Loving You

Chapter 17 - Abhimanyu - Loyalty

I marched my way towards my office, holding the door open behind me, waiting for Akshara to step inside. Letting the silence wander in the air, I took my seat behind my desk and turned on my laptop screen. I scrolled through my calendar for the day as the silence lingered in the air.

I could feel Akshara's presence weighing heavily in the air as she leaned over my desk. Even her silence was a booming noise machine.

"What is your schedule for today?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"I have a session with Anthony, which was originally scheduled for day after tomorrow but we made it work for today. And then I am having an hour long session with Ms. Weatherly at 2. She is chemotherapy right now so let's see how that pans out. And that's about it."

"Make sure to make your notes properly. I will be going through them."

"Yes, boss!" She answered, giving me a salute.

I raised my eyebrow in disapproval. "We might be friends outside of this hospital but here we are colleagues and I am your boss. So I need you to treat me with respect in front of my other employees, patients and peers." I said, pointedly.

"Okay, noted. But there is no one else here. It's just me and you..." She expressed.

"Forget it." I waved her off.

I went back to working in my laptop when I saw her still standing there, trying her best to not make any noise. I tried my best to ignore her, hoping she would go away on her own, but alas.

"What?" I bit out, slamming my hand on the table in displeasure.

"Are you angry?" She asked hesitantly. "At me?" She added, quietly.

"No, why would I be angry at you?" I replied, sarcastically.

"Because I closed the elevator doors on Vikram's face? Purposely?" She replied, optimistically.

"Is that why you think I'm angry?" I questioned.

Akshara nodded her head. "Yes. But just so you know, I didn't do it for you. I just can't stand his stupid, ugly, punchable face." She lied, innocently. We both knew why she closed the door on his face no matter how she tried to spin the story.

I took a deep breath to calm myself. "Akshara, what I told you about Vikram and Shanaya...it needs to stay between us only. I do not need you fighting my battles for me. So while I don't mind you closing the door on Vikram's face —because God knows he deserves it. But I can't be advertising my personal issues to the entire hospital. Okay?"

She lowered her eyelashes in shame. "Yes. Understood. I'll keep that in mind for next time." She replied, softly.

I nodded my head. "Good. Now you may leave."

I watched as she nodded her head and made her way to the door. I felt terrible for patronizing her for her behaviour but I needed to draw the line somewhere. There needed to be thresholds, boundaries that needn't be crossed.

~*~

I was scheduled for rounds today with the rest of the interns. The interns  ollowed me around the floor as we attended one patient at a time. I asked questions after looking at each patient chart whilst cold-calling on interns for answers and diagnostics.

In layman's terms, rounds was another name for "intern bashing session" but I tried my best to avoid embarrassing my students and instead turn this into a learning opportunity.

As I walked ahead of the interns, passing on the next patient chart to another ill-prepared intern, I heard music chime in my ear with a soft, sweet and melodious voice to support the pull of the guitar strings.