What's your poison?

 

He went inside the supermarket to buy some Maggi. Another Saturday, working from home. His flatmate Rohan had gone to stay with his parents in Jhansi. So boring, just another evening on the Xbox. He had even stopped reading recently. It required too much effort.

A girl walked in. Every man, from the workers loading the bread from the truck outside to the uncle buying farsaan looked at her. 

She was plump, slightly tanned with long wavy hair. But it wasn't the hair that everyone was looking at. It was her top. She was wearing a magenta backless bandana top, that exposed her midriff and when she turned, exposed side boobs. He slyly turned his face away. Then when she went inside, looked at her butt. It was big and round, and her jeans were not even skinny, but regular old fashioned 90s jeans, faded, light denim with deep pockets.

Two aunties whispered to each other. 

Side boobs, he thought. Seriously? Who shows off their side boobs in a supermarket? But, there was something hugely erotic about them. Just a hint of the curve, the heaviness of the breast, showing exactly what it looked like underneath, but yet not showing all of it.

Was he a boob guy or an ass guy? His ex gf used to tell him, men belong to two types, boob or ass.  

How ridiculous! Only women could make up crap like that. How could you choose? He loved women's calves, that fleshy part where the knee meets the thigh. And thighs, big, milky, cover your face thighs. And the side waist, with a little hint of flesh popping out, the one you could just pinch. And the best, oh the best of all, where the thigh meets the...

Aly!

He looked straight ahead. It was Dheeraj from his building. 

'Hi man!'

'Hi Aly! Whatssup dude?'

'Nothing much. Just came to pick up some Maggi.'

'Not going out?'

'No man. Had a meeting that just got over. And with the Covid cases rising, I decided to stay in.'

'Yeah, that sucks big time. But one has gotta live. I have a party at my place right now. Just some friends. Come over.'

The side boob girl came over to Dheeraj.

'They don't have Coke. Thums up or Pepsi?'

'Thums up any day. Pepsi's got no fizz.'

'Aly, this is Ginnie, old school mate.'

He said Hi. She said Hello.

'I was just asking Aly to join us.'

She nodded. For someone who looked so wild, she seemed very reserved.

He decided to go to the party. He was curious about her. Dheeraj was paying at the counter.

'So Ginnie, is that your real name?'

She fidgeted with her top and pulled it down.

'It's Gurinder. Short form Ginnie.'

'Oh okay. Mine is Aly, short for Ali. Ali Raza.'

She smiled sarcastically. 'Very funny.'

They started walking to Dheeraj's house.

Ginnie was quiet. And kept pulling her jeans up.

There were around ten people at the party. Aly only knew Dheeraj, and another guy from his building who lived on the 16th floor. They met sometimes in the gym.

He had a pint of beer and watched people as he always did. One guy played the guitar and sang songs. Occassionally another girl joined him. He went to the balcony to smoke. Ginnie was there.

'Hi again.'

'Hi Ali Raza.'

'So Ginnie, where do you work?'

'I have started a small business.'

'Really? What do you sell?'

'Hand made fridge magnets.'

'You make them?'

'Yes, customise them too.'

'Very interesting' 

'And you?'

'I work at Wipro.'

She was quiet at first, looking at the building on the opposite side of the street.

'Hmm. So Aly, can I ask you something?'

'Sure.'

'If you had a choice to buy a house on the ground floor or the top floor, where would you buy it?'

'Top floor obviously.'

'Why?'

'I would love to stay high up, away from all the noise and pollution. As if I were alone in a tower. Peaceful and quiet.  How about you?'

'I would stay in the middle.'

'Why?'

'That way I would have the best of both worlds. If the lift wasn't working, I wouldn't have to climb too many floors. And I would still be clear from the noise and pollution.'

'Interesting. Why did you ask that question?'

'It means we are both dreamers, also not big risk takers. More like idealists who can't act upon anything. Though you seem less interested in people than I do.'

'Yeah, most of the times, people bore me. Also, the idealist part is bang on. I can act upon something. Also, I can take risks. I only need to be challenged.'

'Oh, is it? So you're the types who goes after something he can't get?'

'Always. I don't give up. If I want something, I will pursue it till I get it.'

'So, what do you want?'

He glanced at her and caught a hint of the side boob again.

'Nah, I rather not say. It would be inappropriate.'

'Nothing is inappropriate. I know what you're thinking.'

'Tell me Ginnie, what's with this top? I'm not an old fashioned judgemental prick, but you do know that a lot can be seen.'

She didn't get angry.

'Of course I know.'

'So you want the world to want them but not have them?'

'They are not for the world to have. They are mine.'

''So why show them? I'm just trying to understand. Nothing else.

'I want to be admired of course. I want you to look at them and get turned on, so that I feel powerful. That's all. Is there anything wrong in that?'

'No, there's nothing wrong in that. It's the same as me buying a Harley and driving around at full speed because it makes me feel powerful. There are different kinds of power. Money, clout, sex, beauty, they are all forms of power. What's your poison is also your antidote.'

'Thank you for understanding.'

'No problem. Your power is quite something by the way.' He looked at her shyly.

She took his hand and kept it on the side of her boobs. Aly was surprised and held it there for a while. He felt the warmth of her underarms and the fleshy softness of the weight he was supposed to carry. He didn't really know what to do. Finally he gathered the courage to speak.

'May I?' he asked politely.

She nodded. 'Think of it as a challenge.'

She went to the bathroom and he followed. He undid the top from the delicate thread tied at her neck. Her breasts were more beautiful that they appeared from the side. They weren't round, but rather like pears, perky and bold. Her nipples, small and hard, as if they were tamarind candies, making the saliva drool in your mouth as you undid the wrapper. 

He held them in his hands and greedily sucked on, occassionally using his teeth to pull at them, only to hear her moan.

When he finally made it to her thighs, he was in a trance. This is where it all began and ended. The journey, the stay and the farewell. 

'Are you always this wet?' he asked as his fingers struggled to find a grip. He was like a mountaineer trying to make his way up, finding the right place to hold on to. Everything was like moss, the waterfall and the river, the slipping and the manouvering.

'Always,' her voice coming from the top of the hill.

He made his way through the darkness, fingers making a recce, his mouth thirsty and drenched, and finally all of him. He was on a boat and the river turned and threw him over, the currents pushing him under and the gasping for breath, as if, as if it would take him to a hidden land. 

He remembered an Enid Blyton book he read as a kid. There were no robbers here. The flowing river bobbed up and down. At times it was quiet and gentle, then it became an angry snake, swirling round and round. He was Sindbadh, picked up by the giant bird and raised into the air. Till finally, he was flung down with a thud. Onto a sandy cove where the river stopped to become a lake. 

The sun was out and birds sang, buzzing in his ear. He held Ginnie and smelt her hair. They were lying on the bathroom floor. But he wasn't cold.

She turned to the other side. He saw her behind, and stared at it. It was huge and unapologetic, like the beginning of civilization. The early caveman gathering berries under a tree.

'Oh damn. Not again' he whispered.

Ginnie turned her face to him. Then turned it away and continued laying on her side. He didn't read too much into it. He was ready for the challenge.