Puja stared at the collection.
Then looked at the three men.
Her eyebrows rose.
“Oh.”
Sanjay knew that expression immediately.
“No.”
Puja walked toward the table.
“So this was the command centre?”
“Puja.”
She picked up an ORS sachet.
“Electrolytes.”
Raja cleared his throat.
“Hydration.”
“Naturally.”
She put it down.
Then tapped the lubricant.
“And this.”
Sanjay covered his face.
“Please go.”
Puja was enjoying herself now.
She pointed to the condoms.
“Prepared.”
Then toward the tablets.
“Very prepared.”
Vivek protested.
“For the record, I told them taking random pills was stupid.”
Raja stared at him.
“Traitor.”
Puja picked up one packet, read the label and looked at Raja.
“You bought this?”
Raja gestured toward Sanjay.
“Joint procurement.”
“It was your idea!”
“Collective responsibility.”
Puja laughed.
“And something marketed for women too?”
Raja shrugged awkwardly.
“We didn’t know what was necessary.”
Puja stared at him for two seconds.
Then burst out laughing.
“You three really thought tonight was going to be a medical expedition.”
Vivek muttered, “This is exactly why I didn’t want to buy them.”
Sanjay pointed firmly toward the door.
“Good night.”
Puja put the packet back.
“Relax, Bhaiya.”
“I’ve discovered enough about my sister for one lifetime.”
She grinned.
“Good night, virgins.”
Then she slipped through the doorway.
Raja immediately laughed.
Sanjay grabbed a cushion.
Too late.
Puja disappeared down the corridor.
The door shut.
The apartment went silent.
For the first few seconds, the three friends simply stood there.
Then Vivek dropped onto the sofa.
“What the hell happened tonight?”
Raja leaned against the dining table.
“I think my brain has stopped processing new information.”
Sanjay sat opposite them.
Everything Puja had said returned in fragments.
Rohan.
The private photographs.
The professor.
Money.
Thirty-six previous bookings.
Sonam.
Akariti.
Thirty-seven.
Sanjay stared at his hands.
“She’s not a kid anymore.”
Raja looked at him.
“No.”
It was difficult for Sanjay to say that.
Puja would always occupy two ages simultaneously in his mind.
Twenty-three.
And eight.
The adult woman who had just walked out of the apartment.
And the little girl who used to steal his cricket bat and complain to Aparna whenever Sanjay refused to let her play.
Raja sat down.
“Neither is Sonam.”
Vivek nodded slowly.
“Akariti either.”
Nobody liked that realization.
Not because adulthood was frightening.
Because adulthood meant their sisters had lives the three brothers did not control.
Lives they didn’t even completely know.
Sanjay looked at Raja.
“You knew Puja was attractive?”
Raja immediately became cautious.
“This feels like a trap.”
“It is.”
“Then I’m exercising my constitutional right to silence.”
Vivek laughed.
Sanjay almost did too.
Raja raised both hands.
“I’m just saying objectively she’s obviously a beautiful woman.”
Sanjay’s stare sharpened.
“Stop there.”
“Already stopped.”
Vivek added:
“That’s the weird thing, though.”
“What?”
“We’ve always seen all three of them as somebody’s little sister.”
Raja nodded.
“Puja was Sanjay’s sister. Sonam was mine. Akariti was yours.”
