The next morning as Raja Rao and Sandhya went to see Roopa, it was Janaki who received them as Roopa was having her bath then.
"Your in-laws speak well of you, and that goes in favor of any man. Not to speak of your wife, my daughter Roopa too sings praises of you, and that speaks for itself. Now that you're moving over to Hyderabad, we can relax about our Roopa," said Janaki to Raja Rao in welcome.
'I'm glad they would be together again; my wife has led only half a life in Delhi," he said smiling.
"Roopa says that you're going to stay nearby," said Janaki.
"I wonder why Roopa didn't look for a house of two portions," said Sandhya.
"They grew up glued together from their schooldays; may God bless them," said Janaki to him.
"Surely your blessings would stand them in good stead," said Raja Rao to Janaki.
"As the saying goes, you would live for hundred years," sighting Roopa coming out of her bath, exclaimed Sandhya.
"That interests me if you too live along with me," said Roopa, slyly looking at Raja Rao, as she proceeded into her room.
'Sandhya, let's show him the place," said Roopa, as she joining them soon.
"Why do you need me for that?" said Sandhya, engaged as she was with Janaki.
"Grace me in my parental home," said Roopa, leading him inside.
Once they entered her bedroom, she embraced him ardently, and he kissed her passionately.
"Luckily, tomorrow, morning, my parents would be attending some wedding for me to entertain their newest son-in-law, so come by ten," she whispered to him, as he released her lips.
"I'll come with loads of that," he crooned into her ear.
"Let's get going," said Sandhya, as the lovers reappeared in the main hall.
Soon the three of them got into the waiting Ambassador to make it to the Collector's bungalow. After a sumptuous lunch, that followed a lot of merriment, Sandhya closeted herself with Roopa, leaving Saroja to Raja Rao's care.
"You never looked sexier," said Roopa, having ardently kissed Sandhya.
"I'm glad both of you feel the same way about me, "said Sandhya.
'Your generosity makes me more indebted than ever," said Roopa hugging Sandhya.
"I've an axe to grind and you know that," said Sandhya taking Roopa's hand.
"Oh, my lovey," Roopa kissed Sandhya affectionately.
"How I wish we get fused into one," said Sandhya lovingly.
"How are we to see each other and gloat about us then?" said Roopa in jest.
"By making him a witness to our closeness, can't we gauge how it feels from his eyes," said Sandhya coyly to Roopa
"I'm afraid our joy is too good to last, just one misunderstanding would be the end of me," said Roopa thoughtfully.
"Given our bondage where's the scope for that?" said Sandhya making light of it all.
"Don't foreget that you're married now," said Roopa.
"I don't see Raja as a bother," said Sandhya assuredly
"But I'm no rakhi sister of him," Roopa said tentatively.
"But you're his friendly half," said Sandhya, cajoling Roopa in her arms.
"And that's my worry," said Sandhya cuddling Sandhya.
"Why, it should be a cause of hope," said Sandhya caressing Roopa.
'If I remember correctly, Napoleon said that man woman friendship leads to love," said Roopa tentatively.
"I've not only thought all about that but also noticed how you gloat over each other," said Sandhya, kissing Roopa. "I know women tend to be touchy when it comes to the other woman. But as ours is a lesbian case, the prospective other woman happens to be my own woman."
"Oh, lovey,' Roopa began crying.
"Why cry at the threshold of happiness?" said Sandhya, wiping Roopa's tears, "If you're unhappy, how can I be happy? It's for both of you to decide whether you would like to sail on a platonic boat or swim in the erotic current. Who knows, our constant jesting about sharing a man could have been the prompting of the premonition."
Roopa's eyes glistened, even as her lips reached for their counterparts that uttered those loving words.
"Wonder how you both bracket my life," said Sandhya kissing Roopa affectionately.
"Oh, lovey, you're angelic really!" said Roopa, sinking to Sandhya's feet.
"Aren't you my Venus," said Sandhya lifting Roopa into her embrace.
"What about our Raja?" said Roopa, carried away by that euphoric moment.
"Our Knight of Vigour, if you like," said Sandhya in all love for her man and mate.
"Oh how I've suffered craving for one, cried Roopa.
"You find out if he's the one," crooned Sandhya into Roopa's ear.
"Oh honey!" said Roopa, joining their lips.
"What happened with Prasad?" asked Sandhya at length.
"It's all over now, I've just escaped by the skin of my teeth," said Roopa, experiencing the sense of relief all again.
"I was worried to death as the idea of your affair with him scared me," said Sandhya reminiscently.
"I realized it's really my fault, so I can't blame him for signing it off calling me a frigid flirt," said Roopa reflectively.
"Well, my lovey is not for everyone's having," said Sandhya winking at Roopa.
"It feels nice that you've a lover for me in your mind," said Roopa winking back at Sandhya.
'It's up to you to woo him as I stand performance guarantee," said Sandhya pushing Roopa in the right direction.
"Oh, lovey, how sexy," said Roopa.
"You're welcome to voyeur to have the true picture," said Sandhya heartily.
"It's some way away anyway, but isn't the way he derived Saroja's name thrilling?" said Roopa, winking at Sandhya.
"Don't you think he's creative?' said Sandhya.
"Hope Saroja imbibes some of it," said Roopa reminiscently.
"How I wish she shapes up well," said Sandhya, as they went back to Saroja.
"Why not, with a craftsman of a man as father," said Roopa in admiration.
"Is it about me?" said Raja Rao, who overheard Roopa, as they reached him by then.
"Who else we talk about?" smiled Roopa.
'I feel flattered to interest the loveys," he said with a smile.
"Roopa he stole it," said Sandhya in jest.
'I better leave before you wish I had left, but isn't it too early to wish you good night," said Roopa in jest to him.
"You naughty," said Sandhya smacking Roopa's bottom.
Feeling elated, Roopa left the sprawling compound to get into a cycle rickshaw.
'She showed me the green light, the dear thing,' she thought in excitement. 'But won't she be hurt if she comes to know that we already jumped the signal? Oh, why didn't I wait a little longer? But then, didn't we make it rather providentially; could I've conceived a better way of bringing about that? What an exceptional time we have had! If I were in Sandhya's shoes, would I be as generous; surely, not as much as she is.'
That night, the thought that Sandhya more than reciprocates her love pleased Roopa no end, and as she dwelled upon their love triangle, she had a sneaking feeling that her lover could be craving her even more than his better half.
What with her self-worth enhanced by her own feelings, Roopa sank into deep sleep, such as which only a true fulfillment would occasion.
-----
Next morning, as Ramaiah goaded Janaki to get ready to attend the wedding of his colleague's daughter, pretending a headache, Roopa stayed put in bed.
"Why not I stay back," said Janaki in all concern.
"Don't make me feel guilty; I might even come for lunch. Who wants to miss a pellibhojanam?" said Roopa goading her parents to go.
Having seen her parents' back, Roopa waited for her paramour in contemplation,
'Surely it's the weird fate of illicit love to cohabit with lies. But what a paradox it is that a noble sentiment like love needs the prop of a base instinct for its survival! And it's as if the pleasures of a liaison act as intoxicants to help dampen the sense of guilt in a woman's heart!'
The thought of guilt made her feel odd about the rendezvous she had chosen for her sexcapade.
'Am I not violating the sanctity of my parental place?' she began to think. 'How would my father react if ever he comes to know of it? But then, isn't he guilty of brainwashing me into an untenable marriage? Given that, I'm more of Sathyam's wife than his daughter, am I not? Oh, how marriage alters even the fundamentals of a woman's life! Whatever, whether he likes it or not, he's bound to shroud my secret; who wants a scandal on his hands? So be it but I won't let these silly sentiments spoil my party with Raja dear.'
Though she breathed easier on the fatherly front, she continued to feel choked in the friendly arena. As her guilt of seducing her mate's man lingered on, in spite of the nobility of Raja's love, she was insensibly gripped by an urge to confess to Sandhya and seek her consent to carry on with their man.
'Why get bogged down by guilt when I can soar with the threesome wings that Sandhya provided? But I need his nod for that, don't I? Well, I'll make him understand that we've no right to wrong her anymore,' she resolved at length.
Thus, Roopa waited for her lover, more for the sake of his wife than for her own self. At length, when she spotted him at some distance, she felt at ease, as though he were coming for her deliverance, so when he took her into his arms, she sank in his embrace as if to deliver her soul to him. As he lifted her head to envisage her visage, he felt that it looked aesthetically beautiful, and thrilled by the charms of her frame; he wondered whether the purity of emotions rarefies one's soul to surface onto the face to enable the fusion of the inner beauty with the outer grace. Won't such demeanor get imprinted in the minds of those who espy that visage then?
"She's all set to form our love triangle," said Roopa in all eagerness.
"Tell me what happened," he was taken aback by her manner, but as she pictured the magnanimity of Sandhya's soul, he felt immensely relieved.
"Roopa, I can understand your feelings and I love you even more for your sensitivity. Baring your heart might lighten your burden, but have you ever thought how that would affect her mind," he said, hugging her.
"You know how Sandhya loves me," she said ecstatically.
"It's stupid to destabilize it before she sets it, isn't it?" he said.
"I agree," said Roopa.
"If we get caught in the act now, though shocked, she would be happy for you, but then, won't she suffer for her own sake?" he said persuasively.
"Sorry, I've got carried away! Why I didn't I think from her angle?" said Roopa apologetically.
'Roopa, have patience for happier times. Let her slowly get used to our closeness, and prepare herself for our intimacy. As we three go along together, let things lead from one to another. Only that would be smooth on her, and not your dramatic confession. Don't we love her enough to care for her feelings?" he said assuredly.
"Then, in the meantime, let me bear my own guilt," she said overcome by emotion.
'What guilt when she gave the go ahead? Be assured, sooner than later, we would suck her into our embrace for our threesome romance," he said, after kissing her, as though to suck out her guilt.
'Won't that strengthen our love?" she said dreamily.
"In three fold ways," he said as he motioned her.
Then, Roopa in tranquility led her Raja to her bed, to let him solace her body and soul.
"I'm glad our love isn't a spoiler either way," she said fondling his back after he satiated her urge to be mated by him in her parental home.
"It's precisely because of that our unique relationship cannot be branded as a liaison with the tag of an infidelity attached to it," he said thoughtfully.
"Oh thank you, by the way don't you find her sexier, being a little plumpy?" she said.
'Now she's handier to fondle, and with both of you carrying equal weight, won't that make it more of a balancing act?" he winked at her, fondling her.
'Won't her figure auger well for me too?' she thought of her lesbian libido.
"Whom do you love more?" he asked her, finding her lost in her thoughts.
"But for her, I wouldn't have my savior in you," she said in all earnestness.
"But you waste the output of our ardour," he said a little disappointed.
"I'll be on pills before you're there but for now, so be it," she said, ardently going over him once again.
"Roopa to be honest with you, often I delve into my heart, to gauge if the levels of my love for you both are any different. As I realize to my relief that they are even, I probe my mind to monitor your emotional currents that stir my soul, and how synchronous they both seem. Then, I check my conscience for dichotomy, if any, only to find it is filled with equanimity. So it feels soothing that as my heart scores equal music, you both sing the song of love in tandem," he said, holding her in his arms, as they felt satiated at length.
'Raja, give her more of your love for she is the better one," she cried in joy.
"Roopa, now I realise why she loves you as she does and I shall love her all the more for that," he kissed away her tears.
"I'm dying for our orgies dear," she said ecstatically.
"Come they will be darling," he said in all assurance.
Long after Raja Rao had left, Roopa kept wondering whether her urge for orgies could be the manifestation of her need to expiate her guilt in a sex triangle with her mates.