Shards of Love

Chapter 15: Winged Hearts

August 25, 2020.

"What were you thinking, Dhiya, taking someone's personal photograph from their wallet?" Lavanya was scolding her friend.

"It was a mistake, Lavu, okay? I panicked when I saw him right in front of me when I was holding his photograph. So, my instincts made me hide it away." Dhiya was vainly trying to counter attack.

"Hide what away? You were stowing away someone's property. It's stealing or in your case, might be called stalking!" Lavanya said.

"You are seriously not helping." Dhiya was aghast.

"That's right. I'm no partner in crime", Lavu was not kidding.

She continued, "he is your patient. Why would you panic and stash his picture? When he opened and checked, why didn't you think of handing it over to him?"

"Well.." Dhiya fumbled.

"Oh my God!" Lavu cried suddenly.

"What! What happened?" Dhiya asked, concerned.

"You are attracted to him, aren't you?" Lavu fired point blank.

Dhiya felt repulsed.

"You have gone completely nuts. Why would I attracted to someone who is depressive and needs medical attention from me?" She fired back.

Lavu was in full swing as she hit the ball back into Dhiya's court.

"Maybe he's not depressive by nature. Maybe he is complicated with an interesting personality?"

Dhiya didn't immediately reply. Lavu felt she had won.

"He's interesting, yes. But I'm not attracted to him in any way." She said.

Lavu lifted her hands in mock surrender.

"Show me his picture." She said it off the blue.

"What? Why?" Dhiya asked.

"What why? To see him and make comments, of course." Lavu was always plain and blunt.

"I'm not comfortable you invading his privacy like that", Dhiya said and immediately regretted it.

Lavu smiled an evil smile.

"I told you that you are attracted to him. Look, you are getting defensive for him, even when he's nowhere here", she said.

Not wanting to go down that road again, Dhiya just casually picked Arnav's picture from her purse and placed it in front of her friend.

"Hey, Dhiya! Not bad, good choice. If someone looks good in a passport picture, then he would definitely be good looking in person." Lavu said.

Unknown to her own sense, Dhiya was grabbed by her curiosity. She wanted to know Lavu's full opinions and judgements. Yes, yes, women are petty when it comes to certain things like comparing their stuff with others and seeking external validations.

"How can you be so conclusive? It's a photograph and we all know the studio people will edit it before printing. Everybody wants to look good in their pictures that would be given to all important places", Dhiya said, her neck careening to look more closely at the picture that lay before the two of them.

"Want to analyse?" Lavu asked tilting her head to the side.

"Sure. I have free time now. Let's just waste it on a boy."

She jumped down from the stone wall and say near Lavu.

"Do you have your passport size photo handy?" Lavu asked Dhiya.