The Other Woman | Chapter Two

On such charcoal nights, the ash flickers, his memory slowly fades away with the drag of smoke. In the night, there is something soothing about chaos; there is something chaotic about silence.

I wake up at 3 in the afternoon with a heavy head not knowing if these soliloquies even paused for a sleeping moment. A headache caused by dreams speeding at a millions thoughts per second. The headache caused because the thoughts in my head refuse to rest.

Thanks to my career in advertising, my days and nights are one. Sometimes, the day puts on its yellow cloak; sometimes the night bares its soul like the full moon.

My BlackBerry beeps reminding me of a queue of mails slowly piling up. I notice a mail from him. The subject: ‘Last Night was great.’ An empty message greets me in the email.

Well, Nights are what I am to him then. I wanted to retort with a million abuses in tow. The man could be an object of my wrath if I desired it. 

Rage aside, I know I have to sort it out. Sooner or later. “Later,” I decided. Coward, my mind points and laughs at me.

My phone buzzes to Violet Hill who could it be other than the friend who has known me since I believed in tooth fairies. “I am engaged,” she shrieks with joy as she announces her engagement to her boyfriend of a year who had proposed to her last night over wine and food.

The two met at a party, and hit it off instantly. A week and a date later, they have been together for the last year. Her happy ending gives me a little hope. Her happy ending will hopefully signal my new beginning.

Despair, now turns into jealousy. 

We choose to meet at 7 in the evening, which gives me enough time to buy her a gift and practise my best smile in front of the mirror.

We check-in at Hard Rock Café, take one of the corner tables and order our Old Monks for the evening. 

As expected, the topic drifts to the recent happenings in my life. I smile and pretend like everything’s alright. A woman like me, we don’t kiss and tell. Yes, I am traditional that way.

She tells me what it like is to love a guy like him; I gently withdraw my burnt fingers. Falling in and out of love, both are just as difficult, I want to quip in defence. 

Today, she needn’t hear that; this is her day. A day that a woman imagines to be her special day right from the time she is takes a liking for romantic movies.

But today, we speak about love and all the things that come attached with it.