In time, everything fell into a groove at the office and in their homes as well. Sandhya hired a girl to assist her in coping up with Saroja. Raja Rao would ride to the office on his Bullet with Sandhya at nine, leaving behind Saroja at home. Roopa would walk down to the office in time, after seeing off Sathyam with the lunch-box. Aslam and Narasaiah would report for duty on time, for Raja Rao was a stickler for time. While Aslam was always found rooted to his drafting table, for the most part Narasaiah was out on errands.
So to feed Saroja, Sandhya would head home at sharp eleven. And at the stroke of one she reaches the office with lunch-box for the three of them. Aslam, however, was wont to leave a little early for his namaaz, on his way home for lunch. Having savored the meal with her man and mate, Sandhya would leave the office by one-thirty, to be at home to suckle Saroja. Raja Rao would schedule his meetings to ensure his lunchtime presence for lovemaking in the office. While it was back to work for the rest of them by two-thirty, Sandhya, after siesta, would come back at three-thirty.
The synchronous harmony of their lifestyle enabled the couple and their lover live in ecstatic fulfillment.
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While the work at the office gripped Roopa, the weight she came to wield there buttressed her self-worth. After all, Raja Rao came to depend on her for she readily picked
up the work with her quick grasp. Besides attending to the office accounts, she helped him at structural calculations as well. As though to prove that she shared his passion for construction, she traced the building plans that he had conceived. Indeed, she was heady with life.
It was in the midst of such a time, which Raja Rao called honeytime that he had to go to Madras for a week. At that, missing Raja Rao’s passion, Roopa felt as if she were left in the cold, in spite of her physical intimacy with Sathyam, not to speak of her amorous time with Sandhya. Thus, it didn’t take long for her to realize how her own fulfillment came to be pinned upon Raja Rao. Thus, by the time he returned, she was mad and eager.
However, as luck would have it, the day he returned, Sandhya, who brought them lunch, brought Saroja to the lovers’ surprise. When Sandhya revealed that the housemaid had gone to the matinee with a friend of hers who came from Khammam, they felt let down. In time, with Sandhya around, the dismay of the vexed lovers began to vent itself in varied ways. At length, Sandhya noticed that Raja Rao turned irritable while Roopa remained morose.