Rekha was single, her parents wanted to find her a good guy and she was not opposed to it. Her requirements and her parents' were different, and she felt that if she was judged on physical appearance quite frankly, she had the right to be just as judmental about the guys' looks, something her parents didn't agree with. No, they said, looks are important for a girl, and you are a girl, it doesn't matter for a man because it's their responsibility and other things that count. Well, she said, I'm a responsible adult as you know since I"m the biggest earner in this family and also do household chores and you also know that I make more money than most of the guys you'll find for me, so isn't it fair that I get whatever privileges that are given to guys, because how am I any less than them? Like if I find a husband who is ugly and who doesn't make as much as I do and is not as ambitious and responsible as I am, then what exactly am I marrying such a doofus for? Why would I even want to get married? The truth was, Rekha's parents didn't have a good answer to that, and just shushed her and told her to not argue with them, but they knew her arguments had merit and didn't really know how to deal with the situation.
And there was quite another situation brewing up to which her parents were completely unaware.
You see Rekha had a friend who she had met a year and a half before, Bhekha, and she was pretty nice, not specially beautiful but she was smart and a bit demanding but she was fun to be around, and would be be down for any fun activities anybody ever did. Bhekha hadn't been quite ready to be married, but her parents had other plans in store for her, and got her married anyway. Bhekha was quite relieved to discover then that she wouldn't have to spend too much time with her husband as he had to travel frequently on business, so it was like she had a boyfriend who'd make an occasional appearance and things would be fun for a while, and just as they got boring or annoying he'd disappear.
It was around this time Rekha and Bhekha's friendship got stronger and also Bhekha got sick and tired of Nepali culture and following the rules etcetera, and started talking to Rekha for hours and hours and hours. And Rekha didn't mind the attention. Here was somebody she considered to be her equal who showered her with the attention and talked about interesting things, why would she be bothered? Also the conversations soon started to veer on the more adult of topics and it got clearer that maybe Bhekha wanted to cheat on her husband with Rekha. Rekha was down for that. She had spent a limited amount of time with girls in such circumstances, but Bhekha was nice and interesting so she'd be down for that.
The thing is, things were complicated for Bhekha, and it would become clear slowly to Rekha. As Bhekha got more stressed out, she would be hot an cold, and also more daring and interested in a tryst with Bhekha.
Now Rekha had another female friend Mekha who was mostly a platonic friend, she was into guys but found Rekha alluring because of how domineering and powerful and ambitious she was. So Rekha would spend hours and hours complaining about all of Bhekha's issues, and Mekha would listen patiently, giving her good advice, telling her not to cheat on her husband with a girl because of various reasons, but most importantly it would definitely not be worth it.
Mekha had a guy friend who wasn't completley in love with her, but they flirted all the time and he teased her and all of that, and all the time they used to flirt together was now being taken by Mekha's time with Rekha, and he was pretty disappointed about that. He tried to explain to Mekha that whatever affection she had for Rekha was one way and Rekha might be an interesting person but she was also quite clearly so very selfish, and there was no space for her in Rekha's life save for as a free therapist, but she wouldn't listen.
Anyway, things would keep going on just like that, because this is life and nothing interesting or wild never happened particularly in the guy's life, whose name was Ramesh by the way. Also for some reason Mekha wouldn't even introduce Ramesh to Rekha even though they were both single and ready to mingle, she'd come up with all the ridiculous excuses as to why things wouldn't work out between them and that she didn't want to get in the middle of everything.
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