CH 4

I looked up at her. She turned away shyly.

‘How old were we back then?’ I said out loud, asking no one in particular. ‘About 9?’

‘It was a week after your 9th birthday,’ she replied.

I turned towards her. She had brushed her hair to her front, exposing her back to me. My heart skipped a beat. She wasn’t wearing a backless blouse, but a large area of her bare back was visible. She was trying to wear a necklace, but all her efforts to put the hook into the hole were futile.

‘Let me help.’ I got up and took hold of her necklace. I stealthily looked over her shoulders and saw her well-formed breasts hiding under the saree. Her cute cleavage was peeping out from between her mounds, crying out for attention. It took me only a couple of seconds to fix her jewellery, but I didn’t want to walk away from her. I just stood behind her, dumbfounded.

‘You know… I had a huge crush on you when we were little…’ I whispered into her ear.

‘I know,’ she replied, looking down in shyness.

I didn’t know if it was her bare back, or her exposed shoulders, or her intoxicating perfume, or just the fatigue from my 12-hour journey, but for a moment I imagined her to be my girl. The thought of this enchanting beauty being my woman drove me crazy.

My hands slowly travelled south, caressing her arms. I involuntarily embraced her smooth waist, and I gently kissed her naked shoulders, slowly moving up her neck.

‘Amartya!’ Navya yelled, releasing herself from my embrace. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she looked at me wildly. That’s when I came back to my senses.

What was I doing! Shit. I panicked. ‘Listen. I’m sorry…’ I said, genuinely apologising.

‘You better be…’ she said, still furious at me.

‘Please don’t be mad at me. I’m not usually like this. I don’t know what got into me… We… We were talking about our first kiss, and how I had a crush on you… and your saree… your perfume… I’m sorry,’ I stuttered.

Just then her phone rang, preventing me from further embarrassing myself.

It was her mother. She was calling to find out why we hadn’t returned yet.

We were out of the house in minutes. She locked the door. I started the bike. And we were off to the marriage hall.

Not a word was exchanged between us during the whole journey. But this return trip was different. Navya acted different. She sat closer to me on the back seat, held on to my shoulders for the whole trip, even after the way I had behaved with her. Finally, when we reached our destination, I couldn’t find a good parking spot. I had to park the bike in a dark, shadowy, secluded spot.

Navya got down as I killed the engine. After making sure that no one was around, I started apologising again. ‘I’m really sorry… I didn’t mean for it to happen…’

‘Shh…’ she said, walking up to me. ‘It’s ok,’ she said, reassuring me.

‘Do you remember when we had our second kiss?’ she asked, taking my hand in hers.

I was confused. We never had a second kiss. ‘We never had a…’ and she kissed me on my lips, cutting me off mid-sentence. Her sweet lips encompassed mine in a passionate lip lock.

I was taken aback initially, but got used to it, and I began responding. I slowly held her waist with my right hand, and I slowly slid my left hand to her cheek.

After a few seconds of kissing, she slowly pulled away, with her eyes still closed. ‘There. Our second kiss,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t forget this one,’ she said, giving a gentle peck on my lips before she walked away.

I just sat on the bike, my mind still coming to terms with what had just happened.