Roopa couldn’t help smiling dejectedly as she began to her failure to seek an avenue to let out her love to Raja Rao, ‘Why didn’t I take him out on some pretext, at least I should’ve gone out to see him off. But then, wasn’t it all so sudden, and lo, before I could gather my wits, he was gone!’
‘Anyway, next time when he comes, I shouldn’t slip up at any rate,’ she resolved at length. ‘Didn’t he suggest that I could scribble something, for him to pick up? Given the constraints for a dialogue of love, wasn’t it his innovation to let me bare my heart to him. Won’t he come up with his missive of ardor to be on par after all? Well, I’ll make it a memorable one for him, nay for us.’
‘Can I ever express my love to him in writing as I experience it?’ she felt as she sat down to write to her Raja that night. ‘Would a ream of paper do to picture the craving of my soul for him? Even otherwise, won’t borrowed feelings mar love letters, robbing them off their originality? How else can a woman let her man see her soul than in lovemaking? Why not I simply write, ‘Raja, just take me into your arms to know how you’re loved.’ Yes, that will tell all, where a million words might fail even.’
While she waited for her Raja Rao’s visit in all anxiety, for his part, back at the Ritz, he was pensive.
‘What rotten luck!’ thought Raja Rao, all again, ‘I couldn’t even have a proper look at her? But how could I, given the circumstances. Oh, she looks as ravishing as ever, doesn’t she? If anything, in her pensive mood she’s more bewitching than before. Doesn’t she appear ardent as well? But can I ever make her mine?’
However, as he recalled her longing look and furtive glances, his spirits revived, ‘It looks like she still loves me. Isn’t that clear from her amorous gaze? In a way, won’t her craving for me sustain my longing for her? If ever we could make it, then our unfolding passion would lead us into a whirlpool of eroticism, won’t it?’
As the room bell rang, he thought, ‘well, there’s always a tomorrow, but for now it must be Subba Reddy.’
‘I’ve dragged my friend Ranga Reddy along,’ stormed in Subba Reddy, ‘for the pleasure of your acquaintance.’
‘I believe in reciprocity,’ said Raja Rao in welcome.