In her DMs

It was a Friday. I finished my work on time and I packed my bag. I was really happy and excited that day. The reason was not that the weekend was at the corner but rather I was going to meet my friends for dinner. I left from the office and headed to the mall where we were going to meet.

I reached the mall where my friend Reena had been waiting for me. Few of my friends were going to join us two hours later so Reena and I had a lot of time to talk about a lot of things. After our casual talk Reeena dived into a topic that completely surprised me.

"Have you noticed something off about Ketan in the recent days?" She asked me.

"Unusual as in he argues with everyone for everything. If you say sun sets in the West, he will argue that it sets in the North. It is impossible to have a civil conversation with him," I expressed my frustration with about Ketan with Reena.

"Not like that. I wanted to ask about flirting. Does he flirt with anyone?" Reena asked me hoping to find an answer.

"He flirts with every girl on the floor but what is new about that? Sometimes I feel that he should start behaving. He is in his 40s, he is married, has a daughter. Now is the time to grow up and start acting the age," I went on without even realising what Reena was referring to.

"He slid into my DMs. He has been sending me really strange messages these days. Like the ones generally boys send in their 20s when they want to flirt with other girl. Let me show you," saying this Reena opened her messaging app. She opened the chat with him and handed over her phone to me, "go ahead and read. Tell me what you think," she said.

As per my friend's instruction I went through the chat and I read through the conversations. It was evident that Ketan was texting her every night after 11:00 p.m. there had been times when she had told him that it was not an appropriate time yet he continued with the conversation. When she was not replying he had sent out many text messages asking why was she not replying. He had called her "beautiful" several times which I found inappropriate (not that my friend was not beautiful but calling her beautiful in every sentence was not normal). He had asked her several times if she would like to meet him over a cup of coffee. She had told him no several times but he kept insisting. I handed over the phone back to her. I was shocked and disturbed to see his erratic behavior.

" This is so unbelievable. Why men find it so easy to throw away their marriage and family for a fling? This is so absurd," I said in disbelief.

Reena checked her phone. Looking confused she asked me, "have you told Ketan that we are meeting today?"

"Absolutely not," I told her. She showed me the text from Ketan, "hey I heard that you are having dinner with your friends. Send me a picture of all your beautiful friends. A group photo is all of need".

I felt sick to my stomach after reading that. I felt furious too. Why simple "no" is difficult to understand? Reena was angry, "this is a new low. I am blocking him. Enough of this," she blocked him on the messaging platform.

We tried to carried on our evening and tried to enjoy. At the back of my mind I was still thinking about the texts from Ketan. I knew that next week onwards I will not be able to see him in the same light.