Un-masked

“I like drinking; although have graduated from tequila shots and vodka to bellini, wine and exotic sounding cocktails! I dabble with cigarettes once in a while, Classic Mild being my poison. Smoking up has been on a purely experimental basis. And oh! Wild night outs and random hookups also feature on my biodata,” she said nonchalantly, flipping her tousled hair, with freshly painted red streaks (“it will bring out the character; just the right hint of rebellious streak!” she’d thought!). She waited for the guy to get up and leave. She’d been though the drill innumerable times, eliciting the same end every single time: the guy fleeing!

“You will never find anyone if you continue with your idiocy,” her mom’s voice echoed in her head.
“I will, I know I will,” she’d promised herself trying to fight her ever-increasing-desolation of not finding anyone to be with. That’s how she viewed marriage: just being with someone, nothing more, and nothing less. Having failed in love several times, she’d caved into parental pressure and walked down the “arrange marriage” road. She had her apprehensions: she wasn’t quite ready for marriage yet; she didn’t even have complete faith in the arrange marriage approach. Nonetheless, she was determined to find the right candidate for the job. So she put each of her apparent suitors through her seemingly irrational test. More so, given the fact that she was a teetotaler, a non-smoker, and a virgin.
She was jolted back to reality with a slight tap on her hand. He was still there, wearing an unfathomable expression: Was he smiling? Was he smirking?

He cleared his throat, and spoke in a steady, clear voice, unmasked by any exaggerations, “I hate drinking alone. Now I can have my own bar in the house that I always wanted to. I am allergic to smoke, so you can do so when I am on my business trips, which also include hiring an arm candy, especially for important events. I don’t like depressants, so “happy pills” work better for me. Each hook up and wild night has been a crash course in risk taking.”

He knows, she thought. Shocked as she was by his answers, she managed to mask her emotions, but a smile still made it to her lips. She’d found the “right candidate”.

He’d called her bluff and gone all in. Should she too? She thought