My name is Mrs. Alta Bose ( Ālatā bōs). I am a 28-year-old Bengali woman employed as a night-shift representative at a multinational bank's call center. I have been married for seven years to Mr. Ronnie Bose, who is 32 years old and works as an architect. His profession requires frequent travel and day shifts, resulting in our schedules rarely aligning. Our preferences diverge in several respects, including cuisine and en...

I did what I do best for the next five days. I assimilated into the cadence of routine, being safe, steady, and measured. Get up. Take a bath. Prepare food. Sign in. Grin and talk. Control. Take the lead. Log off. Go to sleep. Do it again. Updates, goals, and dashboards were all over the office chat. I answered them all. I used exclamation points and emojis in my response. I worked effectively. Expert. Steady. I appeared...

The monsoon had finally broken by the time I returned to Rimi's Makeover. The mobile internet service was down. The rainwater was still clinging to the edges of my dupatta, and Kolkata smelled of jasmine and wet dust. The smell of freshly applied sandalwood cream and mehendi (temporary skin decoration using a paste created with henna), however, filled the parlor, which was warm and dry. Rimi had a half-empty glass of lime...

Day two kicked off with that relentless monsoon beat—rain smacking the window like it had something to prove. Rimi’s place always smelled like jasmine, and the hum of the AC was weirdly comforting. I blinked awake, confused for a hot second, until I caught the scent, heard the drone, and remembered I was not in my own bed. Rimi was curled up right next to me, her arm slung over my breasts, all cozy and casual, like this w...

At the faintest suggestion of dawn—a subtle gray light barely filtering through the curtains… I woke up, my body simultaneously fatigued and charged with unfamiliar energy. Bill lay beside me, his arm draped over my waist with possessive weight, his breathing steady and deep. In terms of physicality, he was markedly larger than Ronnie, both in stature and, quite unmistakably, in other attributes. The recollection of initi...