TEJRAN - U MIGHT BE A PLAYER BUT IM THE GAME

Chapter 6

Tejasswi cannot contain her excitement. She clutches the umbrella and enters his apartment. Today she’s pleased to note that the alarm doesn’t sound.

He’s here!

Last night in her narrow bed, she’d dreamed of him dark brown eyes, shining smile, and that expressive face—engrossed in his music as he played the piano. She’d woken breathless and full of desire. And the last time she’d seen him, he’d been kind enough to lend her his umbrella, and it had kept her dry on the way home and all day yesterday. She’d not received much kindness since she came to London, except from Mahek, of course, so his gesture meant that much more. Pulling off her boots and leaving the umbrella in the hall, she hurries through to the kitchen. She is excited to see him.

She stops on the threshold.

Oh, no!

A blond woman wearing nothing but a man’s shirt, his shirt, is standing in the kitchen making coffee. She looks up and gives teja a polite but warm smile. Teja recovers her capacity to move and walks through the kitchen toward the laundry room with her head bowed, in shock.

“Good morning,” the woman says. She looks as though she’s just climbed out of bed.

His bed?

“Good morning, missus,” teja mumbles as she walks past her. Once in the laundry room, she stands for a moment to process this crushing turn of events.

Who is this woman with big blue eyes?

Why is she wearing his shirt? A shirt teja had ironed for him only last week.

This woman is with him. She must be. Why else is she wandering around wearing his shirt? She must know him intimately.
Intimately.

Of course he has someone. Someone beautiful.

Like him.

Teja’s dreams lie in shards at her feet. Her face clouds as disappointment constricts her heart. Sighing, she removes her hat, gloves, and anorak and slips on her housecoat.

What did she expect? He will never be interested in her—she is just his cleaner. Why would he want her?

The small bubble of joy she’d felt this morning—the first in a long time—has burst. She puts on her sneakers and sets up the ironing board. Her earlier excitement is a distant memory as she’s forced to face reality. From the dryer she fishes out his clean laundry, transferring it into the ironing basket. This is her place. This is what she was raised to do: keep house and look after a man.

She can still admire him from afar as she’s done since she saw him naked on his bed. There is nothing to stop her from doing that.

Feeling discouraged, she exhales as she fills the iron with more water.

Teja stands in the doorway. A vision in blue.

Slowly she removes her scarf and lets her plait swing free.

Shake your hair out for me.

She smiles.

Come in. Lie with me. I want you.

But she turns, and she’s in my drawing room. Polishing the piano. Studying my score.

She’s wearing nothing but pink panties.

I reach over to touch her, but she disappears.

She’s standing in the hall. Eyes wide. Clutching a broom.

Naked.

She has long legs. I want them wrapped around my waist.

“I made you some coffee,” anusha whispers.