Page 53 of No Other Love
She closed her eyes. Swallowed hard. Once. As if the words, the confession was too much. Everything.
My heart hammered in triple time. Waiting…hoping…
‘You don’t love me half as much as I love you,’ Anika whispered, tears gliding free down her golden eyes. ‘Idiot. I should make yousufferright back.’
‘But you won’t.’ I squeezed her hip, arrogantly. ‘You like the benefits of me loving you too much.’
Anika shook her head but didn’t refute my bold claim.
I felt relief and love and a thousand other emotions move through me. I lifted Anika up by the waist, swinging her around. Gave free voice to the whoop in my chest.
Iwhooped.
And Anika laughed. ‘Put me down, Vik. You’re not Iron Man to carry me around like this without dropping me.’
‘That’s okay, honey.’ I brought her down excruciatingly slowly, smiling like I’d won the lottery. And I had. I held the world’s wealth in my arms. ‘I’m a doctor. Saving people is my chosen calling.’
‘It’s not.’ She disagreed, kissing each corner of my lips, now that she had the freedom to do so. Now that she knew she was loved back. ‘It’s loving me.’
And because I was a smart man, I kept my mouth shut and just kissed her back.
***
When I let her go, she looped her arms around my neck and held on. ‘About our current situation…I have an idea, if you’re okay to listen?’
‘Do I have to right this minute? I’d rather make out with you on my bike? Isn’t that one of your fantasies?’ I teased her, joy and love healing all the cracks in my heart. Sealing it into something stronger, more resilient and unbroken than it had been. A golden seal on a never-ending love.
‘After,’ she promised. ‘The hospital…it’s everything you worked hard for, Vik. I wouldn’t ask you to give it up for me. It’s not fair. As much as you asking me to move here and give up my surgeon dreams.’
‘I know.’ I kissed her red nose. ‘I know, Anika…’
‘But we could give up half our dreams for a little bit?’ she said softly. ‘I’ll move here for the next few months or however long it takes, get a rotation in the nearest city hospital. Keep my hands on the scalpel, so to speak. While your dad recuperates and gets back on his feet fully. In the meantime, you could look toadvertising for a partner to run the practice for when you move to the city with me?’
I was stunned. ‘You’d do that? For me?’
She nodded and brushed a stray tear away. ‘I’d do anything for you, Vikrant Pandit. And just for the record, I’m not asking you to leave Aronda completely behind. We can commute between the two places. As much as we can. And if your parents are comfortable and willing later on, we could rent them a place near our apartment so we can keep an eye on them and give them their independence too.’
The solution was simple, thoughtful. It gave everyone what they wanted without losing too much of themselves. I was stunned to not think of it before.
‘And if it doesn’t work, we will figure something else out. Together,’ Anika said softly. Confidently.
My eyes glistened, went red. Emotions overflowing from a full and undeserving heart. ‘I don’tdeserveyou.’ The words were fierce. A vow against her pink lips. ‘I am going to keep you anyway, Anika Chakraborty.’
‘Anika Chakraborty-Pandit,’ she corrected me. ‘I’m Anika Chakraborty-Pandit.’
‘I’m yours.’ I lowered my forehead to hers. ‘My heart is yours, Ani. It’s yours for all time.’ My voice shook with the force of emotion, love and hope and a happy ever after that was just beginning. ‘If you leave me again, you’ll just have to pack it up and take it with you. Because it’s useless without you.’
‘I’llkillyou before I go through this trauma again. Got it?’
‘Dying would be a kindness than living without you, sweetheart.’ My reply was completely heartfelt.
She sniffled. ‘Don’t make me cry anymore, idiot. I look ugly when I cry. You know that.’
‘You’re the prettiest woman on the planet.’ I swung her around and she screamed in shock. ‘The solar system. The entire fucking universe. This whole galaxy and all the billions of others…’
She shut my hyperbole up with her lips. And swallowed the words of love and affection and promises to keep inside her forever. I hoped she knew I meant everything I said. And always would.
Behind us, Aronda Lake glistened majestically, awaiting immersion of yet another year’s Ganpati Bappa murtis. But, for now, it bore witness to two people who had braved everything to be together. To choose each other.