Black Suits You

by Novoneel Chakraborty

  ‘Kashti?’ he mumbled. She responded in a muffled voice. He felt her kissing his abs and coming up. Finally he felt her lips on his lips. A prolonged smooch later, she ran the tip of her tongue over his face and then downwards to his chest. She encircled his nipples with her mouth and sucked them hard. And then suddenly, there was no skin contact. Kiyan was waiting for her next move when he heard a whisper.

  ‘I won’t spare you, Kiyan.’

  It had to be Tina. Kiyan tried to free himself.

  ‘Free me, Kashti. Just free me.’

  ‘What’s the hurry, mister bestselling author?’ she said and bit him on his thighs. Kiyan yelped.

  ‘This is just the beginning. I shall make you scream out soon,’ someone whispered.

  ‘Tina . . .’ Kiyan mumbled.

  Nothing happened for a while. Then he felt the bandana being removed from his eyes. He saw Kashti sitting on top of him, giving him a serious look.

  ‘What happened?’ he asked.

  ‘Were you fantasizing about my elder sister?’

  ‘What? No!’

  ‘Then why did you take her name?’

  It had been an involuntary slip on his part. Why was he hallucinating about Tina all of a sudden? He had no answer.

  ‘Answer me, Kiyan.’ Kashti sounded pissed.

  ‘I heard her voice,’ Kiyan said and immediately knew it was a mistake to confess to it.

  ‘You heard her voice? When? And how do you know it was her voice?’

  Kiyan knew he was caught.

  ‘Untie my hands, please,’ he said. He wondered how to avoid giving away anything. Kashti released him. He wore his clothes awkwardly, trying to buy time, knowing well that Kashti’s eyes were on him.

  ‘I think I asked you not one but three questions.’

  ‘I was fantasizing about her.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘I’ve always had this kink of doing two sisters together,’ Kiyan knew only bullshit could have saved him at the moment.

  ‘I don’t mind your kinkiness, but this isn’t the time for that. Tina Di just died.’

  ‘I realize that. I’m sorry,’ he said.

  Kashti didn’t talk to him much after that. And he couldn’t blame her for it. He dropped her off at the airport. She hugged him and gave him a peck, but it lacked her usual level of energy and enthusiasm. Once she was in the queue at the departure section of the airport, Kiyan asked the cab driver to take him back to the apartment. Tina’s voice kept coming back to him. Had he really imagined it all? Her appearance at Cyber Hub and even the slap? When he reached his flat and unlocked the door, he couldn’t close the main door. The fact that he was alone in this flat scared him. What if he heard Tina’s voice again when he closed his eyes to sleep? Kiyan exited the flat and checked the time—2:40 a.m. He contemplated going to a hotel. The door across the hall caught his eye. Would it be okay to knock at Anaysha’s door at this hour? He was trying to decide when he noticed from the tiny gap under the door that the light in his flat’s drawing room was constantly going on and then off. Kiyan swallowed a lump in his throat. Was Tina inside? Or was it just a malfunctioning bulb? He gently unlocked the door. He didn’t step in. He looked around. The light wasn’t flickering any more.

  Kiyan scampered to Anaysha’s flat and rang the doorbell urgently and relentlessly. His hands were shaking, and his knees felt weak. Anaysha opened the door, yawning.

  ‘Kiyan?’

  ‘Let me get in, please,’ he said and didn’t wait for Anaysha to say anything. He barged in. Anaysha locked the door. She gave him some water to drink, after which she asked, ‘Will you tell me what the matter is? Has Kashti left?’

  Kiyan looked at her and took a minute to relate how he had seen Tina in Cyber Hub and then Kashti wearing the same dress. Then he told her he had heard Tina’s voice while taking a shower. He intentionally didn’t tell Anaysha he had actually heard Tina’s voice while having sex with Kashti. He justified it in his head, saying the point was to tell her he had heard Tina. How it had happened wasn’t important.

  ‘This is absurd. By the way, did you manage to get Kashti’s parents’ phone numbers?’ she asked.

  Kiyan quickly scrolled down his contact list and showed the numbers to Anaysha.

  ‘Did you call them?’

  ‘Should I? I thought if I directly call them, then Kashti will get to know, because she hasn’t told them about me. Also, she forbade me to call them.’

  ‘That’s definitely a risk, but after what you told me about hearing and seeing Tina, we have to check if she really did commit suicide.’

  Kiyan thought for a moment and said, ‘Can you make the call?’

  ‘Me?’

  ‘You remember we used to have another SIM card because we switched networks?’

  We used to have a lot of things between us, Anaysha thought but said aloud, ‘I do.’

  ‘Let’s call from that number. I’ll change the name on Truecaller to Telecaller. You make the call as a telecaller asking for Tina. We should get our information then.’

  ‘But they must have a US number, right?’ Anaysha asked.

  ‘Didn’t you notice?’

  She checked the number. It was an Indian number.

  ‘They haven’t changed it yet?’

  ‘They didn’t go there with the thought of shifting.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Anaysha thought for some time and then said, ‘Should we call now? Won’t they be sleeping?’

  ‘They are in the US. The time difference means they’ll be awake.’

  ‘How silly of me!’ Anaysha said and called the number.

  ‘It’s ringing,’ she said. A second later, it was picked up. Kiyan was surprised at how convincing Anaysha sounded as a sales person. Half a minute later, the call ended.

  ‘It was her father,’ Anaysha paused for a second and said, ‘Tina is indeed no more.’

  ‘What’s happening, Anaysha?’ Kiyan said, and covered his face with his hands. Anaysha thought hard. There was silence for a few minutes, after which she spoke, ‘You know where Tina lived, right?’

  Kiyan nodded.

  ‘Should we try breaking in to her house?’

  Kiyan hadn’t expected such a solution from Anaysha. She had never been adventurous. But it told him how desperately she wanted to get him out of the mess. He felt like hugging and kissing her, and staying with her forever.

  ‘I’m sorry for everything, Anu,’ he said. She kept looking at him, feeling the way she used to before they would make love. Kiyan came a little closer. She knew what he had in mind. The question was, did she have the same thing in mind? The closer he came, the more she realized how much she had missed him these last few months. She could feel his breath on her lips now. She felt her lips part. He was about to kiss her when Anaysha pulled away at the last second.

  ‘I don’t feel like it,’ she lied. He had allowed himself to be lured by a girl. Now he couldn’t have her whenever he wanted. He would have her when she wanted it. If at all. She stood up and went to stand by the drawing room window. A silent minute later, Kiyan said, ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure I don’t feel like it.’

  ‘No, I meant, are you sure we should break in?’ Kiyan clarified.

  Anaysha glanced at Kiyan, urging herself to give him a clue that the kiss that could have happened still meant something to her. Why else would she be so flustered by Kiyan’s closeness?

  ‘Sorry. Yes, I’m sure. We may get some clue about Kashti, more than about Tina. As long as we don’t know why Kashti is after you, we don’t know what she is going to do or doing.’

  Kiyan knew she had a point. To understand if he was really hallucinating or being manipulated by Kashti, they would have to find out more about her. The flat he was living in with her had nothing.

  ‘But the question is, how do we break in to someone’s flat without raising an alarm?’ Anaysha asked.

  ‘We need a fake but convincing story to get the keys,’ Kiyan said.r />
  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I have been there before.’

  ‘To Tina’s place?’

  ‘Yes. She would have house parties for our colleagues. And she used to keep spare keys with the old lady who was her neighbour.’

  ‘Hmm. I’ll leave it up to you to come up with the fake but convincing story.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Let’s go there first thing tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Sure,’ Kiyan said and asked, ‘May I stay here till the morning, if you don’t mind.’

  You still stay in my heart, Kiyan. I hope you know that, Anaysha mused and said, ‘Fine.’ She went to the bedroom and closed the door.

  The next morning, Anaysha took leave from office, and together with Kiyan went to Tina’s apartment. The guard stopped them.

  ‘Sorry sir, the society people have become strict. Please write your name here.’

  Kiyan made an entry and went ahead. Anaysha was about to follow him when the guard said, ‘But he is Gulshan saab.’ He had a frown on his face.

  ‘What?’ Anaysha said, and checked the register.

  ‘He used to write Gulshan Sharma when he came here before.’

  Anaysha read the register and looked up at the guard.

  ‘Gulshan is his nickname,’ she said and noticed Kiyan had written his name as Anurag Sharma.

  ‘Acha, theek hai madam,’ the guard said.

  ‘Any problem?’ Kiyan turned around, a few steps ahead.

  Anaysha stood there, confused.

  24

  Anaysha caught up with Kiyan and asked, ‘Why did you write a false name in the register?’

  Kiyan gave her a sharp glance and said, ‘Of course we don’t want anyone to be able to track us, right?’

  ‘Right,’ Anaysha said thoughtfully, not knowing why she didn’t want to believe him. But did he write a false name, Gulshan Sharma, earlier too when he visited Tina? she wondered.

  They took the stairs to the flat that Kiyan said was Tina’s. Kiyan went straight to the neighbour’s flat. They had rehearsed the story twice. Kiyan would introduce Anaysha as Tina’s sister. Anaysha would keep talking to her while Kiyan would request for the keys, go inside Tina’s flat on the pretext of taking out a bag, search the place for possible clues and then come out, saying the bag they were looking for wasn’t there.

  The old lady opened the door on the third ring.

  ‘How nice to see you,’ she said, looking at Kiyan.

  ‘Hello aunty. How are you? This is Tina’s sister,’ he said.

  ‘She is her sister too?’ the old lady asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Kiyan said and understood she must be referring to Kashti when she said ‘too’.

  ‘Hello aunty.’ Anaysha played along.

  ‘Hello beta. Good to meet you.’

  ‘Actually, aunty, she needs a bag that’s in the flat.’

  ‘So?’

  Kiyan and Anaysha exchanged a quick glance.

  ‘So, if you could give us the keys please.’

  The old lady looked from Kiyan to Anaysha and said, ‘Where is Tina?’

  She sounded doubtful. Anaysha hoped Kiyan wouldn’t tell her about Tina’s death. It would only make them look shadier.

  ‘She is in the US,’ Kiyan said.

  ‘I’m really sorry. Unless she asks me herself I can’t hand over the keys to you or anyone.’

  Before Kiyan could attempt to convince her, the lady closed the door on his face. Kiyan wanted to ring the doorbell again but Anaysha stopped him. There was no point in confirming the old lady’s doubts. They decided to leave.

  Once in the elevator, she said, ‘We should have realized it was stupid of us to cook up a story and come here for the keys. Nobody will give them just like that.’

  ‘Hmm. We were just trying our luck anyway. What do we do now?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  They were quiet all throughout their way back to their apartment.

  ‘You can come in if you want to. I’ll make tea,’ Anaysha said once they were on their floor. He had left his phone in Anaysha’s flat itself lest he was tracked. He checked and noticed there were no calls or messages from Kashti yet.

  ‘Sure.’

  They went in. Anaysha prepared two cups of tea and brought them to Kiyan, only to see that he had dozed off on the couch. She kept the cups on the table and kept staring at him. She wished she knew what was going on in his head. Once they had sorted out the Tina–Kashti mess, would he come back to her? Would he propose to her again, and if so, would they actually get engaged and married this time? Should she base her decision on his past actions and reject him, or should she accept everything and start afresh?

  Kiyan’s phone rang, waking him up. Anaysha hurriedly looked away and focussed on her teacup. Kiyan took the call and kept listening. The way he talked, Anaysha could guess whose call it was. He cut the line and smiled, saying, ‘Problem solved.’

  25

  ‘What happened?’ Anaysha asked.

  ‘Kashti called. She has reached Germany. In transit,’ he said.

  ‘I understood. How is the problem solved?’

  ‘Kashti told me that she felt restless in the flight the whole time, thinking of how close we were.’

  ‘So she was insecure.’

  ‘Sounded like it.’

  ‘No girl in her place would have left her boyfriend living this close to his ex,’ Anaysha said once more and thought, especially if the girl had snatched away the ex’s boyfriend.

  ‘So, she said I should go to Tina’s place and stay there till she comes back. And as proof, I need to send her a selfie from Tina’s drawing room,’ Kiyan said. Anaysha was quiet.

  ‘What happened?’ Kiyan asked.

  ‘Are you sure it is not a ploy?’

  Kiyan was in two minds. After hallucinating about Tina, it would be really scary to stay at her place.

  ‘To be honest, I’m a little scared now. I would be really grateful if you could join me.’

  ‘I was thinking about it, but what about the neighbour?’

  ‘Well, if we go with the keys this time, she won’t doubt us any more.’

  ‘With the keys? I thought we would need to collect the keys from her?’

  ‘No. Kashti said she has the spare keys in our flat.’

  ‘Our?’

  ‘I mean Kashti’s and mine.’ Kiyan lowered his voice at the last part. He got up, went to Anaysha and knelt down, holding her hands. It took her by surprise.

  ‘I’m sorry for all this. I know I’m at fault. I shouldn’t have let Kashti seduce me. But that was a mistake and it won’t be repeated. Please help me get out of this mess. This will not happen again, and I promise nothing shall ever touch our love,’ Kiyan said earnestly. Anaysha kept looking at him and thought, I will pull you out of this, Kiyan, but I’m not sure about anything else.

  ‘Don’t make this awkward, Kiyan,’ she said, extracting her hands from his grasp and adding, ‘Let’s get the keys and get going. I don’t think Kashti has yet understood you are trying to dig up more about her. Else, she wouldn’t have asked you to shift there.’

  ‘True that.’

  ‘Moreover, this also proves she doesn’t know Tina was in love with you, unless she springs a real twist.’

  Kiyan nodded. He went to the other flat while Anaysha waited for him. He found Tina’s flat’s keys in one of the locked wardrobes. The key to the wardrobe was in the refrigerator as Kashti told him over the phone. Who keeps a key in a refrigerator? he wondered as he came back to Anaysha.

  ‘Did you eat anything?’ Anaysha asked, and looking at his face, realized he hadn’t.

  After having a quick lunch together, they went to Tina’s apartment building.

  ‘Let me go in first,’ Kiyan said, ‘If I don’t see the old lady, I shall call you. Come in then.’

  Anaysha agreed. He signed the register at the security checkpoint and went in. After two minutes, he called Anaysha, asking her to come up quickly. She
had signed the register with her real name, but noticed that this time Kiyan had made an entry as Gulshan Sharma. She waited downstairs till Kiyan called her.

  She went up and entered Tina’s flat without being noticed by the old lady. Nothing in the flat, Kiyan told her, had changed since the last time he had visited it a year ago. It meant Kashti had spoken the truth when she said they had moved away some time ago. Kiyan quickly clicked a few selfies and sent them to Kashti. She called him back immediately.

  ‘Love you so much. Thanks for listening to everything I say.’

  ‘Love you too,’ Kiyan said after putting some distance between Anaysha and him.

  ‘Did you check our Facebook page?’ Kashti said.

  ‘No, what happened?’

  ‘Check and you shall know. I’m hungry now. This journey is utterly boring. Let me call you after some time.’

  ‘Sure.’

  She cut the call. Kiyan had uninstalled Facebook on his phone. He asked Anaysha if he could access it on hers. Anaysha handed over her phone. Once logged in, Kiyan went to the ‘Kiyan and Kashti’ page. Kashti had uploaded a picture of herself alone with a puppy face and the tagline—‘When your love leaves you alone . . .’

  Kiyan frowned and read the comments. His readers were sympathetizing with Kashti. One of the comments said, ‘For someone who seems to be such a romantic and writes such sexy stuff, it’s quite rude to leave you like this.’ Kiyan wanted to reply and ask who the fuck this person was to judge, but he stopped himself.

  ‘What happened?’ Anaysha asked, sensing something was troubling Kiyan. He showed her the page.

  ‘What is she really up to?’

  ‘Sometimes I feel all she wants is a slice of my pie of fame. Anyway, we shall know soon.’

  ‘I think she is simply avenging her sister’s death. She knows it was you who said no to Tina.’

  ‘But it wasn’t my fault.’

  ‘I know but look at it from Kashti’s point of view.’

  Kiyan knew Anaysha had a point because he had thought the same himself.

  ‘We should search the place first for any possible clues that can give us an upper hand over Kashti. Then, we’ll have to get hold of those videos she made in Goa. As long as those are with her, we can’t pressurize her to come out with whatever she has in mind. Though I am sure she must have them on her phone or some password-protected online drive.’