Sorry for the delay

Hope you like the chapter. It is not edited. Kindly bear with the errors.

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Abhiram's fingers gripped the steering as he hit the accelerator and the car glided forwards smoothly. Trees lined both the sides of the narrow lane and sun played hide and seek through the canopy.

Ritika felt surveyed her husband's profile.

His eyes were narrowed however the expression on his handsome face was inscrutable. Ritika never would get tired looking at him. Her eyes slowly scanned his virile forearms dusted with dark hair as he stretched his arm to turn on the FM. The veins on the back of his hand stood out conspicuously and as a doctor she felt the uncontrollable urge to roll and push a cannula right through it. She grinned at her own thought and continued to stare at him. Slowly a hint of smirk formed at the corner of his lips.

"Weirdo. Quit staring at me."

"I am always fascinated by your veins, Ram."

"I know all about your cannula fetish, Dr.Ritika." All doctors had this fetish in common, he thought.

For a while both of them were quiet, listening to Taylor swift on the FM.

"I still can't believe you are jealous." Abhiram spoke after five minutes. He shot her a cursory glance sideways and looked ahead.

"What's so unbelievable about it?" Ritika's eyebrows moved up questioningly. Didn't he know her at all? "You talk of female psychology all the time. I can't understand men." Ritika continued.

"Why?" Abhiram was now curious.

"Men want their girl friends to be understanding. A hint of possessiveness and suddenly girl friends are clingy. You feel trapped. What not. But when it comes to wives, you people find their jealousy amusing."

Abhiram shrugged.

"That's some theory you have got. Are you taking a dig at me while pretending to generalize the issue?"

"You are not denying it." It was not a question. "Stop looking so smug," Ritika swatted his arm.

"Hmm. I would be lying if I say I don't find your jealousy endearing."

"Endearing? See that's what I have been telling you." How could she not be jealous when women irrespective of their ages, gave him hot, hungry looks.Ritika let out a harsh breath. "Ninety percent women between sixteen and sixty eye –bang you all the time. I have seen it all my life and I'm sorry I don't find it funny anymore. " She snorted.

Abhiram's eyes widened. "Language , Ritu ," he admonished her mockingly.

"Stop showing fake modesty." She crossed her arms infront of her chest. "Don't teach me language. You are the one who slips into unprintable language the moment you hit the bed, especially when you want to do unprintable things," she scoffed at him.

Abhiram cocked his brow though he knew exactly what she had meant but he bit back his smile. He knew he was  brazenly vocal in bed. Even after years of marriage, he always managed to shock her with his verbal foreplay and she still blushed like a new bride.

"Where is the demure young lady I had married?" he ran a finger on her cheek without looking at her.

"She got lost between your bed sh.." Ritika couldn't complete whatever she was going to say. Abhiram's palm cupped her mouth. He was laughing aloud now. Ritika's retort was muffled. But somehow, she managed to peel his palm off her mouth.

"Hey mister. Eyes on the road and both hands on the steering please."

"I can do many things with a single hand .Holding a steering steady is one of those ,"he replied with a straight face.

The innuendo hit the bull's eye. He could feel Ritika's incredulous gaze on him.

"A few years back if someone had told me about your ability to crack such poor jokes, I wouldn't have just rolled my eyes," she said, shrugging. Looking out of the window, her eyes trailed the huge hoardings in the city while grinning like a fool.

A day of not talking to him and she had felt like a fish out of water. Now, after having resolved things with him, she knew she was rambling.

"By the way, what about the party next week?" Abhiram reminded Ritika about the Doctor's party organized by the hospital management at a five star hotel in the city. He had eager plans for that day. He wanted to spend some time alone with Ritika. They would stay back at the hotel after the party. A week –end get away, just the two of them.

His hopes got crushed the next instant.

"Our girls' gang had plans to take the kids to Wonder la that weekend."

"No way."

"Will you let me finish? I said had. Obviously we will attend the party. It will be a change for Abhika also. I will have to talk to the girls. I just hope they postpone it to some other day," Ritika sighed.

"It's comical you refer to the women of your gang as girls. First of all it's a Mom's gang. Second thing, the water in Wonder la is dirty. You know how many people pee in those pools? I'm not sending my daughter there."

"Have you ever realised how controlling you are?" Ritika screwed her eyes. "All kids love Wonder la. We should have taken her there much earlier."

He was not being controlling. He was being logical, he thought. Was he being over-protective of his family? He had once tried to stop Ritika from going there long back when they had been newly married. He hated the place. He had been there just once and he hadn't enjoyed it. Some of his classmates had experienced cat- calling and eve –teasing. According to him, it was a place where creeps and perverts lurked in every corner.

"Okay now will you let me talk, without interrupting ten times?" He was sure Ritika would object to going to the hotel for the week end without Abhika. Still ,he had to try.

By now, they had reached home. Abhiram parked the car in their garage. Both of them reached their bedroom.

"You said you would talk, I'm waiting , Ram," Ritika who had been quiet for a while told him as she gently closed their door.

Abhiram raked his eyes overher. 

"Let's go to the party and stay back there for a day. Just the two of us. You can call me selfish, sex-starved or by any other adjective, I don't care."

"Sex-starved? Are you serious? I mean you are joking , aren't you? Please tell me you are," she exclaimed, her eyes never leaving his face.

 "Fun fact. Men think of it at least nineteen times per day on an average."

 Ritika's expression was priceless ,one of absolute bewilderment. "That's ridiculous."

Abhiram chuckled softly.He covered the distance between them in two long strides and gently pushed her against the door. His forehead rested on hers and his one hand cupped her cheek.He took a long deep breath while Ritika closed her eyes, savouring the moment.

"I can never get enough of you," he said and the next second his lips crashed on her mouth.

***

The girls' gang was actually Abhika's classmates' moms. They were mostly of the same age-group and usually met once every month for an all moms outing with the kids. Ritika had earlier sent a message on their whatsapp group if they could go for the trip on a later date.

The 'leader'of their gang, a software engineer who worked at Infosys, soon called her up.

"Hey Ritika! My husband wants to know if the men could join too. It would be fun. I didn't want to post it in the group before discussing it with one of you. What say?"

"It should be okay I think. Put it in the group and then there would a discussion, right?"

Ritika was relieved that Abhika wouldn't necessarily be missing that trip. She hoped Abhiram would quit being so stupid. She was curious to see how Abhiram would react. He had earlier expressed his displeasure. Now that he would be included, would he agree to the plan?

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