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.

The mind is wandering. A lot of thoughts come to it. Thoughts mostly from the past. Its late in the night almost close to midnight. A gentle breeze ruffles the trees out the window. A cat gives a shriek far away. Maybe it got a prey or may it became a prey.
Inside the room,  his mind is wandering. Thoughts about the past, things that were, things that could be, today’s affairs, office gossip, fantasies. He can’t focus, can’t control his mind. He never could. He lets its wander.
He is sweating, panting a-bit even. He hears an orgasmic scream; looks down. He sees she is satisfied. He sees her eyes are closed, enjoying every moment, wishing if they could last forever. He moves away from her. She hugs him. A gentle liplock. She whispers that she loves him.  He responds as gently as possible “So do I, honey” knowing that there is little truth in his words .

What does all this mean for her, he thinks. She thinks of this as night of passion, as this relation is maturing, moving towards a more logical direction. She sees a future. Settling down, Marriage and then a kid or two. She is in love.
And he? He is lost. This night is not any different from any other night. He is all out of love.
He looks at her; she is fast asleep now . He sets her aside gently, does not even bother dressing himself; moves towards the window looking at the dark night with no moon. He lights his cigarette from the pack lying on the nearby side table; struggles a bit with his rusty lighter but finally lights it. He takes a real deep one in and releases it slowly….

He can almost predict how it will  end. The tears, the broken dreams and the accusations. “You used me! “, “You cheap bastard!!” and obviously he inability to express why.  He smirks. It has been this way for a while now. One meaningless relation after another. He is searching for something, someone. He is lost.

He thinks of when he was happy last. His mind travels back to the college days; he was truly happen then. His was truly in love then. What happened then? He chickened out. She was older than him, almost 5 years old. She had lost quite a few years . Now her age was to get married. Her parents wanted her to get married. She could not go against them. He was not ready then. He was confused, he chickened out ……..he ran away……………away from her …..and now he is lost !

Her Story

Its 9am. She is stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The radio is churning one bollywood hit after another. They all sound the same to her. In the middle a RJ, shares all the latest bollywood gossip  from the local tabloid. She slams the Audio system off in disgust. A motorcyclist cuts across; brushing her car. She cringes and gives out a loud honk. In her mind she gives out a loud wail. She is visibly irritated.
Her mind wanders ; wanders to the past; to fond memories; memories of him; memories that  hurt her now.
She has learnt to control these thoughts now though, but today she is not in the mood. She lets go.

They were in college, in love and happily living in a fantasy world, believing things would work out; work out against all odds. College ended and reality struck. Her age caught up and it was time for her to get married. She could not go against her parents. She panicked; freaked out even. She wanted to be with him for the rest of life. But he was young, very young and she panicked in fear of losing him. She became defensive; pressurized him.
She scared him off. He ran away…. forever.

Then the marriage proposals followed. She put a pretty face each time, someone visited.  It went on for a while. But she then she  just couldn’t. She broke down.  Her parents wanted her happiness, wanted her to settle down but they saw that was not going to happen anytime soon. They let her be.

Why is she in such a mood today? Her sister called in the morning. Her sister is in the US, settled there; now married with kids and living a happy life; living the American dream. Her parents are proud of her. She is also happy for her. But she feels insecure inside, feels that people always talk about them, compare them, feels she  has let her parents down, feels they are not happy because her; not proud of her. Her parents, who she worships, who stood by her through the thick and thin.
She wants them to be happy; they want her to find happiness.

His Story

Its dark in here. Through the window, he sees streams of vehicles passing by. He is sitting next to strangers. Its a shared taxi service. He is being transported from his hotel in Sunnyvale to the San Francisco Airport. He was in the US for a couple of  months. It was his first trip to his dream country. He had a great time. His mind wanders … He recalls all the trips he had. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Napa valley. He cherishes these moments.

He is jolted out of his thoughts,  when the lights come on. The car has stopped to pick up another passenger. The lights come on temporarily. He is too bleary eyed to notice who got in. The lights go out again. His mind wanders again. He is reminded of the countless trips to the Twin Peaks, San Francisco from where you can see the whole city from the top. The grandeur, the lights . He was held in awe each time he went. Sipping beer from the location, he felt like the king of the world.
His thoughts are interrupted intermittently though.  He suddenly feels anxious. A sudden sense of uneasiness overcomes him. He breaks a sweat.  He feels tired. Why this sudden anxiety? It is as if something has changed in his surroundings. He feels uncomfortable. He looks out of the window. He sees a continuous streams of lights on the expressway. The  car takes an exit.
After a while the car stops. They reached the airport. The lights come on.

Her Story

She is standing along a driveway, awaiting her ride. Its dark, a bit chilly. There is a gentle drizzle going on; as it always does during this season. She grows impatient.  Her ride arrives finally.  She gets in the vehicle, without taking notice of anything or anyone.
Her mind wanders. Her first trip to the US; Her trip to the big apple; The time she spent with her sister who is based in New Jersey and her sister’s family.  Again a sense of  joy and sadness.  Then a short business trip to the bay area. Now she is heading to the airport and from there back to her homeland. She had a great time, meeting a lot of people and except for the odd question about getting married popping up here and there, she loved it.

She is exhausted both mentally and physically. She closes her eyes and go into a semi-sleep state for a while.
The car swerves a bit, she awaken. The airport has arrived. She is alert now; wipes her face with some wet tissues, tidies her hair. The car stops. The light come on. She is ready to get down.

The lights inside the car are ON.  His pulse is racing. He may have skipped a beat of two. His eyes are transfixed. His mind is now focused. She has lost her tiredness. She is awake now both mentally and physically.
She is looking at him directly and he is directly at her.
The mind no longer wanders … it is focused and it is staring at its destiny.