Two minutes and I was done with everything. I checked myself in the mirror for one last time. Not bad, I patted myself. Though I was not in the best of what I could have been, but not bad either.
‘Hey,’ I said, as I opened the door.
‘Hi. Took you long?’ he asked.
‘Oh,’ I faked a yawn. ‘… just got up …’
‘You look great,’ he said, as he entered the flat. It seemed like a genuine comment. It seemed like the blusher and the lip balm had worked.
‘Thank you. So do you,’ I said.
He stood there for a while and stared at me. That intense stare was somewhat familiar. I didn’t know what to make of it because it seemed so out of place. He came close, held my hand and caressed my fingers with his. It was really abrupt. I didn’t know what to make of that either.
‘Joy,’ I whispered his name out when he brushed his fingers against my lips and whispered shut up. He brushed away the hair from my face and blew out air to push it back. His breath sent tingles down my spine as he pulled me to himself. He stared at me with his teary eyes, he leaned on me, laid his lips on mine and pressed. I surrendered. He kissed me. My lips were ensconced in his. I kissed him back. There were tears in his eyes. As they were in mine.
‘Joy,’ I said feebly. I felt a strange sensation. It wasn’t lust. His touch, his eyes, and his breath on mine—it felt like an emotional orgasm. I was overwhelmed. Tears streamed down my cheeks as his strong arms wrapped themselves around me. I was weak and I didn’t want to fight. I was his. My heart, my mind, and my body—they were all his to take, to love, to leave. I didn’t care.
The kiss lasted for a long time. My mind went into flashback of everything that I had shared with him. From the first day to this one.
‘What?’ I said, as he pushed me towards the couch. Words barely escaped my mouth. I was lost. He picked me up and laid me down on the couch.
‘Shut up,’ he said. His hands gripped both sides of my neck and pulled me further onto him. He looked at me with his smouldering eyes, as if he would never take them off me. His lips and tongue wandered all over my lips and I gave out a long moan as he started to lick my ear and then bit into it. My heart started to skip beats and my nails clawed into this shirt, which I found myself taking off within the next few seconds. I was divided in two. One part wanted to hug him and never let him go. Cry and tell him that I wanted to be with him. It wanted to tell him that he meant everything to me. The other part wanted to feel him, love him and make love to him, even if it was wrong to do so.
Soon, he took off his shirt, and I could see his chiselled body on top of me. He was perfect. His hands crawled below, undid my sweat uppers, and threw them on the ground, his tongue never breaking contact with my neck as he fed on me. My toenails curled as he slowly and steadily had me naked in front of him. It felt so right.
He drew back and stared at me, as if it was the last time we would be together. Then he rolled on top of me slowly, his passionate eyes never losing sight of my body. His outstretched hand slowly reached my face and he ran his fingers down along its contour, over my lips where they paused for a few seconds when he bent over me. He kissed me lightly. His hand slowly moved over my neck and then grabbed it from behind while his other hand grasped one of my hands. His hold was steady and strong. He pinned my hands on the couch armrest and let his teeth hurt every part of my body until I screamed aloud. The pain that came from him only made me love him more. It always made me realize how much he meant to me.
He feasted on me as if it was what he had waited for all his life. I went into periodical trances every time he touched and entered places and made me moan and struggle in his arms. He was strong, savage, and fighting him was a waste and I didn’t even want to. He ravaged me; his hands and his body ruled every part of mine and blocked every other sensation. I was lost in him, his grunts, his thrusts and his love. He took me as his own, and embraced me in an intertwining spiral of love and lust. Our bodies, naked and writhing, rolled over on to the ground as he went on to make me feel like I had never felt before. His force had me in tears of ecstasy as I shouted and begged him to hurt me more. I wished it would never end as I clasped his back with my legs …
When done, he lay panting with his head on my shoulder and my legs wrapped around his lower back which just refused to let his body go … In those moments, I didn’t know if what had happened was for real or not, but I had never felt this content before. For the next few minutes, I tried to talk, but nothing escaped my lips, as we both lay totally spent. He rested there for quite some time, after which he looked up and kissed me on my forehead. He kept doing this repeatedly.
‘How did you know?’ I asked him as he continually kissed me on my left cheek while caressing my hair. Frankly speaking, my hair still stood on end for what he had just done to me, and I was still numb.
‘How did I know what?’
‘Don’t play with me. How did you know that Ravi and I were through?’ I asked, and ran my hands through his hair. It had been ages since I had done that and I had forgotten how great it felt. I hated the fact that he had cut his hair short but I never told him.
‘How can you say that I knew?’ he asked.
‘Because you wouldn’t have kissed me unless I was yours. You were never like that,’ I said.
‘You remember Surbi?’ he asked, as he stared deep into my eyes. I melted in his arms.
‘Surbi? Oh, the girl you dated? The muse for the third book?’
‘Have you seen Ravi’s profile of late?’ he asked. He was being incredibly cute. His lips never left my skin.
‘Oh … shit … don’t tell me! That Surbi? And Ravi! I saw but never realized that she was that girl!’
‘Yes!’
‘And you knew I would be waiting for you?’
‘I hoped with my life that you would be,’ he said and kissed me on the lips.
‘But … what if—’
‘Let’s not live with what-ifs. This time, it’s for life.’
‘You said that the last time, too.’
‘Now I know what life is without you and I don’t want that life. I want you,’ he kissed me.
‘Are you sure?’
‘I have a ring in my pocket,’ he said and looked at me. ‘Yes, it’s imaginary, but I think it will do for the time being.’
‘What? Really?’ I said. ‘Let’s get engaged!’
‘Damn.’
‘Jerk!’ I said.
‘But I am true to my word. From this moment on, you are everything to me. Every time I use the word love, it will be for you. Every time I dedicate a song, it will be for you. Every time I hold a hand, it will be yours. Every time I yearn to hear a voice, it will be yours. I am yours, for life.’
‘You’d better be,’ I said.
‘I prepared that speech! And you could just come up with you’d better be?’
‘I just made out with you, Joy. Isn’t that enough?’ I winked.
‘Well, I can make do with that,’ he smiled and kissed me.
I kissed him back. And we kissed our best. This time as we kissed, I swore I would never let him go. He was everything to me. And I was his. He was my reason to live, to laugh, and to breathe.
There was a lot of crying that night, I distinctly remember. We told each other a million things about what we loved about each other and we kissed a zillion times for each one of them.
‘You know, I had missed making out with you,’ he said, exhausted once more.
‘I wish I could say the same,’ I winked.
‘Funny,’ he said. ‘But why didn’t you just tell me that you had broken up with him for me?’ he asked me.
‘Why didn’t you? And how could I have after the way you left me? Take a chance again and get my heart trampled over like you do every single time.’
‘You could have tried!’ he said.
‘I wanted to, but I wasn’t strong enough to take another heartbreak. Do you have any idea how many nights I have spent thinking and cr
ying over an asshole like you?’
‘Let’s not count. Let’s count the days we will spend loving each other. Starting today. That’s a much better picture, isn’t it?’
‘It is,’ I said. ‘It sure is.’
And we were back. Like we had been. Like it was always meant to be. Seemed like even though we had been single for a while … we had never stopped being lovers.
‘Aw!’ I said. ‘So sweet. So, this is it, huh? Joy? This is the end?’
‘It feels more like the beginning,’ he said.
‘It better be,’ she said.
‘Once bitten, twice shy,’ he said and hugged her close. ‘And I have the best thing in the world with me. Why try anything else when you know?’
‘That better be it,’ Manika said and kissed him.
They were not the only ones who had tears in their eyes. And this is how they celebrated their second first anniversary. I was a witness. An unwelcome witness.
Epilogue
After he told me the story, Joy kept asking me for many days if I would write something on it or not. Especially since I had not taken any notes at all. But days passed and I saw these two falling more in love every passing day. Joy had turned out to be the kind of boyfriend girls discuss with their other girlfriends. I just had to write it. It may not be something special where the guy gets the girl after fighting off a rich tyrannical father, but it is a lesson on how it could go terribly wrong if you don’t recognize the importance of love and don’t respect it.
Joy realized right in time and made amends, but he had always been a lucky bastard. Still, there had been a rather strong chance that he would have fallen flat on his face and not found anyone. Now that would have been sad, wouldn’t it?
So, don’t lose your faith in love. It’s there. It’s around. There is someone for everyone. You might have fallen for the wrong girls and the wrong guys, or thought that the right girl was the wrong one, but then again, that doesn’t mean the search … or realization … ends. Who knows—after all, the guy who just walked past you might end up spending the next Valentine’s Day with you!
As for me, I have to rush now. I have a date. Nice guy. Who knows, he might be the one! Fingers crossed!
Another Epilogue
‘Neeti is a great storyteller. Nothing in this book should be considered reliable or accurate!’
—Joy Datta
Author’s Note
This book borrows heavily from the incidents narrated to me by Durjoy. The names have been changed in the book to spare some people the embarrassment. Therefore, any resemblance to real life people and incidents is intentional.
Names of books, people, places and timelines have been changed to avoid fatwas and death threats. Despite all these hiccups and denials from Durjoy’s side, all the incidents in the book are true to the best of my knowledge and memory.
—Neeti Rustagi
Acknowledgements
I don’t have a lot of people to thank, since not many knew I had decided to write a book. However, there are still people without whom this book could never have been written.
First, I would like to thank Joy Datta for being candid enough to share his story with me. He has always been a good friend and without his help, this book would not have been possible. I thank him for helping me to write this book.
Sachin Garg, for he is such a lucky charm and an extremely capable guide. Maanvi Ahuja, another lucky charm.
I would also like to thank a few other people who had always been around and supported me throughout my journey—Jyoti Anand, Samarth Anand, Samvedna Anand, Anumodit Chaturvedi, Abhishek Choudhary, Nandita Samant, Shikha Sharma, Komal Milap … and others whose names I might have skipped.
Last but not the least—I thank our extended families for they have been very supportive.
—Neeti Rustagi
THE BEGINNING
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First published in India by Grapevine India Publishers 2011
Published in Penguin Metro Reads by Penguin Books India 2013
Copyright © Durjoy Datta 2013
Cover photographs © Getty Images
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-0-143-42158-0
This digital edition published in 2013.
e-ISBN: 978-9-351-18393-8
Ohh Yes, I'm Single: And so is my Girlfriend Page 19