Ritu’s hand froze on the handle of the bathroom door. The strings of light running the length of the balustrade, coupled with the hanging fairy lanterns were enough to illuminate the man climbing up the stairs. Not that she needed illumination to recognise that obnoxious voice.
She turned, eyeing him climb up slowly, as if he was scared of something happening to him. His forehead wasn't perspiring. It meant it was in his head, not his heart.
“I wanted to catch you alone…”
“Not enough light to stare here.”
“I have good memory. Not that I need it.”
She wanted to raise her hand and paste a tight slap to his cheek. Who the hell was he to think or comment on her body, looks or weight?
“What you need is to stay at home, take care of your failing health and leave the world in peace.”
“My health is none of you concern…” he began to bite back, then stopped. He stalled, as if exercising patience was not a virtue he had ever practised. “Listen, Dr. Kaapadia, I understand you have your issues. But my visit to you is my private affair. You will keep it under wraps. Neither your niece nor her husband needs to know about it.”
“Worried about your couture lehenga company or yourgod-likeimage?” She eyed him up and down, just like he had. He did his best with thegod-like— black suit, dark thick beard, deep voice to exert his authority. The facade was well-built. She had seen the man behind — a sleazy coward who couldn't come to terms with his own medical shortcomings.
“Why don’t you let me worry about my couture lehenga company and my image while you worry about that snappy attitude with your patients?”
Ritu stared. Silent. She had learnt that back and forth worked to an extent with difficult patients. After that, speaking, utilising your vocal cords, your brain, your words — was all a dismal waste of energy. Two decades had taught her to conserve it. Men like this did not deserve it.
“Nowyouare staring. And that is just as wrong.”
“So you realise staring is wrong? When did this holy realisation enlighten your sequin-sized brain? When you were stared at?”
His mouth curled in a cruel smirk — “Trust me, you’d need to stand in a line to stare at me.”
“Which zoo?”
His chest stuttered. But his face remained hard, cruel.
“I do not want to stand here staring at you or giving you myself to stare at any longer than is necessary. I am talking like a civilised man, listen like a civilised woman.”
“You entitled chauvinistic pig of a…”
“What’s chauvinistic about that?” His eyes widened. “Calling myself a man and you a woman?”
“You know very well what you said and what you meant.”
“I meant exactly what I said. I am talking like a civilised man so have the decency of listening like a civilised woman.”
“Because god forbid a woman does not listen?”
His cruel face broke into a grin — “That’s what you took from this? Man, you live insomeother world. Must be crazy and lonely in there, isn’t it?”
“What gives you the right to talk down to people? What in the world gives you the right to come into my niece’s office, to her party, and talk trash…”
“To remind you, I came up here with the noblest of intentions.”
“To order me to keep your precious visit to Dr. Shravan’s clinic a secret?” Ritu fumed. “You asshole, you do not order me. You take orders from me if you want to keep that black heart of yours healthy…”
“Your world must be delusional and amnesiac too because that was my last appointment with you!”
Ritu recollected that exchange. And her latest chat with Dr. Shravan this morning. She smirked.
“For your sake,” she turned and opened the bathroom door. “I hope that’s true.”
Ritu banged the door in his face.
