The days that followed the fuller flat returned to the shape of ordinary time, yet nothing about them felt ordinary anymore. Rajesh woke each morning with the same uncomplicated desire, the same short, steady rhythm that had once been enough. Priya turned toward him, opened for him, and felt the polite, incomplete stretch the moment he was inside her. His chest rubbed across her breasts; a faint bead of milk sometimes formed and was never noticed. The small climax his fingers could produce rippled through her without ever reaching the depth two cocks and continuous mouths had taught her body to need. He finished, kissed her shoulder, and left for the bank. The unlocked door remained open behind him.

She waited until the sound of the car faded, then removed whatever she had worn to bed and walked naked through the apartment. The balcony doors were opened to the monsoon air. Her bare breasts pressed to the rain-cooled glass while milk left thin trails down the soft undersides. The hunger sat in the center of her, sharp and specific, already coiled for the first knock.