Before his words could sink in his phone buzzed, it was his father. "I need to take this outside, and it may take a while, so go off to sleep!" He had to brief his father about matters concerning the business. As he walked out toward the deck, she rose and went downstairs to the kitchen. The house was quiet, Parth and Vidushi had probably shut themselves in as soon as the others left. It took Sanyukta some time to locate what she was looking for and in about ten minutes she returned with two mugs of hot chocolate topped with marshmallows, just like he had made for her once.

He came back to the room as she was setting the mugs on the table. "What's this for?" He asked. "Because chocolate is comforting, it will make you feel better!" She said, handing him a mug. "I am fine, don't need  it." He told her as he set his mug back on the table. "But I need it to recover from the jolt you just gave me." She placed his mug back in his palm, urging him to sit down. "Why do I get the feeling that you won't let me sleep till I spill everything?" He remarked. "Only if you feel like talking about it, no pressure." She knew she was being insincere. 

"You are such a bad liar! I can see that you are dying to know everything. Well, during my final year of engineering in Mumbai my roommates decided to get me hitched despite my resistance. They would take me as a wingman on double dates but I never asked those girls out again. During our college fest I met a girl who was doing a course in Social Communication Media at a reputed women's college. We were supposed to work together on a social awareness campaign and due to our constant interaction and prodding by my friends I asked her out for coffee and she consented. Our campaign won the first prize and during the celebratory party we had a few drinks, dance together and had our first kiss!"

"Nour was a gorgeous, free-spirited girl who had grown up in Dubai. Her mother was of French-Lebanese descent and worked as a model coordinator. Her father was a Sindhi businessman who owned couture boutiques in both cities and divided his time between Mumbai and Dubai. Her parents divorced by the time she finished school and her father remarried while her mother flitted among several rich men. Uncomfortable with her mother's life, after graduating from college Nour moved to Mumbai on the pretext of enrolling for a course in communication media. She stayed in a Worli Sea Face apartment owned by her father after he moved to a much bigger place with his new wife."

"We began dating, meeting as frequently as we could. One Friday night after dinner at a restaurant I dropped her home and she called me in for a nightcap. I knew where things were headed and it excited me. Over coffee she candidly stated that she wanted to take our relationship to the next level. She seduced me; making sure I lost my virginity that night and I offered no resistance. It was the best night of my life until then and I fell for her like a ton of bricks." Sanyukta stopped breathing for a few moments, trying to absorb his words before he could continue.

"After that it was complete euphoria for the next few months. We went on dinner and movie dates all the time, had scorching hot weekends at her place boarding ourselves indoors. We played games on her XBox 360, listened to music  and ordered in all our meals. We would watch porn and play it out ourselves. She was insatiable in bed, always wanting to try out new stuff. Her voice was a touch of honey in my ears as she would scream out passionately in French, Arabic and English- in that order, whenever we made love."

"She had this restlessness inside her which made her a compulsive shopper. She was perpetually changing her look, her hair and wardrobe. And she loved to party! After smoking a joint or two she could dance all night while I struggled to match her energy! The apartment had a private gym and I started working out regularly, and I haven't stopped still. We even told our parents about each other, though I never met her father nor did she meet my parents. Her parents had no issues though my mother disapproved strongly because Nour was raised with a different set of values."

" After our final exams we went to Dubai together. It was the craziest time of my life. We stayed in her mother's condo. Her mother came home with a new man almost every night and you couldn't tell which couple was noisier in bed, them or us, in our respective bedrooms. After I came back it was difficult for our relationship to survive, Nour insisted on living and working in Dubai while I had to finish two years of business school in Mumbai. We broke up over the phone after she decided to move on, she told me that she could not wait for me to finish college. Not long after that she started dating other guys and was quite frank about it when we exchanged the occasional text."

"Through her mother's contacts she began getting modelling assignments. She acquired this insane lifestyle, spending more than she made walking the ramp. Her stepmother made her father size down her allowance considerably. Even her mother asked her to move out and fend for herself. She finally succumbed to the temptation of becoming an escort because it was an easy job and it made her more money than modelling, helping her maintain her lavish habits. She makes frequent trips to India as her regular clients here go gaga over her exotic looks, her accent and her skills in bed. They put her up in top hotels, wine and dine her and tip her handsomely before returning to their wives at home."

"During my business meeting last evening after we were joined by our business rival it became apparent that I was wasting my time. As I was about to leave Nour came in and turned on her charm for the client who looked completely obsessed with her. She noticed me as I started to walk away. She excused herself and gave chase, catching up with me by the time I got to the hotel lobby. She sat me down and narrated her story, asking me not to hold it against her. She did not know who the man who lost the deal owing to her honey trap was, though she was unapologetic about her job saying she had killed her conscience after we broke up."

 "After we fell apart she got onto the party circuit in Dubai, lacing herself with a deadly cocktail of alcohol, ecstasy and men. Her first client was arranged by her own mother who was tired of financing her extravagant tastes and after that she never looked back. Having met her mother I was hardly surprised but I didn't know what to say to Nour. I just thanked her for telling me everything and walked away, unable to deal with the information. After I got home I saw how happy everyone was. Parth and Vidushi looked so much in love while dancing in each other's arms, even you were cutting the rug like there's no tomorrow. I went to my room to try to get my mind off Nour and her story by burying myself in work. Then you walked in." He looked drained as he finished.

"Don't mind me asking you this, but were you in love with her?" Sanyukta needed to know the answer. "If you had asked me then I would have probably said yes. But when I recall the time I spent with Nour I realise that it was just infatuation for both of us, though I must confess that it felt good, it felt like I could not get enough of her. Breaking up with her made me a cynic in matters of the heart. Rather than have a steady girlfriend I tried to satiate myself through one night stands with willing girls until I realised that like Nour I was falling into a pattern of impersonal relationships."

"I tried to clean up my act by involving myself more into the business and renewed my focus on studies. But the temptation of the flesh is very hard to resist and as I shuttled between Mumbai and Goa I saw the odd girl every now and then. That must be the time you stalked me, when I was out with someone." He smiled to see her listening intently. "A lot of people suffer heartache Randhir, but that does not mean every girl will be Nour. She sounds so exotic and sensuous it looks like she ruined you for other women!" Sanyukta had suspected this and found herself wishing that she had not heard his confession.  "Not other women Mowgli, she ruined me for love!" He sighed.