Black Suits You

by Novoneel Chakraborty

  ‘Does your family live there?’ he asked.

  Kashti paused, sipped a little water, and with an amused face said, ‘Someone is interviewing me.’

  ‘What to do?’ He met her eyes and continued, ‘Not everyone can go around following people for information.’

  ‘How I wish you had done that. Anyway, Mom and Dad live in the US, with my elder sister. They come to visit twice a year.’

  ‘And they are okay with their daughter living alone in Delhi?’

  ‘I’m not alone. My uncle lives in Pitampura. But I don’t like to live with him and his family. More so now that I have you.’

  Kiyan nodded while swallowing a tiny bite.

  ‘I would love to meet your family though,’ Kashti said, scooping up a little more pasta from the bowl and putting it on her plate.

  ‘Sure. They are in Lucknow.’

  ‘Even Anaysha is from Lucknow, right?’

  Hearing Anaysha’s name from Kashti’s mouth made him uncomfortable. He nodded.

  ‘How long were you guys in a relationship?’

  ‘Five years.’ Kiyan felt his throat dry up when he said it. He looked up to notice Kashti was giggling.

  ‘What?’ he asked.

  ‘5 years. And I snatched you from her in 9 weeks. Wow! I so love myself.’ This time her giggle had an evil ring to it. It wasn’t the giggle he had heard on the phone before, which had aroused him. It was the kind that reminded him that only such a girl could have gifted him what she did.

  Kiyan’s phone, kept on the sofa, rang. He excused himself and went to pick it up. Natasha, his editor, was calling him.

  ‘Hey Natasha, how are you?’

  ‘I’m good. How are you?’

  ‘Good here.’

  ‘Kiyan, why didn’t you tell me before? I could have asked the marketing team to make it even bigger than what it is now.’

  ‘Tell you what? I didn’t get it.’

  ‘That you have made your official profile on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the first time. That’s something big, Kiyan, and we should have cashed in on it in a bigger way. I know you made TOI feature it in Delhi Times, but you should have informed us first.’

  Kiyan went quiet. Then he glanced at Kashti. She was eating her fusilli so peacefully and with such attention that he was almost convinced she had nothing to do with anything.

  ‘I’ll call you back, Natasha,’ Kiyan said, his jaw taut.

  12

  ‘It was you, right?’ Kiyan demanded, standing where he was.

  ‘As in?’ Kashti lifted her head up.

  ‘As in you have made profiles on all major social media in my name.’

  ‘Oh yes. I did,’ Kashti said in a matter-of-fact manner.

  ‘And the TOI thing?’

  ‘A friend’s elder brother works there.’

  ‘But why did you do it?’ Kiyan asked, moving towards her a tad aggressively.

  ‘You need it baby,’ Kashti said, unaffected. She stood up, done with her lunch, and picked up both their plates.

  ‘How much longer will you remain a recluse?’

  ‘And you did that without my permission,’ he said and watched Kashti casually amble to the kitchen and appear seconds later as if his words didn’t mean much to her. It fuelled his anger.

  ‘I don’t want you to do anything without my permission any more,’ he said firmly.

  All he heard as a response was a loud thud. Kashti had locked the bedroom door behind her. Kiyan called up Natasha.

  ‘Sorry, I couldn’t inform you guys as one of my friends arranged the social media thing for me. But I promise I shall keep you guys in the loop with whatever I do in the future.’

  ‘That’s fine, Kiyan. Actually, you did the right thing. We were thinking of telling you that by being a recluse, you won’t get as many readers as you will if you start interacting with them personally via social media. Readers always like to connect with the author who gave them sleepless nights for all the right reasons, if you know what I mean.’

  ‘Yeah, I do,’ Kiyan replied and heard the bedroom door unlock. Kashti came out and then walked straight out of the main door without saying anything or even looking at Kiyan. The main door locked behind her with an even louder thud than the bedroom door had half a minute ago.

  ‘We are already in talks with a few social content creators who will promote this news. The marketing team told me that they did a survey and learnt you have a tremendous female fan following. So, they are trying to build you up as Mr Desirable from the next book onwards.’

  ‘Thank you so much, Natasha.’

  ‘This is just the beginning, Kiyan. Just work hard on the next manuscript and leave the rest to us.’

  ‘Sure, I will.’

  The moment Kiyan cut the phone, he called Kashti. The phone was switched off. Kiyan wondered what he should do, and in the end, opted to wait for her to come back. With Kashti gone, he thought, it was a good idea to check the flat out. To his surprise, except for the refrigerator, every wardrobe, every drawer, the television cabinet and the bar cabinet were locked. Kiyan found it suspicious, but there was nothing he could do until Kashti was back. There was a small bookshelf above the study table in the bedroom. The table had academic books on it, but the shelf only had fiction. There were broadly two categories—romance and thrillers. Kiyan picked up one of the books and lay on the bed, reading it. Since the encounter with Anaysha, he couldn’t help but feel guilty. Had it not been for the ‘gift’ Kashti had given him, he wouldn’t have ditched Anaysha this way. He wouldn’t have broken up with her at all. Prior to the ‘gift’, he was attracted to Kashti. He still was. But he would have gone ahead with his engagement. He would have not told Anaysha anything about what happened during the book events and gone on to marry her. If Kashti had continued pursuing him . . . Kiyan couldn’t think further. Of what he understood of Kashti, in the last week in Goa he had realized there was one major difference between the two women. Kashti was about possession while Anaysha was about freedom.

  ‘I’m sorry, Anaysha,’ he muttered to himself, closing his eyes as he put down the book. The exhaustion of Goa caught up with him as he shut his eyes. He fell asleep thinking of Anaysha’s face when he had seen her outside the elevator.

  When he opened his eyes, he felt some weight on his pelvis. He tried but couldn’t move his hands. He opened his eyes completely to see Kashti sitting atop him, giggling. He had no idea when she came in.

  ‘You look so edible when you’re asleep, mister bestselling author.’

  ‘What’s this, Kashti?’ Kiyan said, trying to sit up, but in vain. His hands were tied together with a soft, furry handcuff.

  ‘Kashti69Kiyan,’ she said, with amusement on her face.

  ‘What?’

  ‘KashtiheartKiyan.’

  ‘What are you saying? And unlock me. Now!’ Kiyan raised his voice.

  ‘The first one is the username, and the second one is the password to all your social media accounts.’

  ‘I’ll take charge of those accounts the moment you unlock me. Now, come on.’

  ‘Please do so. But while your hands are cuffed, I’m in charge,’ she said and took her top off. She looked straight at him and unhooked her bra. Kiyan couldn’t help but notice her nipples were erect. The sight of those firm 32D breasts made his nut sack tighten, but he said. ‘I’m not in the mood right now, Kashti. Just release me.’

  She kept looking at him for some time. He remained still. She reached for his shorts and pulled them down along with his underwear. Looking at his semi erection, she said, ‘Well, I disagree, mister bestselling author.’ She placed her fingers on his balls and started caressing them gently.

  ‘Goddamnit,’ Kiyan said in a muffled voice.

  In no time, he had a hard-on.

  ‘Someone is more obedient than you,’ Kashti said with a mischievous smile.

  ‘Let’s do it later tonight. Not now . . .’ Kiyan stopped midway because by then Kashti had put a condom on his peni
s. She tugged her shorts down and asked, ‘Were you saying something?’

  ‘Put it in, will you?’ Kiyan couldn’t take the ache any more. Kashti wasn’t Anaysha; he had concluded correctly. Kashti had her way. With Anaysha, he had his.

  ‘That’s why I love you, Kiyan. You give in to me,’ she said and slowly took in his entire length. Kiyan closed his eyes as pleasure blanketed him. He couldn’t see Kashti grab his phone from near his pillow and call Anaysha while riding him. She pressed the mute button and put the call on speaker. When she saw that the call had been picked up she kept it back beside the pillow and started moaning like a kitten, saying Kiyan’s name out loud, with an evil smile on her face. She bent down and bit him hard on his chest. Kiyan grunted out Kashti’s name. One glance at the phone told Kashti the call was still on. As the seconds ticked by on the timer, Kashti felt a strong orgasm build up inside her.

  This was only the beginning.

  * * *

  Anaysha’s Diary

  First staying with the girl on the same floor as ours and now this phone call? What does Kiyan want to prove by calling me while having sex with somebody else? Did he think I wouldn’t be able to take it? When did he become such a sadist? What did I do to him to deserve this? When the girl moaned his name on the phone I only felt injured, but every time I heard him say her name, something burned in me. It was like whatever was in my head turned real. Since the time I saw the two outside the elevator, I couldn’t stop myself thinking about what they may be doing. I was in the drawing room when I heard the flat door close. I did look through the peephole and saw Kashti leaving. I somehow resisted the urge to go to Kiyan and ask him why he had come up with me in the elevator when he was actually going down. Did he have anything to tell me? And why was he quiet when we reached our floor? Was it because of Kashti? Was he hiding something from her too like he was hiding information from me about Kashti?

  I’ve come to realize that to pull oneself out of a relationship, away from thoughts about a person, from the habits that develop while being in a relationship and from the person you become by being with another person, is the most difficult thing to do. And it requires time. Since the time I took that vulgar phone call last night, I felt a vehement urge to get back at Kiyan. I don’t have many friends here. All I had was Kiyan. And he was the world to me until the world decided to leave me.

  This evening, I donned light make-up after a long time and went to a disc— Striker. I had heard from my colleagues that it was a good place. My plan was clear. I would pick some random guy, bring him to my flat and have sex with him. Only sex. No emotions, no love, nothing. I wanted to somehow dwarf the humiliation that Kiyan had subjected me to. I was always a one-man woman. By sharing my body with a stranger, I knew I would feel a range of emotions that would perhaps would take my focus away from what Kiyan did to me. The rage I was feeling against Kiyan was pushing me to hurt myself. It is deeply insulting to be dumped by the only one person you have in your life and have them be with someone else.

  I may have gone to the pub with an agenda but the guts to execute my plan came after I had had four pegs of whisky. My vision was almost starting to blur. I had no clue how I would reach home. I was waiting for the cab I had booked when a guy approached me. I knew he was flirting. I cut him short by asking if he could drop me to my place. He agreed. Once we reached home, I asked if he could open the door for me. The moment he opened the door, he started feeling me up. I wanted to call up Kiyan the way he’d called me, but something made me push away the guy. He stood confused while I tried hard to keep my mind alert. The guy came onto me again. I slapped him. He slapped me. I started howling, punching and kicking him. I think he too punched me since I had bruises this morning. Hearing me howl, he probably must have panicked. He ran away before any other residents woke up. Looking at the mirror, the bruises gave me happiness for it felt like I had punched Kiyan rather than some other guy. Writing about it all, I realized how screwed up the break-up has made me.

  The next morning, when I went down for a walk, Kiyan stopped me by the apartment’s main gate. He said he wanted to talk. I told him he better. I was eager to know what there was to be told. The unsaid had already said so much. I waited for him to speak up. I was eager to know how he would justify breaking up or if he had some worthy explanation for this decision that had affected me, quite obviously, more deeply than him.

  13

  Kashti had compelled Kiyan to come three times in a span of nine hours. By the end of it, he had been too tired to even talk. It was like he had been toyed with. He had always been dominating with Anaysha, but with Kashti, being submissive had become a trend by now.

  When he woke up in the morning, Kiyan felt claustrophobic in the flat. Kashti was still asleep. He got up, freshened up quickly and then decided to go for a jog to clear his mind. He took one glance at Kashti. The fierceness and the aggression that she had showed last night was quite contradictory to how peacefully she was sleeping right now. She looked like an innocent flower, but Kiyan knew what an erotic thorn she was.

  As Kiyan finished jogging two laps around the apartment complex, he doggedly wondered if he could do anything about the situation he was in. When he saw Anaysha leave the building, he stopped. There was a mere five-step distance between them, and yet he knew the metaphorical distance, in the last one week or so, had become immeasurable. He noticed she also stopped. But then she started brisk walking in the opposite direction. Kiyan knew from the time their engagement had been announced, Anaysha had started walking in the mornings. But had she come down today after she had seen him? He jogged to cover the distance between them and caught up with her. She started walking even faster, but after a point realized Kiyan was intentionally jogging next to her.

  ‘What is it, Kiyan? What do you want from me?’ Though she didn’t want to be the one to initiate conversation, she had no option. She hadn’t known he would come down to jog since he usually went to the gym for his cardio. Well, ‘usually’ wasn’t a word worth relying on any more.

  ‘What happened?’ he said, gesturing at a cut on her lips.

  ‘I got hurt,’ she said, hoping he would hear the double meaning. She didn’t want to tell him about the guy she had brought back from the pub.

  Kiyan nervously moistened his lips. He hesitated.

  ‘I’m sorry, Anaysha,’ Kiyan said. Both had turned by now to face each other.

  ‘Okay. What next?’ Anaysha said, trying her best not to lose her cool.

  ‘It’s not how you think it is.’

  ‘Really? Then how is it exactly?’

  ‘I can explain this.’

  I thought you’ll justify this, Anaysha wondered and said, ‘You’re still in luck. I’m waiting.’

  ‘I met Kashti during the book events.’

  Which means what I thought was right. It was indeed a matter of 9 weeks, Anaysha thought but kept mum, feeling miserable.

  ‘The truth is, I felt insanely attracted towards her. I know I didn’t tell you about it, but I don’t know why I couldn’t.’

  During those book events you only met her during the weekends, but you were with me on the weekdays. Were you thinking about her when you were with me? Was my grip on you slowly eroding every weekend when she washed your emotional shores? Or was it mainly sexual? Anaysha wanted to throw these questions at him but was too scared to ask, given how the answers would affect her. There was silence that stemmed out of hesitation. Anaysha didn’t ask him to continue. Kiyan kept averting his eyes and then said, ‘I slept with her during the book events.’

  Anaysha gritted her teeth behind a taut jaw while swallowing a hard lump in her throat. She had guessed it, but hearing it from Kiyan elevated her pain.

  ‘But . . .’ he said. And paused because his phone vibrated with a message. He checked it. It had a zoomed-in image of him and Anaysha standing face to face right now and underneath it was written:

  Like seriously?

  Kiyan rolled his eyes upwards to notice Kashti sta
nding by the window of her flat.

  ‘I’ll talk to you later,’ Kiyan said and jogged off. Anaysha couldn’t believe what had just happened. She kept staring at a disappearing image of Kiyan while Kashti drew the curtain shut.

  ‘So, now you will meet her behind my back, huh?’ Kashti asked, opening the door and not letting Kiyan come in.

  ‘It was a chance meeting,’ Kiyan said, pushing his way in.

  ‘Chance meeting?’

  ‘I went for a jog. I didn’t know I would meet her there.’

  ‘Then what was the need to talk to her?’

  ‘She has injured herself. It’s only decent to inquire about it. Anaysha isn’t a stranger to me. And for the record, I didn’t like the way you clicked a picture of us and sent it to me. It could have been avoided,’ Kiyan said and went to sit on the couch. Kashti went up to him and stood behind the couch. She bent down. Her hair fell on his face while she started rubbing her nose against his ears, whispering into his ears, ‘I’m sorry baby. Just that it burns me to see you with someone else. I hope you understand that I love you.’ She positioned her phone for a selfie and posed, giving him a peck on his cheek. Kiyan smiled casually till the picture was clicked. Immediately after Kashti clicked the selfie, she bit his earlobe softly. Kiyan enjoyed it but didn’t make it obvious. He turned around and looked at her.

  ‘I need to bring in my stuff from our flat,’ Kiyan said. Looking at Kashti’s expression, he realized his mistake.

  ‘I mean Anaysha’s flat.’

  ‘Won’t it be awkward for you to go back to that flat?’

  ‘Yeah. A little, maybe.’

  ‘Don’t worry, baby. I’ll do it for you.’

  They locked eyes.

  ‘Give me the spare keys,’ she said.

  ‘Let Anaysha . . .’

  ‘Do you really need her presence or permission for this?’

  Kiyan nodded.

  ‘Just give me the keys.’

  Kiyan stood up, went to the bedroom, opened his bag and took out the keys. When he turned around, Kashti was right behind him. She took the keys from him and said, ‘Stay right here and chill.’