Amulya took a deep breath and entered the lift. It was awkward for a second before Reagan spoke.

"Thank you" She said out of the blue. Amulya looked at her in confusion. She could see that her makeup was done sloppily, a nit too heavily, as if she was in a hurry .

"For the service, I mean. You are a doctor, right?" Amulya smiled awkwardly and nodded. How did she know she was a doctor?

"How did you know?" Amulya asked.

"Alaric just about told a million times about you" she laughed, "In fact, he never shuts up. Amy this, Amy that. I feel like I know you a lot"

A little colour came to her pale face. Amulya smiled back before bidding her goodbye.

That day passed away quickly, Amulya had no time to think about anything else than work. Luckily she could head home that evening, even though it was late. She was not as tired as she was the previous day.

The only time she had to think was on the way back home.

She thought about that morning, about Reagan to be exact. Why did she feel the green monster brewing when she saw the blonde in his apartment?

She knew she had feelings for him, but what kind of feelings? She never felt anything like this before. She is not even sure what to do. How to act on them?

She knew him for less than three months. And she didn't even talk to him that much, except for the occasional texts, talking through the balcony, and she did not forget about the time they ate ice cream in the middle of the night, or baked the biscuits.

A friend of her once told her that no one can tell when, why and how love can be born. She wasn't necessarily thinking about love, but it was something similar, right?

Maybe she needed space? She needed some time away from him; she decided that she needed to stay away from him.

She took another long bath relaxing her sore muscles before making a quick salad from the vegetables she bought on the way home. After dinner, she slipped on her sweater and went into the balcony, just to enjoy the silence.

Almost after fifteen minutes of standing there, she decided to head back in. She wasn't sleepy but she didn't want to catch a cold by standing outside. Just as she turned around, the light in the balcony next to hers flickered on and Alaric walked out.

He looked around for a minute before his eyes found hers, and he smiled at her.

"Don't you have to sleep?" he asked.

"Not sleepy" Amulya shrugged, wrapping her arms around herself and leaning against the railing.

Stay away from him. She told herself again.

"Do you want to watch a movie?" He asked her hesitantly.

To hell with staying away. She thought before nodding.

"I choose the movie"

"Letters to Juliet?" Alaric raised an eyebrow at her. "I should have known you would choose a movie like this."

"Excuse me, a movie like this? You should know it's my favourite" She said with a mock offended look, adjusting herself on the couch so that the blanket covers her and she could easily reach the popcorn bowl that was in the middle.

"It's just so cliché" He said "I'm choosing the next movie"

"Fine" And then they watched the movie in silence.

A few hours and two movies later, Netflix was forgotten and Amulya and Alaric were talking to each other.

Amulya was sitting so that her back is to the armrest and Alaric in front of her, mimicking her position.

"Its mum, dad and Madhan, my brother; he is older than me by ten years. He lives in the United States. What about you?"

"Well you know my dad passed away when I was fifteen, Hilary already left to college by then, so it was just me and mum. She is the best mother you could ever ask for. She handled things amazingly after dad's death. I was not an easy teenager to handle."

"I'm sure" Amulya said with an amused smile, "How did you get into writing?"

"Dad used to write. He wrote many poems and stories. He used to say he was writing for himself, not to get published. After law school, I felt like something was missing, law wasn't what I wanted to do. I was always good at writing, but this pushed me. I did my masters in creative writing and viola, here I am now"

Amulya just smiled, before she could ask something else, he asked her a question.

"Don't mind me asking, but I'm still curious about the arranged marriage thing. Did you really not have a choice in it?"

"The town I grew up in, the one where mum and dad grew up, it's a bit" She paused to find the right word "Backward. They did not accept people falling in love. It's a part of the culture. A lot of people are happy, very few cases that failed. But my mother was raised that way. She was seventeen when she had my brother; she was already married for two years then"

"At fifteen?" Alaric was shocked. At fifteen they are kids, they have to worry about exams, marks or what their friends think of them. Not about marriage and all the responsibilities that come from them.

"Yes. It's illegal, but her marriage was not official. She was trying to get me married off after college. Keshav convinced them to let me come here and finish off. I owe him for that." She said.

It was silent for a while after that. Amulya noticed, somewhere during their talk, the moved closer. There was now just about a foot space between them.

"He sounds sweet" Alaric said, his voice lowering.

"He is" she said, looking into his eyes.

"Yet you didn't love him"

"No, I couldn't"

It was silent again, just the two of them staring at each other, their breath mixed. Alaric raised his hand and laid it on her cheek, slightly caressing. He leaned in towards her ear.

"Amulya" He whispered. "You are beautiful"

If she could blush, her face would be dark red by now. He pulled back and their eyes met. Just as he was about to lean in again, his phone rang.

The moment was gone.

Amulya almost gasped as they pulled back. She looked at the clock to see it was almost midnight, she had to sleep.

"Alaric, I have to go. It's getting late" She told him, getting up. Alaric just conformed that it was just a butt call from Hilary, and hung up, before walking Amulya to the door.

"Hey" he held her hand, slightly; stopping her from leaving. "I had fun tonight. We should do this more often."

"Yeah we should" She smiled at him, again getting lost into his eyes.

"Goodnight, Amy" he said, quickly pressing his lips against her cheek.

"Goodnight, Ricky" She said and left.

She definitely could not stay away now.

~*~

Here we go! Hot that star button people!

23.04.20