The Perfect Bride (Completed)

CHAPTER: 3

Well, as first days went, it had been a good one, Nandani mused (absorbed in thoughts.) She kicked off her shoes and dropped tiredly onto her extremely comfortable bed and closed her eyes. Thank God she was not on duty that night. She wouldn't have been at her best, although she would have done it as she had done it countless times over the past couple of years.

She replayed the day in her mind, but she did not get a great deal further than Manik.

Manik's voice, Manik's laugh, Manik's hand on her shoulders, Manik's chest squashed up against hers when they first met. She peered down at her bust, full and feminine, and wondered how his hands would feel gently cupping their softness.

A dull ache started up behind her eyes. She was tired. She must be, for having started imagining things like that about her new boss. After all, after that first initial contact, he had been very wary and had kept his distance both physically and verbally.

No little jokes, nothing to suggest or give her any indication that the attraction she thought she had seen in his eyes had been anything other than her imagination or a fleeting interest that would disappear with time and further exposure.

Which was just as well, wasn't it? And, anyway, he was probably married. 

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"Did you have a good day?" Manik asked his five-year-old daughter Ruhi.

Ruhi nodded. Her eyes were wide and sparkling with mischief. "Granny took us to the beach again. We had ice-cream and went on the little train and Aryan (Manik's three-year-old son) was sick from eating too much popcorn."

Alya's mother smiled apologetically. "I don't think it is anything to worry about. Children often get sick if they overindulge. I shouldn't have let him have so much, should I Aryan?"

Aryan shook his head cheerfully. "My vomit was all full of popcorn and bright green from my lollipop, and..."

"Okay, Aryan. We don't need the details," Manik said wearily. How many times he had told their grandmother not to spoil them so much? They always had too much sun, too much food, too much everything. Manik hustled them to the car, strapped them to their seats, and took them home, tired but happy, and decided that he was being too strict. So what if she spoiled them a little? They were kids. God knows, they had very little fun in their lives.

It was funny how bathtime and bedtime always seemed endless, and yet when it was done and the children were tucked up in bed sound asleep the evening seemed to stretch on into the hereafter.

Manik showered and changed into old jeans and a T-shirt, meaning to tackle the garden a little before going to bed. It had been a gorgeous evening and he found himself sitting down after his solitary meal with a beer in on hand, and the local paper in the other, and also thinking about Nandani.

Lord, she was pretty. Her soft curves had squashed up against him most invitingly, and he really had never wanted to let her go. He had forgotten what a real woman felt like? How solid and robust and positively right.

Manik's heart started to thud more heavily, just with the memory. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back against the lounger and sighed. Was it wrong to want another woman? It didn't feel wrong. It felt frighteningly normal and right.

It wasn't as if Alya was still alive.

And he was. If he had any doubts about being alive in the past two years, today had dispelled them all. Yes, he was definitely alive, well, and in the market for a scorching affair.

Just sex, he promised himself. No commitment. Nothing long term or permanent, just a wee bit of diversion to help ease life a little, he thought. After all, the kids needed him and there was very little leftover to give anybody else.

But an affair with Nnadani, oh, yes. He could handle that, he thought.

She was a colleague, his alter ego was nagging him gently. He switched it off. She understood the rules. She was a woman of the world, that was obvious from the assessing look she had given him that had thrown him off guard.

He thought, that they could work together and play together. It would be fine. He'd make it fine.

His heart thudded a little faster, the beat, heavy and strong under his ribs. Anticipation. He had forgotten the taste of it, it had been so long.

He would flirt with her a little, draw her out, see if she was interested. Maybe dinner, a play or the movies, something like that.

He wondered how Alya's mother would feel about babysitting for him while he entertained a new woman.

Perhaps he would ask the girl next door, to babysit.

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Nandani thought, maybe she had mistaken. Maybe Manik was interested. Either that or she was reading him all wrong, which could be fairly embarrassing!

She wasn't. Every chance that Manik had, he made eye contact with her, and his eyes were very expressive. She wasn't sure if he meant them to be, or if they just gave him away, but he was certainly interested in her.

She still didn't know anything about him, however, but she was willing to bet from what she had seen of him at work that he wasn't the sort of man to cheat on his wife. The easy thing, of course, was just to come out and ask him, but she didn't like to.

It was Dr. Aryaman Khurana, one of the senior registrars, who told her in the end. They had been working together on a patient, and as the trolley was wheeled away to the ward, he stripped off his gloves, dropped them in the bin and grinned at her, in a friendly manner.

"Well done. I can see why Dr. Manik speaks so highly of you, apart from the obvious attraction he feels, of course," he said to Nandani.

His eyes were twinkling, and Nandani felt a soft tide of color brush her cheeks. She ignored the compliment on her work. She asked him, "Meaning?"

Dr. Aryaman laughed softly. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed the way he looks at you?"

She shrugged, pretending indifference. "Is it so obvious?"

"It is for me. It makes a change to see him notice the sex of his colleagues. Not that anyone's criticizing, Dr. Nandani. We are all vulnerable to the right pretty face. Anyway, it is good to see him taking an interest in a woman. Two years is a long time." 

"Two years?" Nandani asked, trying not to let her curiosity be too obvious.

"Since his wife died. I don't think there has been anyone since," Aryaman replied.

She felt the shock of his words in a wave of regret for Manik. how had his wife died? Slowly or instantly? Did he know it was going to happen? Did he say goodbye? How much had he been hurt?

So many questions without any answers. There was only one Aryaman could answer, that she was prepared to ask. "Did they have children?" Nandani asked him.

"Yes, two. A girl and a boy."

Nandani felt a pang. She wasn't sure which was worse. To have them and die, or live and not have them.

Nnadani's life was full, after all. Her work was demanding, interesting and stimulating. Her private life was about to be colorful if Manik's eyes were to be believed., and everything in her garden was rosy.

Well almost. Except for that little corner where nothing grew, where nothing would ever grow, but it was engulfed by busyness that often threatened to swamp her.

Yes, it was good to be alive. Far better than to be dead. Or be widowed. Poor Manik. She wondered when he would tell her about it? She sensed that his private life and work were kept very far apart, and she wondered which slot she would be fitted into if she became his mistress.

She gave a short, humorless laugh. "Don't count your chickens, Aryaman," she warned. "I am sure if he was that interested he would have done something about it by now."

But he hadn't, and by the end of the week, she was wondering if he ever would.