=== THE TEXTING ===
Maya is sitting on her comfortable couch in her swanky apartment. She'd taken a leave from work. Yet, she can't stop thinking about work - that's all she's done all her life. She'd been the stereotypical good Indian girl, focusing on grades and then a career and family. She'd surpassed her peers but something was missing.
Maya's eyes floated over to the degrees & quiz prizes and yet, all she sees are years gone by. The highlight of her life in her twenties was kissing a stranger at a party. She didn't do those things back then because she was a good girl, and good girls don't do that. Then with marriage any sort of thought of fun and excitement was pushed away for decades on end until finally the kids grew old enough to leave home and husband grew bored enough to ask for a divorce. That was actually pretty rare in Indian families, it was more customary to just continue living in misery until death, but new times breed new attitudes. That and being immigrants in a Western nation, made divorce more palatable.
These thoughts milled around her mind for a while, Maya was eager to silence her mind and try to do some work, but she resisted the temptation to open her work laptop. Instead she went through her phone. Same boilerplate Instagram stuff, she sighed as she scrolled through mindlessly for a few moments. She was almost ready to throw the phone away when she remembered about this new app she's on. Tinder.
She had overheard an intern talk about it, and made a profile. It felt weird and wrong, she'd installed and deleted it multiple times, but drive close to the edge enough times and you're bound to slip off once. She'd bit the bullet and finally made a profile.
It wasn't anything racy, just some pictures in work clothes, skirts and a top with stockings. She was a professional afterall, a gym selfie and a dress which showed a bit of her ample bosom - something she thought was risqué.
In the past two weeks she had talked to a couple men, or boys really. Didn't matter how young or old, they all seemed the same to her. This morning however, she had finally come across a profile which made her stop & consider.
"Hmm, he looks...". The thought trailed off, but he looked like the boys back in college. The ones she'd oogle at in the library when she pretended to be studying. She swiped right, but she had no hopes - those kinds of men certainly don't go for a forty something brown lady, who's certainly not all that anymore.
Opening the app now, Maya was pleasantly surprised when the man with the remarkable profile had actually messaged her.
The message Jim had sent was a typical one that he'd used a few times before. "Looking for a reason to delete this app. Are you her?" A combination of cheesy and a bit tongue-in-cheek.
Maya looked puzzled as she read the message. What does this mean, does he want to ask me out? After staring at the screen for some time, all Maya could muster was "I don't know, am I?"
Jim's phone buzzed in his pocket, he stopped in his tracks, pulling it out to read the message from a girl called Maya on Tinder. He'd sent quite a few messages this morning so he had to remind himself which one of his matches she was. The moment Jim tapped away from his profile, the screen showed the profile of the girl, or actually, woman. The number starting with 4 next to her name had Jim tilting his head to the side, taking just a second to recall the reason why he'd swiped right on a woman in her 40s. To be honest, there were two of them.
You couldn't make out much given her work attire, but the gym pics and one with a bit of cleavage showing let him know that this woman wasn't like the college floozies he was used to who could barely claim a C cup. If he was honest, it wasn't just her bust which was unlike any he'd ever seen or felt, but rather everything about her. You go through enough lithe college floozies and suddenly you start to crave some variety. He realized after a while that this woman's pics had him frozen in the middle of the campus quad, so he put his phone away and resumed his walk, yet she was still on his mind.
As he walked to his dorm room, he was split about messaging this woman or not. There was a non-zero chance she was actually married and looking for some fun, the type of fun that could see him getting chased off with a cricket bat by an irate spouse. With that thought in mind, Jim pulled out his phone, went to the chat and started to type.
"So kind of your husband to help with your Tinder profile pics. If that's not #relationshipgoals then I don't know what is."
Perhaps he was being unfair, perhaps there was no hubby in the scene, but either way that message perfectly conveyed Jim's interest, as well as trepidation.
Maya was frozen for a good minute before she realized the only thing heaving was her breath...and her bosom. Why did she reply to that text? This is not something girls like her...women like her did! Why would a man like him want anything to do with her? He probably lived in the gym. Maya only started going like a year ago because she's well...old? Nah, She's oldish. He probably smiled and moved around with ease in the gym, while she awkwardly stumbled around lost. That sports bra had been a mistake!
As her thoughts wandered off, her phone buzzed again. That was so Maya, alone in her home & yet the phone was on silent. She read the message, Husband? What did he....? She shook her head, this was a mistake and set the phone away. But she couldn't get it out of her mind.
"Hey I deserve some credit too - I did all the posing myself!"
Sent.
Mayas head fell with...shame? Regret? The feeling of being naughty? Her dark hair across her shoulders, dark glasses perched up on her nose. Her small shoulders contracted with tension, as she stretched in her black sports bra & legs stretched in her pink yoga pants. She decided to get a glass of water, planting her feet clad in white socks on the cold, cold ground. All these years, and London was still so damn cold & chilly.
As he put his phone down, Jim came back down to the real world. All of this sleeping around was fun, he loved it, but just like the end of high school he'd started to get a bit bored of it. He recalled the girl he'd dated for almost 6 months before he came for college. They thought they could make long-distance work, but they couldn't and frankly the way she so quickly moved on, did hurt him. It had been an incentive for Jim to not care so much, but lately he'd been craving something different. Something that involved commitment?
That's when he got a message, looking down to notice her name first. "Maya..." it rolled off his lips so easily, as if it was a sign of things to come. Her message provoked a smirk from the young man. She certainly did have a sense of humor. 'She's married, leave her be.' he thought.
Jim tried to imagine an angry Indian man with a big mustache chasing after him, hoping that might dissuade him from picking up his phone again, but before he knew it, he was back on the chat screen. He was inclined to think that perhaps she was joking.
"I'd invite you for a coffee, but I'm not sure who pays in that case. On the one hand I am a gentleman, on the other...I'm just a 20 something year old broke student." With these excuses he was hoping she might be the sensible one and call things off because he felt a draw that was a bit too strong to resist.
Maya poured herself a tall drink of water and sat herself down on the chair by the dining table. As her phone buzzed again, she couldn't wait to see the message - a childlike enthusiasm swept across her.
She read the message. She knew what he meant. Did she want to meet him?
It all sounded too good to be true. He was the guy she had really, really wanted to date back in Uni but never got around to. Did she deserve a second chance? She decided she did, after all those long years. She deserved it & some more.
"I have a coffee machine in my apartment."
Maya didn't know if this is something she was ready for. Inviting a stranger over? This wasn't her style, or even remotely something she did. In the last eight months that she'd been living alone, only two men had finally gotten around to her house, and only one of them she'd kissed. And that was after weeks of dinners and dates and discussions. Every step was a roller coaster drop for her.
Maya walked to her bedroom and combed her hair. She looked at herself in the mirror, the brown complexion, the dark hair, the tiny gold necklace around her soft brown neck. She clutched her comb harder and started to go through hair faster. What. Was. She. Thinking?!
What if he said yes? What if he really came over? What if he, what if he wanted things? Maya couldn't compete with those young women, not now & not when she had been young.
Jim had resolved to change things. He wasn't happy anymore with the carefree fuckboy lifestyle. He didn't think he'd be ready to go for something a bit more serious, but perhaps that's the change he needs right now. There was this girl, from one of his classes, Victoria. He'd barely spoken to her until a few days ago, but there was something about her. It had taken him asking her out almost 4 times until she finally said yes. As he arrived at his dorm, the young man tossed his bag on the floor, collapsing onto his futon. That's when he got a message reply from Maya.
It was a simple and direct reply to his 'dilemma'. Also it was an invitation into her home, with an implication of what might happen once there. On the one hand Jim was excited, on the other the pace, the uncertainty over her hubby...he wasn't sure, but he couldn't walk away so easily either.
"That's very kind, but I have a rule to always meet in public for the first time. That's how I've avoided getting kidnapped." he typed and sent that, a small chuckle escaping from his lips.
"Would you do me a favour? Would you take a pic for me, holding two fingers up? There are an awful lot of catfishes on Tinder."
Right, okay that was done. Victoria, he had to set something up with Victoria. This distraction over Tinder simply wasn't right.
Maya played with her golden necklace for a while, until she realized some time had elapsed since she had sent the message. Did he not reply? Where was her phone? Damn.
She walked back to the dining table and checked her phone. No reply. Huh.
