A Fictional Doctor #8

Like people struggle with an after-party hangover, you will have to hustle to finish up the work files piled at the end of the year. Well, thanks to the remote working possibility, we can at least pick the places of work.

Roonie and I like to spend time without ever hampering our work lives, yeah this may sound funny, but our beloved ones want the best of us, right?.

On weekdays it's hard to find time for us, mainly occupied with work but when we feel like meeting we would just send a single word message the way you communicate with a pager machine, and all it says is, 'work date'.

The good thing about modern restaurants and cafes is that you could spend hours just paying bills for a sip of a coffee, in contrast to our traditional hotels where the waiter would stare at you, wanting you to leave the place when you ask for the extra chutney. But, of course, that coffee costs a fortune; no wonder entrepreneurs made a business model out of it, but in the end, convenience matters, right?.

It’s mostly I who will be the first to reach the venue, and she will crash land, sometimes her hair wet, or sometimes with a ponytail like she had pulled a night-out reading all the medical stuff.

I booted my laptop and joined the early morning meet over zoom call to update the project. This part of my job, I hate it, updating the team who never care to extend their help in the project, bunch of hyenas.

I can hear before I see her. The door opened. A tiny bell hung above it rang, signalling her presence. Her daily casual wear is a favourite of mine, and I will happily be her daily visiting patient just to watch her matching earrings; they blend with her charm, making it a Golden ratio.

Whenever I meet Roonie, I come up with a pickup line, mostly my original or else copied from Google. The effort matters, doesn't it? She would mostly give the same expression every time I do that, a subtle way of saying my pickup line sucks; nevertheless, I keep trying. This time she tried on me.

“Hi, I’m Roonie. Do you remember me? Oh, sorry, we’ve only met in my dreams”, she flirted, extending her hand to wish me.

Shit, my mic is not on mute. I froze and stopped my work, almost spilling my coffee all over me in the process. Why don’t manufacturers give a direct mute button on the keyboard? I wondered while hovering over the mouse pointer to mute myself. She sat controlling her laugh, watching my efforts.

“Hey, young man, it seems like you have company”, joked my boss.

“Sorry guys”, I excused and muted. Vishal is a cool boss. He lives in the USA, and in fact, he is more excited to get his employees hitched than we do. The meeting ended, and I turned to Roonie, annoyed.

“You almost got me fired in the early hour, Miss. Doctor”, I yelled.

“You are not on mute, not my problem boo”, she said, shrugging.

“I am gonna take revenge for this”, I said with a devilish smile.

“When you are cute like me, rules are just a little different, aren’t they, Mr Patient,” she said and kissed me on my cheek.

“That doesn’t count, and I want the lasting ones”, I asked in desperation.

“Shut up and concentrate on your work now”, she taunted me like an elderly.

“Anyways, I have a surgery planned this week. So I had to do my research”, she added and slipped into her work mode. She took her iPad out to take the notes, and with a couple of research papers spread across the table, all I could do was sit there, fascinated by her enthusiasm on this seemingly foreign subject.

Ramu, the waiter at the cafe, arrived to take the order, actually to just inform us about the dish that he is already up to. We are so frequent at this cafe, and we kind of befriended him.

He works part-time here, and he binges the same Netflix shows we do, so he craves us with the food item that we come across in the episodes, Money Heist’s Spanish, Heirs’ Korean, you name it.

“So what you got us for today, Ramu” I enquired.

“It’s Ramen Tuesday”, said Ramu excitedly.

“Mr Patient, remember you promised me that you will teach me to use chopsticks,” asked Roonie.

“Of course, my Miss. Doctor, but I am gonna need chopsticks for that”.

Oh, I went to China on a business trip in 2019, where my Chinese friend Heddi taught me how to use chopsticks. She took good care of me at the team lunches and made my journey less painful. I miss her.

“Don't worry, guys, I got you covered. We purchased a few sets recently,'' said Ramu and left to bring our dish.

“Did you bring smokes?”, asked Roonie

“Yep, always stocked up “, I winked and pulled out the pack of cigars I carry in my bag these days, clove mix is her preference, and they are hard to find in local mom and pop shops.

Oh, Come on, don’t judge. I know it is injurious to her health, but I am happy to be her second-hand smoker. (PS: Secondhand smoke was generally believed to be more harmful than primary smoke, but love makes us do crazy things again, doesn't it?)

She left for the smoking zone and started taking puffs while I remained seated, watching her from the glass wall. She puffed in circles, and they seemed like heart-shaped clouds, yeah weird place to imagine and kind of defies the principles of fluid dynamics, but why kill the romance in the name of logic?

I raised my hands, gesturing, catching those clouds and pocketing them as you do with flying kisses. She laughed and directed me to the board that was hung on the door, and it read, “smoking is injurious to health”.

I quickly opened Powerpoint, typed ‘But I have the best Doctor to take care of ’ in large fonts and turned the screen towards her. It seems like she liked my spontaneity; at least this time, she coughed, suggesting it worked. Ha finally, my presentation skills are in use now. My boss would be proud to see how his employees use the company’s office 365 subscription.

Our order arrived, and I held the chopsticks exactly as Heddi taught me two years back, and I instructed the same way to Roonie.

“So this Chinese friend of yours you mentioned about, are you still in contact with her”, Roonie enquired.

“With Heddi, nope, the WeChat app is banned in India, so no way to get in contact with her. I miss her”, I said, disappointed.

“Oh, okay”, she said and got busy experimenting with chopsticks holding the strand of noodles.

“Hey, you know what? I can cook better than this, like closer to authentic”, I said confidently.

“Oh great, so when do I get to taste it then”? She asked excitedly.

“At my place, if you are free with this schedule this weekend”, I said

“Yep, sure will drop by.”

Okay, now I am more excited and a bit tense too. Yeah, I mastered a few recipes but still, you know.