An eerie silence filled the room.
Riya's legs fidgeted, and hand grabbed her pants tightly. Since he didn't move for a while, she concluded that he was scared. 'Bad idea! Bad idea!' her inner self shouted at her. She was so embarrassed to glance up.
Finally, she mustered up the courage to look up and first noticed his fisted hands. She was surprised to see him fuming through gritted teeth. Why was he mad at her?
She expected that her body would scare or repulse him but not mad. Was he going to abandon her regarding her to be a monster?
"Dhruv?", she startled him and finally broke his trance.
"Sorry", he shook his head and slowly pulled over the night dress. As promised, he decided to never probe her.
A blanket of quietness spread around them engulfing everything except their audible pounding hearts. He slowly peeled off her pants only to unearth another bunch of scars covering up her thighs and legs.
Once her feet were free of socks, the marks around her ankles came into light. Dhruv remembered a facebook video he had watched, of a stray dog, whose collar embedded into its skin over time as it tried to free itself. This reminded him of that. It looked like she had been tied up and it left a bite mark while she fought for release.
'Who would do this?' he wanted to kill the b**tard. Though she wasn't in pain because of those scars anymore, he couldn't fathom to imagine what she would've been through. He decided not to show pity as that would only hurt her more.
"Done!", he announced. She searched his face for something although she told him not to ask anything. It was the first time anyone ever saw her naked and his silence bothered her.
To lighten up the mood, he playfully hovered near her ears which made her retreat slightly. "You're aware that it's very small, right?", he softly murmured, smiling slyly, giving her a moment to understand.
Once she realized what he meant, her eyes burned with rage, "Get out!", she growled. He chuckled and obeyed immediately.
After he was out, she smiled with relief.
~~*~~
The two weeks home quarantine passed in a whim! He bathed her, fed her, helped her to the restroom, combed her long hair, which was an extremely tiring deal and helped her change every day. That became his routine. Now that she healed enough to do these basic tasks herself, he was unsure if he missed it or felt relieved.
Initially, he noticed her anxiety whenever he touched, but gradually she opened up to him and recently was feeling comfortable around him. It gave him an odd sense of satisfaction. He mused that she was so coy for being called the Ice Queen.
This healing time also gave them the liberty to work together on the joint event. Riya's Choice and Marble Enterprises collaborated and came up with a combo product for couples. Three products including face wash, skin shield and face mask for men and women in the same pack. They named it "Lovey-Dovey" which was Dhruv's idea, strongly condemned but finally accepted by Riya after multiple debates. She suggested "Couple's Care", which Dhruv outrightly rejected saying it sounded historic like her.
The product launch was planned after a week giving Riya some more time to recover for the press release and marketing event. They had also planned to select 3 couples through a lucky draw and gifting them with a romantic trip to Ladakh.
All this needed so much planning and documentation which mostly Dhruv coordinated with Sharan, with little or no involvement from Riya.
Dhruv was in the living room proof-reading the news articles to be released whereas Riya lied on the couch playing candy crush.
He continued reading when she suddenly cursed.
He looked up, "You can help me instead of cursing at your phone", he said expectantly. "Nopppe!" was her reply. She had her undivided attention to the phone and never bothered to look before answering.
He sighed and got up from his place to stretch for a minute. Fatigue was killing him. He had to work in addition to taking care of her from time to time, while she was coolly loitering around the house every day.
'Why wasn't she helping?', he observed her, biting her lip, still deeply involved with her mobile. He slowly moved behind the couch to peep at it.
"You're playing candy crush?", his flabbergasted declaration frightened her for a second that she almost dropped the phone.
"Dhruv! God! Don't sneak up on me like that!", she softly rubbed her chest alleviating her racing heart. "And yeah! When I'm bored"
"Wow! You're totally different from my imagination."
"What did you imagine?", she narrowed her eyes.
"For starters, not a sweet tooth. Definitely not a candy crush player….", "What's your handle?"
She understood he was asking her game player name, "Rapunzel20".
"What? Seriously? You are Rapunzel20?", he acted surprised at the news.
She saw him dubiously, "You play candy crush too?"
"Yeah.. Overlord_kira", he shoved his hands in pockets proudly.
"Oh my god! You are Overlord_kira? I hate you! I must play every level twice to maintain high score because of you", she scorned.
"Well, join the club! You get those scores by unfair means."
"How is purchasing power items unfair? Then why are they selling it in the first place?"
"You should play fair and square with what you get every day. Not everyone can afford it, so its like cheating!", he raised his voice almost in a shout.
"If you're an imbecile, I can't help it! Don't blame me for losing, loser!", she shouted too and made a funny face at him making him snort.
They both stared at each other for a moment catching their breath.
"Were we arguing over a stupid game?", he asked calmly.
"Yeah! I just realized that too", she gave up and sighed.
What was wrong with them? They were powerful CEOs of two giant corporate companies almost owning 25% joint market share in the beauty consumables segment but fighting over candy crush.