You know that moment, about a year and a half into a relationship, when you know almost everything you need to know about your partner and often find yourself browsing through online articles telling you new experiences you should try with him or her? Me and Nitish* were in a similar phase in life. We weren’t really bored with each other but there was nothing new to find either. It was a calm and pleasing but highly monotonous stage of our relationship.
That is when, in one of the many articles I read, I found the magical words ‘Go lingerie shopping with your man’. Lingerie shopping! Yes, that is something we hadn’t tried before. I talked to Nitish about it but he laughed it off with a wave of his hand saying, ‘You are going mad, you know!’ and that was the end of that.
Until, three weeks later, we found ourselves at a mall’s food court for our weekend lunch date (we were both broke students, dates had to be in budget) and I spotted a well-known lingerie brand store with the words ‘Buy 1, Get 50% Off On The 2nd’ printed boldly on a bright pink poster with a leopard print bra on top. ‘Nitish!’ I exclaimed ‘Let’s go!’
‘Where?’ he turned to look at the place I was pointing at and then shook his hand ‘Not again, please. Let me eat this pizza in peace.’
‘Why are you such a spoilsport?’ I asked. ‘I’m not. Why do I need to go to a lingerie store? I will get to see what you buy, anyway’ he replied with a wink.
‘Shut up. It’ll be a new experience!’ I said.
‘Travelling together is a new experience. A new sex position is a new experience. This? Not so much.’ He replied, still nibbling on his pizza.
‘Do you not want to go because you are ashamed of accepting how a woman’s body looks?’ I asked him. And that’s how I ended up lingerie shopping with my boyfriend on a Saturday.
The minute we entered the store, however, I realized I was in a pickle because this was obviously way out of my budget. I couldn’t possibly afford a bra that cost me more than Rs 1500. But now that I was in, I decided to actually go through with it. I looked at Nitish’s face and saw a faint hint of blush cover his cheeks. ‘Are you embarrassed, sweety?’ I teased him, picking up a corset off the rack and waving it in front of him. ‘You’re evil,’ he replied, taking me by the hand. I laughed much like Mojo Jojo as the woman standing next to us gave us a questioning look.
‘C’mon, be mature and buy whatever you want,’ he said.
‘This isn’t about maturity,’ I replied with a grin. That seemed to lighten him a little because he picked up a lacey bra and handed it to me, ‘I think this one would look quite nice…’ next he picked up a thong ‘…with this maybe.’
We spent almost half an hour in the store, trying out different lingerie items. I would send him pictures from the changing room and he would vote yes or no or this-makes-me-so-horny through emojis. For most of the things I tried, it was the third option!
It was when I got insanely tired of changing into clothes that I told him we could leave now. ‘Why? Don’t you want to buy anything?’ he asked ‘Can’t really afford anything, but I got the experience I wanted!’ I smiled and walked out. We had just walked like 20 steps from the store when he exclaimed ‘Damn, I left my phone there! Just wait, I will run and get it.’
I stood there, yawning because it was getting quite late when I saw him walking back with a packet from the same store. A smile spread across my face, ‘That place is damn expensive, man! But this should be good for our next night out,’ he explained as he smiled back. I hugged him real tight but saved my actual thank you for the next night we spent together!
*Names changed to protect privacy.
Images: Shutterstock
