An extramarital affair part 1 of 3

‘We will be late for office’ said Maya glancing at the wall clock in the dining room.
‘I will be ready in five minutes’ Rakesh said without looking up from the Times of India that he was reading.
Rakesh and Maya had been married for two years. They lived in a posh luxury apartment in Koramangala, Bangalore. Mr Rakesh Singh was a Director in a top IT multinational organisation. Mrs Maya Singh was a project manager in the same company. Rakesh had a highly stressful job and he was a workaholic who worked till very late in the night. They were both too career minded to consider having a child. Though in their initial days of married life, they had been very happy, after two years somehow the spark had gone out of their marriage and they had drifted apart. Now they lived together like two strangers, barely speaking to each other, when they were alone. Rakesh had become too involved in his work to take much notice of his wife. He stayed in office till very late in the evening and even after coming back he would move straight into his study to take more calls with his US based team. Often he would take dinner in office. Somedays the only conversation they had was when he asked her to serve him breakfast or the occasional dinner.
Maya sighed and went to the bedroom to put finishing touches to her simple makeup. Looking at herself in the mirror, she saw a slim and strikingly attractive woman. She knew that men found her very attractive, but she had never been vain about her own beauty.
She heard footsteps on the marble floor and then Rakesh was calling out, ‘Are you ready yet?’
Maya felt like snapping back, ‘I have been ready and waiting for you for the past 15 minutes,’ but held her peace. Instead she said mildly, ‘Yes let us go’.
On reaching office Maya checked her mail before grabbing a coffee and attending a regular team meeting. It was 11 am and she went over to Sanjay’s cubicle to discuss a proposal that they had been working on together.
Rakesh , Sanjay and Maya were childhood friends, and though Sanjay had been a better student than him, Rakesh had progressed rapidly in his career, leaving Sanjay far behind in the game of corporate politics. Now Sanjay worked as a project manager, same level as Maya.
Looking at the coffee cup in Maya’s hand he said ‘Let me also grab a coffee. Why don’t we go to the conference room and work on this?’
Maya was slightly surprised, as they generally sat in his cubicle and worked. But she acquiesced without thinking too much about it. After getting a coffee they walked into an empty meeting room.
Looking slightly embarrassed, Sanjay said, ‘Maya before we begin I want to say something about Rakesh.’
Feeling a bit apprehensive, Maya looked at Sanjay expectantly.
Sanjay said, ‘Its about Rakesh and Rekha. People are talking about their growing friendship.’
‘What the hell is going on between my husband and that bitch?' Maya's patience was at its lowest ebb and she was ready to burst.
Sanjay knew that she was serious. 'Look, Maya. There is nothing going on between the two of them. Just a little bit of healthy flirting, I'd say.'
'Flirting? Healthy flirting? Really Sanjay . . .' she rolled her eyes in disgust. 'That's what you men call it? There is nothing healthy about flirting, Sanjay, not for a married man.
Healthy flirting is a term introduced by perverted men who want to lend legitimacy to their extramarital dalliances. Flirting invariably has a sexual connotation to it.' She got up from her seat and walked around the room gesticulating and muttering something to herself. Suddenly she stopped, turned back, looked at Sanjay and asked, 'Did my husband sleep with her? You are his friend. Did he ever tell you anything about it?'
Sanjay said, ‘Well I do not think that it has advanced that far as yet, but you need to be careful.’
Maya said, ‘Hmm… Sanjay can you manage the proposal on your own? I am really too upset to work.’
Sanjay nodded in sympathy and said, ‘Of course I will manage. Go and introspect and see what you can do.’
After she had cooled down a bit, the first thing Maya did was to search the internet on how to deal with cheating husbands. Everyone in the internet seemed to know all about how to deal with such husbands. Most seemed to suggest that she should not do anything in haste or anger, but should try to be patient and win him back.
Maya decided that she needed an image makeover to win over Rakesh. She told her boss that she was not feeling well and then went to the latest and most expensive beauty parlour that she had heard about from her friend Kona who always seemed to know about the latest trends. After spending a few hours there and quite a lot of money she left the parlour feeling quite satisfied and with a beautiful glow on her face.
That night Rakesh came back home quite late. Maya was boiling with rage and jealousy by that time. Sanjay’s warnings kept on playing in her mind like a broken record. First thing Rakesh said on entering the apartment was, ‘I ate something in the office canteen. I have a call right now.’ Saying this he hurried into the study and shut the door without a second glance at her.
Maya felt like kicking the study door open. He had not even noticed that she had cut her hair or that her face was glowing from the expensive gold facial that she had done. Gritting her teeth, she went into their bedroom and lay down. She felt like howling but knew she had to be strong and composed.