“Crashing to my death, if not due to my heart’s resting rate shooting up then due to my driver’s recklessness.”
“Oh please, the road is empty.”
“Then accelerate. We both might be out of our miniseries sooner.”
“Just book an Uber to Carter Road, add Reclamation as pick-up.”
“No.”
“Mr. Patel.”
“Just drive, ETA is 10 minutes. You can keep quiet for at least 5 of those, can’t you?”
“Iwasquiet!” She lost her cool. “Oh my god!” She yelled, becoming half Maya, half her old self. “I was silently driving and you poked me for being silent. God help me, god help me!God, help me!”
“Man, the god in your world must be so frustrated.”
“Shut up.”
“This is my car and I will not…”
“Shut up or I will not treat you.”
Silence.
Blessed, holy, sacred, precious silence. Ritu took a deep breath and slowly and steadily accelerated. Sudden lurches were bad for the heart, not the slow rises and falls. She controlled the car even better now as the open, empty road launched them onto the SeaLink and across to the suburbs. The silence in the car remained, supplying much-needed peace to her brain. It brought back worry about Maya. If she had fallen on her back from a height… if it was broken? A spinal injury…no, stop.
She glanced sideways again, hoping the obnoxious man would say something cutting and make her not think the worst. He was quietly staring out of his window.
They cleared the toll booth on the other side, and Ritu snapped the parking indicator.
“What are you doing?” His voice was quiet.
“I’ll be getting out here. Thank you for bringing me this far…”
His hand reached out and switched off the indicator. “Keep driving.”
Her body tautened. There was something in that voice. Soft, low, dangerous. Final.
Ritu did not take those.
She reached out to switch the indicator again when his hand caught hold of hers.
“Don’t play with both our lives. Drive.”
Her hand twitched in his, ready to turn over and smash his perfect long fingers between hers. Hers weren’t stronger than his but weren’t so… chiseled either.
“Doctor.”
She swallowed, the car slowing down in the last lane.
“Please,” he bit out.
She brought the car to a halt on the shoulder of the Reclamation Road. And turned to him. He wasn’t looking at her. His profile was granite. The bones were protruding, his sharp nose looking sharper. Had he looked so gaunt at his last appointment? She just noticed it. Had he been eating well?
“Your lifestyle changes,” she found herself asking. “Are you following a diet?”
“I have cut out all that you asked me to.”
