“For me?”
“You told me you didn't have an umbrella and Kedar hadn’t responded to my message to go get you.”
“I found one under the seat.” Ritu leaned into him, allowing herself this closeness at his workplace because they were closed in the elevator. “Were you like this with them as well?”
“My girlfriends?”
“Ex-girlfriends.”
“I like you jealous, Doctor. But no. Come,” he ushered her out of the lift. The designers, the executives, and his entire marketing crew were all at it. She met smiles, waves, nods with her own. Nilay’s designing days of the year were coming to an end, with his newest collection’s toiles completed. Ritu walked into this office and straight to his cave inside, where the toile he was the most excited about was already laid out for her.
“You are crazy to have me try all your pieces!” She reached for the soft chiffon. This year’s collection was all pastels — soft, lilacs and powder pinks, dreamy. He was switching it back down from his last three years’ aesthetic of bright, muted and heavy ghaghras to fairytalish and girly.
“That way.” He pointed to the restroom. So he was in his serious designer mode, working things over in his head, huh? Ritu smirked, setting her keys and phone down. She reached for the top button of her oversized black shirt. She popped it open. His eyes went to it. His jaw tightened.
“Doctor.”
“Hmm?” She went to the next button. Popped it.
“We have to reach Gautam and Maya’s for dinner by 8.”
“So?” She shrugged, feeling his eyes fixate on the skin that was uncovered.
“We don’t have time. I need to see the fall of this piece and send it for…” his words stuttered as she peeled her shirt off and threw it to his chair.
“You asked for it!” He pounced on her and she shrieked, kissing the hungry beast that was out to eat her whole. Ritu preened, feeling so powerful in this man’s reaction to her. Winter had turned to summer, summer to monsoon, and they had become the old bickering couple in most things life. And yet,this,this, was a constant.
“We have embryo transfer tomorrow,” she kissed him back, dying to but unable to go forward. “We can’t!”
“We can do other things.” He dropped to his knees.
“Your showstopper piece…”
“Will wait.”
“Gautam and Maya…”
“Will wait.”
“MM!”
“We’ll take her a bunch of googoogaagaas, now shut up, Doctor. You started this!”
————————————————————
WINTER
Ritu set her keys on the counter and padded inside the house, stopping to push the panel of windows open to air the space. This winter was cold, and the sun outside was warm enough to dispel the stillness inside. She walked into their silent bedroom, having been silent all week because Sir NiP was in Milan. A smile tugged her mouth wide, thinking about the photos he wouldn’t stop sending her. His collection displayed at a museum, his runway show, himself on the red carpet. She would have accompanied him, was even ready to go, but an emergency case had held her back. Apparently, Nilay Patel would not let her feel FOMO.
Ritu pulled her surgical cap off and pinched the diamond studs in her ears out of practise. Lab-grown, not real. She had spent the first week of their engagement explaining, pleading, cursing and finally yelling her way into convincing the ostentatious man that a diamond ring was useless to a woman who needed her hands clean and sterilised for half a week. A pair of diamonds in her ears had been his workaround. The next level of convincing had gone on through that month — lab-grown was one-tenth of the actual price and nobody noticed a difference. Ritu still wasn't sure these were lab-grown, given that he had been preening while gifting them to her. She peered closely at them. She was too swamped to go and have them checked, the month and the year winding down already.
She reached for her scrubs’ top. And froze. It was the last week of December. 25th. Two more days and she could test. Nilay was coming home this evening. They could start testing this evening and then go on with one test each for tomorrow morning, evening and then the final ones. Practically, it was crazy to test two days before and after the designated dates. She was a doctor, she knew it. But she also knew that wherethiswas concerned, neither of them could wait. After multiple crushing disappointments, they still couldn’t wait.
Ritu opened the bathroom vanity and stood back, the pregnancy test tempting her. She wetted her top lip with her tongue, thinking. Was it right to test without him?
But then, today wasn't even designated. It wouldn’t show yet. What difference did it make if she did? Just a time-pass test. Her entertainment had been at an all-time low without the house clown. Maya wasn't enough either, now that she had experienced Nilay’s closet crazy. And rediscovered her own.
She reached out and snatched one out of the dozen boxes that she herself had stocked there. Ritu glanced around, half-expecting her husband to materialise and catch her red-handed.
