Asfi-Zubi - Love will find a way!

The fire still smolders within-(Part 5)

Z:" I don't know this Dr Suboor. I haven't even met him even once. It will be strange to just land up like this"

Avi laughed: "All I care about is getting free desi khana. We are students, we cant expect to be friends with Professors. Come on, it will give you a chance to get out of western clothes for once. And spend a relaxed evening speaking your language. I will reach you in an hour."

Zubiya dressed with care. She smiled at her reflection. She hadn't really looked at her appearance for the past two years, but today she wanted to feel pretty. She wore a midnight blue kurta with a deep neck, delicately embroidered at the neck with antique gold thread, which she wore with a handwoven chanderi silk sea-green dupatta. With her hair  rippling down her back like a sheath, smoky eyes and a touch of color at her lips, she knew she looked nice.  Avi and Vaani picked her up and reached Dr Suboor's home where they were warmly welcomed by his wife and him. The air smelt of familiar food and haunting ghazals played in the background to the large terrace looking out in cold open skies.  Zubi looked around and found a number of other South Asians she knew from med school. As she moved from group to group, she was searching for Asfand and hoping that she could meet him at least once today. At the end of the terrace, was a group of senior doctors, men and women, and Zubi saw him standing with them while they all listened to him speak. She stopped and wondered miserably if any of those beautifully dressed women was his wife. That thought jolted her out of her absorption in him and she stood undecided. At that very instant, he looked up and saw her. And as they stared at each other across the length of that terrace, something magical happened. It was as if the crowds melted to the distant periphery and there were just the two of them, bound by invisible threads, pulled towards the other.

He watched her stop, and then with a very slight smile she walked towards him.  As if she had every right to claim his attention. He had been tracking her the moment she enetred the room. Hell, he had almost compelled Dr Suboor to open the small intimate get together that was planned to include residents. Just so he could see her again. He watched her and wondered miserably, why does she have to look so lovely, far lovelier than he had imagined? He looked at her curvaceous figure, memorizing details which he had not been aware of, the way her hair fell on her right shoulder, her neck and shoulders partly revealed, the swell of her bosom revealed by the neckline of her garment, the way the cloth stretched over her breast and molded her waist. How had he missed so many details about her? Oh yes, that was because she had always covered herself in so many layers earlier. To his already muddled mind, it felt as if he had witnessed the birth of an exotic, colorful and rare butterfly from the cocoon she had built around herself earlier. He found himself mentally applauding the metamorphosis.  He was compelled to move towards her, hastily excusing himself from other guests, even though he had been so angry with her all day that he had promised to ignore her for the entire evening if he met her here.

Z: with the slight smile, as if she was continuing a conversation which had started earlier, with no greeting" Aaj meri surgery thi, isliye main aap se aa ke mil nahi payi. Aur jis waqt free hui us waqt aap jaa chuke the."

A: "Kaisi hui surgery?" he was taken aback that she was actually apologizing and had just admitted that she wanted to find him. He also found the familiarity of their interaction, without any introduction infinitely sexy; as if they had been speaking all this while and had only parted for a moment.

Z: " It went well. You will find this interesting. One of the infants had a prolapsed intestinal canal at birth. ..." She launched into a description and they walked to the edge of the balcony looking out over the sheer valley of lights below them. He listened to her carefully and asked her questions. Watching her, he was struck by her new found confidence, her ability to look him in the eye and discuss everything as an equal; She was different. Her enthusiasm about her job and her patients made her eyes shine as she finished her narration. He found it difficult to look away. As always he was in danger of  drowning in her eyes. He looked away with unseeing eyes, trying to feel the anger he had been boiling away in since last night, but couldn't feel it. All he knew was that he wanted to stand before her and listen to her speak; and with great clarity he knew that that is what she wanted to as well.He could see it in her eyes and her body language, how oblivious she was of everyone else, that she was here for him.

A: " Why did you choose  Pediatric surgery?

Z: " The pediatric part was easy, I wanted to work with babies. Surgery, I guess I was inspired by you." She answered without any hesitation, seriously and honestly.

A: ( thinking, ok so we can now stop pretending we don't know each other?) I never thought you would go into something as high pressure as surgery. But then, as everything proved it, I hardly knew you."

Zubi looked down and away at the bitterness in his tone. But remembering her own pep talk, she didnt want to spoil the situation.

Z: " I wanted to tell you how interesting I found your surgery procedure. I can imagine it will cut down the surgery time in half. When did you actually develop it?"

A: " I can not honestly say it was all my doing. Dr Shehroze gave inputs and some improvements came in because of the resource crunch in the hospital. I was not even treating it like the great improvement that people here seem to be doing.

Z: " I felt really proud yesterday. I could not congratulate you but you do deserve the success."

A: completely taken aback. " Thank you.  People are so interested that I am meeting a group of donors tomorrow, who find a lot of potential. Let us see how this goes. I would be very happy if this puts us on the map" .

Z:  " So you will not be available tomorrow as well?" ( she said it and then looked embarrassed at her verbal admission that she wanted to be with him).

He ignored the comment. Mostly because he suddenly realized they were so close together that he could smell her delicate perfume. The wind was whipping up her hair and as she held it away from her left shoulder to pile it on her right, he realized that right there in the line of the prominent collarbone and left shoulder, was a tiny black mole against the pale honey skin, which he had never seen before, which he wanted to reach out and touch with his fingers and then his lips.He felt incredibly turned on.

The moment was broken as other people joined them, but even when Zubi moved away neither could she stop looking his way nor could he stop finding her every few minutes just to make sure she was there.

Finally, as the evening drew to a close, Dr Avi, who had observed Zubiya and Dr Asfand with some amusement as they seemed hyper aware of each other, quickly volunteered to drive Dr Asfand home. He guided his confused wife into the front seat so Asfand and Zubi could sit at the back.

Sitting together in the dark immediately reminded them both of the innumerable rides they had taken together at the Neelum Valley. Memories flooded their minds and they both felt very conscious of each other's presence. The steep hills of the city and the cramped car, at a particularly treacherous turn, Zubi was a little thrown in Asfi's direction against his right arm and shoulder. In that tiny, tiny moment, they both looked at each other, deeply, closely and uninhibitedly, as if time stood still. Words were not needed. The temptation to put her head on his shoulder and for him to simply put his arm around her was so great that the air crackled with the intensity of their longing. Zubiya quickly righted herself and glanced consciously at Asfi, who was gratified to see that she was taken aback by her own reaction and  her head quickly bent down in embarrassment and confusion, as he well remembered.  Very quietly, he bent towards her and whispered really softly only for her ears, "Some things have not changed." They both looked at each other and she nodded her acceptance that there was unfinished business beteen them.