10 Reconciliation

They were walking down the stairs with Sam following Riya and excitedly narrating the plot of her new novel. Sam was an established author and had published a lot of fantasy fiction novels and rom-coms. Riya hated reading fictional novels and only indulged herself in autobiographies or management guides.

Although Riya never wanted to hear those cheesy love stories, she couldn't stop Sam once she started. "And then my hero realizes that the heroine loves the other guy more than him…..So…", she trailed off when all of a sudden, Riya's heel broke. Without anything to hold as support, she twisted her leg, staggered, and fell hard on her right. Also might have hurt her head a little along the way.

"Riya!!", Sam shouted in panic and ran towards her friend when Riya was trying to get up herself with no luck. "Can I help you?", she hesitated and felt very bad to see her suffering.

"Ahh! Stupid f**king shoes" she cursed, struggled and sat down on the corner holding up her right hand tightly. "I think I sprained my leg and maybe would've dislocated my shoulder. Head hurts too. God!"

"We need to call someone for help" Sam suggested and was tearing up.

Riya hissed at her, "Idiot! I'm the one in pain. Why are you crying?"

"I'm sorry. You should thank god that we use the fire escape. Otherwise, people would've swarmed in here by now", she cried shamelessly, wiping her tears off with sleeves.

"Take my phone from pocket and call my doctor, Mr. Antony. He knows my condition. Also, call Kamu and tell him what happened, ask him not to let anyone in this fire escape until we are cleared to go", she gave fast and clear instructions while sitting there in pain.

Once the doctor arrived, he brought the required tools and medication to treat her right there. As he knew her condition well, he limited touching her to the minimal and helped her up with a walking stick. He requested her to take full rest for the next two weeks. She faced difficulty walking, even with the stick as it was her left foot and right hand which were damaged.

She took her doctor's help and let him drop her home. Dhruv was already home by the time she reached. He leisurely sat in the living room with a casual jean and t-shirt and was busily working on his laptop.

"What the hell!", he exclaimed on opening the door to see Riya half leaning onto a man with a shoulder patch and a broken leg.

"Let me help", Dhruv offered, but the doctor hesitated and looked at her for approval.

"It's okay! He's my husband", she reassured him but felt really weird after saying that.

"Sure", he let Dhruv support her and moved away.

As soon as they swapped positions, she shut her eyes tightly to fend away anxiety and convinced herself that it was only for a minute. Dhruv supported her one good shoulder and slowly walked her to the bedroom. He helped her sit up and lean on a pillow, only after which she opened her eyes. All the way to her room she focused only on breathing his perfume which somehow seemed to alleviate her anxiety.

"What happened?"

"Oh! We are talking now?", she said sarcastically.

Her doctor followed them upstairs but waited near her bedroom door awkwardly. She peeped outside and spotted him, "Mr. Antony, you can take your leave. Send the medical bill to my assistant Kamu", she informed him.

"Sure, Mam!", he still hesitated as if he wanted to say something but couldn't summon up the courage to do it. They both concentrated on him.

"It's not my place to say, but you should get your condition treated as soon as possible, Mam. I could see that it has gotten worse", he finally said it and let out the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"What condition?", Dhruv asked which she conveniently ignored.

"I'll take care of it, Mr.Antony. You may leave now", she was desperate to make him leave before he spilled all her beans. He said his thanks and left.

"I had an allergy and didn't get it treated. He was talking about that", she managed it like a pro.

"Okay, you rest. I'll go see him off", said Dhruv and turned to go away but, "Wait!" she shouted and stopped him on his tracks by catching his little finger. He turned around and saw her fingers holding his tightly. She quickly released it.

After clearing her throat she informed him, "It's not necessary to see him off. He knows his way". She didn't want them both to talk. Already the doctor was this close to revealing everything.

"Hmm… So, are you going to tell me what happened or you're just gonna sit and pass snarky remarks all day?"

"Fine! I wore new shoes, heel broke and I fell in stairs", she replied but her thoughts drifted to how she was going to manage all the basic works without anyone's help now.

He marveled at her resolve. If it was any other person, they would've created a huge fuss by now, but she didn't so much as wince with that much pain.

"So, how long is your rest period?"

"Two weeks", she said grudgingly, irritated to work from home. She hated it as every time she took a leave, Sharan filled her role and did everything, only for her to go again and clean up his trash.

"You have anyone to help?"

"I'll take care of myself! Don't need anyone", but she was actually scared of managing it alone. She could ask Sam to come over, but she freaked out on Sam's touch too. Maybe she should really consider getting treated, she was pondering.

Dhruv sighed and pulled out his phone to call his assistant, "Hey… I'll be working from home for the next two weeks. Come over to my house before you leave for the day…." "Yeah! Cool", he shoved his phone back inside while he caught Riya staring at him.

"What?", he asked. She shook her head but continued staring. Her brain couldn't decipher what he just did. Till yesterday they were not even on talking terms and today he was going out of his way to help her out. Why?

"Do you want to lie down?", he asked. And when she nodded yes, he slowly lifted her leg one by one onto the bed and helped her lie down on her side. He noticed her still staring at him.

"Do you have anything to say?"

"Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?", she finally managed to ask without sounding stupid. She could take on a hard-ass Dhruv thousand times over a kind one. It was scary.

He switched on the AC and adjusted the temperature, quietly ignoring her. She thought he was never going to respond. But, after placing the remote in its place, to her surprise, he leaned down and looked her in the eye with face almost close to hers that she could feel his breath, "Because you are my wife", he murmured softly.