Amidst the rumors, Anaya and Rudra came to the hospital and performed their duties as usual paying no heed to the rumors.
Later that night, Anaya returned to her apartment as Rudra had an emergency surgery to perform.
Just as she was about to open the door of her apartment, Dheer opened his apartment's door. It seemed he was headed somewhere.
As he saw Anaya at her door he called out "Hey Anaya. Are you back just now?"
"Umm yes, I got a bit late today." Anaya smiled.
"Then do you have some cheese?" Dheer asked.
"Huh??" Anaya was confused by this sudden question.
"The thing is, I was going to make a pizza for myself but ran out of cheese. I was headed to buy some. But I am so tired and don't want to go all the way to the supermarket" Dheer said hesitatingly.
"Ohhh. Yes, I've some. Come in" Anaya invited him to her apartment with a gentle smile.
"Where's Rudra?" He asked as he followed her.
"He had an emergency surgery to perform so he'll be a little late" Anaya replied.
Dheer's eyes shone at this. Just what he wanted. As Anaya looked for the cheese he said "Umm Anaya, as Rudra is not here can you join me for a pizza? It's boring to eat alone."
Anaya hesitated a bit of didn't reply right away.
'Some other time Dheer. I am not feeling hungry right now." Anaya responded after a while.
"Oh come on. Today you'll get to taste the pizza made by the great Chef Dheer and it's a rare opportunity. And I bet you still have to have dinner so you'll get hungry by the time it's ready. Now stop hesitating" saying this Dheer grabbed Anaya's hand and dragged her to his apartment.
"Wait Dheer.. At least let me grab the cheese" Anaya was flustered.
"Oh yeah. I forgot about the cheese" Dheer said rubbing his head at the back.
Anaya laughed at this.
After an hour uncontrolled laughter could be heard from Dheer's apartment. Anaya was laughing uncontrollably as she watched Dheer struggle to knead the dough for an hour now.
While a frustrated Dheer was striving hard to get the damn dough right. His entire face was covered with flour while the supposedly perfect dough he was working at for the last hour was just not coming out. This time he had again added more water.
Anaya on the other hand was rolling on the sofa laughing. She was on the verge of tears. "Stop it Dheer. Are you going to make a pizza for us or this entire building? This is the tenth time you are adding more flour to it. This is not how you do it" she managed to say between her laughter.
Dheer glared at her.
Anaya stood up and went to him. "Okay, now Mr. great chef Dheer, move aside and let me knead it before you make it a dough big enough for the entire building."
Dheer sulked at her words and stopped her from taking the plate on which he was kneading that damn dough.
"Now now. Even great chefs are not perfect. You just don't know how to knead a dough. That's it. No need to get disheartened. Here, let me knead it while you make other preparations. Not knowing this doesn't prove that you don't know cooking okay. I believe that you are a great chef. Just show me by making a delicious pizza after I knead this okay?" Anaya said as she tried to placate him with her words as she tried to take that plate from him while he resisted.
"Jeez Dheer! Give it to me already. I'm starving and with you kneading this dough I'm not getting anything to eat for the entire night" Anaya snapped and snatched the plate from him after a few minutes of struggle.
Dheer finally gave up seeing that she was getting angry. After washing his hands he silently went to make other preparations lest he makes her angrier.
It took them a while to get the pizza ready with Anaya shouting at him periodically for doing things the wrong way.
"God! Dheer! Wash those tomatoes before you cut them!"
"Come on idiot, put some more cheese on it, or else we can't even taste them."
"No! this is not how you roll the dough."
"Hey-hey look at this shape? Which country's map are you making here?"
Anaya was shouting at almost everything that Dheer was doing. After spending just some time cooking with him, she completely let go of herself and forgot that she was supposed to show some inhibitions towards him as he was not one of her best friends. She just felt comfortable doing so with him. He somehow managed to make her feel comfortable in this short time.