in broad day light. But then there were some frozen scars he had dug up from the ruins of his past on their way to the university and it did need some alcohol therapy, she attempted to pacify herself.

"Hush...Hush...." He jerked forward and whispered.

"He got me a blue label...and I thought it would calm my nerves...you know the presentation and all" He continued to smile and winked at once, as if that was meant to truly make it all better.

Oddly she bought it too. "How much did you have? Is that why you asked Arjun to drive to the cafe?" She asked flatly, leaving him ponder if he had imagined the tinge of anger he had just sensed or if it was only his imagination.

"May be a couple of shots..." he gestured to show the size of a small shot glass. She gasped ruefully.

Of course she had had no clue, but the entire time the drone of the cars, the light afternoon breeze and her sweet voice had all indirectly lulled him into another world. Everything seemed to move a tad bit slower and overall he was once again feeling ebullient and jubilant for no reason at all, well at least the jubilant part was justified given the successful guest lecture. He had been so low-key all morning internally, that the sight of the bottle made him jump at it and drink up mindlessly. As if it was some ethereal weapon than had come to his rescue, to fight off the dark lords of the day, that being his sordid past. It had indeed surprised Annie and Arjun, to catch their pal sought after the favorite organic compound right after being presented with it at the parking lot, but he had effortlessly convinced them giving his session as an excuse.

"So where were we?" Arjun came back, more interested to pick on the details of their love story than Annie, which was quite contrary to what she had expected. Annie came back to sit right next to Geet, the same as before they had left  for the phone call.

"We were at Maan dowsing a dozen pegs of Blue label" she brought up the topic alleging that somehow he had a hand in it indirectly. Arjun looked perplexed while she had pressed her lips to form straight line.

"Oi...chill" Maan shot at her.

"It's all cool dude...she doesn't know half the things we could smoke up given the reunion of like" he paused for a while, his mental abilities now reduced to that of a dodo "what 3 years?" To which Arjun simple nodded and added

"I know...I even got some for us...but now I guess I will just to have pack it back home" 

"Shit...Don't tell me you got some dough on you?" Maan cracked up, his statement lighting him up like a Christmas tree.

"Chi Chi Babaji..." She wiggled at once and hissed as a beaten up snake, a dark flush running across her face. Voicing her disgust as she picked up her handbag to Annie's disbelief, she thrashed him left and right, while he held up his hand against his face as a guard. The next moment she was flashing out the door of the cafe in lightening speed.

It was as if some alien had abducted her husband and dropped off another man in his body. There were gallons of contrast in his choices and behavior that she doubted if he should ever be allowed to drink. Not that he swaggered or drooled his way at other women, but she felt one can never be careful while indulging one's husband in opiates or spirits that dulled the mind and let the body graze as a wanton animal. No her Maan can never be one; she revolted her own thoughts. To her the man who sat there wincing and writhing in pain was not her Maan at all. Topic dismissed.

Maan darted right behind her, as he midway turned around at their friends to wink. Right as she was about to step off the sidewalk to get to the other side of the road, she felt her feet lift off the road, as his arms came around, caging her to him.

"Maan...chodiye Mujhe..." she screamed as he rose her towering up like elevating a stiff mannequin and put her back towards the cafe. His theatricals picking up a notch, he tipped her chin forward, arrested her hands between the confines of their body and kissed her senseless. Still a spectacle for them, it was just another day and yet another lovers tiff in the college town and so he continued until, he felt her raging pulse died down.

She had resisted him initially, her hands flitting on his chest - a vain attempt to shove him - but eventually, things had come around for him. Somewhere between, pushing her hair away from their lips and while his hand callously crushed her waist, he had hoarsely whispered "I know it was a bad joke..."; his voice showing that same pain he had borne all morning in the car. Her eyes fixated on him, studying him in a strange penance even as the shouts and hoots of passer's by raged in her ears. It was those moments that the wind stills in one's hair, the thumping of the heart echoes as everything around the body fades and void starts closing in...And one feel's that it could be those profound moments in life that would stay with you forever. She sure knew she had felt it among those mock jeers of hers and in the malice of his humor and yet again with words of timeworn quality, he had pleaded her  confirming the same "But Geet...I need you more than ever today...please don't leave"

That along with how he had kissed her seconds before, a dark spontaneous being gushing out a naked kiss, when he had held nothing behind, she had to give it to him.

They had walked back into the cafe leaving Annie and Arjun in a rude shock but more pleasantly surprised at how a very private Maan had made out with his wife for all of New Haven's callous teen population to see. He was in ways, they did not even know, a different person than the one they had lived with, in the dorms of sorority heaven. The clich "A man had many faces to show" dawned upon them its true meaning, which they so blithely had disregarded all the while.

She had picked up from where they had left off before Arjun's cell phone had intervened. He was more aware of his surroundings than ever given the dose of alcohol, indeed an opposite effect than what was expected. The shrill in her voice rang in his ears and her giggles were so exquisitely vivid to him.

She had very tactfully described their early days as one when they had not quite been available to each other and yet the attraction factor had - to their own surprise and guilt - precariously grown high. Not to forget the high points and dramatic sequences that had often made them nostalgic, starting right from their unplanned trip to blooming dales up to their eventful wedding and a very stirring honeymoon. She and Maan had taken turns to shy away at mention of a few unrehearsed details, some that he had not brought to the light of his living conscious in a long time, like the when he had mockingly gone down on one knee the same time Yash had proposed to Meera and the other being his first kiss in the palm of her hand while standing in a blanket of snow in an almost deserted flea market. Her words made it seem like life had taken them on a fast and short roller coaster ride up until that point and now the recital was only another drive back in a time machine. It was about time either ways, she had thought and chuckled at that.

Their rendezvous had come along very well and the couple had once again decided to part ways as twilight closed upon them.

"Oh! you guys should come to Boston...after the baby comes" Annie had spurted in another one of her peppy outburst. Smiling and waving unwillingly, they had moved back to their car in the campus parking lot. Given that it was not a regular car she had driven and the amount of liquor he had ingested in the morning, she had insisted they stay over the night and not do the 3 hr drive back home. He had reluctantly given in after a series of arguments, but the idea did sound about right after he reappraised the presence of Daadima and Naini in the adjacent room when he would want to be physically intimate with her. The penthouse suite was not the khurana mansion with dense rooms nor heavily sound proofed and today was not a day he wanted to find out shocking truths about how poor their apartment acoustics were either.

Of course Google had come to their rescue and they had chosen a quiet Bread and Breakfast for the stay overnight. Reaching the locale within a half hour drive, they had discovered that the place was rustic with its seasoned wood trimmings and gave the essential old world flavor for all nights romantic. They had checked in in no time and he had settled with his laptop and a phone call on the chaise lounge by the hearth. She had drifted around the room aimlessly, going from the bed to the dresser and then to the window where a mass of swirling white snow had started to pour. The change in the weather was not expected that late evening, but it was only well greeted given the setting they were in. Seeing her lose herself in her cozy surrounding he had only wanted to make it more snug and comfy.

And so he lit the fireplace; the yellow and blue flames of the pit made their shadows come alive like there were no longer two but four beings in the room that waited for his phone call to end. The next three quarters of the hour had seemed like the longest 45 mts she had ever experienced. Tossing and rolling on the bed at times, she had even sat up enticingly, but he had turned the other way with a smile at her futile attempts. He was a man who definitely knew his priorities and she respected that side of him too. Perhaps that was why when the call ended, she had not a thrown a tantrum and had instead climbed up to sit astride his thighs.

He leaned in closer now and she buckled her feet around his waist. She smoothed over a kiss on his lips. It seemed the entire cosmos had toned down one tempo down. Her every touch one scale slower and their growing kiss one measure gentler. As she suckled on his cold nipped lips, he felt a shot of sharp ache shoot inside him, like iodine on fresh would only this was quite an exotic crush. He smiled wondering where she was going with this.

"Ok...let me get a quick bite now" she broke away from their passion pursuit and took the bowl that was resting by the side table.  He had ordered dinner and ice cream for dessert and somehow the need to skip dinner only became more obvious and she now jumped directly to the ice cold finale that awaited in fine china.

Picking up the spoon, she cut through the cold slab of iced mass of milk and cream to scoop it between her lips.

"Hmmm...This is so good Maan...You should try it too" She said, raising another spoon to his mouth. But he held her hand by her wrist and nudged her forward to take her lips in. It all seemed only creamier when he tasted it through her mouth and the heat from their bodies really did make it the melt in the mouth variety. As he kissed her in the same pace she had done so a few minutes before, a tiny drop of the liquid cream slid down the corner of her lips, which he couldn't help lick it off. The hot touch of his tongue seared her cold skin sending in jitters right through her nerves. The tingles that tickled the tips of her body, felt like tiny sparks that sputtered in her to give her a new life.

"Maan..." She moaned his name, as she cowered over his bare chest. Her fingertips glided up his taut structure and pushed out his unbuttoned shirt further down his shoulders. His hands then left her body momentarily and quietly hurried to pull down the stiff cloth she didn't want on him. And now came his favorite part of undressing her, which for reasons he still didn't know still made him feel like a first time kid at a planetarium. While he plucked that button out its button hole and her cleavage came into view, the sensual slopes and her smooth fair skin, made him skip a beat every time. He bent down to take a whiff of the perfume that she usually dabbed there, tracing his nose on her sultry skin, throwing her balance run kilter. She knew all too well about her husband in that short time of 5 days and so she curved her back to have him kiss her musky skin that sloped down into the V of her chest. And he did, no longer in control to his own coursing need for her. His pace picked up a few notches as he felt her bare back in an urgent rush. The delicate desire in her, all the more in contract with his dark passion, which he so shamelessly played with as he took her skin hard between his teeth; the sweet pleasure stung her like scorching dew on low burning ambers. This was all so different as they held each other tighter, the warmth and the arousal kicking in a moment later, leaving behind tender feelings of agony and lust deep inside their beings.

He caressed her hair all the time as he lay her down on the blanket; it shuffled under the back of his fingers like fresh cashmere or that is what he thought it ought to feel like.

She felt he was lukewarm, so perfect it was when he slithered on her moist skin. Just as the rest of their clothes came off their convulsing bodies, he looked at her soft brown eyes pausing to take her dainty features in. She smiled as she lifted her fingers to sieve through his disheveled hair, thinking why he still did that, seeking her permission even after they had made love a good number of times. Somethings would never change with him, she thought. It truly felt remarkable being the world to someone and she was slowly learning to revel in that feeling as he dowsed her in a rain of kisses by her neck and chest.

Loving her came so very easily to him. There were still some sanctions he asked of her, but only out of reverence of a brute past against which she had guarded herself all those years.  He knew it was best done this way, before their passion sparked off any discomfiting surprise in her. And so she did, just what he desperately sought. She uplifted her head to his anxious lips and kissed him back with fervency, following which he made love to her more to her pleasure and equally for his carnal demands.

The universe reeled in one way and then in theirs it spun a whole a lot differently. Some wounds soared and licked, some secrets shared and acknowledged, making the world a tad bit better place for them to live in. Nothing went topsy turvy this day, but she did see him in yet another light, making him bring about more layers of vulnerability than one. It was still unclear who sought sanctuary in whom while they rolled over the covers passionately those hours when white moths were by the wing; whispering sweet nothings over and over to each other. No doubt was left behind when she sure did seek out for sanctum in him, while she cried that night as she realized her nights such as these with him were already numbered.

I know its been a long time, but bear with me...Work is just crazy. Hope you all like this. Comments/feedback please. At least the like button?