Chapter 34: A Brief History of Anand, Veena and Omission
Veena remembered her Facebook conversations with Anand. She remembered the first time she had blushed after checking out Anand’s profile. She had found a picture of his from a trek where he was shirtless under a waterfall and the side of his shoulders that was visible seemed to be bouncing a solar flare off it. She had returned the favour of ‘liking’ stuff on his profile. A measly little like was just so innocent at that time. It felt right.
Seher had called it Victorian. “I prefer Orkut. Flirting on Orkut is like having a penis and masturbating all over their wall with scraps. Also, Orkut is more colourful than the bland Facebook!”
Despite being accused of being Victorian, Anand and Veena knew what they were secretly grinning about. All day long while sitting at their respective desks in their respective offices, him staring at his fifteen-inch company laptop screen and her at one corner of her nineteen-inch company Mac screen.
They had first met at her colleague’s husband’s party. The husband’s company was Anand’s company’s client at that time and Anand was the analyst on the job. Anand had thought she was beautiful and artistic, and she had thought he was cute and professional. She hadn’t really noticed Kartik that day. Kartik’s job at that party was to crush and mix the weed with tobacco and Anand would roll the joint. The boys weren’t were not big on hash around then or at least till Seher became a part of their lives.
In their first few dates, Anand and Veena spilled their guts out to each other — their relationships, their flings, and their one-sided romances. Anand realised he had never spoken so easily about anything ever, especially to a woman (because there was always Kartik). Anand and Veena’s first makeout session was in the car right before he dropped her off after their third date. The next time around, they were both hanging out at Anand’s after a date and Anand leaned in to kiss her. She refused. “Not unless you go shave first.” She didn’t want her face and breasts to feel sore from the stubble. (From that day on, Anand was always clean-shaven. Not that he had ever grown a full beard but till that day, he used to have a stubble at times. Just for context, Kartik was always clean-shaven and Anuj always had a stubble.)
Other things that ran through Veena’s mind as a part of this brief history included how Seher and her caught up on Grey’s Anatomy while Anand snored right next to them. This had happened after the two moved in together. Their decision to move in together was a totally different story in itself — a detour we might take later.
They had also had a weekend in Goa away from everyone they knew, to drown into a haze of alcohol, pot and sex. In the few weeks after they returned, Anand’s work bagged him a promotion and every design that Veena made got pre-booked even before the artisans made the jewellery.
Then there was the time Anand figured out Veena’s tell. This part of the brief history would make Veena grin with mischief. Whenever she was with Anand, every time that Veena didn’t exactly say what was on her mind, she pulled a glamcore porno move — that was the tell. The day Anand figured this out was his birthday.
Anand had asked Veena if she had planned any kind of a party and in response, she had wrapped him around her like a muscular shawl. “No.” Anand had wanted to bring in his birthday watching a movie, making a pile of pizza slice rims, while being tucked in bed in his pyjamas. But then after wrapping him around herself, she pressed herself against him a little more than just to feel warm. Anand tossed away the last pizza rim and decided to call her on it. He started nudging the increasingly intense cuddle towards actual sex. Under the pressure of putting out, Veena caved and blurted out how she had invited the gang over.
Kartik, as usual, was the first person to show up for Anand’s birthday at midnight. Anuj and Seher were soon to follow but they were in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, hence late because they were busy making out in the stainless steel-walled (the ceiling, the walls, everything) elevator. (Their excuses were as follows: “What? It was midnight! Nobody could have seen us!” and “This building has half its flats empty!” and the final confession: “Whenever we opened our eyes, we could see a reflection of us looking back at us.”)
They still ended up doing what Anand wanted though — eat pizzas and watch TV — except the entire gang had squeezed together on their bed.
