Page 32 of No Other Love

My tongue stuck to the roof off his mouth.

‘I was thinking…’ Anika trailed off. Hesitating.

‘Yes? What?’

‘If you wouldn’t mind, we could go to the cli- hospital together. For rounds.’ She looked wary.

As if she expected me to refuse. As if the idea was preposterous. And maybe it was. She was leaving in five days. But she was here now, and I wanted it to last…this fragile peace between us. I’d deal with her leaving when I had to.

I had the rest of my life to mourn her leaving.

‘Sure. Of course. We can wrap up the morning pooja, the rituals, by eight and then spend the afternoon working. Is that okay?’

She blinked slowly and desire hit me like a sledgehammer. I took a deep breath that expanded and contracted my chest... which felt tons lighter than it had felt in months.

‘Yes, that’s fine. That works.’

‘You get ready and come down when you’re done. I’ll bring your coffee up in fifteen.’

Anika blinked again and I scolded myself for sounding too eager and autocratic. She might not even take coffee anymore. People changed.

‘That sounds like heaven.’ She slid out of bed. I stifled a groan at the amount of leg revealed in the tee shirt. ‘But make that ten minutes instead of fifteen, okay?’

Then she walked to me, leaned up and kissed my freshly shaved cheek. ‘You’re a good guy, Vikrant Pandit. I don’t know how I forgot that in all our drama.’

I blinked, stuck back in the moment when the woman I loved voluntarily came up to me and kissed me. Even if it was just thefucking cheek. Then her words registered in my Anika-starved brain and I mustered up a smile for her.

‘I’m not that good a guy, Ani. I screwed things up with you.’

Then I left before I did something only very bad guys would do – plant her against the wall, rip that tee shirt off and eat her up whole. Even if she didn’t want to.

***

I hated covering the Jeep up but the rain hadn’t given up, so I had to Velcro the oilskin while Anika patiently held an umbrella over both our heads. Finally, we were off to the hospital I’d chosen to make my workplace for the last year.The town hospital.

Eighteen

Vikrant

The town council optimistically named it Aronda Town Hospital.

In reality, it was a small house in the middle of Market Road with two examination rooms, two in-house hospital beds and a storage room which also coupled as the staff’s lunchroom. My office was stacked, end-to-end, with old case files that I despaired of digitizing and the X-ray machine stuttered ever so often.

I gave Anika a sidelong glance as she took in the contents of my dingy office, hands in the pockets of her jeans. She wore a tasteful, loose tunic over the jeans as befit a female doctor at a clinic. But it only emphasized her femininity,

And I couldn’t forget how she’d looked in the purple and red Paithani sari, my first anniversary gift to her, as she sang along with the rest of the family during the morning song rituals.

She didn’t know the words and was basically tuneless, but the effort touched me immensely.

In fact, everything about her touched me. And not just sexually. She was …softer, more vulnerable and giving, the sharp edges that had formed in her during her MD exams dulled with attrition and time.

If it was possible, I was in danger of falling even more hopelessly in love with her than I already was.

***

‘It’s homely,’ Anika commented politely.

I chuckled. ‘It’s a freaking mess. You don’t have to be nice about it.’