What Lies Beneath...?

“What??”

She squeaked with her voice sounding a wee bit more shrilly than she had wanted it to be.

When he didn’t respond and continued to stare at her fingers deftly curling the ends of her long hair to form cute looking short ringlets and by then she had done with a half-a-dozen tufts of hair shaping up into ringlets bouncing on her chest already.

Noticing his long gaze, she stopped curling up the ends of hair and looked at him and asked “Heyyyyyyyyyyyy, what are you staring at????”

No response.

She moved, got-up to a sitting position from the floor, with her long hair brushing his
out-stretched hand and the ringlets she just created getting caressed while running through his fingers.

He continued his unperturbed gaze at the cute ringlets that bounced back to shape after his touch and rested neatly against her white breasts.

A little annoyed she pushed his left hand away that was resting on his thighs, on a one-sided lie-down posture he was in. That had the desired effect and he looked up at her and said,

“How do you do that?”

Puzzled she asked “Do what? Pushing your hand down? ”

“No, That…” he said pointing to one of those ringlets that was dancing right in between her forearms which formed an inverted “V” shape as she had leaned forward to cup her palms and rest her sharp, pointed chin of her oval face in them.

She bent down slightly to see what exactly he was pointing to and still unbelievingly picked up the tufts of her curly hair and asked doubtfully “This one?”

And he nodded.

“Oh, I er.. don’t know.. I just have been used to doing it since childhood, I like it curled up like that…I thought it looked good on me… don’t you think so?”

He replied “Ya, I sure do think so, it is good, I was just wondering at the loveliness of those beautiful curls at the end of your long hair which is the first thing that I liked in you!”

She blushed for less than few seconds, and asked “oh yeah?”

He noticed her short blush and smiled at her admiringly and said “Yeah, Yeah!”

She rolled over and rested her head on his waistline and started curling the ends of hair at where she had left them when she got up from the floor to grab his attention a while back.

This time he offered “Can I try that once, if you don’t mind?”

She laughed…. “Whoaaaaaaaa…… what???”

He flustered and asked again “I asked, if I can try curling-up your hair like what you are doing right now?”

She laughed once again but stopped short when she noticed that, he didn’t get what was going on.

So with both her hands put-up in front of her in a push-out gesture, she controlled herself from laughing again and said “okay, okay…..I am not going to laugh this time, I promise…..1,2,3….there you go… no more giggle-pots”

“So, Mr.X since when did you start getting so formal with me, like “Mind if I use your loo?” “I beg your pardon” “Could you please come again” “May I have a cup of coffee” bla bla bla…….. so you are playing Mr.Formal today eh?”

“Well, my wife has this strange aversion, I do not exactly know the root cause of it, cos of which she wouldn’t let me touch her hair and it always stays a short pony tied behind, all the time….um.. And so I thought its manners to ask before I did something that displeases a lady….I wouldn’t want to see the lady I like to be unhappy ”

“Well, I am not your wife!” said she.

“Ya.. Um.. I know that… and um.. I’m sorry” said he.

There was suddenly an unbearable silence that invaded the space between both.

He was the first to break it.

“So, I was saying that I was quite fascinated by your long hair, which is the first thing I like in my woman or for that matter any woman”

She raised a brow and tilted her head to sideways and looked at him “oh wait, now should I get offended for the usage of “any woman” that quickly followed your “my woman”? ”

Without waiting for him to answer she bounced off with one more question

“So, What am I? “Your woman” or “Any woman”? ”

Again without waiting for his answer she winked at him and said “tough question eh?”

Now he grabbed her by her arms and pulled her up so he could face her with their eyes at level and said,

“Hold it lady, will ya?.... One question at a time… I am not in my teens; I am more than a decade past that age, so I can’t possibly go slam-bam like you!”

He lifted her chin and held her face in his hands and said…. “Here are the answers to your rapid-fire questions ma’am, One - you shouldn’t get offended for the usage of “any woman” coz it was an objective reference. Two - although I cannot claim rights for you being my woman totally, like how a cover claims its association with a book from the first to the last page, I would wish and love you to be my woman any-day excepting this incarnation and Thirdly, I don’t think it was a tough question cos, there I just answered it!”

“Ahhhh, that wasn’t very neat, and a tad bit clichéd too!” She remarked.

“Umm-Hmm” he sang thoughtfully…. “So, what now lady? Crucifixion follows?

She looked deep into his eyes and paused….

He looked back at her and hummed “I’m waiting……waiting…waitin…wait…”

She let out a short laugh and said “Well, Well. All bets are off. So, what happens when lust and desire collide with marriage and power?”

He almost instantly replied “Creates a Male-Prostitute”.

She was shocked and asked unbelievably “A what?”

“Oh.. I didn’t know you had a hearing ailment… I said my best bet for the outcome of such a situation is the creation or formation of a “Male Prostitute”… am I loud, sound and clear enough now?”

She replied thoughtfully, I don’t why but I am reminded of this quote by Andre Malraux ---

“The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.”

Silence prevalied for a long time after that......