Page 141 of 12 Years
My ten-thousand-square-feet villa with its five bedrooms had come at a price of fifteen million dollars, that’s around a hundred and five crore rupees. It was a huge amount. However, the secondary share sale had netted me fiftymillion dollars. The house was less than a third of that. And my current SecurityNet stake, if the IPO-valuation rumours came true, would be close to a billion dollars. Yes, I could afford this, I reminded myself.
I stood in the middle of the living room, in awe of the art and the lights and everything else in my own house.
‘Sir, you’re back,’ Shanti didi, my housekeeper, said, walking into the foyer from the kitchen. ‘Is there anything I can get for you or madam?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘We’ve already eaten, thank you. You can leave for the day.’
As she left, Tania leaned in and said, ‘Let’s go up. The celebrations aren’t over yet.’
‘Baby, I’m genuinely tired,’ I said.
But Tania paid no attention to my protests as she pulled me up the steps. She pushed me into the bedroom and shut the door behind us.
‘Tired, is it?’ she said, running a finger down my nose and lips.
I took a deep breath as her touch sent a shiver down my spine.
‘Yeah, we did drink a lot. You even dozed off on the drive back,’ I said.
Tania went up to the bay windows and drew the sheer curtains. We could still see the twinkling lights of the other Palm villas and the beach outside.
‘I’m fresh after my nap now.’ She came back to me and kissed me. ‘How about you? You want to nap now?’ she whispered in my ear.
‘Baby, if you do all this, which man will not wake up?’ I said.
‘Good. Because even if it’s your forty-fifth birthday, you’re not that old,’ she said.
‘I am old, babe. Forty and then five more.’
Shaking her head, she unbuttoned my shirt and slid her hands inside. ‘Tell me, how many forty-five-year-olds have a chest like this?’ she said, running her hands over my pecs.
‘Thank you,’ I said, and kissed her cheek.
‘I realize I haven’t given you a birthday present yet,’ Tania said.
‘It’s all right, baby. You don’t have to. I have everything.’
‘No, it’s not all right. I’ll get you one soon. Meanwhile, can I be your present for tonight?’
‘You always are.’
‘Would you like to unwrap your present?’ she said, making a cute, kiddish expression.
Before I could respond, she pushed me back into the bed and climbed on top of me. ‘Happy birthday, baby.’
Half an hour later, our hot-and-heavy session ended, leaving us both exhausted and sweaty. Tania lay down next to me, scrolling through the Louis Vuitton website on her phone. I wanted her to leave, as I always did when the sex was over. I had rented an apartment for her in the Marina. I checked the time. We’d finished some seven minutes ago. Would it be rude of me to suggest she leave?
‘Riyaz will drop you home, baby? He has to finish duty and go home,’ I said.
‘Oh,’ Tania looked up at me, somewhat surprised. ‘Of course. I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to stay over tonight.’ She picked up her dress from the floor. Her naked body glistened in the dim light as she slid into the dress.
‘When have I ever?’ I said.
‘It’s your birthday today … in case you didn’t want to sleep alone.’
‘That’s okay, sweetie. I’m used to it.’
I walked back into the house after saying bye to Tania on the porch. The villa felt larger than before. I went to the entertainment area adjacent to the living room, where there was a hundred-inch flat-screen TV. I switched it on and scrolled through all the entertainment options in the world—Netflix, Prime, YouTube … and a bunch of other platforms. But I didn’t feel like watching anything. I switched on my PS5 game console to playElden Ring. Five minutes, and I got bored. I turned off the TV and thought about going to the games room on the first floor. I had fitted it with a snooker table, foosball, darts, a pinball table and a retro video-games console, similar to the ones we had in childhood, where one had to put in a coin to play a game. I didn’t feel like playing anything. That’s the thing about having nice things. They’re fun only when you have someone to enjoy them with.
