| Secrets to Solace | A Medical Romance

| Pained Faints & Hurting Hearts |

Author's Note:
Çanim: Turkish for sweetheart/beloved etc. Pronounced as 'jaanam' in Turkish, Urdu/Hindi.

Seven Years Earlier 

November 2017

Longwood Medical Area, Boston, Massachusetts

Whirlwind romances seemed to be every female's weakness. From novels to movies, the notion of a chance encounter leading to a deliciously dizzying affair had ensnared many a woman in its alluring beauty. Meerab Ali was no different. 

During what was supposed to have been a mundane trip, she had had a chance encounter with a Greek God on earth in a club on a random November evening, and from there on, her whirlwind romance had begun. It had been ten days of secret, happy giggles, little hot touches, evenings car rides around Boston in Murtasim's GLC and most thrilling yet conflicting of all, an insane amount of not getting enough of one another. 

Meerab had begun rationalising her mistakes to herself in a manner that she knew she would regret later, but allowing her to be able to live in present, no matter how sinful it was. She hadn't known it could be like this though, and she was fast beginning to realise why it was considered to dangerous for young men and women to interact with each other if any sort of intrest lingered in between. 

They'd been insatiable. His car, bed, shower, sofa, the floor of his lounge and even his home gym hadn't been spared from their unadulterated attraction and its inevitable gratification. By the third or fourth time, Meerab's body had gotten used to the actions, now aching less and less, and more willing to make room for Murtasim every single time. She had never known feelings like it. It was like seeing stars in your eyes, over and over again. 

How could another person make you feel so good, so so good inside? And her gorgeous compainion knew all the ways to make her feel like she was flying.

Not only that, she had met some of his friends, learned that he was twenty-three, already a junior doctor due to starting his undergraduate degree early, and back at university for a few weeks because some of his theory based residency learning happened on the campus. She knew that his sister was also a medical student at Harvard, his brother was graduating from the same this year, and that he came from a family of doctors and surgeons. 

She could tell he was rich. She came from a very well-off family herself, but Murtasim was rich-rich. She knew that he liked neither tea nor coffee but chugged down water, sparkling or still, like it was cola. When drinking a hot drink, he preferred a black coffee, no sugar, and he drove fast cars like the devil. A lot of the things, she had picked up on instead of being told, since he seemed to be the silent types, but sometimes, when their bodies were cooling down from the highs of climaxes and she asked him a random question, he would answer openly, his chest rising and falling with his heavy breaths. 

They both had their set schedules, but after the first night, he'd dropped her off at her accommodation halls, kissed her goodnight, and she'd silently watched him drive off, not wanting to seem too eager by asking any question of when she'd see him again. Meerab hadn't known what to do after that because she hadn't had any way to contact him and didn't really know how to proceed without looking like a fool. But she'd wanted to see him again; that much she knew. She wanted to see again and again, and she wanted that time to never run out because of how good he made her feel. 

It turned out that he felt the same, because two nights later, as she was walking back from the university at dusk, her steps halted abruptly as she realised what stood parked in front of her building. 

A gleaming Mercedes GLC and more pertinently, a certain doctor in the form of a Greek God leaning against it. In a plain white button down with sunglasses hanging from the open collar, he looked like he had walked out of her dreams, and Meerab had walked up to him slowly, taking her time and keeping her steps light.