By jove! What am I doing? What am I thinking about my best friend? If best friends do not confide then who else will? Anyway, in a split of second I forgave him and was glad that my friend was happy or should we say too happy about my choice.

Well! Our romance bloomed like April flowers. The nights were short... the days were shorter... and it was only the longing to see her again that was tormenting me whenever I lay down to sleep.

We met, we dine and partied. Slowly, I learnt more about her. She loves drinking beer, eats dollops of pork fat and enjoys laughing at my jokes. She hates smoking and in front of her it a strict no.

Puia occasionally accompanied me and yes I needed him for company as he would dutch whenever my pockets feel light. But he drank more and ate more than us. I did not mind as long as he did not disturb us. In fact, I was happier as long as he eats, drinks and most importantly keeps a safe distance from us.

I still remember the first kiss she gave me. It was not a simple kiss. It was a French kiss with her tongue darting, dancing, skipping, bouncing, clipping and writhing inside my mouth. It was simply heavenly though my tongue hurt from tip to the end.

But, the big but is that I can feel she is not a novice in this field. How else can you explain such a heavenly sensation with just her tongue? Everyone has a tongue but I suspect no other girl will be able to use it as extensively as she does. In fact, I was breathless when we withdrew each other.

But before I could take another breathe, she grabbed my hair and started the whole ordeal again. And then she asked, “How do you like it?”

“Like? That would be an understatement. In fact, I just love it.”, I managed to whisper while gasping for air.

Later at home, I imagined the kissing all over and over again. Then in some comer of my mind, my conscience was not happy at all. Am I the first person whom she kissed?

More questions - if I am the first person then from where the hell she learnt the tricks of the tongue like the fabled Great Indian Rope Trick? How many guys must have she kissed before? Has she gone beyond kissing with other guys? What if she has indulged in unsafe sex with some guys while getting drunk on beer? What if she is carrying HIV?

We met off and on. Whenever I leave home in the morning for her place, I always vowed to ask her just one question,” Am I your first guy?” But whenever I see her pretty face, I could not bring myself to it.

What if she says, “Loverboy, don’t be silly. You are not the first one for me.” Will that not break my heart? But then what if she says,” Yes, my love. You are the one and only guy I have ever gone out with. You are the first person whom I have smooch with all love and lust. “Would I believe that especially after that wild and raunchy to-ngue meeting session? Either way, it was uncomfortable.

Christmas came and I had to come to Manipur to celebrate with my family. The day before I was to leave Aizawl, I decided to pay her visit and ask the ultimate question “Am I the first guy who kissed her”. Reaching there, I saw Puia chatting with her.

“Bro, I knew you were coming here. So I have been waiting for you. Here are some beers I bought,” Puia said.

Considering the sky high price of beers - one bottle cost two hundred bucks - I was pretty indebted to Puia. I thought I will guzzle down a few bottles before I have the guts to throw the question at her.

One bottle over. We were talking non-sense. Puia had gone out on the pretext of buying paan. He sure knows the timing. A god-send pal, I should say. I promise myself to get him a Moreh Nike sneaker on my return from Imphal. After all he will not know the difference from the original.

Anyway, second bottle over. Yet, I did not know how to start the topic that was tormenting my mind. We talked about friends, music, life... so on and so forth that does not seem to occupy even 1/100th of my fertile brain..

The third bottle was also finished and I was getting impatient. The torment in my mind seems to render the beer useless. I decided the time was Now. But before I could open my mouth, her lips covered me.

I forgot why I was there at the best place. My eyes automatically shut and our tongue began to play hide and seek inside. I wondered whose tongue was longer. Mine or her? I guess hers was longer. It probed of on and on and on till it seemed to reach my tonsil.

Before our heavenly voyage ended, it came to an abrupt end with the, entry of Puia. I guess he must have walked down and up the street for more than two hours when he decided that I must have done all the necessary things that is expected of a macho man. Sad to say, I confess I have not done anything beyond those tongue meeting session.

And more sad to say that I did not ask the Most crucial question. I came back home relishing the sweet and not to mention the wet kisses. The whole night I thought of the hide and seek which her tongue played inside my mouth.

The next day, Puia and she saw me off at the Sumo Counter. Before boarding the Sumo, she gave a small peck on my cheeks. It said all. That she loved me. That she still care for me. That I am still the one for her. Okay. Fine.

And I just wanted to throw myself at her and propose her hand. But am I the only guy whom she kissed? How many boyfriends have she had before me? Has she slept with anyone? Mmmm... questions and questions.

I spent two weeks at home for Christmas. It was the longest leave I took from office. Every now and then, her face appears before me. “Sometimes under the moonlight night, I felt so lonely that I wish I could cry like hell for the want of her... or to be precise for the want of her slippery tongue.

My holiday over, I bumped back to Aizawl on Sumo on the Guite Road. I reached Aizawl at the crack of the dawn. I was hungry and thirsty to meet her. I had called her up the previous day and her mobile phone was switched off.

I had tried her number a thousand dozen times and it was always switched off. How I long to hear her voice. Or to be brutally frank, how I long to have her tongue play inside my mouth.

The next day, I went to her house. She was nowhere. Her mother received me at the gate.

“Hey, where have you been? Did not Elizabeth invite you for her wedding?”

I was speechless. Suddenly the world came crashing down. I had always suspected that she was no innocent girl. A girl who was not worth to go after seriously. I had had my time with her.

Anyway, I suspect that the guy must be someone whom she had known either before me or after me. I could not imagine her tongue doing a balance or a disco with the tongue of some other guy. My heart seemed to burn. I felt a stab in the chest.

My pulse seemed to race for a world record. And finally my heart seemed to burst like an atom bomb when the mother further enlightened me,

“She married Puia.”

Read Part 1 here.