No One Else Like You

(7) Love Bites

Smell of coffee filled my nostrils and I started craving some immediately. Was my mother making coffee? I hope she saves me some.

My pillows didn't feel right. I liked them flat and these were really fluffy. What is this? I don't have fluffy pillows.

I opened my eyes and blur images concerning last night hit me hard. My head was feeling really heavy and I was really sore..

SORE?

My hands immediately felt around my entire body and my eyes widened in surprise.

Naked.

Completely. Not even a single piece of cloth on me, except this comforter which I clutched tightly up to my neck on hearing foot steps.

Which room was this? I had never seen this room before!

Did I get too drunk in the bar last night and slept with a stranger?

DID I HAVE A ONE NIGHT STAND?

Okay, Mira, calm your nerves down. Try to remember. I remember drinks. I remember Raven, Anidhi and Ashutosh. I remember dancing...

What else ?

Did I sleep with Raven?

OH NO. NO. NO. NO. I remember him flirting with me but I couldn't be that stupid? I hope I did not sleep with him.

What if I slept with Ashutosh? OH MY GOD.

DID I SLEEP WITH MY COLLEAGUE/CLOSE FRIEND'S HUSBAND? THEY WERE GOING TO HAVE BABY TOGETHER FOR GOD'S SAKE.

Apart from wrecking my marriage, I have wrecked their marriage too.

Now people will call me, serial marriage wrecker.

Moms will put their children to sleep with my name. "Sleep or else the serial marriage wrecker lady will come and destroy your parents marriage."

Okay, I should really control this habit of cracking jokes like these whenever I am tensed.

Suddenly Aman's face flashed in my mind. I felt like I had cheated on him.

Oh, come on Mira. You guys are not married anymore. You are perfectly entitled to sleep with whoever you want.

It is so pathetic that I still feel like I belong to him. I am so pathetic when I have a hangover.

The foot steps dissipated into another room. I got up immediately, wrapping the comforter around me. I found a dressing table. It looked vintage. It was beautiful.

However the image in the mirror was not beautiful. My springy bed curls were all around my face. My cheeks had pillow creases. My lips were swollen and red. My neck had a love bite.

As I lowered the comforter from my neck, what I saw in the mirror reddened my face.

This was one wild night.

"Do you like the dressing table? Dadi (grandmother) said you would love it," said a very familiar voice. I spun around to a very happy looking Aman. He held a mug coffee in his hands. He wore a pair of black jeans but nothing above.

Now, this body is something I enjoyed waking up to every morning.

Okay, Mira shut all the naughty thoughts now! Look at your body! You don't even remember how this happened to you.

He handed me the mug and some aspirin with it. I suddenly realized that I was standing naked in front of him with nothing but a comforter. My face grew red. I immediately set the coffee mug down and looked for my clothes.

Aman looked at me frantically searching and sighed. He opened the huge wardrobe inside the room and pulled my hand, making me come closer to him. "This has all your clothes. Your mom took the liberty of doing it for you."

"Oh," was all I could say.

I felt a rush of relief. That the person I slept with was Aman and no one else.

Thank god.

Then I got irritated. I am trying to forget this man but now I have to live with him.

On top of it, from the state of my skin it is obvious, we had one crazy night.

"You slept with me!" I said suddenly. "Why?"

He crossed his arms and frowned at me. "Because you asked me to."

"I WAS DRUNK!" I shouted.

"So what? You wanted this and so did I. It happened naturally," he said matter of factly.

My hands landed on a sundress and I put it on.

Right in front of him. He looked at me astonished.

Anger made me confident about my body, I guess.

"You knew I was drunk, didn't you? You knew that I was in no state of making any rational decisions but yet you did what you wanted to, didn't you?"

His eyes mirrored anger and hurt. "I was not in a state of making any rational decisions either. After so long, my Mira was back with me. She was kissing me like she used to. She was back in my arms after so long. All I knew was my wife had finally stopped pretending that she wasn't in love with me anymore and was opening herself to me again. I was happy, Mira. I had you back finally. I forgot everything too."

"I am not your wife anymore, Aman."

"Do you enjoy this?" he asked.

"Enjoy what?"

"Hurting me?" he asked sternly. "I know that. What am I supposed to do about it? You can't believe I love you and now you don't want to accept that you love me. I can fix the world, our families or friends if they are the ones creating problems between us. I can fix all the misunderstandings. What I can't fix... IS YOUR BRAIN."

I didn't say anything. So he continued. "All I know is that I still want you and so do you. I wouldn't sleep with anyone else but you. I still love you. I have done nothing wrong."

This all was getting too much. My head was already exploding. Damn, hangovers.

"I need some air," I said and rushed out the room. The room lead to a living room. I went down the hallway and reached for the door.

"Mira?" Aman came behind me all of a sudden.

"WHAT?" I asked. I was not going to stop and talk some more.

"You are not wearing any shoes," he said. "Will you go outside like this?"

"I. like. to. walk. bare. feet." I said, each word with a pause. "Any problem?"

"Why don't you lessen that ego a bit and go wear some shoes?"

"Why don't you kill that arrogance a bit and not act like you know everything? Some of us like to feel mother earth directly."

Wow. I may as well had told him that I knew Barack Obama.

"Mother earth?" he raised his eyebrow. "Okay, then." With that he left and I went outside the door.

Two minutes later, I rang the bell for him to let me in.

He opened the door with a grin on his face. "Yeah? That was a short walk."

"I said I needed some air. I got it."

He rolled his eyes and let me come in. As I went to the room that I had woken up in earlier, he handed me aspirin. "Take this. It will make you feel better."

With that he turned around and left.

No, I don't enjoy hurting you. In fact I hate it.

As I checked my phone there were some messages from Anidhi and Raven.

Hey, say thanks to Aman for dropping us all home. We were too wasted to drive by ourselves. - Anidhi

That was smart of you to call Aman. Don't forget to thank him. - R

I called Aman and he dropped off all my friends home? Now I feel bad for behaving this way in the morning.

Argh.