Context. Let’s call her H. She taught us technical subjects in college. And I was her favourite student. Would nominate me for everything that had a nomination and would ask me to contribute and Co author with her on research papers and projects. We also had travelled together for 6 or 7 conferences to present and publish our work. We were rather close but always had a normal teacher student bond and respect. She got married during the penultimate year of my college. And after college we went our separate ways. I had no contact with her for the 3 years after college.

Last year, May 2023. She contacted me out of the blue and told me that she needed my help. She was rather emotional and was sobbing and had asked to meet me. I agreed and we met up at a cafe when she travelled to the city I was working in, Mumbai. She told me of how she suspected her husband of having an affair with a colleague and she had snooped around with suspicion after finding a woman’s clothing in her husband’s bag after he returned for a supposed “work trip”. As so it happens her husband worked in the same firm I did and she wanted me to see if her suspicions were true or if she was going paranoid. I somehow consoled her and taold her I’d ask around if anybody knew anything. Turns out the affair was an open secret at her office he worked in and him and his colleague would often travel together for “work” and leisure in the cover of work. And that it had been going around for 2 long years. I told h of what I had found out and she later confronted her husband about the affair. He accepted it and told her that he had been contemplating leaving her and her daughter for the colleague (who turned out to be pregnant). He already had a divorce letter drafted but hadn’t had the courage to give it to h, till she confronted. And like that he left H and her 3 year old daughter.

I heard about the divorce and reached out to h. I too felt very guilty cos I was the one who told her of what I had found and that escalated the situation. Moved to the city she was teaching at, Pune. And I tried my best to cheer her and her daughter up. We rekindled the friendship we had before. Over the months I started spending most of my post work evenings at H’s house playing with her daughter and helping her out with chores and all. And slowly the relationship evolved to that of friends and a lot more. Around last Diwali, we were celebrating together when she told me that she feels much happier and hopeful when I am around and I told her that i think I had started liking her. We both felt awkward at first but talked it out and agreed to handle whatever that came adults. Over the next two months we spent more time together and we got really really close to the point we both knew we had fallen for each other. She introduced me to hher family as a colleague who was helping her out. Her sister even teased her about me. Meanwhile me and h we acknowledged that we were in love. We’d have these touches every now and then and we would also. Stare. At each others eyes as we cooked food or did chores. We had both romantic and sexual tension build up. With touches, stares, laughs and all.

Last Christmas, h told her parents that she had a special coaching session from college and would have to attend it and wouldn’t be able to visit them for Christmas along with her daughter. We took her daughter to her parents home and on the flight back she told me that she in fact lied to her parents that she had the coaching sessions so that we could spend some quality time together. So I cancelled my trip home and decided to spend the Christmas and new year with h. We both talked about what we both were feeling. She told me that she felt so safe around me and how I had been taking care of her and her daughter. And tbh, I enjoyed it too. They had over the past 6 months grown so close to me that I felt of them as my family and her dauhter felt like my daughter. Without her daughter around we were free birds who didn’t have to hold back our feelings. And so began our life of love and lust. We spent the entire Christmas week at home making love and being a couple watching films and going on dates. And tbh, I enjoyed it a lot to the point in my mind she was more of a. Girlfriend than my former teacher.

This continued on after her daughter returned. I started spending not just evenings with them but nights too. We’d tuck our daughter to bed and then go to our room to make love and sleep cuddling together. And it became a regular thing. Eventually I moved in with them. And we have been in a state of living together since last March, whenever I am in Pune that is.

Last June we found out she was pregnant. We were shocked at first because despite what we were told each other, I am still her former student. We have an age gape of 7 years and almost all of my friends know her as my teacher. Eventually we agreed to face whatever comes our way, just as we had agreed when we started the relationship. Her colleagues from my college knows that she is carrying, two teacher had even visited her. But she told them her partner was a colleague, the same thing she has told her family. Though her sister knows that I used to be her student. But she has been supportive of us so far. She’s almost 6 months pregnant now and the doc says we can expect our baby by March mid. While we have had our scares in between, I don’t regret any decision I have made with h so far. Her daughter has started seeing me as her dad to the point she calls me pappa now. And I feel complete with them. Like they r my family. If only I had known back in college how h ma’am and I were meant to be. I wonder if things would have been different between us. She tells me that I was her favourite student while teaching. And that she had fantasised about us when we went for conferences together, merely as a thought while relieving herself. We do talk of how different both our lives would be had she made a move then. What could have been ?