“Dr. Khanna!” Rupali mumbled, and then found herself tongue-tied.

“Think about it. Don’t reply right away. Tell me tomorrow or even later.”

He didn’t stay in the room after that. Rupali was thankful for it. She needed the space. And time. The enormity of what had been proposed to her made her mind shrink back in fear. It refused to tackle it. She focused her attention back on Meenal to guide her through the building block exercise.

But once she left Paritosh’ house, there was nothing to distract her from the tempting proposal she had received. She had been a normal teenager before her parents died. She made fun of her teachers, concocted plans to bunk the classes and dreamt of a world where she wouldn’t have to study so hard. If the opportunity to study had not been taken away from her, she would never have known that one could long so much to do it. The simplest things in life, especially those that we take for granted, when taken away, reveal their true value to us. If such things were offered back to you after you had realized their true value, it was impossible not to be tempted to succumb to the offer.

Only if it wasn’t too good to be true! Why should Paritosh do so much for her? It was true that he was already overpaying her, but that could be explained away as something he was really doing for his daughter. Perhaps that little gesture he witnessed that evening, of Meenal addressing him as Papa and saying that she loves him overwhelmed him. And he came up with this way of repaying her. But it was too much of a commitment for a moment of intense emotions he felt. By the time she reached pharmacy that night, she had been able to overcome her initial astonishment and think through it calmly. If it seemed too good to be true, it perhaps was.

After coming back from the pharmacy in the morning, her mind was made up and her morning nap was not disturbed.

When she reached Paritosh’ home Maya was also there. When Rupali asked to talk to Paritosh he told her that he had to leave just then and he could talk only in the evening. Rupali suspected that he didn’t want to discuss his proposal in Maya;s presence and that strengthened her decision to refuse him even further. She congratulated Maya on their engagement and received a hostile look and a disdainful response.

“Oh! So you have been told.”

Rupali nodded and withdrew.

“She is the first one to know, is it?” she heard Maya ask Paritosh.

“I didn’t think knowing about it was such a privilege, Maya,” Paritosh responded lightly, “That we should make a priority list of who should know whom. Things will change around the house. She had to know. I happened to mention it during a conversation.”

If Maya replied to that, Rupali didn’t hear it. She was out of earshot by then.

In the evening Paritosh came back unaccompanied.

“I’m sorry,” he told Rupali, “I couldn’t talk to you in the morning–”

“That’s all right, Dr. Khanna.”

“What have you decided?”

“It isn’t a good idea.”

“Why not?” he looked crestfallen.

“Several reasons.”

“Tell me some”

“I know that with Meenal’s surprise yesterday you were feeling overwhelmed. But it wasn’t anything special that I did. Sooner or later, with her counselling, she would have improved. You don’t owe me anything for that–”

“Wait a minute. I didn’t propose anything on the spur of the moment. It had nothing to do with Meenal. I had thought it through and only then–”

“Dr. Khanna. What you are doing for me, this job, this salary – it is already much more than I deserve or could have asked for. I don’t want to reach for more.”

“If only you would tell me your salary from the clinic and your other job, I will be able to say it with certainty. But even now I am pretty sure it won’t cost me a penny extra.”

“I cannot tell you just how grateful I am for your proposal. And it has nothing to do with money you are willing to commit. Perhaps that isn’t such a big deal for you. I am grateful because you thought so much for me. It makes me happy, trust me.”

“If it isn’t about money, and it actually makes you happy that I thought about this, then why are you refusing? Give me one good reason from the several you claimed you have.”

“One of those is the same because of which we couldn’t discuss this in the morning.”

“Excuse me?”

“Maya Ma’am doesn’t know about this. She would be uncomfortable, that’s why you didn’t tell her. There is nothing extraordinary there. Anybody in her place would have been uncomfortable. And she is going to be your wife. This alone is good enough a reason, Dr. Khanna.”

Paritosh looked thunderstruck.

After pausing for only a moment, Rupali took her leave, “It’s time for me to leave, Dr. Khanna. I will see you tomorrow morning.”

—

“I have barely a month and a half left in India,” Mihir told her that night. He had come to meet her at the pharmacy.

“Aren’t you excited?” she asked, smiling.

“I’m suddenly realizing how much I am going to miss once I leave.”

“At first, perhaps. But then you will find many more things to interest you there.”

“Rupali. I…”

She looked at him questioningly. But he decided not to continue. Instead he said, “Would you like to watch a movie? I have brought my laptop.”

“Why not? It’s not like there is queue of customers at this hour.”

She found the movie boring though and didn’t realize when she drifted off to sleep. She woke up to Mihir’s hands caressing her cheek, her head on his shoulders. She stayed still for a moment, letting the romance of the situation wash over her. Then she got goosebumps and stirred a little. Mihir realized that she was awake. He cupped her face and kissed her.

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” he whispered and smirked.

“That was one boring movie,” she teased him as she stood up.

“And I thought women liked romance.”

“If that was romance I do not like it after all.”

“What kind of movies do you like?”

“Don’t know. I don’t watch that many.”

“What do you do then? Apart from this job, where you have to wait for the customers that are few and far in between and do the same inventories over and over again.”

She sighed. She didn’t want to share her miseries with him.

“This and that,” she replied, feigning frivolity.

“You do spend an awful lot of time with your family. What do you guys do?”

“This and that,” she replied again and laughed, “Stop being a detective and either help with inventorying or go back home.”

“I will go back home. Your inventorying will bore me to death. Have a good night. Let me know if we can go for a movie this weekend.”

“I will tell you on Friday.”

“Good night, Rupali.”

“Good night.”

—

To be continued