It's daytime, and suited up in black, Abhimanyu walks across the private road in front of his inspiration center. He hadn't been to the place in a while as he was too busy. He sees few people and a vintage car on the road. Nothing new, many people came there for drugs and sex. Sexy ladies on road get him turn his head for a second glance. He rings the bell and a lovely girl opens the door with a smile. The song "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran is playing. Looks like the party is on as usual. He peeps in and sees men and women hanging out with each other in living room. Few others high, sitting on their own. All men are in black suit with a white shirt just like him. A man there is talking with a lady in a black mini and another man lying behind a girl sipping some margarita. Before stepping in, he slips on his tinted sunglasses as they make it easier to watch naked and semi naked girls in act without looking creepy. A sexy girl wearing a leopard print underwear garter set, sways her way up the stairs in the living room. He walks further. All the women and girls are in sexy lingerie that leave little to imagination. Baydolls, push up bra underwear sets with garter belts and suspenders. He turns his head for a quick glance at girls lying in different tempting positions in the living room and they give him that 'take me with you' look. He sees a pregnant woman there, perhaps an addict. He sees women hanging from gym rings, a woman taking out the stockings of another woman who is with a black man..threesome about to begin. As he walks further down, he sees girl in sexy tiny underwear kissing herself in the hand mirror, a girl celebrating birthday with her two gal pals. Her friend licks the cake from her finger. He tilts his head away from the scene and his eyes fall on the pert derriere of a woman in red thongs on a red ladder. He then opens the door of the room and sees two girls and a man in a threesome. Another pair making out on a stool behind them. Two girls kiss licking each other's tongue and then kiss the guy with same passion. Totally turned on by the scene he closes the door. Hot from the threesome scene he was standing near the stairs when beautiful legs coming down the stairs caught his eye, upper part blocked by the set of steps that ran in opposite direction. He kept staring at the legs in black high heels. As she descended further revealing herself slowly, his eyes moved up her hot body in black bandage mini dress she was wearing and then appeared her face. He saw her face. Hell! It's Raina. She looked at him with desire and then walked down the steps. He was too aroused to think about anything else. She looked hot as hell in that black bandage spaghetti dress and that armed forces style cap on her head. She looked at him as she walked through the living room and he too looked at her as he followed behind walking parallel to her. She was ahead of him, she gave him a look that said follow me before stepping out to swimming pool. He was already following her. When he reached the swimming pool lawns, he looked around for her, but she was not there. There were couples making out in grass and so many other spots, two girls grooving to the song under the outside shower. Many men were sitting by and watching the girls inside and outside the pool. He looked down and wondered where she went missing as he sat on steps there. When he raised his head a bit, his eyes stuck on a pair of legs in front of him. She was standing at the pool with her back to him. All high, he looked down at floor and then took off his shades to see her without them. She was standing in the same position, but her dress had come off. She was standing in a black two piece lingerie set with garter belt that was sheer on the back. He stared at her buns in a see through tiny underwear as she stood with her legs wide apart. As he sat there staring at her hind, she took the cap off her head and strutted to him looking straight into his eyes. His eyes stuck on her beautiful face. She threw the cap away and sat in the space between his legs as her hands found their way in his hair. With her hands on either side of his face, she moved seductively in front of him. Mounds of her breasts lay in front of his eyes only a few centimeters from his lips. Her eyes, the way they looked into his eyes as she played with hair in her face, her lips so hot, the way she touched them and when her fingers rubbed past his lips, he was gone. He was fucking too high, too hard to explode. Just then there was loud noise and his eyes opened with a startle. He looked on the sides. He saw he was in his bed. He was dreaming, but he was actually hard from his dream.

          "WTF! What kind of dream was this, and why the hell is he dreaming of Raina?" He said in his head as he lay in his bed for it to calm down between his legs. Hugely disturbed, he pressed his forehead with his fingers. 'He was late up last night listening to his current favourite Ed Sheeran song wondering what makes this song so amazing. May be that just somehow translated into this dream. Dreams anyways are so weird,' he reasoned.

            He lay down in his bed thinking about his own music video which was getting popular at a good pace. Music channels and radio stations were playing it many times a day since it's release on YouTube twenty days ago. He had sponsors for it on YouTube, and it recently hit one hundred million views on YouTube which was quite amazing, and the best part was that it made it's entry at number forty and near on a lot of countdowns like Billboard, iTunes and others that week. It was recently made available on iTunes for digital sale. He was happy with how it was going for it. It was only to go up from here.

            He looked at the clock. 'Maid must have left without cleaning his room' he thought. He had given her instructions to not wake him up to clean his room. He in fact latched his door and slept. 'That sound that woke him from his dream felt like a can hitting the floor. Oh, Raina must be on the terrace. Watering can must have slipped from her hand. He got up, slipped on his white T, lit a cigarette to smoke and pulled open the curtains of his room's window. He looked out window and saw Raina watering the plants in the terrace. She watered them every alternate day before her guitar lessons. He was impressed how she was getting the hang of guitar really fast. He told he was a good teacher to himself, as he smoked and watched her water the plants. Her back was to him and then suddenly the focus of his eyes shifted to her legs in light blue skinny jeans and all the way to her posterior. It wasn't wide but perfectly curved just as in his dream. He compared her back to the one in in his dream. He immediately looked away, 'What's with these temptations? It's so wrong', he said to himself. 'When did he stop looking at Raina from the director's eyes and started looking at her with the lusty eyes of a man inside him?' he wondered. 'He is never going to discover his discovery in bed,' he told himself his head.

          He opened terrace door in his room and walked out smoking a cigarette.

"Hey! Good morning," he wished Raina as he leaned against the parapet wall of the terrace.

"Good morning" she glanced at him and went back to watering the plant.

He watched her profile for sometime.

Abhimanyu: What happened to your face?

Raina: Ah! nothing. It's from the fall.

Abhimanyu: Oh! Looks like you fell on somebody's hand. She swallowed the saliva in her throat, and he felt his head heating up.

Abhimanyu: Five fingers are stamped across your face and you want to tell me it's nothing. Alright!

Tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Raina: Baba(Dad) slapped me! She said crying.

Abhimanyu: Why? He asked with mouth slightly agape and question marks all over his face. .

Raina: The music video. He said I am a prostitute. She started crying uncontrollably, sniffing in between to stop herself from crying.

His throat choked seeing her crying like that. He gulped the saliva stuck in his throat, and crushed the lit head of the cigarette he was smoking on top of the parapet wall. He felt heat coming out of his ears. He looked at her feeling bad for her.

She wiped her tears and controlled herself from crying.

Raina: I never told anyone about it in my house because I didn't want them to see it. I thought they will not see it. They are not educated to watch YouTube. They only watch Marathi channels. They don't socialize with anyone in neighborhood because they still do their previous jobs. Whenever they asked me, I told them it was taking time or might not even release. Yesterday, baba happened to see it in Marathi news. They were covering how this new singer of a successful Hindi album has gone bold in her new English Single. It seems they showed all those intimate scenes. When I reached home after the class with Mr. O' Brien, Baba was so angry that he slapped me hard. Maasi and Aayi tried to stop him from but he couldn't control his anger and he beat me up. He said I was a prostitute who slept with men, and had no shame doing all that in front of cameras. He said my job was that of prostitution, and not an artist. He was ashamed of me, and that  I have brought shame to the entire family. I have disappointed all my family members. Aayi and Maasi are also not with me. They can't believe that I left Kulshan's videos to do something like this.

He heard her intently. While listening to her his hands curled in a tight fist. He felt like going and hitting her dad so hard that all his teeth would fall out. He didn't want to interfere in her family matters. So, he didn't say anything.

Abhimanyu: You hold me reponsible for this?

Raina: No, not really. I agreed to do it.

Abhimanyu: So, somewhere you do.

Abhimanyu: Like your family, do you also think that if you stuck to Hindi or Kulshan, you wouldn't have done what you did? No! Some other director who must have directed you for Kulshan's video could have got you to do something similar. Many girls in the beginning say they will not do this, they will not wear that. Two years down the line, they are seen doing exactly what they say they won't. Look at Ronakshi Sinha for example. Now she is seen only in tiny shorts. It's not wrong. It's evolving, adapting to environment, but why waste two years. Why not start with a bang it self when you anyways will succumb to the pressures of the industry sooner or later.

She looked upset and sad.

Abhimanyu: You know, you should not waste your time thinking over what your dad thinks who instead of being grateful to a daughter who gave him a life is beating her blue and black. It was him why you chose this profession in the first place. And about this profession. It was this profession that could give you the money required for his surgery. I am very happy with our work. It has entered almost all the English song countdowns this week. You should be proud. It's not a small thing.

Raina: So, you are satisfied?

Abhimanyu looked in her eyes, "An artist should never be satisfied. This is good but not yet there. An artist's true success is when people swarm in a huge stadium to watch him/ her perform live. They can't stop screaming his/ her name until they lose their voice, and they take back with them an everlasting experience of listening that artist live. That's the real high. That's what every musician should aim for".

Her eyes stayed fixed on him as he spoke.

Abhimanyu: You go home and take rest. He advised her.

Raina: Today, I didn't want to come like this at first, but then I came because you had told you are going to teach something important.

Abhimanyu: Ya, but we can take that later. There is no hurry.

Raina: Can I tell you something? I like it here more than anywhere. "This terrace, these plants, flowers" and then she took a glance at him "are heaven to me". She sounded sad and he knew she was upset with the whole thing.

He had never taken any interest to see her plants.

Abhimanyu: Let me see what plants you have got here. He walked near a cluster of pots. She became all excited to show them to him.

Abhimanyu: You know I'm very poor with the names of the plants. So why don't you walk me through them.

She started with Tulsi, "This is Tulsi."

Abhimanyu: Ocimum Sanctum. She looks at him and he shows a grin.

Raina: This is Rose. I'm sure you know this one.

Abhimanyu: Yeah Rosa.

Raina: And this is palm. She said pointing at it.

Abhimanyu: Chamaedora elegans.

Raina: This is Jasmine. It smells so good. Try it.

He smelt one, "Jasminum".

Raina: And you see these bright colorful daisies. I love them.

Abhimanyu: Gerbera. And this is Marigold Tagetes. He said pointing to marigold.

He told the scientific names of few more green ornamental plants and she looked at him in amazement. He looked at her," Impressed?"

She smiled, "Very much". And he laughed.

Abhimanyu: Why is there no cactus? He inquired.

Raina: I don't like cactus. They have thorns. They are dry.

Abhimanyu: But cactus also bear beautiful flowers. I think you should have got some cactus, then at least some plants would still be on this terrace after you stop coming here. Without water, all these greens will die. Only cactus will be able to survive the extremes and keep this terrace alive.

Raina: I'll come everyday to take care of them. They are not going to die!

Abhimanyu: Life is not like you think with your simple mind, Raina. A lot of things are temporary. They are there in some phase and then they are not there. Enjoy them for the time they are there, and then forget about them. These guitar lessons are not going to go on forever. She looked at him as she gave it a deep thought.

Abhimanyu: Today I'm going to show you a great little trick that will really help expand your blues playing, which in effect will help you with many different styles.But before that, I need something to drink. Hmmmm...Should I drink beer or coffee?

Raina: Coffee. She immediately suggested.

Abhimanyu: Hmm..then you'll have to make it for me. I'll give you Rs. 500. Make it like Starbucks.

Raina: I don't want any money for making coffee.

Abhimanyu looked at her. 

Raina: Will you always see me as your maid? Her voice broke.

Abhimanyu: I don't see you as my maid. He immediately retorted looking in her eyes.

Raina: Then, don't give me the money for making coffee. She pleaded.

Abhimanyu: You are not maid. I place you so much above me, but if we see our relation as master-student. I still remain your master. He joked.

Raina: That I don't know but right now I am going to go try make coffee that matches Starbucks which for your information I have never had.  She smiled and her eyes smiled along. He smiled back.

She came with a coffee. He took sips of it as he taught her guitar. At times, she would watch him strumming and forget to blink. He had cut his hair after the video, but he was a sight anyways. With his guitar on chair, he was an assassin.

When class came to an end, Raina told him that her practicals were starting, so now on she will be able to come only after Mr. O'Brien's class in evening. He said it was okay with him. "Start doing the covers of the songs I told you, and start posting them on your YouTube channel slowly," he advised her.

                                                                            ***

             She had started lessons with him in evening. Now, whenever she went, he was the one who opened the door for her. She followed him into terrace through his bedroom, and her eyes  always found themselves prying on his dustbin. Sometimes she saw the folded newspaper and sometimes she didn't. May be not on the days he got after she left because maid must have cleaned in morning. Most of girls and professors from her new all girls college recognized her. Some were warm and some looked at her as a bad girl, an impression from her English single. She didn't mingle much with anyone, and kept to herself and her studies.

         Something about his hands, she was always so drawn to them as she watched him strumming. They were so long and beautiful that they pulled her in and sparked all kinds of desires to touch him. One day, he was explaining how to play some scales on guitar when she just couldn't control; she brushed her hands on his hands to reach for the strings making it look like an accidental touch. He looked at her. "It's these strings, right?" she asked him nervously. "Yes," he answered ignoring what just happened.

       Something was changing in her. The simple girl in her was getting bolder. The way he moved, his body language, and the way he looked so hot even when so casual was just making it so difficult for the young girl in her to not dream about him, to not crave him physically.

        "It's good if an artist is able to write his/her own songs. They can do more justice to the song. Give it the emotions and  the feels required, and I think you should try writing a song. I have had a glimpse of your lyrical ability and being an English literature student I think you should be able to do it well. So, in two days, you write a song and sing it to me," Abhimanyu told her.

                                                                                   ***

Two days later Raina went with the song and told him excitedly that she wrote a blue, which he told her to sing.

She started singing....

The roses aren't as pretty

The sun isn't quite as high

The birds don't sing as sweet of lullaby

The stars seem a little bit faded

The clouds just a little more gray

And it feels like things won't ever be same

The beaches aren't as lovely

The sky isn't quite as blue

Still, they are sweetened by the memory of you.

The rain is a little bit colder

The fire is never quite as warm

Still it seems that heaven isn't all that far

I'm noticing the wonders of this world..

Raina: I could write only this much..

Abhimanyu: Don't even bother to finish it.

Abhimanyu: These are absolutely not the kind of lyrics people would spare time to listen to.

Raina: Why?

Abhimanyu: Sadly the demography that listens to music  and make it chartbuster don't have Dr. Abdul Kalam as their idol. Lustin Beiber is their idol.

She looked at him.

Abhimanyu: Where do you draw inspiration from?

Raina: Nature.

Abhimanyu: Why I'm even asking it? I should have guessed that.

Raina: Where do you draw inspiration from? She asked inquisitively.

Abhimanyu: You too should have been able to guess it. He looked up at her.

Abhimanyu: Drugs and sex with multiple women. Change the women, change the experience and write a different thing about the same thing.

She looked at him.

Abhimanyu: You might feel how pervy I am to talk about sex like this with you, but for success in music industry you have to suck sex. See 'suck sex', it sounds success and it even means success in this industry.

Raina: All you write about, is about sex? She hesitated saying the word sex, but it was about time she became comfortable with the word.

Abhimanyu remembered the songs that she had happened to read.

Abhimanyu: Yeah except one. My sort of first that I wrote after the death of my father wasn't about sex or drugs

Raina: Can I read your first?

"Want to compare with your first?" he smiled. "Yeah, I guess I can show you."

He went in and got a paper with a song written on it. He handed it to Raina , and Raina read it silently...

She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette

She broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin' to forget

We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time

But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind

Until the night

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger

And finally drank away her memory

Life is short but this time it was bigger

Than the strength he had to get up off his knees

We found him with his face down in the pillow

With a note that said I'll love her till I die

And when he lay in rest in the willow

The angels sang a lullaby.

She read and her eyes filled with tears,"This is so good in the way that that it is so heartbreaking."

"Ya, I know I could never understand how could he love her so much despite her cheating ways and everything else," his Adam apple bobbed as he gulped the saliva in his throat.

She thought how she was in love with him despite knowing of his womanizing ways. 'Weird are the ways of love.'

"Love is strange," she said.

"It indeed is!" he followed.

After a minute of pause:

"Take a week's time, but this time try writing something that can connect with today's youth, something that.. they would like to hear, something that is with times and trend," he told her.

"I'll try," she said.

'How can she probably write about something like this? A good song arises from the depths of heart on real experiences. She might haven't even experienced it,' he thought.

                                                                                       ***

A week later in guitar class Abhimanyu asked her if she has written the song? She said 'yes', and took out the paper from her bag to give to him. He told her he doesn't want to read, he wants her to sing like she heard it while writing it.

She held the paper in her one hand and started singing.

I'm so into you, I can barely breathe

And all I wanna do is to fall in deep

But close ain't close enough 'til we cross the line, hey, yeah

So name a game to play, and I'll roll the dice, hey

Oh baby, look what you started

The temperature's rising in here

Is this gonna happen?

Been waiting and waiting for you to make a move

Before I make a move

So baby, come light me up and maybe I'll let you on it

A little bit dangerous, but baby, that's how I want it

A little less conversation, and a little more touch my body

Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you

Got everyone watchin' us, so baby, let's keep it secret

A little bit scandalous, but baby, don't let them see it

A little less conversation and a little more touch my body

Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you, oh yeah

Tell me what you came here for

Cause I can't, I can't wait no more

I'm on the edge with no control

And I need, I need you to know

You to know, oh

So come light me up

So come light me up, my baby

A little dangerous

A little dangerous, my boy

A little less conversation, and a little more touch my body

Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you

         She finished singing and he looked at her and she looked at him. "It's excellent," he told her. She started putting paper back in bag.

"Listen!" he called her. Yeah! she looked up at him.

He looked down and then he looked up and then he looked at her as she looked at him.

Abhimanyu: "Don't fall in love with me". 

She fell dumbstruck. All that she thought went unnoticed, didn't go unnoticed. Her gazing, her brushing of his hands, her spacing out in his daydreams. He noticed everything.

He broke the silence of a minute with 'Congratulations'.

Abhimanyu: Congratulations on best playback singer nomination in the non film category for Global Indian Music Awards .

Raina: Thank you. Ya, Sahil told me about that. You also are nominated?

He dismissed it with a don't care expression.

Raina: My parents don't understand the success of my English single, but I hope they feel proud of me when I get an award for my Hindi songs.

Abhimanyu: You are attending the event?

Raina: Yes.

Abhimanyu: Then you'll definitely win it. He smiled.

Raina: I don't know, I am worried about the interview. Sahil told there will be a whole bunch of media which will ask questions.

Abhimanyu: Don't give yourself too much importance. Be playful. Relax and have fun with the questions. Be slightly offbeat and unexpected. That's it.

Raina: I am anxious since I haven' t done it before.

Abhimanyu: Let's do it now then.

Abhimanyu: How are you feeling on your nomination?

Raina: Like I always feel.

Abhimanyu: Don't be this casual.

Abhimanyu: How are you feeling on your first nomination?

Raina: Happy! Very happy!

Abhimanyu: Who would you like to give credit for it?

Raina: Abhimanyu Singh.

Abhimanyu: No! Don't do that.Never thank me or give credit to me in interviews/public. I don't like it.

She looked at him with her mouth slightly agape.

Abhimanyu: I don't want you to name me in your thank you speech. Just refrain from taking my name. You can acknowledge me by saying director instead of my name-use common noun, not proper noun.

Raina: I'll thank the entire team then.

Abhimanyu: Good. That's where it belongs.

Abhimanyu: So, next question. Your English single is climbing up the charts in all the countries. What do you have to say on it's success.

Raina: Success is very sweet. I am going to relish the dessert after the party.

Abhimanyu: You are good at evading .

She smiled.

Abhimanyu: What dessert you like?

Raina: Kheer..I don't know. Haven't had many desserts. Kheer and halwa ..this is what we make.

Abhimanyu smiled.

Raina: Also Dairy Milk Silk, sometimes. She smiled.

.Raina: What you like in dessert?

 He laughed... "I better not answer this," he said blushing.

A second later, "Actually nothing. How can someone who likes cocaine and cigarettes like anything sweet."

                                                                               ***

His dream: Shape of you Asher remix

https://youtu.be/6x96tejoZ9Y

                                     ***

The song Raina wrote:

Ariana Grande's Into You

https://youtu.be/SRljINWy13g