Arranged by the Stars (21 page)

“
Coffee sir?”
Ash didn’t bother to knock, instead she slipped through the open
door and placed the coffee on the desk.

She didn’t mind that
Kieran finished his notes before he took his coffee. She didn’t
even care that this was the third week they were covering for his
parents who were away on a trip to Fiji for their anniversary and
she was bored.

“
I take it
you’re finished with the filing?” he asked.

Ash sat on the chair in
front of him. “The filing, the stock and I also went and visited
Riya house to see if they needed my help.”

She took one of the pens
from the cup full of them and clicked it. The idea of finding her
true calling was great in theory, but when she was actually trying
to do it, it was hard work.

Kieran blew on his
coffee. “You’re bored.”

Ash clicked the pen two
more times. “Really, tell me something I don’t know.”

He sighed. “Did you start
ticking things off on your list?”

She might love this man,
but his know-it-all-attitude was sometimes painful to be around.
“Did that and don’t ask me about pros and cons. I think I’m going
to the beach. Maybe some yoga will clear my head.”

Kieran got up a little
too quickly. “Not a good idea to do that. Remember what happened
the last time you went out on the beach. I can arrange for a yoga
instructor to come here.”

Granted her relationship
with Kieran was anything but platonic, but she didn’t think he had
it in him to pull the Tarzan routine. “So if I wanted to get that
yoga instructor on the beach, you think you can organise
that?”

He wagged his finger at
her as he walked towards her. As soon as his hands were threaded
into her hair, she knew that boredom was not an issue she’d have to
deal with in the interim. As soon his lips touched hers, she knew
that no matter how many times he kissed her, she would never get
over that first time excitement.

His finger traced her
lips. “When are you going to wear my ring?”

She lifted her lips and
brushed against his. “I told you, when the stars
change.”

The knock on the door was
unwelcome but the despair on Jessie’s face was an alarm
bell.

“
You’re
needed in the resus room. Bring the crash cart. Bring everything,”
she flapped her arms and then hurried away.

It took a moment to make
sure her clothes were on straight, and another to realise that
Kieran was already out the door. When Ash entered the room, it was
to meet a flurry of attention and she wasn’t sure where all these
people had come from.

Some of them seemed
familiar, but no one was part of their medical team. After a minute
of chaos, Jessie stood on a chair and screamed at the crowd, asking
them to leave.

Taking her cue from
Jessie, Ash rushed to Kieran’s side and she looked around to see
where all the monitor leads were. The man on the bed was a large
man and she had seen him walk along the clinic for weeks. But she’d
never seen him come in, or seek medical attention.

Once she had the monitor
leads on, she took his temperature and then took out the
glucometer. “His sugar is really high. He must be a type one
diabetic.”

Kieran watched the
monitor and the oxygen sats machine. “He is all over the place.
There is insulin in the cupboard. Use that syringe and draw up
twenty units.”

Ash looked through all
the vials in the cupboard. Luckily the medication was labelled in
alphabetical order. She found the insulin and took it to Kieran. He
watched her draw up the twenty units.

“
Do you know
how to administer that?” he asked.

She’d see it done before.
A slight nod. He was too busy to come over and teach her how to
give an injection. She felt the needle go into his skin and then
she pushed the plunger. “Is that okay?” She couldn’t remember if
she had to swab after.

He nodded and then
pointed to the drawer next to her. “We need to put up an
intravenous line so we can give him some fluids. He needs an
insulin infusion and―”

Ash opened the draw.
“Potassium. I remember this from the test.”

“
The test?”
Did he actually seem impressed that she remembered all the clinical
stuff she had to learn?

“
I studied
really hard for that test.” She lifted her chin.

His gaze softened. “Ash,
you wouldn’t have been tested on that in the first six months of
your training.”

She took out everything
she needed for putting in an IV line. She’d seen it done so many
times. She even wanted to practice it but no one would let her. She
offered her arm to Karl once but he said something about fainting
at the sight of blood. “I think we have everything we
need.”

The monitor started
beeping again and the patient was looking an ugly pale colour.
“Ash, he is about to lose consciousness. I will need to start chest
compressions. We need that line in. Which do you want to
do?”

Both tasks were important
but she wasn’t competent in either. How was she going to choose?
“Tell me what to do.”

Kieran was next to her in
seconds. “I want you to place one hand over the other and commence
compressions. Like they taught you when you were on the
boat.”

Something else he
remembered. She wished he wouldn’t bring up these things. “I wasn’t
very good at it. The instructor told me to stick to beauty
school.”

That breath he took was
to compose himself. She waited for him to tell her to leave. She
hoped he would ask for someone else. Instead he squeezed her hand
and said. “You can do this. You can fix things too.”

Ash did three rounds of
counting to thirty and then took the large resus bag and breathed
for the man, as Kieran tried for intravenous access. Before she
started the fourth cycle of thirty compressions, Jessie was back
with news that the ambulance was on its way and the crowd was
safely outside.

She took over
compressions and Ash helped Kieran secure the line. What seemed
like hours would have been minutes, but when Jessie turned to them,
with a thumbs up, Ash knew that the surge of energy was more than
an adrenaline rush.

As they watched the
ambulance leave with the crowd following close behind, Kieran took
her into his arms and placed a kiss on top of her head. It felt
nice to be safe, but she felt like she’d just run a
marathon.

“
You were
amazing today,” Kieran pulled her closer.

“
Does it
always feel this way?” she asked.

He bent down and gave her
another kiss. “What way?”

Her head tipped up and
she smiled. “I feel absolutely wasted, like the time I had to enter
the Miss Bollywood contest. Only that time, I didn’t feel this
exhilarated at the same time.”

“
Saving a
life will do that to you,” he took her hand in his and lifted it to
his lips.

“
You get to
feel this every day?” she asked.

He stopped and faced her.
“I do, but what’s better than that is being with you every
day.”

He was absolutely
impossible to deal with. “Kieran, I’ve made a decision about what I
want to do with my life.”

His lips turned into a
smile. “Finally you’ve made the decision to become a nurse. I could
have saved you time, if you’d let me.”

She squeezed her eyes
shut. This was it. If he laughed then she knew it was an insane
idea. “I want to be a doctor. A paediatrician.”

She counted to three and
opened her eyes. She expected shock. Disbelief. Maybe even him
laughing his head off, what she wasn’t expecting was the amazement
that she saw. “You haven’t said anything.”

His gaze went to the sky
and she felt the need to follow. He was quiet and it scared her.
What if he didn’t think she could do it? What if he was amazed
because she was dreaming too big?

He pulled her closer and
pointed to the brightest star. “You can’t tell me that the stars
haven’t changed now.”

The gurgle of laughter
came from deep within and she didn’t know that happiness could feel
like this. So absolutely complete. There wasn’t a thing more she
wanted.

*****

When Kieran laid her on
the bed that night, she knew this was the beginning of their lives
together. His gaze found her and he swept her hair away from her
face and bent down to kiss the corner of her lips. “Tell me
again?”

How was it possible not
to have told him sooner? “I love you with everything that I am. I
am yours to take and I will marry you.”

His teeth scraped along
her lips. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear that. I feel
whole now.”

Her hand went to the back
of his head and she pulled him closer. How could he not know that
it was always him and everything else was just words? “You know you
have my heart.”

He dipped his head down
and placed a kiss on her breast. “I know, but even I can be old
fashioned sometimes.”

That she knew. He’d
changed for her but he was still a typical Indian boy with his
typical ways and she realised she didn’t mind. Her body shook with
unspent desire as his hands roamed their length and she knew it
would take a lifetime before she’d stop feeling the heat of his
touch.

She was too scared to ask
him if it was like this with everyone. His lips closed around her
nipple and she shuddered. “You don’t mind it’s going to be a while
before we can marry?”

His hand dipped down and
caressed her thigh. Ash felt a new wave of desire and she lifted
her hips in anticipation of his touch. “I can wait for you to marry
me, Dr Kapoor.”

She gasped as his hand
found her opening. “That has a nice ring to it. You won’t mind me
keeping my name?”

His lips touched hers
briefly. “I don’t as long as you wear my ring.” In the next breath
he nipped at her lips and his fingers slipped inside her and this
time she didn’t want to talk.

Flipping him onto his
back, she crawled on top of him and watched his eyes darken with
desire. “I love you.”

His hands went to her
hips and he guided her forward until she was at his tip. “I must be
the luckiest man in the world.”

Slowly she lowered
herself onto him and felt his full length inside her. It took her a
few seconds to get used to being stretched so fully, but it wasn’t
long before her body was burning up and she was forced to rock
against him. “Tell me if I’m hurting you,” she said.

He pulled her down for a
kiss and she smothered his laugh. “Like I said, luckiest
man.”

She rocked against him
and pressure built inside her, all this time she thought her
instinct would be to slow down and enjoy the moment, but her body
had a mind of its own. The faster she moved, the more pleasure
built inside her and she was sure there was something, just beyond,
she had to move faster to reach.

When the millions of
lights behind her eyes exploded and the multiple spasms ripped
through her, Ash knew that this moment has to be perfection. To
prove her wrong Kieran lifted her up and rocked her harder and Ash
went a lot higher before falling onto the other side of the
world.

It was hours before she
could move and when she did, she realised that the blue velvet box
was on her pillow. “What’s this?”

Kieran placed his head on
his elbow and watched her. “That is the promise of the future. I do
believe you said yes to my marriage proposal. You also said yes to
wearing my ring.”

She sat up and opened the
box. It had taken so long to get here.

Kieran placed a hand on
her thigh and smiled. “Remember when you were a waitress and you
said, let me quote. ‘I will not marry you Dr Kanna.’”

She nodded and wiped away
a tear. “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”

He sighed. “Your parents
will be proud.” He took the ring from the box and placed it on her
finger.

Unable to take her eyes
off the ring, she placed her head on his shoulder. “How do you know
the exact thing to say to me?”

He pulled her closer.
“It’s written in the stars.”

EPILOGUE

“
You’re going
to be late.” Kieran watched Ash check her make-up in the mirror and
then he tapped his watch.

“
You try
doing this when you’re eight months pregnant and see how that
goes?” she pulled a face at him.

He gave her a wide berth
and watched as she walked ahead of him.

Julie met Ash at the foot
of the steps and she helped straighten her sari. She still hadn’t
mastered the technique of tying a sari.

“
You look
beautiful. You are going to be the best looking graduate there.”
Julie said.

Ash turned to Kieran whom
she was finding in the way, quite often recently. Even when he was
breathing, it was too loud. “Well, what are you waiting for? I
can’t be here standing all this time, where is the car?”