• Home

Chick Magnet

Posted on March 24, 2007
Filed Under The Stories |

“It’s not the matter-of-fact ones I have a problem with. It’s the rest of them that I’d like to smack. I mean seriously, ‘these are my goods, does it look like you could have a good time with them?’ How hard is that to comprehend? No bullshit right? It’s tough enough in the world already without all this cock-teasing that goes on in the name of the dating game.”

He could go on like that for hours; his long-suffering friends would confirm that fact. Most of them thought that he did protest too much, especially since he did very well for himself on the dating scene. The cynical among them thought it had something to do with who he was. He agreed. It was at the core of all his complaints with his life. The fact that his daddy was rich permitted him to have his way with any girl he wanted. The most objectionable stuff he could do became okay when his father’s lawyers visited her parents with a briefcase full of money. It was typical rich kid anxiety.

He feared that nothing he did really amounted to much because of who he was. He commonly said things like, “I wish I was poor. That way anything I did would be evaluated on its own merit.” He wasn’t a bad guy, he just had a lot of free time. Being as rich as he was, he was afforded the luxury of working whenever he wanted to and though he had every intention of becoming a worthy heir to his father, he just didn’t see the need to get going anytime soon.

His name was Arjun and he liked to think of himself as a pioneer who wouldn’t get his due because his father had already made a name for himself in the world of corporate greed. Like several other rich kids Arjun hated his father. Not because he was distant or treated his mother badly (he did but Arjun thought she deserved it). Arjun hated his father because the old man had no morals whatsoever. Instead it appeared that he had a checklist.

• Impregnate best friend’s wife. Check.

• Crush a small business to show the little man that his independence will not go unpunished. Check.

• Cheat and let wife know about it. Check.

• Steal young woman from under son’s nose. Check.

• Cause young woman to fall desperately in love, abandon her for her best friend/sister/mother. Check, check and check.

• Drive young woman to attempted suicide. Check (It was Arjun’s personal belief that his father had been mildly disappointed that the girl hadn’t died).

• Cause a feeding frenzy at the stock market and somehow become the only person to profit from it. Check

• Manage to evade all blame for manipulating the stock market. Check.

• Have someone else blamed for the debacle. Check.

• Embarrass celebrities and business rivals and still have them want to be your best friend. Check.

The list went on. Thinking about it made him sick. The day it all changed was the day a girl he was about to dump sensed her impending demotion in social status and screamed at him, “You’re exactly like your father.”

He learnt two things that day: One, his father had beaten him to another girl. Two, he was exactly like his father. The latter was not too much of a surprise since he had secretly suspected it all along. What he didn’t like was that other people seemed to think so too.

He might have shared his father’s penchant for similar kinds of wine and women but that didn’t immediately mean that he was just like Senior in every other respect. Arjun valued people a great deal. He just didn’t think there was any point in keeping them around if he didn’t enjoy their presence anymore. He felt most alive when he was surrounded by people. Which is why he had spent his teens and early youth at parties. The laughter, the communal consumption of alcohol and nicotine, the friendly (or not) competition for a girl’s attention and affections…he enjoyed it all; considered it his induction into the world.

Even though he didn’t feel particularly charitable towards his father Arjun was able to keep his feelings under control, enough to continue to enjoy the fruits of being his father’s son without experiencing too much guilt.

A lot changed in Arjun’s life however, the day he met Zereh.

She was in the country on holiday. The same age as him and in possession of a manner so calm and confident she intrigued him immediately. When they were introduced she was friendly but as the evening progressed he began to suspect that she really didn’t know who he was. She had beautiful skin and incredibly shiny hair. She wasn’t dressed anywhere nearly as revealingly as some of the others in the room but somehow she was the only girl for him that night. He followed her with his eyes when she was any distance away and made it a point to make polite chit-chat or smile when she was anywhere near him. They exchanged numbers at the end of the night and before long they were dating.

The first time they kissed he was surprised at how nervous he was. When she suggested sex he was surprised. And scared. He wanted to measure up. He wanted to be the best she had ever had even though he had no idea of what she’d had. She didn’t complain when they were done and requested a second round so he assumed he was at least adequate. Pride and good sense prevented him from actually seeking a review.

Weeks turned into months and with Zereh by his side, at parties or in bed, his life began to adopt an order and routine he enjoyed. He didn’t think life could get any better. He was right.

He never quite understood how it happened so it was as if time had stood still for him while the world changed. Actually it was more like a wormhole had opened up and he was transported from a moment in time where Zereh was his girlfriend to a point where she had become his stepmother. He didn’t know how but he could understand why his father would have finally chosen to trade his wife in for a younger model. Extensive personal experience told Arjun everything he needed to know about the power of Zereh.

When they returned from their honeymoon Zereh ensured they were alone one evening and said, “your father expects complete fidelity from me but I’m sure we can work something out.”

It was the moment she succeeded in ripping his heart out and remodeling Arjun into an exact replica of his father. Incapable of any real emotion from that point on, Arjun did exactly as he pleased. The only pleasure he ever derived from Zereh was in watching her wither away at his father’s arm without ever acceding to her request for a secret dalliance. It was a hollow victory but he savoured it all the same. He wondered sometimes if there had been a Zereh in his father’s life. He decided he didn’t care.

Comments