After his little outburst, we came back to the hospital for the surgery and he was kind of aloof with me.

After the surgery everyone is sitting in the residents' common room and doing their own work. Tanya, Hussain, Nidhi and I are sitting and writing a thesis about a diskectomy for a journal that we all are co-authors. He is in a deep discussion with Natasha maam and Dhruv sir.

After some time Nidhi and Hussain went for a surgery. As soon as they left Tanya started. If you forgot let me remind you, Tanya is the gossip queen of our department and she had a major crush on Arjun sir. She grew out of it and is now dating a pediatric resident.

“Okay, spill", she told me.

I am flabbergasted. I did not understand what she is saying.

“What?” I asked her bewildered. If she is asking that means she is on to something.

“Fine. Let me spell it out for you", she told me giving me a look.

“From the past hour, you are stealing glances at the devil. Not to mention he too is looking at you when you are not watching”, she told me irritatedly.

“What the hell are you spouting?”, I asked her angrily so that she will leave the topic.

And am I watching him?

That’s some news.

“Oh please, I practically invented that tactic. These days you both are sticking to each other like gum and you have same shifts. Something is going on. I can tell. Now you tell", she looked at me excitedly.

“I seriously don’t know what you are talking about Tanya. We both are working under Acharya sir, you know that. And you know Hussain has a little thing for Natasha mam, so I booked my shifts with him so that Hussain can be with mam. He was so happy. But she didn’t even took a glance at him you know", I told her innocently.

Thank god this tactic worked and she went on and on about Hussain and Natasha mam.

Once the shift is done, we both went back to his home. And during dinner his mom casually dropped a bomb on us.

“Day after tomorrow is off-day for both of you right?”, she asked me at the dining table.

“Yes aunty", I replied her.

“That’s great. Your uncle and I are going for board of directors meeting at Chennai and Bengaluru. So you and Golu have to attend Misha's engagement function", she told both of us. Misha is his cousin.

“What about Kavya mom?” he asked his mom.

“Kavya will be coming with us because she will be taking care of hospital administration in the future and it will be like a training to her and Papa can’t go, you know that", she told him.

“Don’t worry aunty. We will go", I assured her.

I don’t want him to argue with his mom because of me. He knows that I am still not comfortable going out with him as his wife and not to mention there will still be gossip about us. So he is trying to avoid going. He always defends me without even asking. I want to at least repay him by not making his relation with his parents worse.

And moreover, he and I have to face the relatives and family friends even after the divorce. So if we don’t go now, they will think that we are scared to face them. I don’t want them to give that satisfaction.

I went to the room after dinner and started studying. Usually he will come after an hour, but today he didn’t come today.

Is he that hurt?

I closed my books and went to sleep but didn’t slept for a long time. Why am i not getting sleep?

I tossed and turned irritatedly then the door opened and he came. I immediately sat up. He looked at me and went to the washroom. I quickly ran and opened the books so that we can study for some time. Why am I so excited for a stupid study session?

Before I can think about it, he came from the washroom and went directly to the bed. He didn’t even speak a word with me. Again why am I disappointed for a stupid study session?

“Umm...sir?”

“I am very tired today Ananya, I want to sleep" he told me indifferently and laid down on the bed.

I don’t know why I am feeling this restless.

I sighed and tried to concentrate on studying. I don’t know when I slept.

The next day he continued the silent treatment again. I tried to engage him in a conversation, but he just gave one word answers.

When we reached home after our shift, there is literally no one in the home except Amit dadu. And Arjun sir immediately went to the main branch for some work after dropping me. I spent time with dadu and once he slept I came to the living room.

Arjun sir didn’t even had any food after the shift. It’s almost 11 in the night. Since tomorrow is off for us, I can wait for him. I sat on the couch and flipped aimlessly through the channels. Nothing good comes on TV these days.

I switched it off and called Sid. Ever since this marriage happened and he and I started working together, Sid and I started spending less time together. I know what Sid id doing. He is letting me spend all my time with the devil thinking that I might start loving him.

Arjun sir is not that bad. I can get used to living with him. He may be uptight, but he is a nice person. Life with him won’t be that bad. But, at the end of the day, he is not mine. He is Sharanya’s. This life belongs to her. Say if we both forget all this and tried to make this marriage work, I will lose my sister and that effect will be on our relationship.

I don’t want to blame him for anything in the future. He has done so much for me and my family.

With these thoughts I dozed off. I don’t know when I woke up, but when I did wake up, his face is very close to me.

*******