I awoke the next morning to my entire body hurting —and not in a good way. My head was pounding and my eyes felt heavy despite getting a good nights sleep. I felt shivers running down my spine, making my entire body shake and the soles of my feet felt eerily cold. I dug myself deeper into the blanket searching for warmth.
And that's when I sneezed. Repeatedly. I felt my nose running and I dangled my hand out of the blanket blindly searching my night table for a tissue.
"Here." Abhimanyu handed me over a tissue as he leaned down and watched me struggle to do even the basic task of wiping my nose.
"Thank you." I choked, coughing my guts out.
"I think you may be sick. The flu probably." He felt my forehead only to tell me — "Yeah, you have a fever and a cold. You're burning hot."
"You think?" I croaked out sarcastically, making him chuckle.
I don't know why but sickness and me were the worlds biggest enemies. I hated getting sick and the world loved making me sick.
But on the plus side, my sarcasm shot through the roof when I was sick. So it wasn't exactly terrible.
"You know what you should do, eat more ice cream in the pouring rain." Abhimanyu reprimanded.
"Hey! Don't you dare say a word against the love of my life." I croaked, flinging a pillow at him but failing miserably.
"I thought I was the love of your life."
I coughed. "I'll have to think about it. Abhi it hurts so much." I groaned.
"I'm sorry, babe. Let me see if I can shift some appointments around." He offered.
I shook my head. "No. It's okay. You go. I'm useless anyway. I'll take some Tylenol and try to rest."
"What about food?" He asked, concerned.
"I don't feel like eating but I'll some food once I feel better."
I opened my eyes to look at Abhimanyu who seemed to be in deep thought about whether he should go to work or not.
"Abhi go! There isn't much you can do here. This sickness will just have to run it's course. Go now, hurry, so you can come back soon and pamper me."
"Okay. I'll try to run by on lunch to see how you're doing."
I nodded my head and gave him the most pathetic thumbs up ever while simultaneously sneezing and coughing my guts out.
Abhimanyu leaned into me to give me a kiss, making my eyes go wide. I pulled away from him. "Abhi! No! You'll get sick too! It might be contagious."
"I won't get sick. I don't get sick. Now let me kiss you." He demanded, before he crushed his lips to mine for a soft yet heartfelt kiss.
I honestly would have argued more had I not been feeling so weak. And also, I had been craving his kiss since the moment I woke up.
"Now go!" I groaned, sniffling into the tissue.
"I'll see you soon." He replied, leaving me to silk in bed, alone. I wanted to yell lies, because I knew he'd be held back at work for one reason or another but I refrained myself. I knew it was just my snappy sick self talking.
~*~
Just as I was about to shove a second big scoop of butter scotch ice cream ice cream into my already dying self, my phone rang. I checked to see if was my boyfriend dearest calling.
I groaned as I let the phone ring for a few more seconds debating whether I should answer it or not.
It was as if Abhimanyu had superpowers that made him aware of exactly when I was going to be making bad decisions —especially pertaining to my ice cream.
Sighing, with a heavy heart, I answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey baby. How are you feeling?"
I coughed, "Better."
"You don't sound it." He replied.
"Trust me, I'll be fine." I replied, staring deliriously at the tub of ice cream in my hands.
"Did you eat something?"
"Umm...yeah...I was just about to eat." I answered, hesitantly.
"You know, you can put the tub of ice cream away. Thats the last thing you should be eating."
I gulped. "Umm, how did you know I was eating ice cream?"
"I didn't. But thanks for telling me." He reprimanded.
"That's not fair, Abhi! You cheated!"
"No I didn't! You shouldn't be eating ice cream when you are sick! Do I need to ban you from eating ice cream?!"
"No! You wouldn't dare!" I scoffed, horrified at the thought of it.
"I can and I will!"
And that's when I heard it. I heard him sniffling into a tissue as he cleared his throat masking his cough.
"Abhi...are you sick?" I asked, very well aware of the answer.
Sniffle. "No. I told you—" Cough. "I don't get sick. It's probably allergies."
Lies! Abhimanyu was sick and he was denying it.
"Abhi! You're catching a cold."
"No. I'm not. It's just allergies."
Just then, I heard Abhimanyu talking to someone in the room —letting me know my time with him was coming to an end.
"Akshara, I have to go. I'll see you tonight. Take care, okay, baby?" Sneeze. Cough.
"Yes, you take care too." I replied, not wanting to push him further. Let him be in denial for a little while longer. Because in the end, he was going to be in the same spot as I am.
~*~
At around 6pm, as I pressed play on my comfort movie —Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, I heard the front door open and the sound of hackling cough and sporadic sneezes filled the room.
I shouldn't have been the one to boast about being right, but I was secretly thrilled that Dr. I-Don't-Ever-Get-Sick was finally getting a taste of karma. He was blaming me getting sick on ice cream and now I was going to blame his getting sick on kissing me —despite me warning him otherwise.
"Abhi?" I croaked, trying to hide my satisfaction. "You're home early."
"Akshara. Do you know it's not nice to taunt a dying man." Abhimanyu complained as he stumbled into the room, removing his coat and dropping dead onto the mattress in front of me.
"Dying? Whose dying?" I teased, mustering up enough humour as my body would allow.
"Me. I think I'm sick Akshara." He groaned into the mattress.
"Abhi! Get up." I nudged him.
He looked up at me from the bed, his hair a tangled mess, the tip of his nose red, like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. His eyes were watery with dark under eye bags letting me know he had been restless the entire day.
"Abhi, come up. Beside me."
Abhimanyu plopped his head onto the mattress, rubbing his nose into the white sheets in denial. The poor baby didn't even have enough strength in him to look at me anymore, let alone move.
High on medication, I moved up to Abhimanyu and helped pull him up onto the bed beside me, covering him in two blankets.
"Did you take any meds?"
Abhimanyu sniffled into the tissue, "Yes. But I don't think it's working. Why isn't it working, Akshara?"
I sighed, bringing the blanket up to his chin. "Doctors really do make the worst patients."
"Hey!"
"It's the truth. You are Sample A."
"Haha." Abhimanyu's sarcastic laughter turned into a phlegm filled cough.
"How was work?"
"Terrible. I had to cancel half my appointments." He sneezed and coughed some more, whilst making sounds like a dying whale.
"Here, have some soup." I helped him hold the bowl of soup, feeding him the first spoonful myself.
"Tasty. Did you make it?" He asked, drowsily.
"Yes."
"Did you have some soup?"
"I did. This was my movie snack."
"What are you watching?"
"My favourite comfort movie, DDLJ, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge."
"What's it about?" He asked, sneezing into the tissue.
"A girl and guy fall in love but the girl is promised to someone else. So the guy travels to her hometown in India to try to impress her parents and steal her away. It's about how their love overcomes all trials and tribulations and becomes victorious."
"Okay."
"And since you are sick, you have no other option but to watch the movie with me." The devil in me told him.
"Please. You can make me do anything now. And I won't complain." He groaned closing his eyes.
~*~
"Why won't Raj and Simran just run away?" Abhimanyu asked me, fully engrossed in the movie.
"Because Simran loves her Bauji and Raj respects him. And most importantly, they want to prove their love is true, their love isn't weak and that they are not cowards."
"Ah, makes sense." He said, as he went back to watching the movie, drowsily, his eyes closing on him.
I drowsily smiled thinking that a guy who till now had never watched a Bollywood movie was now throughly enjoying an evergreen classic.
And just like that, we continued to watch the movie until both our bodies gave out, and we fell asleep in each others arms. Tired, sick, body aching, and high on medication.
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Who remembers the callback to the chapter where Akshu called Abhi a coconut? Well now, he's making small baby steps to improve. Hope you all liked this chapter!