“Scared.”
She nodded. Her eyes rose back to his — “After years I am living in a world I used to love,” she shrugged, crying. “My city, my people, Maya, the bond we had, and then you came. The other shoe always drops. Always. In New York, I don’t have to be wary of it because nothing matters there. Nobody matters there. Here… everything matters. More so now.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
“No I don’t.”
“Becauseyoumatter, because you are more to me than anybody else. Happy?”
He bit back his smirk. “Go on.”
“That’s it.”
“I can listen to more.”
“More what?”
“More grovelling.”
“This is enough for your ego.”
“What the hell did you think would happen to it when you up and left my house this morning? After everything we shared last night?”
She opened her mouth but he held up a hand — “No, seriously. What did you think would happen if you had actually managed to fly to New York? Don’t I know how to get a ticket?”
Her lips pursed in a pout.
“Idiot, idiot…”
“Don’t call me idiot!”
“That’s what you are! Leaving in the middle of the night like some thief…” he muttered under his breath, unable to soften the glare that he was lazering at her. “Now onwards, you are not to leave here without telling me.”
She opened her mouth but he cut her off again — “No, withoutaskingme.”
“In your dreams!” She glared back through her tears.
“That means you agree to stay here.”
Her mouth again pursed in a pout. Stupid, Doctor. She wasn’t in her right senses to see where he was taking her with this.
“You are trapping me!” She whined.
“Alright, then,” Nilay gripped her chin between his thumb and forefinger. He pushed her hair away with his other hand and smiled at the part-grumpy-part-shy smile that made her even more beautiful to him.
“Yes. I am trapping you. And that’s because it’s you. All you. Not children, not any gratitude, not some god syndrome, Doctor. It’s only and only you. For me, right now, and now onwards till this thing stops working,” he pointed at his chest. “It is you, Ritu. You looked like winter and smelled like rains to me, and then you smiled like the summer and held me close like spring. They are all mine. And this, your dense, idiotic…”
“Hey!”
“Arbitrary EQ-less autumn is also mine. Only, don’t pull what you pulled this morning again. I am a heart patient.”
“Oh, shut it. You are fit as a fiddle now.”
“But now that I know the perks, I’ll never stop playing that card.”
“Fine.”
