The mind is relieved.

10am:
He swipes his identity card and enters his office. The receptionist greets him “Good Morning, Sir”. He smiles and says “Good morning!” uncomfortably. He does not like  being called “Sir”. He works in an industry where everyone calls everyone by their first name.
He starts walking towards his cubicle. Instead of the usual slow walk, he hurries to his desk. He is rather in a more than jolly mood today. He is excited. He has some sort of radiance on his face.People pass by him. greet him; he responds hurriedly with curt replies  and does not  linger around much for usual chatter. He reaches his desk, powers up his laptop . He has read most of his mails on his Blackberry. He just has to respond to them.
There is a sense of anxiety in him. He is in a hurry of some sort. The  “Send” button on his mail client has been pressed for the last time. He opens his task list and checks his pending items. Something in it reminds him of his wife.

She was away for a few months. She is expected back today, but her US-based cousin whom she was planning to meet later in the week, has to go back sooner than planned and wants her to come over today itself.
He thinks of the phone conversation he had with her. Although he was okay with her being away a bit longer, she was not.  She had already been away for a while and wanted to be with him tonight.There is a hint of excitement in him. They are planning to have a baby.  He has cleaned up the house especially the bedroom. He even bought some scented candles and potpourri.  He is excited about tonight.

His thoughts are broken when an alarm goes off indicating he has a meeting in the next 15 minutes. He decides to grab a cup of coffee before it . He gets up of his sear; turns around to see his colleague standing besides him. “Coffee ? “
”Umm..hmm.. yes sure!”
”Then, lets go… the meeting starts in less than 15 minutes” 
This colleague; he does not want to meet at the start of the day or for that matter any time of the day for he can go on and on about everything under sun from politics to economics. Basically showing off how much he knows or probably how time he wastes reading the newspaper.
“Did you see the debate about the Government decision to … “.
Completely ignoring the question, he just mumbled a “Oh .. No, i missed it”.
”It was an great insight into…..”
He does not pay attention at all and get back to thinking about tonight; His wife.; He missed her. He is excited about tonight.

At the coffee machine, while his colleague is now rambling about the next recession that is going to hit us in a bad way, he sips his freshly brewed coffee and looks around the pantry room .
He sees people sitting in groups, sipping coffee and laughing, a group of middle-aged women gossiping in hushed tones and then giggling like school girls, an office boy cleaning up dirty tables; he observers them but nothing registers in his mind. He is just thinking about tonight. He can hear words like “quasi recession etc.” being uttered in the background.

His thoughts are interrupted. He smells a fragrance in the air, as if someone or something pushed a whiff of air towards him. He turns around. He sees this young lady standing behind him. He gives her a knowing smile and moves away from the coffee machine. She joined his team a few months. He notices she looks smart and is well dressed. She seems to be particular about what she wears. She has confidence glowing from her. He knows she is going to go places. He is lost in his own thoughts again but he cannot focus anymore. The smell of that perfume is breaking his thoughts. She looks at him, as she knew her fragrance is breaking his thoughts. His colleague, now starts talking to her.  He realizes his still has that meeting to attend and rushes out of the canteen towards the meeting room completely forgetting his chatty colleague . On the way to the meeting room he thinks about tonight again. She is coming tonight. She cannot live without him and readily ditched her favorite cousin. She will be waiting for him at home. He is excited.

730pm:

He is driving his car out of the parking lot. He cuts across multiple lanes while getting on to the main road. He is not in a mood to wait. He is reminded of his wife. She would say that in the US you would follow all the traffic rules but here you drive like a taxi driver. He smirks. There are no rules to follow here honey; he never tells her that. He never tells her a lot of things that are in his mind. What he thinks; What he feels.  He knows, he will regret doing this not-telling-her soon.
On the main road he keeps honking, pressuring the slower moving vehicles to give way. He jumps a signal, disrupts the traffic flow. Bystanders give him the glare. He ignores them. His mobile phone rings, he does not bother to even check who called. He just wants rush back home.  He swerves his car into his designated parking slot with perfection.
He rushes to the elevator as he sees its door close. But its too late; the elevator door closes and he cannot stop it. He does not have the patience to wait for it to come down. He runs up the staircase and reaches before the lift could. His wife would probably be at home.

He enters his house with his house keys. His home is empty. His wife is nowhere to be seen. He suspiciously looks around; there is no one. He double checks the bedroom. It is in the same way as he left it in the morning. He smiles and takes a quick shower, then makes himself comfortable on his couch.

He is hears a car turn into his housing society. He can make out whose car it is. He can already smell the fragrance in the air. The same one that was distracting him earlier at work. He can smell it a mile away or so he would want to believe.

His wife was missing him but she also had her cousin to visit.  He plays the role of the caring-loving-yet-sensible husband well “ I am also miss you honeybuns, but your cousin. You haven’t met her since her wedding last year and won’t meet her again for a while. ”  He reminds himself to play his role well but not overdo it. “Just Another day before we are together!”  He is excited about tonight. He is excited about that perfume and her. She had knowingly applied his favorite perfume at work; to keep him distracted, to keep him excited throughout the day.

His pulse is racing as the door bell rings. He looks towards the door. He gets up and starts moving towards the door; straight ahead of him. He has a grin on his face of that a school boy going to do something mischievous. He casually looks towards the left while walking. He see a photo frame. It has a picture in it. Its his honeymoon picture from three years ago. Both of them, he and his wife are laughing heartily in it. His mind wanders to his wife, the fun they have together, the lame jokes they used to share and laugh about. The bell rings again.  He is looking at the photo frame now. His heart is beating harder than earlier, but he is not excited anymore, he is  tensed. His mind is not at ease.
For the first time now, he has a sense of guilt. All the while during his affair he would be scared now and then about his wife finding out but never a sense of guilt. But then again, they had never together for a night yet. This is all wrong, he feels suddenly “How did I get myself into this mess?!”. But a part of him also wants tonight to happen. 
Again, he thinks “I will just call it off. Tell her I am not well or lets just cuddle for tonight!”.
“She will get mad at me and maybe I will be the butt of the jokes she cracks with her friends!”
He remembers seeing her in a two piece bikini. It turns him on. A part of him wants tonight to happen.

The thoughts of the perfume is now clashing against memories with which his life is built on. They are like these strong waves during a stormy night crashing against a foundation of rocks where you never know if the waves will break the foundation and takes the stones with it or the stones will weather this storm like it has so many other. He has stopped moving. The bell rings once again. He start moving involuntarily.  Every step his takes is getting heavy. His mind is now full of guilt. His thoughts keep going back to his wife but are being being broken by the thoughts of the perfume. He is no longer sure of what he wants. 
Suddenly his mobile phone beeps. There is a beep indicating a voicemail alert. He had not picked up the phone while driving. He ignores it. The door bell rings again but this time repeatedly and even more urgently. He reaches to the door and takes a deep breath. He feels his anxiety pangs and he does not like it.He removes the latch and opens the door.

“Dude, WTF is wrong with you ? Why did not you open the door for so long? What were you upto? Taking the crap or what?!! “
”Uhm.mm…”
”You are pale. You seen a ghost or what?! Come on dude.  Bhabhi called and told me you are a bachelor for another night. Grab you jacket and lets grab some drinks”

He looks at him watch. It way the past the time. She should have been her by now or at least called. His mind now races recalling the events till now. His mobile phone. The voice mail. He puts the phone to his ear and plays the message.

“Hi babes, I won’t be able to make tonight ya. Lots of work and then I have to meet this old school friend who is in town. Lets do it some other time.  Miss me wink wink!!”  <Beep>
”You have no unread voice messages”<Beep>.

The mind is relieved.