EPILOGUE The Tale of Nilay, Doctor & the Army #2
“I like you jealous, Doctor. But no. Come,” he ushered her out of the lift.
The designers, the executives, and his entire marketing crew were all at it.
She met smiles, waves, nods with her own.
Nilay’s designing days of the year were coming to an end, with his newest collection’s toiles completed.
Ritu walked into this office and straight to his cave inside, where the toile he was the most excited about was already laid out for her.
“You are crazy to have me try all your pieces!” She reached for the soft chiffon. This year’s collection was all pastels — soft, lilacs and powder pinks, dreamy. He was switching it back down from his last three years’ aesthetic of bright, muted and heavy ghaghras to fairytalish and girly.
“That way.” He pointed to the restroom. So he was in his serious designer mode, working things over in his head, huh? Ritu smirked, setting her keys and phone down. She reached for the top button of her oversized black shirt. She popped it open. His eyes went to it. His jaw tightened.
“Doctor.”
“Hmm?” She went to the next button. Popped it.
“We have to reach Gautam and Maya’s for dinner by 8.”
“So?” She shrugged, feeling his eyes fixate on the skin that was uncovered.
“We don’t have time. I need to see the fall of this piece and send it for…” his words stuttered as she peeled her shirt off and threw it to his chair.
“You asked for it!” He pounced on her and she shrieked, kissing the hungry beast that was out to eat her whole.
Ritu preened, feeling so powerful in this man’s reaction to her.
Winter had turned to summer, summer to monsoon, and they had become the old bickering couple in most things life. And yet, this, this, was a constant.
“We have embryo transfer tomorrow,” she kissed him back, dying to but unable to go forward. “We can’t!”
“We can do other things.” He dropped to his knees.
“Your showstopper piece…”
“Will wait.”
“Gautam and Maya…”
“Will wait.”
“MM!”
“We’ll take her a bunch of googoogaagaas, now shut up, Doctor. You started this!”
————————————————————
WINTER
Ritu set her keys on the counter and padded inside the house, stopping to push the panel of windows open to air the space.
This winter was cold, and the sun outside was warm enough to dispel the stillness inside.
She walked into their silent bedroom, having been silent all week because Sir NiP was in Milan.
A smile tugged her mouth wide, thinking about the photos he wouldn’t stop sending her.
His collection displayed at a museum, his runway show, himself on the red carpet.
She would have accompanied him, was even ready to go, but an emergency case had held her back.
Apparently, Nilay Patel would not let her feel FOMO.
Ritu pulled her surgical cap off and pinched the diamond studs in her ears out of practise.
Lab-grown, not real. She had spent the first week of their engagement explaining, pleading, cursing and finally yelling her way into convincing the ostentatious man that a diamond ring was useless to a woman who needed her hands clean and sterilised for half a week.
A pair of diamonds in her ears had been his workaround.
The next level of convincing had gone on through that month — lab-grown was one-tenth of the actual price and nobody noticed a difference.
Ritu still wasn't sure these were lab-grown, given that he had been preening while gifting them to her.
She peered closely at them. She was too swamped to go and have them checked, the month and the year winding down already.
She reached for her scrubs’ top. And froze.
It was the last week of December. 25th. Two more days and she could test. Nilay was coming home this evening.
They could start testing this evening and then go on with one test each for tomorrow morning, evening and then the final ones.
Practically, it was crazy to test two days before and after the designated dates.
She was a doctor, she knew it. But she also knew that where this was concerned, neither of them could wait.
After multiple crushing disappointments, they still couldn’t wait.
Ritu opened the bathroom vanity and stood back, the pregnancy test tempting her. She wetted her top lip with her tongue, thinking. Was it right to test without him?
But then, today wasn't even designated. It wouldn’t show yet. What difference did it make if she did? Just a time-pass test. Her entertainment had been at an all-time low without the house clown. Maya wasn't enough either, now that she had experienced Nilay’s closet crazy. And rediscovered her own.
She reached out and snatched one out of the dozen boxes that she herself had stocked there. Ritu glanced around, half-expecting her husband to materialise and catch her red-handed.
She let her top drop back down and closed the bathroom door.
Ritu emerged from the bathroom and ran out of the room, of the house, of the building, until she was in front of the sea and shaking off her sliders, burying her feet in sand, running, thumping, flying.
Her hair was blowing back, the sea wind was strong and the sun heavy, the wind cold.
She was laughing, tears flowing down her eyes.
She ran, ran, ran, until her feet touched the waves. She did not wait for them to come to her. She splashed into them and came to a halt.
“Phew, phew,” she panted, her eyes wide, burning with the force of the wind in them.
“Oooooh!” She doubled over, bringing the test back into her line of vision.
There were half a dozen matching ones left back in their bathroom.
A scream erupted from her mouth and she thumped her feet in glee.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She prayed up into he sky.
Then pulled out her phone, swiping and pressing for Nilay.
“Hey, Doctor, how did you know I had landed?”
“Where are you?”
“Just got inside the car, leaving here. ETA shows 25 minutes, god knows how? Is Mumbai sleeping today?”
No, but we will have to catch up on all the sleep we can! She grinned, controlling her face to inject some normalcy into her voice.
“I am on the beach, come down when you are here.”
“What are you doing there at 3 in the afternoon? It must be scorching…”
“It’s wintery.”
“I am already feeling hot here after Milan.”
“Stop being a Diva. Just come.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
Ritu pocketed her phone and realised she was still in her scrubs.
She didn't care. A giggle burst out of her.
She turned and started strolling, kissing the waves with her feet, skipping, feeling like she had aged 20 years backwards.
She set her palm on her belly and quickly removed it.
Not yet. Not without him. Ritu smiled. And kept walking.
Onwards and onwards, crossing the second, third and fourth beaches.
The main beach loomed in sight. The beach where there was a funfair at any given time of the day. It was no different now.
She turned and began strolling back, seeing the sun go softer in the sky. Children were playing football and cricket, vendors were setting up their food stalls, Mumbai was coming alive for another regular evening on Juhu Beach.
“Doctor!”
She turned. And he was running towards her, hands behind his back. The wind was whipped his hair back, his perfect navy jacket flapping. He had come back to Mumbai in his fashion week avatar. Ritu smiled, seeing not NiP but the father of her baby running to her.
“Hi,” she breathed as he came to a halt in front of her. Wind was flapping her hair across her face and he was staring at her, his eyes wide, sparkling, mouth open, panting.
“Why are you roasting yourself here?”
And the obnoxious was back too.
“New hobby.”
“You got tired of roasting me?”
“I’m building an army to do that,” she bit the insides of her cheeks. “What do you have there? Sunflowers?” Ritu cocked her head to the side.
He pulled his hands out. “And ice cream.”
Her eyes widened. A bunch of sunflowers and two cups of ice cream, stacked one atop the other.
“How did you…?”
“It’s true, isn’t it?” His mouth was now open in a whole other expression.
“But how…?”
“We did not do it the natural way but I can show you if you let me take you up.”
She whacked his chest. And he laughed. Her face burst into a sob and without him pulling her she wound her arms around his neck, pressing her face into his shoulder. His arms came around her and she was lifted off her feet, twirling, twirling, twirling.
“You wouldn’t be caught dead sunning yourself here at this hour otherwise!” He laughed into her ear.
“I’m sorry I took the test without you,” she tightened her arms around him, letting him set her back on her feet.
He thrust the sunflowers and the ice cream in her hands and clawed the locks of hair flying across her face back.
He held her face between his palms — “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he murmured reverentially to her, just as she had murmured to god.
“A baby!” She beamed.
“A baby.” He smiled. “See, Doctor, what would have happened if you had flown to New York last year?”
“You would have bought a ticket, even though you don’t know how to buy one using an app. But you would have come after me.”
“I so would have. Damn! I so would have!”
————————————————————
SPRING
“Daddy is a health freak.” Ritu brought her son close to her mouth and pressed tiny kisses to his downy head.
He was born with wispy, soft hair that had thickened to a head full of curls.
He grinned, bouncing on the blanket between her feet, trying to pounce on his father who leaned on the sand, in front of them, managing to grab his first bite of the piping hot toast sandwich that his Dost Raju had delivered.
“It’s without butter, with a healthy chutney that he made specially for us. No masala. But I am not negotiating on the sauce.” He squirted a sizeable amount of kaddu ka sauce on the paper plate and swiped his piece of sandwich through it before popping it into his mouth.
“Dadadaaa…” the baby boy standing in the circle of his arm tried to reach for his food.
“Oh no!” Nilay laughed, pulling back. “You are still on mashed kaddu. No sauce yet.”
“How is it that both the twins always want your food?” Ritu pushed closer, grabbing her younger son, by a minute, and pulling them both on her lap — one on side each. In their identical blue and white ensembles, they looked adorable.
“You have built your army against me.” Nilay sat cross-legged in front of her, reaching for another piece and bringing it to her. She bit into it, not caring if the veggies fell. His hand was there to catch it and feed it back into her mouth.
“Daaaaddaaaa!”
“Ok, ok,” Nilay grabbed a wet wipe, cleaned his hands and reached for their youngest. “Arnav’s Daddy!” He swung him up and over his head, making him let out a string of thrilled squeals. Nilay laughed, manoeuvring him like a jet over his head, which was their favourite sitting-down game.
“Dadyyyy!” Their oldest jumped, thumping his tiny feet on her lap, clapping his hands. Nilay deposited Arnav back in her lap and plucked Aarav — “Aarav’s Daddy!” He kissed his cheek and pushed him high up over his head.
“Maaasaaaa!” MM’s loud yell made Nilay’s eyes go into the distance. Ritu turned, only for MM and her mother to come running down the beach.
“Last day of school! Yaaaaay!” Maya ran squealing, with MM racing her to them. She crashed into Nilay’s open flank and he squeezed her close — “How was Open House?”
“Mast!”
Nilay eyed Gautam, who was the only sane member left in the family. He shook his head, setting the bag of toys and water down. “I told her all through the pregnancy about not needing my daughter to talk like her. She did not listen.”
“Oye, I don’t say the bad words anymore!” Maya shot back, reaching for Arnav in her lap. Ritu relinquished her hold and saw her baby boy let out another chortle as Maya twirled with him. “My favourite baby boy!”
“That one’s Arnav.” Ritu pointed.
“I know. A little.” Maya kissed his chin. “I tell this to both the boys separately. Don’t you?”
“Never!” She and Nilay replied together.
“How boring. How will you make them fight otherwise?!”
“Gautam,” Ritu turned to him. “Here’s praying you have twins and she makes them fight for who is the favourite kid.”
He shuddered.
“Who wants to go to the water, my favourite kids?!”
“Me, me, me!” MM jumped out of Nilay’s arms and ran.
“Slow, MM! Wait!” Gautam ran after her.
“Come here, my favourite Aarav,” Maya scooped their second boy into her other arm. “You are my favourite Aarav and you are my favourite Arnav,” she blew raspberries on both their necks and set off behind Gautam. “Let’s go swimming, bhai log!”
“No!” Nilay yelled behind her. She kept going, of course, not about to do that. Ritu hoped so.
As the sun set with its big, glowy orange shine on the horizon of the sea, she leaned back on her hands. She had come here to this beach once with the intention of seeing this sunset for the final time. Now, she got to see it every day.
Ritu’s eyes went to the man sitting in front of her, turned to where their kids were frolicking with Maya, Gautam and MM.
The obnoxious, entitled couturier who had looked at her the first time like he was judging every part of her.
Or so she had thought then. One nick. One tiny nick — in an artery, in fabric, in their lives, had paved the way for something so beautiful.
“Doctor?”
She startled, realising he was gazing at her over his shoulder.
“Mmm?”
“Come here.”
Ritu smiled, crawling closer and into his open arm.
“Your heart is beating fast.” She laid her hand on his chest.
“It’s not stress, trust me.”
“I know it.” She lay her head on it. Counted the beats, just in case. And stayed there through the slowing of them, until they synced with hers. Until the sun set. Until their boys came back to them, jumping and pumping, one into each of their arms.
There was nothing more that she needed.
— THE END —