Veritas - AbhiRa FF

Chapter 7 - Stolen Moments

Abhimanyu hummed a melody as he walked back to his cabin having finished his scheduled surgery of the day. It had been a complicated CABG and the patient had been an old patient of his, but the surgery had gone better than expected. He was lost in the thoughts of the procedure while he removed his shoe covers when he collided with a hard presence.

"Sorry. Didn't see you there." He apologised while looking at the new person. She seemed familiar but Abhi couldn't place her.

"No problem. Saw the surgery you did, I was mighty impressed, I must say." The lady replied with a smile on her face.

A little confused, Abhi introduced himself to the woman in question, "Dr. Abhimanyu Birla."

"Dr. Kashish Bajaj." On seeing his questioning look, she continued, "General Surgeon from Alliance Hospital in Bhopal. I am supposed to meet with Dr. Harshvardhan about an opening in the Surgery department."

Abhimanyu smiled politely at her, recognising her from her on the resume he had seen a few days ago, and made small talk with her while while directing her towards his father's cabin. They had barely taken two steps forward when a voice interrupted their conversation.

"Abhimanyu."

Akshara woke up to her usual Good Morning text - it bothered her that there was no banter associated with it. It was similar to the texts he had been sending the past two days and a part of her wondered if he had realised his folly and would stop pestering her for a relationship. The thought was not as pleasant as she would have hoped.

Making up her mind to talk to the aforementioned doctor about something that had bothering her since yesterday, she reached the hospital early and began to look for him.

An involuntary smile made its presence known on her face as she saw him walking through the corridor lost in thought which turned into a frown as she saw him smile at the woman in front of him.

She was really pretty, Akshara thought to herself. Taller than her Munchkin like height, she suited Abhimanyu - both were tall, beautiful people. If her lab coat was an indication, she was a doctor too. They were both smiling at each other and Akshara could almost see herself turning into an ugly shade of green. Before she realised it, her feet had made their way to the couple in question and her mouth had shouted out his name.

Abhimanyu looked down to see Akshara almost skidding to a stop in front of him as she called out his name. Confused at her presence almost an hour before her scheduled session, he turned to her and asked, "Akshu? What are you doing here?"

"I needed to talk to you about something." His Akshu replied, purposefully ignoring the woman in front of them. Abhimanyu nodded at her before looking at his earlier companion. "Dr. Bajaj, this is Akshara Goenka, she is the music therapist here." When Akshara deliberately paid her little attention, Abhimanyu had to discretely place his hand behind her back and turn her towards the doctor. Surprised at her sudden lack of manners, Abhimanyu continued, "And this is Dr. Kashish Bajaj. She is here to interview for a position in our department."

Dr Bajaj gave her a confused smile and Akshara willed herself to act like a polite woman instead of an abomination and gave her a reluctant smile.

"It was a pleasure to meet you. Good luck with the interview."

Dr. Bajaj's smile grew more confident at her words and she bid them both adieu stating that her interview was about to begin.

Neither Akshara, nor Abhimanyu were paying much attention to her words by then, both suddenly and acutely aware of Abhi's warm hand on Akshara's back; a back left almost bare by her jumpsuit. Akshara could hear her heart beating out of its cage as she felt the warm pressure of his fingers on her skin. He was a cardiac surgeon, right? He could put it back in if the damage was serious, she thought to herself.