Trupti's "apartment" turns out to be the basement of a half-empty building by the Hudson river. In fact we have to go in through the back entrance. Only two small bulbs come on when Trupti flips the switch. And the place looks like a complete mess, like no one has lived there in ages. It reminds me of one of the properties my company bought during the real estate crash that I had to do some assessment work for. For all I know, it might be one of those properties.
"I know it looks a bit run down." Trupti says, leading me into it. "but it's functional."
"Are you sure you're legally allowed to be here?" I ask cautiously.
"Stop worrying about the law. I live here. That should be good enough. Squatting on someone else's property is what this country was built on."
She leads me to a small bedroom with a queen sized bed. It has a dirty mattress with no bed sheet.
"This is where we sleep I guess." Trupti shrugs and says. "You can put your luggage wherever you want."
She takes off her coat and flings it in one direction, standing naked in front of me. I sit down uncomfortably on the bed. She lays down next to me.
"Where can I change?" I tentatively ask.
"You can change right here. I am naked, aren't I? Besides, I have already seen those D-cup tits." Trupti says, laughing.
"No, I'd just..."
"Okay fine. Just change in the next room."
I go into the next room with my night clothes and flip the light switch on. It stays dark. I sigh and get out of my coat and clothes. I am standing there naked, about to reach for my jammies, when I feel the touch of a finger, precisely on my clit.
"What the hell...Trupti?" I yell, trying to slap the hand away but it stays there.
"Shhh... you know you need this."
Trupti says and her fingers start playing with my clit expertly, making me go weak in my knees. I do need this.
"Please, don't..." I feebly say in protest, but she has found the spot so well, I slump to the floor and in her arms. "why...are you...doing...this?" I say between the bursts of pleasure her fingers were sending through my body.
"Because you need it." Trupti whispers in response.
Seated on the floor, my legs part as she continues to finger me, sending tidal waves of pleasure surging through my entire being. And just as I am getting used to the feel of her fingers, I feel something poke against my pussy lips. Even in the darkness, when I look down, I can make out the outline of a dildo being inserted into my pussy.
"Ahhhh...Truptiiiiiiiii" I shriek in please as she forces the dildo deep into my pussy even as her fingers kept playing with my clit. My body is swept up in a burst of pleasure it has never known.
---
Monday. I wake up with a start. Naked. On the dirty bed with no sheets. It takes me a few moments to register where exactly I am. I reach over with my hand, but the other side of the bed is empty. Empty except for a note that reads -
"Sorry, had to run out for some work. Seeya tonight.
xoxo
Trupti"
I check the time on my cellphone. Ten a.m.! I am two hours late for work! I run to the bathroom, and take a shower standing in the spotted and mildewed tub. I come out, get dressed. Then consider dropping my luggage home. The day guard must have the key. But I look at the time again and decide I'll come back for it later.
I run out the door a few minutes later, on my way to work.
---
Monday night. A little after 9 p.m. I walk out of my office building, and see Trupti standing there. She is wearing a halter top with a short wrap around skirt. Looking gorgeous as always. And with a wide smile on her face.
"Trupti, what're you doing here?" I ask.
"Do you always work this late?" she asks.
"No, sometimes."
"Your boss was a bitch about you coming in late?"
"Yes."
"Any words of praise for getting the account?"
"No."
"Come with me. We're going to get drunk."
"I don't really drink, Trupti."
"Just come with me." she says, and hails a cab.
--
An hour later. Central Park. When Trupti said we're going to get drunk, I thought she'd take me to a bar like yesterday. Instead, she stops by a liquor store, gets a big bottle of schnapps, and takes me to the northern end of the park. Where we sit, in the darkness slightly illuminated only by the bright lights of the surrounding buildings, and drink out of the bottle concealed in a brown paper bag. Well, she does most of the drinking. I take only the occasional polite sip.
"Is this really the life you want? Getting pushed around, living alone in a dingy apartment, getting no sex?"
"Sex is overrated." I slur. Even with the few sips, my body, not used to alcohol, is feeling its effects.
"Really? Sex is overrated? The way you were shrieking last night when I was..."
"Trupti!" I yell, and she starts laughing. "Please don't remind me of that."
"Why not?"
"I am not a lesbian." I say, lowering my voice although there is no one around.
"Lesbian?" Trupti says and starts laughing again. "You think what happened last night made you a lesbian?"
"Didn't it?"
"If getting your clit fingered, and having a dildo up your cunt makes you lesbian, then all women are lesbian." Trupti says.
I stay silent, a little surprised at how effortlessly she uses dirty words. Trupti passes me the bottle. I take a big swig.
"We Indian women have been brought up to hate fun. Stay away from pleasing ourselves in any way. Live by the rules others set. Usually men. First fathers and then husbands. And we are just supposed to toe the line."
"Things are changing." I say.
"For better or for worse? Your mom went from living in her parents' house to marrying your dad at...what age?"
"Twenty one."
"Twenty one. So at twenty one, she was getting regular sex. Here you are, considerably older than she was, and how's your sex life?"
I say nothing.
"I am not asking you to get married. I am just asking you to live. There's more to life than making lots of money and collecting Pottery Pen crap. You are in New York. The greatest city in the world. The most exciting city in the world. This isn't Delhi or Bombay where you'll get castigated as a harlot. This is the city of Sex and the City."
"So that's what I should do? Just sleep around?"
Trupti laughs out loud.
"There's sleeping around and there's sleeping around. I am not asking you to be one of those women with low self-esteem who sleep with men just to feel appreciated. I am asking you to recognize your own needs, and fulfill them while recognizing the power you wield."
"What power, Trupti?" I ask.
Two young men, barely out of their teens are walking by. Trupti smiles at me and calls out to them.
"Excuse me. Excuse me for a moment."
They stop and come close to us.
"Hi. How much would you gentlemen pay to get a look at these tits?" Trupti points at my chest and I take a deep breath in shock.
"Hmmm...they look big. What size are they?" one of them calmly asks.
"36D." Trupti says.
"Umm... fifty bucks?"
"Not bad. But we're not interested in money." Trupti says. "Here's the deal. You two are friends, right?"
"Yeah." the other one answers.
"Close friends? Best friends?"
The guys nod.
"You two fight. Right here in front of us. And I am talking about a real, hardcore fight, where the guy who gets beaten needs help walking. You two fight like that. And whoever wins, not only get to see the boobs, but also gets a topless blowjob."
"Are you serious?" One of the guys says.
"Totally and completely serious."
"Hold on." the other guy, the smaller of the two says. "I ain't gonna fight you just to get a blowjob from a Central Park whore."
"It's up to you. You can walk away, and we'll find the next two guys who come along."
"Fine, we'll just..." he starts speaking but is knocked off his feet by the other guy. "Sean, what the fuck, man?"
He starts fighting back. And pretty soon the two of them are trading blows, right there in front of us.
I have just been staring dumbstruck this whole while. I keep staring at the two men fighting each other for a look at my boobs. And of course a blowjob.
"Trupti, I am not doing any of that."
Trupti doesn't say anything. Just keeps watching the men fight. Despite one of them being bigger than the other, the fight is even. They fight brutally for a good five minutes or so, neither of them dominating the other one, when.
"What's going on here?"
Two policemen walk up from the bushes. Each of them grabs one of the fighting guys and separates them. Trupti immediately flings the schnapps bottle away into the bushes.
"Are they bothering you, ma'am?" one of the cops asks me.
"No." I quietly say.
"Come along." the cops grab the two guys and drag them away. "Be careful of such punks. And go home!" One of the cops says.
A few seconds later, it's just Trupti and me sitting there.
"What the hell was that, Trupti?" I ask, aghast.
"That's the power you hold. The power to make two men fight like mortal enemies. For what? A promise to take a look at two big bags of fat hanging off your chest. Imagine what more you could do. That's the power you are letting simply rot." Trupti says.
"What's the point of making someone fight?" I ask.
"It's just an example. Anyway, let's get going. You don't wanna be late for work again tomorrow."
---
Half an hour later, I am at Trupti's place again. I did not have time to get the keys from the day guard. So I am locked out of my apartment again.
I am sitting in what serves as the living room plus kitchen, looking at a file. Trupti is taking a shower. That's when my cellphone rings. It's an unknown number, but it's 212, so has to be from New York.
"Hello." I answer.
"Hi. Malay here." a cheerful voice says.
"What do you want?"
"Just wanted to call up and ask you... you wanna meet for a drink?"
