Adultery Priya Didi

[shailu4ever]

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Her body shifted restlessly beneath the sheets, turning away from the window as she struggled with the conflict brewing inside her.
 
But despite the anger, despite the resentment that still clung to her like a second skin, something in her mind kept returning to him, to Ravi. She thought about how he’d cared for her, how he had always been there in small, subtle ways.
 
His gentle glances, his patience, the way he’d never pushed her when she’d pulled away. How, even now, he respected her space, never crowding her, always waiting for her to make the first move.
 
“Why hasn’t he given up on me? Why hasn’t he just left me to wallow in my anger?” Her thoughts spun as she rolled over to face the ceiling again. “He should have by now. I’ve been so hard on him… Why does he keep trying? Why does he keep apologizing? Why doesn’t he just let me be?”
 
It was then that something inside her clicked, almost imperceptibly. She remembered how he had looked at her earlier. Not with guilt, not with remorse, but with longing.
 
He had been so careful, so gentle, so different from the man she had thought capable of such betrayal. “He doesn’t look at them the way he looks at me,” she realized suddenly, a rush of warmth flooding her chest.
 
The realization was a soft one, but it was there. He loved her. He had always loved her.
 
“No,” she thought firmly. “He didn’t betray me. He didn’t love them. He… he didn’t look at them the same way. He didn’t let himself fall into that. He just… he just… slipped. One moment of weakness. That’s all it was.” Her hand reached up to touch her lips, as if brushing away the words before they could solidify in her mind. “But why didn’t he stop it? Why didn’t he push them away? Wasn’t I enough to make him resist?”
 
She could almost see it, like a vision before her eyes. Neetu, with her teasing smile, her flirtatious eyes.
 
Sirisha, leaning in a little too close, laughing a little too much. Their unspoken invitation, it had been subtle, and maybe Ravi, in his loneliness, in his need for connection, had been too vulnerable to resist.
 
But it wasn’t his fault. He was only human. “Anyone… any man, would have… struggled. No one is perfect. He’s not perfect. I know that. I always knew that.”

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