It was 8.30. Lucky picked his gym bag. While crossing the hotel lobby, someone caught his attention. He was a face, Lucky hadn’t seen before. For a minute, he couldn’t take the eye off him. The wheatish complexion, sharp chiseled face, the suave personality of that man standing near the reception besotted him for a while. He looked at his name plate that read, ‘Sujoy Chatterjee’.
Lucky hadn’t been able to take Sujoy off his mind. Without wasting time, he scrolled through Sujoy Chatterjee’s social account. He didn’t understand but he was happy to see his status ‘single’! He could sense an intense testosterone wave gushing through.
Lucky! What are you thinking? Don’t you know this is wrong? It is completely unpractical to keep any feelings for a person you hardly know. What if he has a girlfriend? What if he is a gay but has a boyfriend?” Lucky tried to counsel himself but in vain.
Next morning purposely, Lucky exercised till 9.00 am. Fortunately, he saw Sujoy in washroom. Those mixed feelings enveloped him again.
Since they were the only two in the washroom, Lucky decided to talk to him.
“Hey, I am Lucky. I come here every day to gym. What about you?” Lucky introduced himself extending his hand.
“Hello Mr Lucky. I am Sujoy chatterjee. I have joined here as Reception Manager, just two days back. Nice meeting you’, replied Sujoy while shaking the hand.
Lucky was driven away by the warmth of Sujoy’s hand. He didn’t feel like leaving it. Closely, he looked at Sujoy’s perfectly placed sharp features and intense eyes. He just lost his control and pecked a kiss on his cheek!
“Sorry! It just happened in heat of moment. Please excuse me for my mistake”, fearing the repercussion, Lucky immediately apologized. He moved a tad behind. Obviously, he expected Sujoy to feel offended.
Lucky was taken aback when instead of expressing resent, Sujoy too kissed him back, a minute later. Literally, his joy knew no bounds. He was quite sure of a thing; Sujoy’s reciprocal kiss meant he liked him too. “Did that mean Sujoy too was like him?” he just wondered.
Noise of the door interjected his chain of thoughts. Soon they exchanged their details and left the restroom promising to meet again.
Next day they met again, this time in a café. Slowly and steadily, they learnt more about each other. Yes, their sexual orientations were same. While Lucky was comfortable in his skin, Sujoy was a bit shy, timid and felt awkward knowing that he was different from this straight society. He also didn’t like to talk about his physical desires.
Gradually, Sujoy started feeling good in Lucky’s company. He told Lucky in length how his friends used to bully him in his school for his ‘gait and girl like mannerisms’. Also, how Lucky was the first person with whom he felt good and free.
It had been almost five months, they were dating each other. Finally, Lucky had convinced him to take their relationship a notch higher. The next morning, they had decided to meet in a hotel at Panvel; Lucky had booked a room under fake names. The social pressures had yet forbidden him to come out of the closet yet.
“I am super excited. Tomorrow, I am going to meet my love. It will be a different experience altogether”, he wrote in his diary. But he didn’t forget to keep his diary in the locker.
Next morning was indeed a different one; one Lucky would never forget. They had embraced each other physically too.
Same night, he penned down his feelings in his ‘diary’. The diary was his only way of letting out all his thoughts and emotional turmoils he went through. “When and how will I disclose my identity to my parents and my brother? Will they accept me? How will they react?’’ wondered Lucky. Every time he wondered about the family’s reaction, a shiver ran through his spine.
Two days later, Rahul; elder brother of lucky called him to his room.
“Lucky, get me a bottle of whisky and chicken from Aman dhaba. Don’t take much time”, Rahul ordered him.
Lucky didn’t like Rahul commanding him. He requested him to be polite.
“Ahh! Mr Lucky Grover is asking me to be polite, soft. Ok! What degree of softness do you expect? Softness of Sujoy’s hands or his body?” Rahul said scornfully while leaving the room.
“Also, Mr Gay, don’t forget to lock your diary henceforth”.
Lucky felt his world had crashed down; he felt paralysed. He almost lost his consciousness. Lucky was scared to think about what Rahul would do to him? His world was literally shattered.
By now, he had accepted himself the way he was, he was just waiting for the favorable time so as to reveal his identity to his family; but definitely not this way.
His heart was thumping; he could foresee the events. Rahul, who was always envious of his popularity in the society, would use this revelation in his own way! Lucky was left with no option but to give in.
Lucky didn’t call Sujoy for two days as he didn’t want to bother him.
Third day he called him, “Sujoy, how are you? You sound tense, are you fine? Can we meet? Why not?” Sujoy had disconnected the phone.
Nothing was going good in his life; Rahul would deride him and blackmail him. He felt helpless. Sujoy too had stopped picking up his call.
Around ten days later, Lucky received a call; it was Sujoy, “Hello Lucky, I know you are worried about me. You know, a person has been blackmailing me since some days. He has been extorting money from me as he knows about our Panvel stint. I am really scared thus am leaving Mumbai. I will miss you my love”.
Lucky felt appalled. He knew who was the person responsible for this? For a while, he decided to stay in the closet.
***
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