AMARANTHINE

A III (i) : Twice in a Lifetime

"Do you ever wish you had a second chance to meet someone again the first time?"

~Unknown~

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Shaurya Pratap Rathore was a man perturbed and intrigued.

He was perturbed by the fact that Dr Aabha Sanyal treated him with absolute undisguised coldness and openly avoided him; a couple of times, she had actually walked out of the room as soon as he entered. Her unusual treatment of him was quite noticeable and was creating unnecessary whispers. She was friendly and courteous to his staff members and colleagues, his father and uncle adored her and he was a little envious of the warm camaraderie that she appeared to share with Reyansh. Her expertise in her professional field was evident and her passion for her work was commendable. 

Shaurya knew that she was Ishaani's sister and hence her ease and familiarity with Reyansh and his family were understandable, though the difference in their surnames was another puzzle for him. But that would mean that she knew him or at least knew of him, so why was she was so cold to him? He was sure he had not wronged or harmed her, his father and uncle would have never allowed her in his presence in that case and he was also sure that even if he had forgotten about it, they would have told him off if he had done wrong by her.

He was intrigued because Dr Sanyal, as she insisted he address her, constantly occupied his thoughts, notwithstanding the rudeness with which she treated him, rather, her very attempts to push him away only served to allure him further. She had an understated beauty, partly because she seemed to be absolutely unaware of her charm and partly on account of the goodness she radiated. Her skin was pale coppery and she had dark ebony hair, he suspected it would be long and silky despite the tight bun she had wound her tresses into. Further, though she was always immaculately dressed in slightly loose-fitting clothes, he knew that she would be perfectly curved with a very tiny waist and he was a little shocked as to how his mind had reached that conclusion. 

And on the occasions that she smiled, Shaurya felt the warmth of it in the very fibre of his being.

He sighed, he had not faced such emotion turmoil even in the days he had recovered from the surgery and had learnt that he had simply forgotten a couple of years of his existence. And the fact that she was seated in one of the glass cabins, across the one he occupied, did not help him at all; every time he looked up, he could see her, with her head buried in the notebook or carrying out animated discussions with his staff. He was fascinated by the glow that emanated from her face while she worked; something that was replaced by ice-cold acrimony when he managed to catch her eye.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Aabha was not as unaffected as she made out to be. 

It took a tremendous effort on her part to maintain that façade of cool reserve when in Shaurya's presence and she would have been horrified if she knew that she came across as frigid and aloof. She had tried to maintain that anger she had first felt at Shaurya's apparent dismissal of her but then her heart gave up the futile attempt in a couple of days. She knew that she would always need his approval whether he remembered her or not. Being in his presence but not with him was also taking an emotional toll on her and she ceased fighting with her heart for every little thing.

She would deliberate a little longer on the choice of the dresses she should wear, hoping Shaurya would approve and conceded another small battle when she started to apply eyeliner; she never liked to apply makeup but then Shaurya had always loved her eyes and would be fascinated by her kohl-rimmed eyes and he had often hummed: