“Are you on the pill or what?” he asked tentatively.
“It didn’t happen that’s all.”
“Hope our aggregate improves,” he crooned into her ear.
“Am I not desperate to bear your child?” she said happily. “But for now think of the job on hand.”
“You cover the neighborhood and I’ll go round the town,” he said giving her his hand. “Is it okay?”
“Get me light blue lingerie for our first night in your flat,” she said coyly, “that is, after dinner at the Chandras. Well I forgot to tell you that we're invited as a couple.”
“Made for each other I suppose,” he said and added in undertone, “what about the made for you uppers and lowers?”
“Don’t forget to pick up some petticoats as well,” she said aloud after whispering in his ears.
That evening, dumping the purchases at his flat, they set out for dinner at the Honeycomb.
“You're an expert,” said Sathya watching her drive.
“Are you any less,” she said winking at him, “in handling the fair sex.”
“Don't you make much of it?” he said feeling flattered.
“Oh, how kind is God to us!” she said dreamily.
“Of the rarest kind, isn’t it?”
“How I felt like praying to God to get you back,” she said nostalgically. “But I didn’t dare after all that.”
“Assuming there is God,” he said philosophically, “He's not amenable to your prayers. I've come to realize that.”
“Have you become an atheist or what!” she said struck by the conviction of his tone.
“As I told you,” he began nostalgically, “I believed Kala was a mislaid jewel to be retrieved with my love, and understandably, I turned to God for help. And for over a year, though the deities differed, my prayer remained the same: oh, God make me the means of her happiness! And how fervently I used to pray! Believe me, my own fulfillment through marriage was never in my mind. Wonder how I could become so selfless in my endeavour! Why, the singularity of the appeal and the constancy of my prayer had to be seen to be believed! It was nothing short of a tapasya.”
“I can see from your face,” she said stopping the car by the roadside as her eyes welled up, “your capacity to love. Why I couldn’t see it then when I snubbed you? Maybe I've noticed that with my mind's eye, if not why did that look of yours come to solace me ever since?”
“Won’t we make up Prema!” he said wiping her tears.
“Now that God has willed it,” she said, “I know we will.”