The love of my life

1. Re-Introduction

January 2023

The sun outside was at half mast, radiating from the window behind her chair as she sat with her face buried in the answer sheets. She crossed a whole page with red ink unable to give even half a mark for the absolutely irrelevant answer given by the student.

"How is he going to pass?" She murmured to herself and decided to total the marks on that answer sheet and as suspected, he scored 14 out of 40, with 20 required to pass.

She threw the pen and rubbed her head, turning her rotating chair to look at the sun ready to hide beneath the horizon soon. She tilted and looked up at the wall clock as it struck 4:30 pm.

Half an hour.

She tugged the little flick of her curly hair behind her ear and picked up the pen again as a knock sounds.

"Come in", she says expecting just about anyone, but not the person who had been standing there trying to get himself to knock for the last 7 minutes.

"Dr. Daman Shergill" he says walking in as if he wasn't sure it was her, even after reading the name plate outside.

As she looked up at the gentleman with her big round eyes from the thick rimmed spectacles settled on the roman nose, and the plump sly lips, he tried to not gasp at how beautiful she still was.

"What the..." She shut her lips and widened her big eyes unable to believe what she saw.

"Ekansh?" She says getting up from the chair in her almost similar attire.

A Patiala Shahi salwar suit with a dupatta that flowed down her front, but the colours had faded through the years. It wasn't bright anymore, nor was the crinkle in her eyes.

Lost somewhere with her mischievous and carefree nature...

"What are you doing here?" she says trying her best to keep the irritation at bay.

"I was appointed as an assistant professor, Yesterday." He says keeping a letter infront of her.

"We have to take the fourth year to a Dog training kennel day after tomorrow and I wanted your sign on..." He was about to say as she took a step back.

"I'm not going in a bus filled with 50 students and a man I hate with all my guts." She whispered to herself.

"Excuse me?" He says as she shakes her head, composing herself to behave professionally.

"Ofcourse... Dr. Sandhu." She said and took the paper from him looking at the official notice and planning to get fake sick and take a leave for the next two days.

"I could have sent the notice through the peon, but I wanted to come up and say Hi before we meet for the trip..." He says and she takes a deep breath as if trying to keep herself together.

"Take a seat." she said as he sat down and she took her chair facing him.

"You never wanted to come into teaching... and opened a clinic that I heard was quiet successful... So?" she says trying to keep her emotions from seeping into her voice. The old Daman would have thrown him out of the cabin and cried her eyes out.

"I saw an add for my Alma mater and I just came by for an interview. I got selected and I decided... Why not?" He says and she nods, unable to fathom seeing this face everyday.

"You know that meme, i once sent you... It said 'You'll look at your crush after 10 years and laugh because they're 32 and bald." She says as he nods with that one sided smile that would make her heart pump a little faster all those years ago... And if you ask, she won't accept that but it did happen again.

"If it makes you feel any better, I got a hair transplant a few months ago." He says and she laughs as he hoped that the awkwardness would dissipate in thin air.

But it wouldn't be so easy... Or If it would ever dissipate...

He looked at her sitting in her office chair, the small gold jhumkis and the flicks of her hair escaping out from her bun through the struggles of the day. There was a mole just below her chin, that made his eyes roam downwards over the nape of her neck, long and narrow.

This was his favorite place to kiss, almost as favorite as the three moles in a line on her right shoulder, around 2 cms apart.

"How about a coffee after this?" He says gathering all his might, and notices her staring at the clock behind him.

"Oh, Dr. Ekansh, I am so sorry but I have this... Ummm... "

Why was she trying to think of a lie? Why not just say out the truth?

"I have to pick up my son from his daycare." She said and looked into his eyes for a reaction.

"I... You have a son... Oh my God, congratulations... I did get to know that you were married through mutual friends and that... Ahnm..." He clears his throat a little taken back and having said a little too much.

"I became a widow after two years." she completes what he couldn't say, somehow having coped up with the reality and he nods still trying to process what had just happened.

"Dr. Ekansh, I'm so sorry, but i have to get back at correcting these answer sheets. Tomorrow is the last day for submitting scores to the dean office." She says and he nods.

"I'll leave you to it. " he said and stood up. "See you around." He said as she nodded and then watched him walking out.

It was so much similar to the day he had walked out on her a little less than 5 years ago. And her heart still yearned. She hated herself for what she felt.

"Have some self-respect Daman." She whispered to herself and decided to get back to the answer sheets.

When the clock struck 5, she smiled and packed her stuff, picked up her brown leather handbag, her google pixel cellphone, from three years ago and her car keys ready to leave.
She walked down the stairs, meeting students as they greeted their favorite teacher until she reached the parking and clicked for her Grey Mercedes C-class keeping her stuff on the backseat and putting the baby seat carefully.

She sat in the car and put it into a drive, taking it out of the parking as a Hyundai i20 with a familiar number plate came right in front of her and all those memories she had been stuffing inside came rushing back.

+++Author's note+++
What do you guys think of the cover?
And the story?

This book can be read as a stand alone or as a third part to THE PERFECT GROOM series.

Hope you like it. ❤