I froze.

I literally froze when he kissed me. It’s not like it is my first kiss. I have kissed before. Its just it is him that I am kissing. I probably shouldn’t call it a kiss, it’s just a small peck on my lips and it ended before I even realised.

I am happy that it is just a peck as there are still many things for us to discuss and I don’t want to move forward without discussing them and I think he too knows that.

He then hugged me and I never felt so at peace even though we both are aware of the hurdles that we need to cross. We stayed like that for some time.

“I know we need to talk about things before going forward”, he told me softly.

I sighed, “I know. Things like who is that Anu you mistook me for”, I told him seriously.

He laughed lightly, “Yes. That is the most important thing right now”, he teased me.

“So?”, I lifted my head from his chest and asked him, “Who is she?”

He again laughed, “I never thought that the day comes when you are jealous, that too for me”

I pouted, “You can ask anyone who know me, they will tell you how possessive I am”

“I know. How can I forget when I am probably the first victim of your possessiveness because you thought I am stealing your sister and stabbed me with a pen? I still have the mark on my head”, he told me with a sad face and rubbed my nose with his.

“Okay. Ground rules. Rule 1: never mention the stabbing incident”, I huffed and told him.

He laughed at that.

“Mmm...Let me tell you I am not a person who follows rules. And moreover I am the victim here and you cannot deprive me from using my victim card” he shrugged.

“Yeah. You are right. You are the victim and I cannot let a victim stay with a perpetrator. Let’s go get that divorce you were asking”, I tried to come out of his hug.

He hugged me more tightly, “No need for that. I like to be your victim”

“Ewww...That was so cheesy” I made a disgruntled expression.

“So what? I like cheese”, he shrugged smiling.

“Please. Having too much cheese is not good for health and you cannot escape from the question by acting cute”, I mock glared at him.

“She is Anusha, my cousin. You too met her. She wanted to have medical examination done for her visa and I mistook her with you in hurry”, he explained.

“Oh. Okay”

He then kissed my forehead and let me go.

“I am starving. I will freshen up and come. Let’s have dinner”, he told me and I nodded.

While he went to the washroom, I went downstairs to get food ready. His mom was sitting on the couch and reading some surgical magazine. I greeted her and saw that the dinner is already being set up. So I went and sat next to her.

“You look happy and excited”, she commented seeing me.

I shifted awkwardly and patted my face, “ Oh. Do I? Nothing special happened though”, I told her.

“Okay” she concluded at that. I don’t know how to interpret that.

After dinner we went to our room, studied for sometime for tomorrow’s surgery and then slept. Well, I don’t have to tell that we slept holding each other. I don’t know when this became normal for us.

The next day we went to work as usual. Work is different today as we are stealing glances at each other and smiling when our eyes met. Today Sid and Karthik are also on the shift. So we decided to eat together.

When we reached cafeteria, Sid and Karthik already are talking with each other. When they saw us two coming together, their mouths are wide open. As soon as we sat down, they both started frantically looking around the cafeteria worried that anyone is observing.

I too glanced around and found that no one is looking at us. Almost everyone knows that Sid and I are close. And these days Sid and Karthik are inseperable since they both are giving us time to spend together.

“So what now? You guys are announcing that you are married?”, Sid asked almost immediately after confirming that no one is suspicious.

“Shut up Sid”, I glared at him looking around if anybody heard.

“What? You guys came together”, he accused me.

“So? Can’t we come together for lunch when we are working together?” I asked him.

“Really? Then why didn’t you guys never had food together in the cafeteria from the past two months?” Sid asked me.

I opened and closed my mouth and looked at Arjun and Karthik. They are eating as if it doesn’t concern them.

“Won’t you say anything?” I asked Arjun.

“He is your best friend not mine”, he shrugged and continued eating his food.

“Oooh, you stopped calling him sir”, Sid exclaimed.

I don’t know what to tell them as he and I didn’t discuss where we stand.

“Ok sid, you had your fun, now stop teasing her” Arjun chided him laughing.

“So you guys are really together now?” Karthik asked Arjun sir.

Arjun sir looked at me and said, “Not yet. We decided to be civil with each other. So stop interrogating us and eat. We have ICU rounds in 20 minutes.”

Suddenly I lost the appetite and all the butterflies which were in my stomach flew away. I know he is saying that because he knows that we still need to talk. We both know that no matter how much we like each other we cannot hurt Sharanya as we both care for her.

Nobody spoke after that. We soon left for work. Through out the day, I felt an impending doom. I don’t know why. Next day afternoon after our shift ended, we left for home as usual. He and I didn’t spoke. I sighed. We seem to take one step ahead and then take ten steps back in our relation.

Once he parked the car, I tried to open the door to get down.

“Ananya”, I stopped opening the door.

“We need to talk”, he said.

I looked at him and nodded.

“Not here. Let’s go out and talk”, I told him.

He took my hand in his.

“Not today. I have a meeting with some contractor in the main branch and tomorrow we have surgery. Day after tomorrow is off for both of us. We will talk then”, he rubbed his thumb on my hand and smiled at me.

I too smiled at him and nodded. He then squeezed my hand and kissed it and left for his meeting.

The day we need to talk came fast. I woke up and looked that he is still sleeping holding my hand. A smile appeared immediately and I kissed his hand and went to get ready to go out. His family is thinking that we are going on a date.

I came from the dressing room to find the room empty. He might be in washroom. I looked at my phone to see that my brother called five times.

I tried calling him and he didn’t lift his phone. So I went down to talk with Amit dadu before leaving. At the steps I heard commotion and a voice which I can recognise any time.

She came back.