*beepbeep* *beepbeep* *beepbeep*

My wife's cellphone buzzed and rang multiple times to announce the arrival of several text messages as soon as she turned the phone on after the pilot announced it was okay to do so.

"So Shipra." I said icily, "I guess those are all text messages from Jeff?"

Shipra ignored me and her fingers worked the keyboard furiously as she replied to the text messages.

"Only two of them." Shipra said once she got done. "The third was from my sister saying Chintu is doing fine."

"And what did Jeff want? Some recipe perhaps?"

Jeff was our neighbor and "friend" back in New Jersey. He was divorced and lived next door, and lived with his son who was the same age as Chintu - 6. I had started off liking Jeff when we moved into his neighborhood a year back. He was friendly, his son and Chintu got along very well, and he seemed genuinely helpful. Which he still was.

What had started bugging me was that he and Shipra seemed to have become a little too friendly. Shipra was a stay-at-home mom, having quit her job in banking as soon as we had Chintu. And Jeff had a catering business which he managed from his house, and even when he had to be away, it was usually for dinner services at nights or on weekends. So when I was at work and Shipra was home, usually, so was Jeff. And Shipra often told me that he came over or invited her over to talk about recipes and food, a topic Shipra had gotten really interested in of late.

"No, Pavan. He just texted the address of a restaurant he recommends. And wished us both safe travel and a great vacation." Shipra replied.

"You know what'll make my vacation great? No texts from Jeff." I said as I pulled our handbag from the overhead compartment.

"Pavan please. Don't start." Shipra shook her head and slid out from her seat.

After this mini-tiff of sorts, both Shipra and I were silent as we made our way off the plane, got our luggage from baggage claim and took a taxi to the Venetian - a posh casino-resort. I waited for her to break the ice, convinced that I was right in being suspicious of Jeff. I was convinced that he had the hots for my wife, and was working slowly but surely to get her into bed. If, that is, he hadn't already.

Over the past few months, I had noticed a change in Shipra's appearance and demeanor. Usually her attire was pretty standard - jeans or trousers, with modest t-shirts or blouses, and frumpy sweaters. After Chintu's birth, Shipra had gone from a very fashion-savvy and spiffily dressed young woman to the archetypal suburban mom. But recently, I noticed she was wearing skirts more often, with tank tops or blouses with a low neckline. She was back to dressing the way she used to 7 years ago when we met and started dating in Bombay. And I wondered if this sudden change had anything to do with her friendship with Jeff. Although I was glad of the occasional throwback to our initial days together.

Ah, our initial days together. I had been smitten with Shipra the day she walked into the conference room on her first day of work in our bank. She was one of the new trainees, fresh out of business college. I was there in my capacity as my division's Vice President, to address the newbies about our operations. She was dressed in a figure-hugging knee-length black skirt, a formal blouse with one button open, and a matching black blazer. She was tall and not just by Indian standards - 5 ft 10. Her skirt showed that she had an awesome butt and shapely legs. And even the formal blouse and the blazer could not hide the fact that she was exceedingly buxom - 34DD as I later found out.

I found myself staring at her a little longer than appropriate. She obviously noticed, looked right into my eyes, and flashed me a dazzling smile. And that was all it took to get me hooked.

I waited a few weeks before doing anything though. After all. Shipra, a fresh MBA 24 years of age, was 15 years my junior. I was touching 40, and although I worked out regularly to keep my body in shape, the gray was beginning to show at the edges of my hairline. I was still unmarried, thanks to a long long relationship that ended abruptly 5 years ago. I still dated casually, and got plenty of action - a good looking, tall, well-built successful banking executives in his late 30s does not find dating difficult in a city like Bombay. But most of the women I had dated had been my contemporaries. I had never even thought about going after someone in her mid-20s.

Until Shipra walked in that door.

Although she got assigned to my division, I kept things strictly professional. I could see that she was getting a lot of attention from guys her own age, something she seemed glad and adept about handling. But i did get some fairly strong signals from her of her interest in me. She would compliment me on my looks, ask me about my taste in music, movies, and books. And try to spend a lot of time talking about things other than work. And she kept talking about how she wanted to "settle down" but all the guys she met were too "immature".

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After a few weeks, I convinced myself that I wasn't just some deluded old horndog reading signals where there were none. Shipra was definitely indicating her interest in me. So I asked her out. She readily agreed. And from there, things moved rather rapidly. We had sex for the first time after our second date, and I was glad to see that Shipra knew how to use her body well. In a couple of weeks, she had all but moved in with me, spending about 5 nights a week at my apartment. In a month, we informed HR about our relationship, and Shipra was moved to another division as per company rules.

In six months, I was convinced she was the love of my life, and proposed. She accepted readily. Her parents were a little displeased that she was marrying someone so much older than her. But I charmed their pants off, and all was well. We were married, and soon Shipra was pregnant. After Chintu was born, Shipra told me she had no interest in going back to work. She had never really been too career-minded, she said, and was simply living out the dreams of her modern and demanding father who believed her intelligence was too rare to waste.

Soon, we settled into a happily married lifestyle, raising our son together. Shipra had a lot of close friends in Bombay, many of them male. And her close friendship with them did rankle me a little bit. In other words, it made me insecure. Initially I stayed mum. But after I turned forty, my body began catching up with me. My stamina for sex was diminishing by the year. When we started dating, we had sex at least twice every night. Around the time Chintu turned two, it was down to twice a week. And of late, it was down to barely once a week.

The decline of my prowess did play a role in my insecurities growing. There were a couple of her male friends, young, good-looking, handsome, that I particularly felt insecure about. They were married too, but it still bothered me that they were so friendly with Shipra. We started having arguments about it. Shipra always dismissed my concerns saying I was being paranoid. But I knew my wife was hot enough to make anyone sin. I also knew she had had a fairly colorful past, sexually speaking (the details of which are another story). So I knew that she knew she had options. And that drove my insecurity and caused more arguments. These arguments became the norm for the next few years.

One day, a head-hunter called me up out of the blue, saying I would be perfect for a position that a Wall Street bank was looking to fill. It had always been my dream to work on Wall Street, and I had no hesitation applying. I got the job quite easily, and soon, we moved to New York.

The move was a source of some tension between Shipra and me. She was not so sure she wanted to move to a new place, leaving her friends and family behind. She wanted to "discuss" it. But i was in no mood to listen. Surely she should understand what a rare opportunity this was for me. I wasn't getting any younger, and who knew when...rather if, such a chance would come by again. Eventually Shipra agreed, and we moved to America.

We got a big house in suburban New Jersey, in a good college district. Shipra's initial apprehensions gave way to enthusiasm about living in the greater New York area. Chintu certainly loved it, especially the tradition of Halloween trick--or-treating which he could not believe existed. And soon we were a happy family again. Shipra did complain occasionally about feeling lonely. To be honest, I was relieved that all her male "friends" were thousands of mile away.

But then Jeff had slid into the picture.

Jeff was roughly the same age as Shipra. Very handsome. I worked out to keep my body in shape. He clearly worked out to give his body shape. He had well toned abs, arms and a chest, which he loved displaying in the summer months. His striking good looks, coupled with his charming personality, convinced me that he was a threat to be mindful of. But when I raised the concern, Shipra again accused me of being too controlling and insecure and jealous.

One summer day when I came home from work, I saw a scene that made me lose my cool. Nothing scandalous, mind you. The two boys were playing in the backyard. A few feet away from them, sat Shipra and Jeff on lawn chair, drinking beer. Jeff was only wearing a pair of cut-off denim shorts, the sweat glistening on his chest. Shipra was wearing a short skirt and a tank top. And they were laughing and talking.

Like I said, nothing scandalous. But watching Jeff, all muscled and toned and sweaty, joking with my relatively scantily clad wife pissed me off. Shipra had put on a few pounds since Chintu was born, but the extra weight had been distributed evenly.