Dr. Awasti was a kind, but stern lady in her mid-thirties. Kind because she asked for no explanation about Khushi's abrupt resignation at her last hospital, stern because she reprimanded her for being a minute late.
But Khushi had no complaints. She had never dreamed, not even in her wildest and craziest dreams, that she would once again resume her practice. So really, she would have accepted even Hitler as her boss with wide open arms.
After being handed a map of the hospital, an ID card and a pager, Khushi followed Dr. Awasti to the emergency ward, where she was introduced to the on-call staff that morning, including a burly looking doctor.
"This is Dr. Ved Arora," Dr. Awasti introduced. "Also an intern here. You will be working with him for the next few days. Once you are comfortable with the hospital and our protocols, you will be assigned patients of your own."
Khushi smiled and held out her hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Pleasure is mine, Dr...?" Ved answered, shaking her hand.
"Gupta," Dr. Awasti answered. "Khushi Gupta, our newest intern. Take her on rounds, show her the infirmary, the usual."
Ved nodded. "So," he said, once they were alone. "New intern, huh?"
Khushi simply nodded.
"How come you joined so late? I thought interns are recruited during the summer."
"Family emergency," Khushi said confidently. Lying came so easily to her nowadays. "So, the hospital gave me permission to start a few months later."
"Oh... I hope everything is okay now?"
"Yes, it is. How about you? When did you start?"
"Last year," he answered. "I will be taking my exam in two months actually."
"That's amazing. So you will move on to be a resident doctor then?"
"That's the plan, unless Awasti screws me over."
Khushi didn't follow.
"She is the one who marks our practical exams," Ved explained, with a sigh. "And apparently she is brutal. She only passed six out of ten interns last year."
"What happened to the ones that didn't pass?"
"Most of them moved to another hospital. It's embarrassing to start all over again, you know?"
Khushi knew the feeling only too well. "I don't blame them... so, shouldn't we be on rounds?"
The rest of the morning passed by with Ved's incessant chatter, who knew everything about everyone, including patients and their families. Khushi didn't know how he managed to get so much gossip with the amount of work he had to do.
And the work was a lot. Despite knowing what to expect, Khushi felt she was thrown into a blazing tornado. Even before it was lunchtime, she was assigned to run labs on some oncology patients, blood work on some accident cases and complete a mountain of paperwork for discharged patients.
Things were no better after lunch. The only good thing, perhaps, was Ved feeling generous and letting her do sutures on a patient.
"Make sure you hold the needle at this angle," he explained, unnecessarily.
Khushi nodded out of politeness but paid no attention whatsoever. She picked up the needle with confidence and swiftly sowed through a six-inch-long gash on her patient's arm.
"Wow," Ved muttered, when she finished within five minutes. "You are a natural."
Khushi didn't answer. After that, Ved let her do all the suturing for the afternoon. By the time their shift ended, she was exhausted, but pleased with herself. She missed feeling the ache in her legs from standing all day, she missed feeling her brain on high alert, anticipating a ring on her pager. All of those things made her feel alive.
"Need a ride home?" Ved asked on their way out of the hospital.
Khushi peered through the numerous cars lined up in front of the hospital. She didn't know if Arnav had decided to extend his graciousness and had come to pick her up.
"Come on," Ved said when she didn't reply. "My car is parked over there."
Khushi shook her head. "Thanks, but my ride is here."
This time, she didn't have to lie. Arnav had indeed decided to continue playing nice, for he sent a driver to pick her up. Or rather, her driver. She was yet to get used to the idea that there was now someone paid full time just to take her around the city.
By the time she arrived home, Lata had faithfully left dinner on the table, but Arnav was nowhere to be seen. Being in no mood to eat, Khushi pulled out the notes she had made on the patients she saw while accompanying Ved that morning and got to work. She was so absorbed in the cases that she didn't even notice a shadow approaching her, until a deep baritone voice spoke.
"Busy first day I am guessing?"
Khushi jumped. "You are home already?"
"It's 9 o'clock," Arnav answered, taking a seat beside her at the dining table.
"Already?" she asked, panic budding through her. "I still have to get through five patients!"
"They gave you homework on your first day?"
"It's not homework... I was just...revising... trying to be prepared."
He snorted. "Nerd."
Khushi shrugged. "I am out of practice, okay? It's been three months since I touched a medical book. I need to prepare as much as I can."
"Okay, other than feeling out of practice, how was your first day?" Arnav asked.
"Good."
"Just good?"
"What would you like to hear?"
Arnav looked at her, slightly incredulous. "Is this how you recount your day? Good or bad? That's it?"
Khushi was sorely reminded of her mother. She too used to ask about her day without fail the minute she came home. "Erm," she said, clearing her throat. "It wasn't bad..."
"My point remains-"
"I mean it was okay!" Khushi said quickly. "It was... Dr. Awasti apparently is brutal. She passed only six interns last year. The other interns are going to take the exam two months from now, but since I joined last minute, I will probably have to give it with next year's batch."
"I see... Did anyone ask why you joined all of a sudden?" Arnav asked, thoughtful.
"I said family emergency," she answered, remembering something else from that morning. "Also... about my mangalsutra–"
Arnav instinctively touched the pockets of his blazer, reaching inside and drawing out the diamond embedded chain. It appeared he had been carrying it around the whole day.
"I promise, I wasn't trying to steal it," he replied, handing the chain back to her with a small smile.
She felt her cheeks tingle a little from embarrassment. "No, no... I know you weren't stealing it–"
"Oh good, because frankly speaking I don't think it compliments my jaw line."
Khushi stared at him for a full minute, not knowing if he was speaking for real. His face was so serious.
"I am joking," he said when he got no response from her.
"Oh," she replied, trying not feel awkward. She had always been bad at jokes, not having a wild –or, as her brother put it, "cool"– gang of friends to chill with after college. She preferred the quiet ones, the ones who were sensible enough to not ask too many questions. Arnav, by contrast, appeared to be exactly the type of people she used to avoid.
He cleared his throat. "Anyway, what were you saying? About the mangulsutra?"
Khushi blinked, shaking her head from the memories of her college days. "Why did you think I shouldn't wear it?"
"I thought it was obvious?" he said, raising an eyebrow.
She was as clueless as ever.
"Well, you didn't seem very keen on wearing it when I walked by this morning," he explained slowly.
"And that... that's okay? If I am not acting as you wife at the hospital?"
He shrugged. "I don't see how it makes it any difference. Besides, something tells me you aren't the type who would like people to know you are married to the trustee."
"I am not."
"Figures," he muttered. "You hungry?"
Without waiting to hear her answer, he started pulling out the plates, serving both of them with Lata's delicious cooking.
Khushi watched him calmly, marveling at how much he had discovered about her in the past two days. He knew that she wanted to practice medicine, that she only stopped because of his parents (albeit that was only partially the truth), that she was fiercely ambitious and brutally trapped in stupid traditions, that she prided herself on earning everything on her own (although her father had believed otherwise)... what else had he observed in her absentmindedness?
* * *
Khushi's second day of internship was brutal to say the very least. Dr. Awasti unmercifully assigned her eight back-to-back cases, saying that she believed new interns learned better if thrown in the pit, rather than easing their way into the job. The clock read ten past eleven by the time she stumbled into her apartment, ready to just collapse on her trusted sofa.
"Long day?"
Khushi jumped at the voice, having forgotten that she wasn't the only occupant of the penthouse. Arnav was sitting at the dining table, a few files open in front of him. The scene seemed the reverse of yesterday.
"Why are you still awake?" she asked gingerly.
"Waiting for you."
Khushi didn't follow. As a general rule, they both ignored each other, trying to make themselves as least visible to the other as possible. So, what happened today?
"What's wrong?" she finally said.
"Nothing," he replied. "I was waiting for you so that we can have dinner."
Khushi was now really confused. He was waiting for her to have dinner? What has gotten into him lately?
"Come sit," he said when she continued to stand frozen in the hall.
She obliged, slowly walking to the table and taking a seat across from him. While it wasn't the first time they were eating together, it was definitely the first time he had gone out of his way to wait for her.
"You look tired," he commented, loading her plate with food. "Is the hospital drowning you in work already?"
She shook her head. "I have seen worse."
"That's not reassuring at all. So, will I have to make do with one-word answers again or will you tell me how your day went like any other normal person?"
"That's the second time you called me abnormal."
"When was the first?"
"When we took your mother to the hospital. According to you, normal people don't know that latex is a common allergen."
"I stand by that by the way. No one knows that."
"So, you are reiterating that I am not normal?"
"I am just saying that you don't act like what I expect."
"It's funny that you expect anything from me."
Arnav gazed at her thoughtfully. "You really make it difficult you know... to understand you."
She didn't answer, again wondering why he was so interested in her. While he may have explained why he secured her position in the hospital, she was yet to understand why he was making an effort to know her.
"So how was your day?" he asked once again.
"You are relentless," she murmured. "My day was good... stressful... busy... exciting... are those enough adjectives for you?"
He snorted. "Yes, I guess. You really don't like talking, do you?"
She looked at her plate. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy talking; it was just that she didn't know what to tell him. Her mother always understood her one-word answers without difficulty. She was the only one who ever waited for Khushi to have dinner with, no matter how late. It was both touching and painful to see Arnav do the same.
"What happened?" he asked when the silence stretched on.
Khushi shook her head. "Nothing... I am just not used to talking about my life this much."
Arnav scrunched his eyebrows. "Don't you guys have a habit of sharing how your day went during dinner at your house?"
She gulped. "My... my mom used to... but after..."
"Oh."
"How was your day?" she asked, not wanting to recollect her mother. The pain was still very much raw.
"My day was quiet... Tuesdays are meeting days, so I met with the board of directors, then the marketing and finance teams, the workers and lastly the admin staff... I wish there was a point to weekly meetings because things don't really change in a span of seven days."
Khushi grinned. "You sound like Vihaan. He hates meetings too, but Papa doesn't let him miss even one."
"What happens if he gets sick?"
"Businessmen don't get sick. I thought you knew that by now."
"My apologies. I am not a veteran in the field yet."
"I am not sure if you want to be one though... they are all quite stuck-up."
Arnav laughed. "You come from a family full of them."
"Exactly. So you know I am speaking from experience."
"Do me a favour, let me know when I become one."
"Who said you aren't already?"
"Are you calling me a stuck-up?"
"You called me abnormal."
"Okay fine, you are normal."
"But you are still a stuck-up."
"Very mature Dr. Gupta."
She chuckled sheepishly. When they finished dinner and stood up to call it a night, Khushi said, "You don't have to wait for me to eat dinner."
"I wanted to."
"I will be working night shifts from next week."
"So this week, I will wait for you."
"But-"
"Here's a thing about me you obviously did not pick up on Dr. Genius. I am not going to fall for your excuses. It's silly that we live in the same apartment and don't even have dinner together."
She was quiet.
"Now go to sleep. And for tomorrow, you can work on your adjectives a little more. Good night."
Khushi watched him retreat to the bedroom without another word. It was when she was curled up on the sofa that she finally understood that this was his way of extending an offer of friendship.
______________________________________________
A/N: I hope that cleared the mangalsutra thing 😊
Please vote & comment - means a lot to me!