“To understanding our bad decisions before making new ones.”
Sanjay laughed.
“That’s annoyingly sensible.”
Their glasses met.
And for the first time that night, none of them realized that tomorrow’s biggest surprise would have nothing to do with sex.
It would be the things they learned about one another before morning.
Sanjay woke because somebody was trying to kill a plastic bottle.
Crack.
Silence.
Crack-crack.
He opened one eye.
Sunlight had already forced its way through the cheap hotel curtains and was falling directly across his face.
On the other bed, Raja sat cross-legged in yesterday’s T-shirt, squeezing an empty water bottle between both hands.
“Stop,” Sanjay croaked.
Raja looked at him.
“You’re alive.”
“Barely.”
From somewhere near the bathroom came Vivek’s voice.
“Unfortunately, all three of us are.”
Sanjay rolled onto his back.
His mouth tasted like somebody had stored old coins in it overnight.
“What time?”
“Ten twenty,” Vivek said.
Sanjay sat up immediately.
“Ten twenty?”
Raja pointed toward the bedside table.
“Relax. Checkout is tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
Sanjay dropped backward again.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then memory arrived.
Not gradually.
All at once.
The drinks.
The school stories.
Naina.
Shreya.
College.
Their girlfriends.
The astonishing discovery that despite years of pretending otherwise, all three were still virgins.
And then—
Sanjay slowly turned his head toward Raja.
Raja was already looking at him.
“No,” Sanjay said.
Raja smiled.
“You remember.”
Vivek emerged from the bathroom, wiping his face with a towel.
“We are not discussing this before tea.”
“We absolutely are,” Raja said.
“No.”
“Yesterday you agreed.”
“Yesterday Vivek was under the influence of approximately half a bottle of whisky.”
Sanjay raised a hand.
“So was Raja.”
“Raja behaves like that sober.”
“Fair.”
Raja threw the crushed bottle at him.
Tea arrived fifteen minutes later.
Three cups.
Three bottles of water.
Toast.
Omelette.
And enough silence to make the waiter glance suspiciously between them before leaving.
The door closed.
Raja leaned forward.
“So?”
Vivek buttered his toast.
“So what?”
“You know what.”
“No, explain.”
Raja stared at him.
“You want me to actually say it?”
“Please.”
Raja lowered his voice unnecessarily.
“The escort.”
Sanjay nearly smiled.
Hearing the word in daylight made everything from the previous night sound significantly more ridiculous.
At midnight, surrounded by whisky and nostalgia, it had sounded adventurous.
At ten forty-five in the morning, with badly made tea and sunlight in the room, it sounded like the plot of a terrible movie.
Vivek took a bite of toast.
“Last chance to admit it was drunk nonsense.”
Raja looked at Sanjay.
Sanjay looked at Vivek.
Nobody answered.
That itself became an answer.
Raja slowly smiled.
“Oh.”
“Don’t smile like that,” Vivek said.
“You both still want to do it.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Sanjay rubbed his forehead.
“Wait. Suppose we seriously consider it.”
Raja pointed at him triumphantly.
“Exactly.”
“I said consider.”
“Progress.”
Sanjay ignored him.
“There have to be rules.”
Vivek nodded immediately.
