“Are you all right?” Paritosh looked up from the screen and asked, making Rupali start.

“Yes. Why do you ask?” she searched his face for any knowledge of what had transpired between her and Aniket last evening. There seemed none. But she couldn’t trust her judgment. She might not be seeing it, because she didn’t want to see it.

“You are unusually fidgety. If you have to be somewhere, you can come back later. I will finish reading the document and send you an email.”

“I’m fine, Dr. Khanna. There isn’t a whole lot to read. So, if you could read now and give me your feedback, I can get started on further reading.”

“As you wish.”

He turned his attention back to the screen and Rupali felt relieved. Aniket hadn’t been stupid enough to talk to his brother about it after all. But her relief was short-lived. A minute later, the door to Paritosh’ office flung open. It had been shut partially to indicate that he was busy.

“You really should knock, Aniket,” Mildly annoyed at the interruption, Paritosh chided his brother.

“Oh, I am sorry,” he shot dagger eyes at Rupali, which she met boldly, despite her throat going dry at the thought of immanent proverbial spilling of beans. “Did I interrupt something private?”

Paritosh now turned his full attention to his brother, realized that he was drunk, and asked sternly, “And what do you mean by that?”

“I mean exactly what I should mean, Bro. You are pretty sneaky. But your girlfriend here spilled all the secrets. All I have come here to ask is why! Why must you go after the one woman who I wanted?”

“Aniket!” Rupali cried, “I never said anything on Dr. Khanna’s behalf.”

“I am talking to my brother, Ma’am. Will you please shut up?”

“You are the one who will shut up and leave, Aniket. You have no business coming to my office drunk. Leave now.”

“You must always be the hero, right Bro? Fine, I am leaving. But what you did wasn’t right. And you will pay for it.”

“I’m sorry, Rupali. What on earth was that?” Paritosh started speaking apologetically, then the guilty look on Rupali’s face gave him pause. “You know something about it?” he sounded tentative.

“Aniket has made a mountain out of a molehill. I will speak to him,” she replied.

“What is the molehill here?”

“You don’t need to be bothered about it, Dr. Khanna. I spoke hastily, in anger–”

“What did you say?”

She fell silent, but he didn’t relent. “What did you say, Rupali?” he repeated, more insistent this time, with the same sternness in his voice with which he had asked Aniket to leave.

“I did not say anything on your behalf. I only spoke of my feelings for you. He was badgering me–”

Paritosh slumped back into his chair.

“This is a disaster,” he mumbled.

“I will speak to Aniket. He is wrong to blame you. I never–”

“Leave Rupali. I need to think this over.”

Her breath caught in her throat. It had been almost two years since she had started her Ph. D. program with him as her supervisor. He had never spoken to her like that before. As she dragged her feet away, they felt as heavy as lead. At the door she turned back, but saw him leaning back in his chair, his eyes closed and his brows furrowed. It was a disaster, after all.

—

Paritosh opened his eyes as soon as he heard the door being shut behind her. What a terrible way to discover that she had feelings for him. And what terrible timing. It was still at least two years before she could finish her Ph. D. under him. She surely understood the situation. That must be why he had never guessed it. She had hidden it well. So why would she go ahead and blurt it out all of a sudden? To his brother of all people?

Perhaps he would be calm and collected enough later to figure this out. But right now, he had to manage an immediate crisis. If Aniket went blabbing around before people at the university, both his and Rupali’s career would be in jeopardy. He called up Aniket’s mother.

Yes, Aniket has talked to her and asked her if she knew about Rupali and what Paritosh felt for her. And yes, she had happily told him that Paritosh loved her.

“Meena ji. Hadn’t I told you that nobody was to know about it?”

“But it was your brother. What harm could it–”

“Well. He is in love with Rupali too and creating a ruckus about it now.”

That unsettled her for a moment. But soon she was singing a different tune altogether. Since Paritosh could not be with Rupali anyway, what was the harm? Aniket would be happy with Rupali and surely keep her happy too. Would her parents agree to an inter-caste marriage?

“That is not for you and me to decide, Meena ji. Rupali will love and marry whosoever she likes. And if it isn’t Aniket–”

“But you could talk to her.”

“I will talk to her what I must talk to her about. But not about this. Now please listen, there is an immediate problem and you must help me with it.”

He explained to her that if Aniket breathed a word about him and Rupali to people at the university it could create a huge problem. He extracted a promise from her that she would talk to her son right away and stop him from doing something like that. Then he returned his attention to what he must do with Rupali.

—

To be continued