Just a kiss!

It was 7p.m. when she reached home. She unlocked the door to her apartment and hung the key on the keyholder above the shoe rack. She carefully put her shoes in the bottom shelf of the rack and took out her indoor slippers from the top. She put her handbag on top of the coffee table and went to the kitchen. She washed her hands before she put a cup of water to boil on the stove. She added a spoon of tea leaves. She opened the door to the verandah and went out to pick some mint leaves from the flower pot. She rinsed the leaves and put it into the water boiling on the stove. She poured the tea into a mug and carried it to the living room. She lay a tea coaster on the table and put the mug on top of it. She unbuttoned her pants and unclipped her bra and sighed as she sat down on the couch. She looked around and closed her eyes for a moment to enjoy the taste of mint in her mouth and silence surrounding her. This was a rare moment for her. 

Usually, she picked up her son from his school and brought her home for quick snacks before she dragged him out of the house for his karate classes. And after the classes, she would quickly feed him dinner before his bedtime rituals which included making him drink a glass of milk that sometimes took a lifetime to finish and then brush his teeth and read him stories before he finally fell asleep. But today, he went out with her mother-in-law to attend a satsang in the neighborhood. After the death of her father-in-law, her mother-in-law spent most of her waking hours keeping herself busy in religious activities. She visited temples, attended bhajan kirtan and spent hours in the small store room which also housed the statues of many gods and goddesses that she so devoted herself to. 

Some evenings were very tiring but she was grateful to her mother-in-law for all the help she provided with her son and other household chores. It had been three months since her husband left home, a couple of weeks after he confessed to her that he had kissed a coworker. It was on a Saturday morning. She was preparing pancakes for breakfast when he walked into the kitchen, struggling to make eye contact with her and avoiding conversation. She asked him if he was alright and he gave in. Maybe it was too much for him, to keep a secret from the woman he had loved for more than a decade. She was stunned, didn’t utter a word as he quickly reasoned that they were both drunk and it was just a kiss and that it would never happen again. He begged for forgiveness and promised to never talk to the coworker again. She took off her apron, turned off the stove and washed her hands and walked out of the kitchen. She locked herself in the room all day and refused to open the door even to her son. The next day, she left for work before anybody woke up. Later, she texted her husband that she was going to stay with her parents for a few days with her son. 

After a week, she went home to meet her mother-in-law when her husband was at work. She told her everything and she felt relieved as she finally had the courage to talk about it with someone. As her mother-in-law embraced her in a tight hug with an apology, she cried. She wailed and as both the women comforted each other, they made a decision. 

Her husband was surprised to find her home when he came home after work. He left the shoes on the floor and hugged her and asked her to make a nice cup of tea. As he was making himself comfortable on the couch getting ready to read the newspaper, his mother gently asked him to pack his bags and leave. He was confused. He looked at his wife and back at his mother and he knew what it was about. He argued with both of them and said he had nowhere to go. His mother refused to budge. 

‘But it was just a kiss!’, he kept saying.