Epilogue
SAN DIEGO TIMES
STARGAZING
UNEXPECTED LOVE ON VACATION
How’s that for a catastrophic meet-cute?
Dr. Dave’s injuries aside, his friends asked her to share her knowledge of the island with them for a few days. In no hurry to get to home, Chaudhary agreed to play tour guide for them.
Dr. Dave and Chaudhary had no idea that a few days of sightseeing would lead to love.
“Well, I knew,” said friend Vishal Goswami.
“You were hoping,” corrected friend Karan Thakkar.
“Well, yeah. Roshan needed a life. And we had a feeling that Nimita was the right woman for him,” Goswami confirmed. “I mean she landed him on his—”
While Dr. Dave and Chaudhary confess to having had feelings for each other in Hawaii, they hadn’t expected a lasting attachment.
That was until Dr. Dave realized she had become close friends with his sister, Malini Dave.
“When Nimi left Hawaii, I missed her for sure. But when I realized that my sister liked her, it gave me the push I needed to find out if she was feeling the same.”
“I was,” confessed a laughing Chaudhary.
“It was by complete coincidence that I had become friends with his sister as well as walking his adorable dog. I didn’t even realize the connection!
But when I did, well…it felt like some kind of divine intervention bringing us back together. I was willing to give it a try.”
But love is never easy, and that was the case for these two vacation lovers as well. They had a falling-out of monstrous proportions, affecting both their families.
“She was impossible to deal with,” says Reena Gupta, sister to Chaudhary.
“Was I, though?” Chaudhary countered.
“She was. Moody. Sappy and doe-eyed whenever he came around. I swear she was jealous whenever he picked up my toddler daughter,” laughed Gupta.
“Well, my brother was equally heartbroken,” stated Malini Dave. “More grumpy than normal.”
According to Dr. Dave and Chaudhary, it took some risk-taking and vulnerability and honesty.
“Not to mention a shove or two from me and Reena,” Malini Dave insists. “And Finn. Finn was instrumental.” Golden retriever Finn seemed to agree.
Dr. Dave and Chaudhary have been happily married for a year. Chaudhary works as a senior researcher at Scientific Progress. Dr. Dave still works at SD Hospital, where he has also started teaching a beginner’s astronomy class to his young patients.
“He’s amazing with them. He has a couple of telescopes set up there, and once a month he teaches basically anyone who will listen,” Chaudhary gushes, clearly proud of her husband.
“I also cut my patient load so I have time for my family. My father-in-law and I have a massive garden in our backyard, and little Naya gets upset if I don’t make it to family paint night,” Dr. Dave adds.
“Not just her, our parents insist you be there as well. They need someone who paints worse than them,” Chaudhary teases.
“Just because you’re a natural.” Dr. Dave chides his wife. “She organizes the whole thing. And she really does paint well.”
“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Chaudhary admits as she takes Dr. Dave’s hand.
Dr. Dave squeezes her hand and smiles at her, his face the picture of a man completely in love. “What can I say? Our love was in the stars.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from A Secret Between Friends by Christine Rimmer.