Thank you for following Aboli, really appreciate it! Please make the time and try out my new story Tiaré- A Pacific Island Tale. If you liked the Brooke Shields starrer film The Blue Lagoon, no reason why you won't like this one. So go ahead, read the two parts and tell me what you think about what is intended to be a sensuous romance!

Randhir did not know what made him confess to her, he had sung almost the complete opera of his relationship before her. A part of him felt guilty about having done that, knowing how she felt about him. Letting her in on his complex affair with Nour could possibly make her feel conflicted. Anyway, it was too late to brood over it, if it helped curb her infatuation for him it could help her. He assumed she would be feeling low; needing some cheering up. His illusion about Sanyukta feeling blue was soon shattered when he was hit on his back with a large fluffy pillow.

 "Pillowfight!" Came her shrill war cry as she danced around him stuffing another pillow in his arms and continued to bash him wherever she could reach, daring him to join in the confrontation, her eyes glittering with mischief. For a moment he wondered if a sudden fit of madness had overcome her. He used his pillow as a shield trying to figure out what was happening here. "What childishness Mowgli, stop it at once!" He yelled urgently. "Stop being chicken Randhir, fight like a man if you are one!" She goaded him. 

That did it, she was asking for it! He chased her around the room as she squealed in delight to find him pursuing her and whacking her on her back and buttocks, armed with his pillow. They continued to swing their pillows at each other until he fell back on the bed with her landing atop him. As their chests heaved from breathlessness, both shut their eyes with a feeling of inexplicable calm as the excitement of the sport waned. She smiled happily despite herself as he clasped her in his arms to stop her from rolling off, after all she had won this round against him, and the victor deserved to be rewarded for her success.

"You are not made of downy feathers like my goose down pillows Mowgli, you can get off me now!" He muttered, realising that their position was not exactly platonic. "No, I think this new mattress is much too comfortable, I can sleep like this forever!" She protested. "Bad things can happen to little girls like you who get on top of men like me!" He explained as simply as he could before rolling and pushing her off him onto the mattress. "You are such a chicken, really!" She whined. "Actually I am just not as crazy as you are!" He grinned at her. 

"But you have to agree that I am good therapy for you! See, you don't have that melancholic look in your eyes anymore, you are the same Randhir that rescued me from the mango tree the other day. That reminds me, would you mind if I sneaked into your room using the same route in the future?" She asked, eyeing him hopefully! "Absolutely not, I don't even want to think about it! Thrill Seeking is fine but you need not be idiotic. We will meet at work every day, do your talking then during the break. And after a few weeks I'll be back in Mumbai anyway. Go to sleep now!" He knew when to be firm.

"Look, it's just past midnight right now and I am not sleepy, nor will I let you sleep so soon. Let's make believe we are in an all-night Jagran. I have this cool two-player quiz game on my phone, it throws up questions that help people understand each other better, and they have a huge database so the questions do not get boring. At least can you indulge me on this one? She pleaded. " Fine, but no sleazy questions, I am not answering anything on, you know, private stuff!" He said cautiously. "Arey relax, it does not throw up raunchy questions if we set the level to Just Friends, see for yourself."

"The way it works is, both have to answer the same questions for the general round, and then there are individual ones for boys and girls. The questions come up in a random sequence. Ok, let's play!" The screen flashed the first question.

"Your favourite holiday destination, Randhir!"

"Switzerland! It is very scenic, especially Matterhorn, Lucerne, Lugano, Geneva- the mountains, lakes and much more. How about you?"

"I have hardly travelled but I can never forget my only visit to the Dudhsagar Falls just after the rains! Next question is for boys only, have you ever kissed a man?" She grinned.

"Yes I have, though it was just a peck on the lips. We were playing Truth or Dare and I had to kiss the guy to my left. Very clinical, not exciting at all, so wipe that grin off your face!"

"Next one, what was the naughtiest thing you ever did? Other than wrecking your car mine was when I put a skink in my Grade 8 Math teacher's desk drawer and she thought it was a snake. When she screamed you could hear her all over Panaji! Ha, ha! Got the beating of my life from Mom though,she saw right through me when I tried to feign innocence. Your turn!"

"I wonder if you took lessons in wickedness. Well, when a certain girl was coming on to me too strongly I convinced her that I had turned gay after being ragged as a fresher and had syphilis, after that no girl from my college ever  bothered me!" He laughed.

"Spreading such rumours about yourself! But did you actually suffer from an STI?"

"Are you crazy? I know what precautions to take, even when I am drunk!"

"I am crazy, you know that already. Next question, have you ever cheated during exams?"

"Not really, but I let people copy my answers during the semester exams. Others were caught cheating, not me. And you?"

"Just once I exchanged my slip with a batchmate for science practicals because he found his own task too tough, and the rascal ended up getting a better grade than me in the subject! Next question. Have you been attracted to more than one person at a time? For me this one is easy, the answer is yes,  Harsh and Randhir Singh Shekhawat!  Your turn!" She winked at him.

"Shameless girl, stop going after my father!"

"Ok then I'll just chase you. Now answer the question!"

"When I was getting to know Nour there was an American girl who visited our college on a Fulbright Scholarship and I had to assist her with her work. She was very cute but then she had to leave and I turned my attention to Nour completely!"

"Next one, what was the most embarrassing moment of your life? For me it has to be the one when Mom and I walked in on our Sport's teacher and a B. Ed trainee in a compromising position in what they assumed was a secure classroom. Honestly, I think Mom was more embarrassed because I was with her, how could she erase my memory of that hilarious sight?"

"Wow, must have been precious! In my case, nothing was more humiliating than the engineering college ragging. I cannot talk about the graphic stuff but one day the seniors gave me a choice between walking around the college with my fly open or letting me be seduced by a senior girl. Obviously I chose the latter but I realised I should have opted for the former when they unleashed this voluptuous bombshell of a senior girl who gave me a lap dance while the others hooted and egged her on. The bastards howled with laughter at my expense to see her enthusiastically fondle the tent in my pants over the fabric and then left with her leaving me with a desperate ache in my groin."

"Ouch! Next question, have you taken the blame for something that someone else did? I once told YoYo's mother that the vodka bottle in his bag was mine and she promptly complained to Mom. I was told off for it and grounded for a month!"

"Once I had to cover up for Parth's smoking, claiming that the pack of ciggies with him was mine! The idiot was in the 9th grade then. Mom fell for it and she yelled at me while Parth went scot-free. But Dad was not fooled, he locked me in a room with himself and asked me to light up a cigarette and smoke. When I choked on the smoke he gave me a long lecture on how covering up Parth's mistakes while he was young could be detrimental to both of us in the long run. I wish he had hit me instead, now I can never lie to him, it is too stressful to look in his eyes while lying."

"The next is for me, have I kissed anyone before? No, although I am hoping to before the day dawns!"

"In your dreams! The next question coming up, what is the toughest thing I have done? Dual answers, getting over Nour and then dealing with my encounter with her last night after what she told me!"

"I have dual answers too, dealing with my father's abuse and trying to forget what Vishad tried to do to me! I cannot not thank you enough for being there for me; helping me cope with the aftermath! Anyway, the next, who is your ideal outside your family? Again, my answer is Harsh Shekhawat, I have already told you about this, I feel a deep connection with him. I really wish I had him for a father! But no way I want you for a brother, I'd rather die!"

"Don't you ever give up, my drama queen? This time we would have tied for the answer if the question did not have the condition about a person outside the family. I cannot admire a man more than my father, he is perfect and I know I can never be like him. Other than him, and you will not talk about this to anyone, I think you have an ideal mother. People cannot tell she has gone through so much in life, she always has a smile on her face apart from when you annoy her. You should imbibe her quiet dignity and maturity!"

"How can I be like her at my age Randhir? I am not in my forties like her! Accha, what do you want to do professionally? Me, I want a career that is not too demanding. I want to enjoy life's little pleasures like build sand castles with my kids, travel the world and volunteer for causes. My Mom wants me to be a doctor but she knows we cannot afford the expenses, especially for post-graduation. And then one needs more money to establish a practice as well. I'd rather be self-employed with something less demanding in health sciences,  maybe I'll enrol for a paramedical course. And I want to raise at least one kid, my mother keeps reminding me how her life changed after having me! Your turn."

"Even in kindergarten I knew I wanted to help my Dad with the business, and he expects me to take over the responsibility. He was hoping I would join office immediately after my B Tech but I went to Dubai with Nour last summer. Dad understood completely, he was nothing but encouraging. So I made a pact with myself, this summer I'll let my parents take a long-awaited holiday and assume their responsibility. I am hoping to continue working for Dad after I finish my MBA next year, and in the future help him realise his dream of expanding overseas."

"Noble of you to do that, wish Parth was more like you in this matter. Next one is, what is your biggest regret so far? Let's see, when I was about 7-8 years I was upset because all the other kids went overseas for their holidays. The Catholic kids went to Bahrain, Dubai, Muscat, etc where they had family and the others went to Europe, the US or South East Asia. Even ordinary kids went to Ooty, Shimla or some other domestic destination. I told Mom I was tired of being poor and she broke down and cried, skipping her meals that day. I have never been so ashamed of myself, of course after that I stopped asking for things though she always did her best to keep me happy!" 

"I hope that you believe me when I tell you this Mowgli that money cannot buy you happiness! But it did redeem me once. I was in the final year of college and on a Saturday afternoon I asked a lab assistant to power up an experimental device for a project I was working on. Later I forgot about it because I was with Nour and he assumed I was in the lab so he rushed to be with his wife who delivered a baby in the hospital the same evening. There was a blast in the lab and the poor guy was sacked for his negligence. I was completely shaken up because it was my fault, not his. On my plea Dad stepped in and paid for the damage and also employed the man in our Mumbai office where he is happier because he is getting paid better. I learnt a lesson then, never to be guilty of negligence, someone could have died that day if they had been in the lab when the blast happened."

"Last question, what is the moment or event in your life that you would value the most? Easy one, having you take care of me after that monster Vishad tried to molest me. The details are fuzzy but I remember that you went out of your way to do what you did. I will never forget this week I spent with you Randhir, it has been the best time of my life!"

"You are welcome Mowgli, although I don't think I did anything extraordinary. For me, Dad's chemical plant project was being shelved because of poor investor backing, I negotiated my way through the hitch and managed to bring in a major investor whom I had met in Dubai last year. His assistance solved the problem and Dad embraced me and told me he had waited for that day all his life. It was the moment for me, nothing else mattered!"

Randhir wanted to tell Sanyukta that he felt the same about spending the week with her as she did, those moments were as therapeutic for him as his father's declaration of confidence in him. But he withheld himself, she was going home in the morning and in all probability the time they had spent together may never come back. He did not want her to harbour any false hope so he chose not to speak of it. Suddenly she hugged him and pecked him gently on the cheek, as if she knew what he was thinking about.

"It is almost the break of dawn Randhir, my bags are packed, please drop me home. Then both of us can catch some sleep in our own beds. If I stay here we will never get any rest. In any case Mom will be home soon." He knew she was right. They got into his car and he dropped her at her doorstep, waiting until she was indoors. "Call me if you have to!" He told her before she shut the door and he drove back and crawled into his bed. The room felt strangely empty. She was gone, having left behind her lingering scent and a cache of memories for him.