Sexy

The cocktail dress comes to symbolize Miranda’s awareness of herself as an object of sexual desire for Dev and, eventually, of the fact that her relationship with him is quite limited. Miranda purchases the dress after a whirlwind two-week affair in which Dev flatters her by praising her body and calling her “sexy”—a compliment she has never received before. Rather than end the affair when Dev’s wife returns from a trip to India, Miranda accepts her status as Dev’s mistress and purchases the cocktail dress as part of this role. If the idea of mistress already suggests a kind of limitation, the fact that Miranda never has the opportunity to wear the cocktail dress for Dev suggests just how limited her relationship with him is. That the cocktail dress ends up on the floor of Miranda’s closet powerfully illustrates the fact that their relationship is strictly confined to Miranda’s apartment. The cocktail dress takes on a darker shade of meaning toward the end of the story when seven-year-old Rohin tells Miranda she’s sexy when she wears the dress at his urging. Rohin also tells Miranda that the word “sexy” means “loving someone you don’t know.” Miranda is devasted by the awareness that the boy and his mother have been harmed by an adulterous affair, one Miranda imagines was driven by a married man’s pursuit of a “sexy” younger woman—a situation that closely parallels her relationship with Dev. In turn, the story associates the cocktail dress not just with Miranda’s realization that her relationship with Dev is superficial, but also with her burgeoning sense of guilt about their affair.