“U still @ party?” Whatsapp flashed.
Lakshmi regarded her phone lying on the low table in front of her, sipping her fresh lime soda (her fourth of the evening). She was hungry and bored and really didn’t want to get into this conversation.
“U dere?” the phone flashed again.
She sighed and picked it up. “Ya,” she responded.
“Hmmm. I’m feeling lonely :-(” came the response.
Lakshmi wondered at the tendril of annoyance that unfurled inside her. 27-year Lakshmi Muthukrishnan was not given to irritation, anger or tantrums. She’d always been a “good girl”—obedient, quiet, and eager to please. She was the girl who was held up as an example among eye-rolling cousins and friends.
“It’s not a v interesting party,” Lakshmi typed, pushed by guilt.
“Why don’t u leave?” pat came the reply.
Now the irritation spread across her chest. “Coz I gotto be around with every1,” she typed. Which was a lie, because she was sitting in a dark corner, alone save the company of the sofa she sat on, table in front of her and her glass of fresh lime soda in her hand. The party was in full swing about three feet away from her, with strobe lights, ear piercing music and indistinguishable heaving bodies trying to dance.
There was silence. She knew Raj (Rajasekaran) was upset andwill give her the silent treatment until she apologized. And Lakshmi always apologized. Even for faults
that were not hers, because she felt pressurized to do so. Because she believed
there shouldn’t be any ego in love. But was it fair on Raj’s part to expect her
to do this all the time?
“You don’t look too happy.”
The voice startled her and she looked up to see Vince, a friend and colleague, standing over her with two empty glasses in his hands. He was ridiculously (at least according to Lakshmi) dressed in a skintight, short-sleeved T-shirt that showed off his well-muscled body (he spent a lot of time in the gym) and equally tight jeans accentuating his narrow waist and flat abs.
“Your girlfriend thirsty?” she asked, gesturing at the empty glasses in his hands. Vincent had been doing what he did in every party—pick a girl and stick to her like glue. He sometimes succeeded in getting that girl to bed. Today it was a girl from their Mumbai branch in a stylish short dress.
Vince grinned. “No, not drunk enough,” he replied shamelessly. “But you tell me why you are hiding in the dark?”
Lakshmi involuntarily looked at her phone. Vince, for all his dumb jock look, was quick. “Ah, lover’s tiff!” he observed.
Lakshmi resolutely shut her mouth, because Vince had made it very clear what he thought of Raj from the beginning. “Wuss” was his most politically right epithet.
Vince walked around the table and flopped on the sofa next to her. “Talk,” he commanded.
Lakshmi sighed. “Nothing to say—he’s upset that I’m at this party,” she replied shortly.
“Why, is he afraid that you will lose your virginity to all the hot guys out here?” Vince asked.
Lakshmi smiled lopsidedly and almost automatically asked, “Which hot guys?”
“If you drank something decent rather than the curd rice you are drinking, they will become apparent to you,” Vince replied.
“Not at an office party,” Lakshmi replied. It was a party to end a two-day national “off-site” organized by their department at a luxury resort in Goa.
“Which other party do you attend?” Vince teased. It was true—Lakshmi didn’t party. She didn’t know what to do in such dos because she neither drank nor danced. She was the quiet retiring type—more importantly, she hailed from a conservative Tambram family, where such debauchery was frowned upon severely.
"R u drinkin?” her phone flashed again.
“Maybe I should try,” Lakshmi told Vince.
Vince raised his eyebrows. “What?” he asked.
“Drink,” Lakshmi said and got up.
“Whoa!” Vince said and got up with her. “I was just kidding!”
Lakshmi looked at him, her eyes flashing. “You are saying I shouldn’t?” she asked him.
Vince held up placatory hands. “I’m only saying you may not like it,” he replied.
“How will I know if I don’t try?” she asked and started moving towards the bar, past the sweaty bodies.
“Point,” Vince shrugged as he followed her.
“You order,” she commanded him.
“Breezer?” he asked immediately.
Lakshmi’s eyes narrowed. “No, I want the hard stuff!” she declared.
Vince regarded her thoughtfully. “What hard stuff?” he asked her.
“Vodka,” she replied, because that was the first thing that came to her mind.
“Oh jeez!” Vince exclaimed softly and leaned over the counter. “Vodka with orange juice, for my friend here,” he said and looked over at her. “A very small one,” he winked at the bartender.
“U dere?” her phone buzzed.
Lakshmi did bottoms up of her drink as soon as it came, despite Vince yelling, “Slowly, slowly!” It hit her almost immediately, like a physical blow.
“Sit down!” Vince told her sharply and sat her down on the barstool. “Drink some water!” He thrust a glass under her nose.
Lakshmi by this time was already feeling light headed. “No, I’m good,” she replied. “I want another,” she sang out.
“No, you are not getting any,” Vince frowned.
She looked at him dolefully. Perhaps she shouldn’t.
“Ok, then I will dance,” she said and got up.
“Lakshmi! U dere?” her phone insisted. She pushed it into her jeans pocket.
“Show me,” she told Vince. He groaned.
“Lord, please deliver me from the sin of getting this curd rice drunk!” he sent a prayer up but followed her to the dance floor.
“Teach me the step you did with the other girl!” Lakshmi shouted over the noise.
What—“ Vince blanked and then his face cleared, “The jive?” he asked.
“Whatever,” Lakshmi said and put her hands on his shoulder.
Vince took an embarrassed look around him. But others seemed too busy with their enjoyment. He sighed and removed her hands from his shoulders. “You start like this,” he showed. “Turn like this—not this way, you idiot, the other way,” he continued. He stumbled a little bit when untrained Lakshmi flailed about and came crashing into him.
“I need an insurance policy for this!” Vince complained. Lakshmi hit him on the shoulder. “Show me properly!”
The phone buzzed in her pocket, sending Lakshmi into frenzy. She picked up the basic steps in a minute and danced passably well with Vince till the end of this song.
“I need a drink,” she announced at the end of it.
“No you don’t,” Vince replied automatically.
“Shut the fuck up!” Lakshmi told him. Her hand flew to her mouth and she looked at him in horror.
Vince started laughing. “We definitely need to drink to your first f-bomb,” he said and took her to the bar.
Alcohol flowed, music pulsated, and hands that were awkward got familiar and found the curves to fit in snugly. Heat bloomed as breaths mingled with sweat. People left the dance floor, in search of food. When the lights came on, only Vince and Lakshmi were on it.
They looked at each other with chagrined smiles. “Dinner?” Vince asked. Lakshmi nodded.
As they settled at a table with plates laden with food, Lakshmi extracted the phone from her pocket. There were several messages, increasingly strident, and four missed calls—all from Raj. “I don’t like it when you don’t pick up my calls,” was his last curt message. “This doesn’t bode well for our relationship.”
Lakshmi put her spoon down. Vince looked at her face searchingly. “I’m done, shall we go?” she asked him.
He nodded wordlessly and they got out of the main building.
“Shall I call the cart sir?” a courteous resort employee asked.
“No, I want to walk,” Lakshmi said.
“Really?” Vince asked.
“Yes!” Lakshmi said and started walking down the driveway.
Vince caught up with her. “Lakshmi, you want to tell me what’s going on?” he asked.
“I’m a good girl, Vince!” she said.
“Of course you are!” Vince replied, nonplussed.
“I don’t want to be,” she said and before Vince knew what she was up to, caught hold of his shoulder and kissed him. It was dark, both of them were drunk, and Lakshmi was shorter than Vince, so the kiss landed on his jaw, but the fervor was unmistakable.
“Whoa!” Vince said, steadying her. “Whoa!” he said again. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Lakshmi looked at him with troubled eyes. “I don’t know how to do this,” she said miserably.
“Nobody expected you to,” Vince murmured and steadfastly walked on. Lakshmi walked up to him and linked her hand through his arm. “You are mad at me?” she asked in a cajoling voice.
“You are drunk,” Vince said, half trying to extricate himself. But fingers somehow entwined and held on and he pulled her to him and kissed her, properly.
“Whoa!” it was Lakshmi’s turn to say it when they both surfaced for air.
“Don’t play with me curd rice,” Vince said, an odd catch in his voice.
“Do it again!” Lakshmi commanded and threw herself back at him. He held her by the waist and kissed her again. They strayed off the paved path into the shrubbery as his mouth traced the line of her neck. She drew in a sharp breath as his hand moulded her breast. She felt a hardness, which she had only read about in romance novels.
“Is it…” she asked, her eyes wide in wonder.
“Shut up!” Vince growled.
She hung on to his neck. “Sorry! Sorry!” she said.
He held her. “What do you want curd rice?” he asked.
She buried her face in his shoulder.
“You sure?” he asked, his voice strained.
She nodded without raising her head. “Fuck, I’m going to regret this!” he said softly and started walking with Lakshmi hanging on his arm. She started nibbling his neck. They somehow reached his villa without collapsing on the way.
“Fuck!” He said again as he opened the door.
“What?” Lakshmi asked.
“Shravan,” he whispered, indicating his roommate. “Inside.”
Lakshmi peered in. “He’s sleeping,” she whispered back.
“So?” Vince asked with a frown.
“The bathroom,” Lakshmi giggled. Yes, indeed the ultra luxurious resort had well appointed bathrooms.
Vince staggered. “You sure?” he asked.
Lakshmi stood on her tiptoes and kissed him again.
The bathtub was uncomfortable, a little small for two people, but as the clothes came of and bodies sunk into each other, such considerations seemed trivial. What seemed important were the urgent touches, whispers, giggles, grimaces, and indrawn breaths.
“Lakshmi,” Vince called, a long time after.
“Hmm?” she responded, not lifting her head from his shoulder.
“We need to talk,” he said.
Lakshmi yawned, a jaw breaking yawn. “I’m sleepy,” she said.
Vince looked down at the top of her head. “This—whatever this was…” Vince struggled with his words.
“Take me to my room,” Lakshmi said and stumblingly got up.
“Lakshmi,” Vince tried again.
“I need to get back to my room!” Lakshmi said, with some sort of panic in her voice as she struggled into her clothes.
Vince looked at her and shut his mouth. They got stealthily out of his villa and walked silently to hers. At the door, Vince put out a hand, “Lakshmi,” he said again.
Lakshmi looked at him through drowsy eyes, but they were sober. “I’m sorry Vince. Good night,” she said and led herself into the door.
She leaned against the door, took a deep breath and extracted her phone. “I’m so sorry,” she typed. “Didn’t see your messages. Boss got hold of me and wouldn’t let go! I will call you in the morning. Sorry again!”
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