Chapter 3 - Akshata and Vaishnavi
Akshata knew Sundar wouldn't have anything normal to say; it was too late in the night to message inquiring about her health. But she did find it super weird that he had gotten straight to the point. She had taken the WhatsApp message from Sundar straight to Vaishnavi, who was the only roommate with whom she had previously shared Sundar's abnormal fantasies. Akshata had also shared with Vaishnavi that she nurtured a soft spot for Sundar at that time. That was nearly 3 months ago.
A part of her still fancied Sundar and wanted to find out if her and him would work out. Even though she was 8 years younger to him, Akshata was confident in her personality and sexuality to keep the relationship balanced, but the guy had been in a committed relationship when she was at GD Tech and he had neither made a move on her nor seemed in any way interested. And now that he had made a move, she was sure his idea of a relationship with her was very dissimilar to what she had in mind. Having said that, there was no denying that her deep dive into the world of BDSM and power exchange had left her wet and excited. So, a part of her wanted to experience having a man completely under her control too - the part of her that wanted to get even for all the harassment she had had to face from males ever since she hit puberty. But this was Sundar; would she be able to be as cruel as those women she had seen in those videos on sadomasochism? These feelings and a hundred more were flying through her mind as she sat looking at Sundar's words, "Akshata, would it be okay if I took care of you for the next three months?"
Vaishnavi, who was seated beside her and looking at her with mild concern, spoke, "Akshu, what's the matter? Tell me, yaar."
19-year-old Akshata shared all of her feelings with the 25-year-old Vaishnavi and looked at the older girl with trepidation, sensing, perhaps, that her feelings were all misplaced and Vaishnavi was going to shoot them all down and ask her to block Sundar on WhatsApp and be done with it.
It was therefore that Akshata was surprised when Vaishnavi simply asked her, "Do you trust him?"
"Of course, Vaish, I do. He was a thorough gentleman at GD Tech."
Vaishnavi considered this for a while and then asked, "Question 2: How much money does he make?"
Akshata did not like the sound of this question and nor did she particularly enjoy the twinkle in Vaishnavi's eyes as she asked this. "He told me he made 7 lakhs per annum, which is around sixty thousand a month. Why do you ask? What has that got to do with anything?" If Akshata had not enjoyed the question or the twinkle in Vaishnavi's eyes, she liked the sudden glow on Vaishnavi's face least of all.
"That, Akshu, has got everything to do with everything. He may not be rich exactly, but how many others do you know that make so much money?" Saying this, Vaishnavi got even closer to Akshata on the bed and her voice reduced in octaves till she was almost whispering.
Vaishnavi spoke for a good 20 minutes. She knew all the right things to say. The reluctant Akshata that received Sundar's proposal at 12:33 AM was not the Akshata that emerged at 1 AM after their chat. All of Akshata's fears had been allayed by the more experienced Vaishnavi. She had manipulated Akshata's longing for Sundar's affections into what she felt would turn into a mutually beneficial relationship for all involved, except Sundar of course. In conclusion, Vaishnavi asked Akshata to wait till the morning of the next day before replying. What was more, Vaishnavi even gave her the exact text of the WhatsApp reply to send to Sundar. It went like this: "Sundar, use just one sentence and tell me what exactly do you mean by 'taking care of me'. Reply in 2 minutes or this thing stops right here and I block you."
With Vaishnavi by her side, Akshata felt safe and happy to go ahead with this. It was going to be once-in-a-lifetime experience for sure, but she was ready for it. Hugging Vaishnavi tightly, she got up off the bed. Mobile phone in hand, Akshata headed straight to the washroom. After about 20 minutes inside, she heard a soft knock and a badly suppressed giggle from the door.
"Hurry up, Akshu. We have just the one washroom, you know..." It was Vaishnavi, and Akshata could have sworn there was an edge to her voice that she had heard only on those rare occasions when Vaishnavi and her had gotten intimate...
-
At 10 AM the next day, Akshata sent the reply Vaishnavi had drafted to Sundar. She was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply within 30 seconds. Sundar had simply sent a link. Akshata eagerly forwarded the link to Vaishnavi and found a quiet spot at her college campus to open the link in some privacy. Five minutes later, she was reading the interview of a professional dominatrix in UK who had been introduced to the world of female domination while she was at University. This dominatrix had been living in a paying-guest system with other girls and a senior who owned a "home slave". This 30s-something Asian man cleaned their rooms, did their homework, and paid their rent in exchange for being whipped on the ass with a mobile charger and occasional verbal abuse, which he enjoyed. The lady went on into details of how this system allowed the roommates to enjoy college to the fullest and never worry about finances or homework. The home slave even bought these girls gifts from time to time, whatever they demanded. When the senior finished her program and left University, the other girls quickly replaced the home slave with another 30s-something Asian.
Akshata read through the piece again and slowly came to appreciate Vaishnavi's cunning. She had accurately foreseen that Sundar would have something like this on his mind. Just like the 30s-something Asian man, Sundar had had enough of vanilla relationships and wanted to chase his true nature, that of being a subservient to a powerful woman or women. Akshata wondered whether Vaishnavi had also calculated that Sundar would remember about the other girls Akshata lived with and involve them in the 'taking care' bit. She wondered whether Vaishnavi had expected Sundar to directly indicate he was ready to serve all 5 girls or Vaishnavi had planned to gradually get him to "take care" of them all financially. This explained why Vaishnavi had positively glowed when Akshata told her about Sundar's monthly take-home.
-
Akshata and Vaishnavi arrived at the Cafe Coffee Day outlet at 1:30 PM, 30 minutes before Akshata had asked Sundar to meet her there. It was a Friday, three day after Sundar has sent Akshata the link explaining what he meant when he said "taking care of her". Vaishnavi had told Akshata to reply only after a good 48 hours had passed and ask him to meet her at a busy location. She had also asked Akshata to make sure he had to come during office hours. She said she wanted to check how serious he was, and Akshata had agreed, albeit reluctantly. When Akshata asked Vaishnavi why she wanted her to wait 48 hours before replying to Sundar, she had looked at Akshata as if the reason was so obvious.
"To inform the other girls and convince them about this arrangement, dummy!" Vaishnavi said. "This only works if all of us are on the same page. But, don't worry, I'll talk to them all. The key is how it is presented to them. I have a plan, though," she ended with a wink. Vaishnavi had gone to work after that; Akshata had rarely seen such energy in her. Apparently, the link that Sundar had sent was perfectly to her liking.
After three days of intense and sometimes heated conversations in the kitchen, the hall, both the bedrooms, and even the washroom, not to mention day and night discussions and query-solving sessions on their mutually shared WhatsApp group, Vaishnavi emerged victorious.
The very evening that Sundar had sent the link, Vaishnavi had called an all-five meeting and laid the idea of Sundar and his proposal on the table to all the roommates. That very evening, Namrata, who was always up for a new experience, was convinced this was a great thing to try for 3 months. She just asked to be shown Sundar's photo, nodded her approval of his physical appearance, said "I'm in if he does the vessels every day and buys us a washing machine," and went back to reading her novel.