Upside down

Nina wakes up to a series of doorbell. Fiddling to find her specks and struggling to come out of her boyfriend’s sleepy but strong arms, she manages to get up to get the door. It is her maid, before time on a Saturday morning. Gazing her with hateful eyes she lets her in, and after declaring the menu for the day she plans to tuck herself back in bed for it’s going to be a long day.

Spring in this part of the country is not much different from summer but today is rather cloudy, and the air has a certain chill to it. Nina likes to put her heart into the tiniest of things. She plays with her boyfriend every morning, pecking him all over with tiny but passionate kisses; she likes spoiling him that way. But today was special for him. It was his gig night which meant that Nina had to look her best. She was all game to rule out the (over) dressed girls coming to the event tonight.

“These clouds could burst anytime now” exclaims the maid to which Abhay only manages to mutter “hmm”. He is a bit nervous, as usual, and is trying to come up with a new set to make people groove tonight. Well, he doesn’t mind even if his music is enjoyed pretentiously if not danced at fiercely. While he gets on with his music, Nina tries to strike most of the points from her checklist that includes (pointing out the most difficult ones) making the home look presentable and talking to her mom for half an hour amongst others.

Nina has booked the rest of her day with an hour’s workout followed by a long relaxing bath, and a waxing and haircut appointment. Abhay, however, has to leave early to set up his gear at the club and test the sound. He looks tempting in his all black t-shirt and denims which give Nina an imaginary glimpse of all the pretty girls trying to woo him in. Trust has never been an issue between them but for Nina this works like a source of excitement. They both come with a considerable experience of love and lust, and their relationship has grown fonder each day from the past 2 years. Where most people like to keep their past buried, Nina finds her pleasure in listening to Abhay’s naughty stories.

Tonight, Nina’s company would be her friend Risha. She is late and this gives Nina some more time to examine if her blue and black shoes are good to go with her blue and white dress. Those clouds finally burst. It’s a downpour but not wild enough to stop these girls from going out. They managed to tiptoe their way to the car without even a spot of rain or dirt on themselves. Clever girls. By the time they reach the venue, the mighty clouds had done their job and gone for good. To her surprise, the rain didn’t affect anyone in the city to stop them from unleashing their celebrative spirits. The club was quite full and Abhay looked like he had them all under his control. For most such nights, Nina lets her drinks do the talking and dancing.

While sipping her wine and moving to Abhay’s Godlike tunes, two girls (one quite pretty) block their view to get a better one themselves. Nina perks up at this, and finds pleasure in taking a step back and letting them have their fun. She didn’t know, until a few minutes later, that she herself was gaining popularity among a group of not-so-popular lads. Changing the spot felt like a good option and they did. Risha, feeling exhausted after just one drink, placed herself to a comfortable seat while Nina grooved cautiously now. With her glass almost empty.

“Why aren’t you dancing?” a voice hushed in her ear from behind. She turned to face a tall guy with an impressive stubble looking interestingly at her.
“That’s me dancing” she smiled turning him down politely.
Nina, in her twisted little mind, rewinds this conversation to see if there was a way of stretching it and turning it down a bit later. She looks at him again casually, reassuring her first instinct.

It is now a cuter face that walks to her with an ambitious smirk. “Can I buy you a drink?”
Straight from all the movies! She thinks. “Thanks, I just had one.”
“Well, let me buy you a second one then.” He insists.
“Ah, no. But thanks for asking.” She turns away and joins Risha who is in a deep thought. Eyeing her unusually serious mood, Nina shrugs away her intentions of throwing light on her recent encounters. They try to indulge in a hearty conversation over the second round of drinks but are interrupted by a rather cheerful group who seem to have been on a club hopping venture. Five boys, two girls - one dancing like crazy, other standing still. Nina couldn’t help but notice the latter, a lot. Black boots not moving an inch, dark denims, grey shirt, rimless glasses, perfect lips. Finally there was something that Nina was interested in. She wasn’t sure why but there was no rush. So she stared and spied. Specky’s friends tried hard to make her dance, one by one taking turns. She smiled to a few, ignoring their urge to loosen her up. Staring at her, all Nina could do was rehearse a simple question for the feeling was so new.

“So you obviously don’t dance; what do you do?” Nina makes a move on the girl.