‘My lovey, how lovely!’ said Sandhya. ‘How I wish I were in your place. Well, it didn’t take me long to realize that you loved each other, and won’t be able to resist your urge for long. When I sensed that you’re getting closer, I looked the other way, to let you experience the thrills of love in the making.’

‘Oh,’ Roopa kissed her, ‘you’re an angel, really.’

‘But my love mad,’ said Sandhya patting Roopa’s head, ‘why hide from me, even though I prompted you often enough? Don’t you recall the ‘blank cheque’ episode and that ‘take it easy’ gesture?’

‘How could I’ve missed those and more,’ said Roopa scratching her head. ‘But I couldn’t dare, for the fear of losing your love as well as his. But at the time of Saroja’s barasala, as you were forthright, I wanted to confess to you. But he only stopped me, fearing that a premature disclosure would hurt you no end. He felt that we should wait till you get used to the idea of our affair to make it easy for you.’

‘Oh how handsome,’ said Sandhya apparently pleased.

‘Reward him,’ said Roopa, winking at Sandhya, ‘in threesome.’

Well before Ranga Reddy came as promised, fantasizing the presence of their man, the mates took their lesbian love to the frontiers of ecstatic bliss.

In time, as they began to wait for Ranga Reddy to come, Sandhya remembered about Sathyam.

‘How I totally forgot about him!’ said Roopa.

‘In the triangular moment of our life,’ Sandhya whispered into Roopa’s ear mirthfully, ‘where’s the corner left for any?’

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‘But our man wants me to accommodate my man in my corner,’ said Roopa.

‘Really,’ said Sandhya in delight, ‘Oh, what a man we have for us, lovey. Oh, how different he is from all other men. Won’t a paramour tend to wean the wife away from her man? Now, I see why Sathyam is so happy.’

‘Oh darling,’ said Roopa, ‘that’s why I don’t suffer any qualms about deceiving Sathyam, as it’s my affair with Raja that enables me to carry some love into his life.’

‘Oh, Roopa, how strange are your twin affairs!’ said Sandhya in contemplation, ‘While our affair lifts my soul, your liaison with my man, enables your man breathe easy.’

When Ranga Reddy arrived at length, not finding Sathyam at home, they left a message for him with Lalitha, and set out to see their man in the new dawn of their love life. In time, when they reached the Osmania General Hospital, they found Raja Rao, still unconscious.