Pace My Heart (A sequel to *Happy To Meet You*)

Chapter-44

#Kindly note there are two point of views in this chapter.

Ava

“Please don’t ask me your favourite question.”

That’s the first thing he said when I opened the door of my apartment to find him standing there with a smile. Someone had unexpectedly turned up at my front door and I was pleasantly surprised. Earlier in the evening he had called up asking me out on dinner which I had politely declined. My resident clinical case presentation was scheduled for tomorrow and there were awful lot of last minute preparations left. I ended up grabbing a quick early dinner at the hospital cafeteria and was settling down in the apartment after returning from work when the doorbell rang.

“I was missing my girl so I came to meet her.”

My girl? It was sounding a bit odd hearing that from him.

“Aren’t you going to invite me inside?”

He asked because I was staring at him lost in my thoughts.

*

  While I was busy preparing the coffee in the small kitchen, I could see him walking around my single room studio apartment. Since it was a single undivided space, I had kept only few furnishings to keep it uncluttered. It was a small yet cosy and comfortable place that I like returning to after a long day or night at the hospital.

“It’s not good as Starbucks, but it’s not that bad either.”

I said while handing him a steaming mug of coffee.

“Thank you.”

He replied while sitting down on the couch with me.

*

“My mom and dad.”

I told him looking fondly at the picture frame that he had picked up from the side table.

“You must be missing home.”

He was still looking at the picture in his hand.

“Yeah, I do. Sometimes badly.”

It had been more than a year since I last went home and there were times when I got terribly homesick.

“How’s your mom?”

He asked me studying the picture.

“She is kind of scary,” I stifled a giggle. The picture was taken right after she gave me one of her endless dreaded pep talks and she looked pretty miffed in it. It was actually one of my favourite pictures and whenever I missed her, I will find myself looking at the picture.

“Really? I will know that when I meet her.”

“Huh.”

“Nothing,” he replied while keeping the picture frame back on the side table.

“You have a picture of yourself with your cats?”

He observed while picking up the other picture frame.

“I have five of them.”

I said with a big smile. Back home, I had two male and three female cats and I had clicked a picture with all of them together in one frame.

“Five? But I see six.”

He noted with a surprise look on his face. Six? I took the picture frame from his hand and looked at it confused. That’s when I realised what he was talking about. He counted me as the sixth one.

“Very funny,” I replied dryly watching him chuckle at his own observation.

*

“How was your day?”