Chapter 20 Out for Delivery — Part 2
He gave her a book, opened the stopwatch on his phone, and said a chapter title.
She turned to the index. The title was there. She found the page and held it up before the minute was gone.
“I found it.”
She came onto her knees on the saree, put her mouth on his top button, and worked it with her teeth and her tongue until it slipped free. His hands stayed on the floor.
“Give me the next one,” she said.
He said the next topic. She found it, and his second button came open.
He named a topic the index did not have. The minute ran out.
He came forward on the saree and closed his mouth on the top hook of her blouse. The hook held in the eye. His tongue pressed it, his teeth caught it, and his breath was warm on the skin above the cut. He worked it until it slipped free. The blouse opened wider over her breasts. She held the saree with both hands and let him.
She missed the next. His mouth opened the second hook, then the third. On the last miss the blouse came loose on her shoulders. She shrugged it down her arms, and he took the blouse.
The bra was still on.
He named a topic. She found it and took the next button of his shirt in her mouth until it opened. He named another. She found that too, and the button under it came free. His shirt hung open on his chest.
She missed the next. His mouth closed on the hook between her breasts and drew it free. She missed again. He took the last hook in his teeth. The bra opened, her breasts came out, and the bra was in his hands.
Four of his buttons were open. All six of hers were open.
She lay back across his lap. Her back rested on his folded legs, and her breasts rose to his mouth. He set the bra on the blouse. He was still hard in his trousers. He bent and closed his lips on her left nipple. His tongue pressed under it, and he drew the nipple in so hard that her whole breast lifted toward his mouth. She had expected his teeth. Heat went through her chest. She put her hand in his hair.
“Leave some for the kid,” she said, in a roleplay of their future. “You are drinking that side dry.”
He drew the nipple deeper onto his tongue. It thickened in his mouth. He swallowed, then let it go, and it stood wet on her breast.
“The kid is sleeping,” he said, joining the roleplay. “I am thirsty.”
“The kid can cry anytime,” she said.
“I will leave the other boob for the kid.”
“Drain half from each,” she said. “I don’t want one heavier than the other.”
He bent to the right breast and drew that nipple deep into his mouth. His cheek hollowed with the suck, and the breast rose toward him. He swallowed. The left nipple cooled in the air, wet from his mouth. She kept her hand in his hair.
“A little,” she said. “Now come back. Both have to match.”
She drew his head across. He sucked the left nipple, and she moved him to the right before he could stay. He laughed against her breast.
He let the nipple slip from his lips and licked from it over the top of her right breast. Then he went under it, his tongue wide against the weight. He crossed to the left, licked the full underside, and drew his tongue up over the nipple to the top. She held his hair.
The books lay open around them, forgotten.
That evening he stopped the car at the front gate of her building.
“Why are we not going to the park,” she asked.
“I have to meet someone.”
She laughed, got out, and leaned in at the window. “Go then.”
He waited until she was inside the gate before he drove off.
Upstairs, Isha set the carrier in the kitchen, went to her room, and took everything off. The flat was empty. The whole evening was hers, and she was bored.
She opened Kunal’s chat. WhatsApp showed he had last been online a week ago. She closed it.
She called Sneha.
“When are you back.”
“Next Sunday,” Sneha said.
She called Riya, and they caught up on the vacation. Riya was coming back on Sunday too, the same day as Sneha.
Before they hung up, Riya said, “My room key is behind the TV cupboard.”
Isha looked behind it. “I see it now.”
“Can you check my room once. I want to see if I left my Kindle there.”
She took the key, opened Riya’s room, and looked in. The Kindle was on the bed.
“Yes. It is here.”
“Okay. I thought I lost it. Thanks.”
Isha cooked, ate, and washed her plate. She looked down. The heart was in the hair on her mound, grown out a little.
She lathered the inside of the heart until the foam hid the hair. The symbol was too fine to cut by feel. She lay on the bed, knees up, and set a small mirror on the sheet between her feet so it faced her pussy.
In the mirror she set the razor to the foam and cut their symbol, one short stroke at a time. She wiped the blade and followed the next curve.
She moved the razor lower and groomed the foam along her labia. His mouth came back to her. On her breasts that afternoon he had licked more than he had sucked. He had been soft, not the animal from Lonavala.
A day ago that mouth had bitten her. Making him a bad boy was still mission one. Finding out why he had been so soft today was mission two, and she was going to enjoy it.
She was wet under the razor. She finished the last curve, rinsed the foam away, and looked in the mirror. Their symbol sat inside the heart.
Across town, Rohan sat with the builder and talked about the building until late.
Saturday morning he picked her up at the gate. At the big signal he went straight instead of turning toward campus.
“You missed the turn.”
“I did not miss it.”
“Campus is that side.”
“I know where campus is.”
She looked at him. He was smiling at the road. She turned to the window. A temple went past, then a sweet shop on a corner, then a petrol pump where the road narrowed. She had come down this road twice, once with the broker and once with his parents.
“We are going to the house.”
“You took your time.”
“Why did you not tell me.”
“Then it would not be a surprise.”
Outside the gate the street was crowded with workers. A tractor stood half on the road. Bricks were stacked in red walls along the compound, and cement bags sat in a grey pile under a tarpaulin. Masons in vests squatted near the stacks, and women in bright sarees were carrying pans of sand on their heads. The builder came out through them with his hands joined.
“Namaste, madam. Sir said the first brick should be from your hand.”
She looked at Rohan. He only lifted his shoulders.
A mason’s wife held out a steel plate with turmeric, kumkum, a few marigolds, an incense stick, and a coconut. Isha tucked her pallu into her waist. She lit the incense and turned it three times in front of the bare concrete pillars. She pressed turmeric and kumkum on a brick and set a marigold on top.
The builder pointed at a stone by the front pillar. She lifted the coconut in both hands and brought it down hard. It cracked in two on the first try, and coconut water ran over her fingers and onto the stone. The workers cheered.
“Good sign, madam,” the builder said. “One time only. Very good.”
A mason had already spread a bed of wet mortar along the base of the front wall. He held out the brick she had marked. She set it on the mortar and pressed it down with both palms. The mason tapped it twice with the handle of his trowel and laid his level on top. The bubble sat in the middle.
“Straight,” he said.
The builder opened a box of pedas and went down the line of workers. Rohan took one and held it to her mouth. She bit half and pushed the other half into his.
The masons went back to the stacks, and the sound of trowels on brick started along the front wall.
“Our house,” he said.
They walked in among the bare pillars, her hand in his. Sun came through where the walls would be.
The staircase had no railing yet. He went up first and held his hand back for her, and she held it with one hand and her saree with the other. On the first floor the slab was open on every side, and the wind came straight through. From the edge they could see the line of masons bent over the front wall, where her brick sat with the marigold still on it.
She leaned into his side, and he put his arm around her waist. They stood there and watched the wall grow one brick at a time.
“Our kids will run on this floor,” she said.
“And fall down these stairs.”
“Not if you put a railing.”
“First thing,” he said, and kissed her hair.
The builder came up the stairs with a rolled sheet under his arm.
“Madam, the final plan. Sir approved it last night. If you also say okay, we go with this.”
“It is her plan only,” Rohan said. “We just discussed the dimensions.”
She warned him with her eyes not to oversell her. He zipped his mouth.
“Show it to me, bhaiya,” she said. “I have not seen it on paper.”
The builder unrolled it on the slab and held the corners down with four half bricks. Isha crouched beside it. Every room on the sheet had a name printed inside it.
“Ground floor, madam. Big hall in the front. Kitchen at the back, window over the sink, the way you wanted. Pooja room beside the kitchen. Utility behind that. This bedroom is for you and sir.”
Her name and Rohan’s were printed in that room. His finger moved to the next two. Her parents’ names were printed in one. His parents’ names were printed in the one beside it.
“Your parents. Sir’s parents beside them.”
“Putting them next to each other is dangerous,” she said.
“Then we will invite one at a time,” Rohan said.
The builder smiled and shifted the sheet. “First floor. Centre hall. Game on this side, gym on that side. Three rooms for the children.”
Those three rooms were printed Kid 1, Kid 2, and Kid 3. Rohan took the pen from his pocket and wrote Ishan over Kid 1. Isha took the pen and wrote Rahini over Kid 2.
“And this,” the builder said, tapping the last room. “Master bedroom, right above yours.”
Kunal’s name was printed in it, in the same letters as every other room.
Isha said nothing. Sweat broke on her back. Her palm went damp on the paper. That room sat above the bed she would share with Rohan, and Rohan did not know what she had done with Kunal. She kept her face on the sheet.
The builder waited. “Take your time, madam. I am downstairs.”
He went down. She heard him shout at someone about the sand.
She stood up. “What is this. Is he going to live with us.”
“Someday he will have his own place. Till then, this is his.”
“You could have just named it guest room, no.”
“I thought of that first. But Kunal is family. How can I call him a guest.”
“You and your bromance. Do whatever.”