"Going by her mangalasutrams,‟ he began to delve into the seductive ground rolling in his bed, "it's clear she's married. What her husband could be? Whoever it is, it's better that she is married. Wouldn't the roughness of marriage have softened her bitterness towards
me? What is more to the point, marriage might've diverted some of her bitterness towards her husband as well. Won't it portend a free reign over her body without the bother of her upkeep? Well, but for a gift now and then, Nithya the married would come lightly on my purse, and it suits. Whatever, how lively life used to be with her, didn't every moment of it spelt passion? If only I play my cards well, I may be able to worm my way back into her life as the other man. Why do they say 'the other woman' and never 'the other man'? Only Nithya 'the other woman' can make it lively for Prema's man, isn't it? Prema, oh, how she lies in suspended animation even in her nuptial bed! What if Nithya's man is a he-man, after all, she knows what Vasu 'the other man' means to her sex life?‟
"But why should she give in, after all that happened between us?‟ he began to think about the ways and means of winning Nithya. "Can I ever break the ice to win her back? Why not, won't women with a past tend to be vulnerable to the advances of their ex-lovers? If only I can touch the right chords of her heart to play upon this feminine susceptibility. But, the real hurdle could be her mental apathy born out of her hard feelings for me but given her weakness of physical attraction for me, maybe that shouldn't be much difficult. But still it would be some work to bring her around?‟
Sensing his chances at winning back her favors, he slept in dreamy anticipation till it was well past ten.
"Then is she not a spirited dame?‟ he thought next day as he woke up to the reality of her personality. "What would come of it, if she were to try to get even with me? In that case, won't that be a battle of wits in a long drawn-out affair? Why not I give up and get on with my life for whatever it's worth?‟
"But what a life it is with a politically correct wife?‟ he felt on second thoughts. "Would cohabitation without feeling and sex sans passion add up to anything? But, how fulsome was life with Nithya with that oneness of union and the ecstasy in sex! Why, it was the work of the devil that spoiled my designs on her, a perfect plan that went awry, wasn't it? I've to tempt fate itself to have her and I shall find her alone for that.‟