Loving You

Chapter 9 - Abhimanyu - Jealousy?

I slammed the cabin door shut behind me and through my phone onto the sofa bed on the side which I normally used to take short naps in between patients and surgeries.

Vikram. My best friend who had turned into my worst enemy. I paced around my office trying to clear my head of any angry and hurtful thoughts. All I could hear was Vikram and Shanaya's taunting laughter directed towards me. They were laughing, having fun, kissing, hugging and there was nothing I could do except watch. I placed both my hands over my ears to drown out the noise.

I stopped pacing and flounced my way towards my desk and threw myself into the chair. Anger didn't even begin to cover how I was feeling after seeing Vikram in the elevator today. I had been so careful to avoid him ever since the revelation that he had been having an affair with my girlfriend —ex girlfriend Shanaya.

But watching him today, standing beside Akshara near the elevators made my blood boil. I had nearly wanted to chop off his head for even trying to talk to her. Let alone flirt with her. She was pure. Untouched. Naive. She needed to stay away from him. Why though? Are you her boyfriend, bodyguard? Friend? Why do you want her to stay away from Vikram?

Something about watching the two of them together made the protectiveness I felt for her increase ten folds. Possessiveness, Abhi. It's called possessiveness. I shook the unwanted, baseless intrusive thoughts from my mind and focused on what I was going to do next.

Acting cold towards Akshara wasn't going to do me any good. Her talking to Vikram wasn't her fault. She wasn't aware of the turbulent issues that surrounded us. She was just being nice, respectful. I wasn't even angry at her I guess. I was angry at myself for behaving like a Neanderthal. The situation had been out of my control and I needed to understand and accept that there were times she'd come face to face with Vikram, even talk to him. And I wouldn't always be there. But that still didn't mean I had to be okay with it or like it.

Focus, Abhimanyu Birla. Focus. You need to get rid of those unwanted thoughts and focus on what was important. Your patients. Your surgeries. Akshara is your employee and you need to treat her as such.

There was light knock on the door. I snapped out of my thoughts and quickly began to busy myself into my patient files. "Come in."

"Hi. I just finished with HR."

"Take a seat," I said without glancing up. My heart was racing. If my heart was a part of a 100m sprint, it'd have come in first in less than 10 seconds.

I could feel her walking towards me, slowly. I continued to read that one sentence repeatedly till it made no sense. Akshara stood near my desk, hovering over me, but not taking a seat. I counted to 10, silently, hoping she'd sit down.

"Is there a reason why you're not taking a seat?" I slammed the file shut in my hands and turned my gaze towards her.

"I'm so sorry I was late. I promise it won't happen again."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Akshara."

"I swear." She pinched her throat, pleading in promise. "This was my last time being late. If I'm late next time, I promise to be your personal assistant for a day. I'll grab your lunch, your coffee, even your laundry!"

"Are you done with your childishness? This is a professional setting Akshara, and you better start acting like a professional too."

"Are you mad at me?"

"No, why would I be mad at you? Did you perhaps do something for which I should be mad at you about?"

"Did I do something to offend you?"

"Do you think you did?"

"Why're you behaving like this?"

"Like what?"

"A dick."

Akshara slammed her hands against her mouth in shock.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm so so so sorry Abhimanyu. Birla. Doctor. I'm so sorry Dr. Abhimanyu Birla. I did not mean to speak out of turn. That was just a slip of tongue. I did not mean to call you a...."

I stood up from my chair and slammed the file I was reading onto the table in front of me. "Grab this and follow me."

Hearing Akshara tip toe quietly behind me did make me feel like a jerk. I was taking out my suppressed anger which should have been directed towards Vikram and my cheating ex on Akshara. The poor girl did not deserve this.

I knocked slightly on the door of my patient, an 8 year old boy with a congenital heart disease. I entered the room to see Aarav being surrounded by his parents. If I could take Aarav's pain away, I would. But I couldn't. But I had a feeling Akshara could.

I stepped inside and ushered for Akshara to follow. I plastered a big smile on my face and geared up to hide the fact that Aarav's prognoses was very poor. At least from him. At least for now.

"Hello Aarav. How are you feeling today?"

"Great! I just had a fruit cup right now and my mom said I can have chocolate after I take my medications!"

"That's very good! Aarav, I'd like you to meet Ms. Akshara. I was told you like music. So she is a music therapist. And she's going to be here, every day, from 10am till 11am singing you your favourite songs! Would you like that?"

His excited head nod told me everything I needed to know.

I turned around ans stepped back, letting Akshara hold the reigns.

"Akshara, this is Aarav. He's a big boy of only 8 who has a very big surgery coming up in —what was it Aarav? How many days?"

"7!"

"That's right. 7 days! So now your job is to stay with Aarav and play his favorite songs till his surgery." I nodded my head at Akshara to see if she understood the assignment. But all I got in return was a blank stare with tears starting to pool around her lower eyelids.

"Okay Akshara?" I tried again, gentler this time.

She nodded her head in agreement. "Yes," she whispered.

"Hello Mr. Aarav. How're you doing?" Akshara said, stepping around me to come face to face with her youngest patient.

"I'm good! How're you?"

"I'm good too!"

"So what kind of music do you like?"

"Disney! I love Disney songs!"

"Anything else?"

"And anything you chose! Will I also learn how to play instruments too?"

"Well, for now I only have the guitar on me. But of course, I'll teach you how or play the guitar! You can be my little Rockstar!"

"Yay!" He clapped his hands excitedly.

I smiled watching Akshara interact with Aarav. She certainly was different. Precious. No one could hate her. She found a way to make everyone smile and laugh. She had a way of creeping into one's life, one's heart and stay there. She was sweet. Endearing. Caring. Funny. Smart. She was everything and much more.

I definitely had acted like a dick toward her. And I definitely did owe Akshara an apology for my crass behavior. Only I didn't know how to apologize.

"Okay Aarav, so Ms Akshara will start from tomorrow. Now we both have to go and meet her other patients!"

"Okay, bye Aarav. See you tomorrow okay?"

"Byeee! See you!"

I gently closed the door to Aarav's room behind me and we started walking towards my next patient.

"Akshara....I'd like to apologize..." for my earlier behaviour.

"So tell me a little about the next patient." She said at the same time, interrupting me.

And that's when I realized I'd caused more damage then I had anticipated.