That did it.
Komal grinned. “Is this really Karan Wadhwa I’m talking to,” she teased, “or are these your medications speaking? Because the Karan Wadhwa I knew was never this…wife-centric.”
He rolled his eyes. “Doctor,” he said dryly, “do the job you’re here for. I don’t have the time or patience to entertain your teasing.”
Her smile faded as she leaned forward, ready to remove the bandage. But the moment she reached for his arm, he pulled it back sharply.
“Don’t,” he said.
She frowned. “Why not? How am I supposed to inspect what’s wrong if I don’t touch it?”
“Do whatever else you need to,” he replied firmly. “Just… let this be.”
Confused now, Komal hesitated.
Karan then lifted his free hand and lightly touched the bandage himself, his fingers brushing over it with unexpected care. “Mishti tied this,” he said quietly. “Don’t take it off.”
And suddenly, Komal was stunned as she recalled a vivid moment from the past. A moment very similar.
She remembered the day Mishti had injured her leg at the temple. How Karan had cleaned the wound himself, carefully, and tied his own handkerchief around it. And later, when Komal had come to inspect the injury, Mishti had said the same thing.
“He tied it. Don’t take it off, please.”
Komal was instantly emotional. And she wasn’t the only one. Mishti, too, had heard everything.
She had been standing by the door when Karan and Komal were discussing how the earlier bandage had soaked through with blood. She hadn’t interrupted. She had stayed there quietly, listening, overhearing it all. Including the part where Karan had flatly refused to let Komal change the bandage simply because she had tied it.
Now, she walked in. Surprise shimmered in her eyes, at Karan’s words, at his gesture, at the depth of it all.
Both Karan and Komal looked up when they noticed her.
Komal finally exhaled a long breath as she looked at the two of them, almost in awe, “You husband and wife… you’re both crazy, you know that?”
She shook her head with a faint smile and added, “Your love is crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever met a couple as madly in love as the two of you.”
Karan and Mishti didn’t respond. They simply looked at each other. Karan felt something warm bloom in his chest at Komal’s words, which he didn’t even try to hide. And Mishti didn’t quiteknow how to take it all in. She had never believed a day like this would come.
A day when Komal, the same friend who had always said Karan wasn’t good enough for her, was now standing there, openly admitting that the man was crazy about his wife.
About her.
That had to mean something… didn’t it?
Komal cleared her throat, bringing them back to the present and turned to Mishti, clearly defeated. “Mishti, now you tell me what to do. He’s not letting me touch the bandage.”
Mishti snapped out of her thoughts and moved first, straight to Karan. Komal stepped aside, giving her space, and instead pulled an ottoman closer, sitting across from them.
Mishti gently began removing the temporary bandage she herself had tied around Karan’s arm. And Karan let her without a word or protest.
Komal watched the two of them quietly. Then she carefully checked the stitches. “They’re fine. Nothing to worry about.”
Mishti took a sigh of relief as Komal continued, teasingly this time, “But you might want to stop cuddling your wife so tightly at night, Mr Wadhwa… unless you want a repeat of this.”
Karan clenched his jaw, fully aware she was only pulling his leg.
“Next time you visit,” he said dryly, “do bring a feedback form along. I’ve got a lot to write about you. So that your hospital knows better than to sendyouto treat any couple again.”
Komal burst out laughing, even though he followed it up with, “I’m not joking.”
