Guilty Pleasures

It was a usual day. Tanya stood in her kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate seemed to give her a great deal of comfort. It was her go-to comfort food. As the doorbell rang, she couldn’t think of anybody she was expecting. She was more than amazed to see Aditya on the other side of the door.

“Hey, Addy. What a pleasant surprise.”
“Why are you doing this to me”
“What? What am I doing?”
“This. Between us. What am I supposed to do. Tell me T”
“You know what you’re supposed to do Addy. You know what’s between us. I can’t tell you something you don’t know. You know the truth”
” You want to talk about truth T? Truth is, that you have a husband and I have a wife. Truth is, I can’t get my mind off of you. Truth is how much I hate that I keep thinking of you and talking to you. Truth is I don’t like that truth.”
“You don’t like the truth? Then what are you doing here, at my doorstep? Why aren’t you home with you loving wife. Why do you even talk to me ”
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know why I’m here. I just needed to see you T. There’s nothing more I want right now than to hold you in my arms”
“I’m here and all yours”

And as if that’s all he was waiting to hear. He pulled her close, held her face in his hands and kissed her. She reciprocated. How could she not. She had been flirting with him since the day they met. What started as harmless tease was now becoming a passionate affair. He wanted to stop, she wanted to stop him but they both felt this fire that they hadn’t felt in a long time. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom. He knew his way around the house. He had been here countless number of times. He would never have imagined being in this bedroom with her, let alone being in the very same bed. But today, he felt overcome with passion. Nothing could stop him, from ravaging her. The world seemed to fade away as they made love. Her every moan alleviated her pain. Their bodies covered with sweat and lust as they lay side by side looking at each other exhausted and weary, with a tinge of guilt.

Aditya lit two cigarettes and passed one to Tanya as they stood by the window. Her curvy body wrapped in nothing but a white cotton sheet.
“Addy, you should maybe wait in the office. Vicky is going to be home soon”
” Yeah.. I probably should. You don’t think Vikram has any doubts?”
“You don’t have to worry about it. I’ll take care of everything here. ”
“Sometimes you scare me T. Completely unfazed by everything . But I don’t care. You’re my guilty pleasure.”
“He’s going to be here soon. Just go now. We’ll speak later.”

They both got dressed and Aditya went downstairs to wait for Vikram. After cleaning up all the evidence at the crime scene, Tanya sat in her rocking chair, by the window, enjoying her cookies. She could hear Vikram talking to Aditya in the office downstairs. She took one more look around the house to make sure everything was in place, for Vikram’s arrival. The doorbell rang again, she knew who was on the other side. Vikram was back from another one of his business trips and went straight to take a shower. His luggage scattered across the bed. As Tanya was sorting his laundry, his phone caught her attention.

4 new messages from R

I had a really nice time. My bed and my body misses you…
Come back to me..
This is what is waiting for you here.
Photo

Tanya kept the phone back. She did not need to open the photo to know what it was. She knew she was supposed to be angry. But, she had been long aware of Vikram’s numerous affairs and “business trips”. It would all remain the same, just the alphabet on the phone would change. Sometimes it would be an A, sometime a K, sometime P, D or S. She was not sure if it had stopped hurting or if she had gone numb. She knew she enjoyed the vengeful solution she found for herself.

She found her own alphabets. Sometimes it would be one of his friends, sometimes his employee, sometimes his cousin, and today it was his best friend’s husband and business partner. With a smirk on her face, she carried on with her chores, unfazed, like Aditya would say. She stood by the window in her room eating her chocolate chip cookies.