I'll Love You Longer Than Forever

Chapter Seven

The following days of Armaan and Riddhima's life were blissful.

They were entirely too happy to be with each other again and it was painfully obvious to the people around them.

The morning following her amazing date with Armaan, Riddhima had arrived at Sanjeevani with a huge smile on her face, a twinkle in her eye and a skip in her step that she couldn't seem to help.

She was nice and friendly to everyone at the hospital, stopping in the corridors to talk to the various nurses and ward boys, smiling and waving at people that passed by her.

It was definitely a stark contrast to the way that she had been in the past 4 months since she had returned home after her accident.

Everyone had taken her newfound attitude in stride and thanked their lucky stars for the miracle.

Armaan, on the other hand, had not changed at all. He would always find ways to meet Riddhima in between his duty at the hospital and he would pull her into the fire escape for some alone time every now and then.

In addition to that, he had started dropping little notes into Riddhima's locker every now and then, which ranged from him telling her that she looked beautiful to how lucky he was to have her to simply telling her that he loved her.

Riddhima absolutely loved it.

The two of them spent every minute possible together. They had starting having lunch alone in the fire escape to have some precious moments together. The only exceptions were when Atul forced them to eat with him when he got bored of eating alone as Abhi & Nikki were in Delhi for a project.

They always ate dinner together, sometimes at Riddhima's house with Dad, Mom and Naina, sometimes the two of them at Armaan's apartment or at some restaurant when Armaan decided they needed to go out on a date - which happened too often. It seemed to Riddhima that Armaan was trying to make up for 4 years' worth of dates right now, not that she minded.

The only setback in their otherwise happy life was the Modi siblings. Not Abhi - Armaan had made his peace with the fact that his best friend was in love with and married to him and there was nothing he could do about it. No, they were the younger Modi siblings who were at the receiving end of Armaan and Riddhima's ill feelings.

Suvarna had the hugest crush on Armaan, and she never left any opportunity to spend time with him. Luckily for her, she was assisting Armaan in a lot of cases which meant she spent almost the whole day with him. Not that Riddhima was jealous, because she was absolutely not! In the past, the same situation would have caused thousands of insecurities to flood her mind, but not now. She was trying not react negatively to the girls who showered attention on Armaan. Come on, the guy was absolutely handsome. He was no less than a Greek God to the people of Sanjeevani - staff and non staff alike. And girls loved the look of him, obviously. Most of them admired him from afar, not having the courage to approach him as they were highly intimidated by him. But a few more brazen ones had the nerve to walk upto him and flirt. He always waved them off with an offhand comment and a polite smile, a fact that made Riddhima feel uncharacteristically smug. But she couldn't help it, he was always so sweet and gentle, turning them down - never hurting anyone's feelings and at the same time making it clear that he was not interested - it made Riddhima admire him more. She knew he loved her. That was the most important fact. So, she didn't feel threatened by these girls at all - okay, she felt a little threatened, but not the overpowering feeling that used to come over her seeing Armaan talk to a girl she didn't know, before the accident. And that was definitely saying something. Also, it made her appreciate Armaan even more. He could have anyone he wanted, and yet he chose her. She didn't let that fact go in vain. And all the girls flirting with him only solidified the fact that he was a great catch - unfortunately not theirs - and Riddhima was shameful to admit, she got a kick out of it - like a sadistic pleasure out of the fact that that amazing man was hers, only hers.