I Cannot Be Your Shadow Puppet

The Surprise

Jenny jumped up and down, overjoyed at the invitation.

“Yippee!! We will be able to dress up! I have been feeling like an old hag, with no social life for over a month now. Let’s just hope we don’t have to leave in the middle of the celebration to get back to the hospital. You go ahead, catch a wink. I will go over to the ward and RSVP to Dr Dane in person.” She winked and left, leaving the unfinished sandwich on her plate.

Mia sighed and shook her head. The girl is crazy for that doc! Hopefully, she doesn’t get hurt. Men can be such bastards! She had enough experience with men in her life to prove her point.

'Mia had always been a topper at school and after getting the required grades in her entrance exam she had finally entered one of the top colleges for Ayurveda in Western India. Her modern education had not prepared her for the onslaught of concepts from the ancient world, but she knew she wanted to cure people and this was one of the best options she had.

She firmly believed that integrating modern and ancient treatment could be a great solution for most of the 21st-century health issues and she was raring to go. Luckily for her, India offers a medical degree in Ayurveda, where you study both modern and ancient medicine for five years. Then you complete your internship with a government hospital for a year and, finally, you are a Registered Medical Doctor, free to study further, specialise or practice according to your career choices.

At seventeen years, she was quite mature for her age. Brought up in a typical orthodox middle- income family in urban India where she was the only child. She had a happy childhood with a supportive family and no real sense of deprivation. She had always wanted to prove herself.

She had met her ex- boyfriend in college and they had fallen in love. She had surrendered herself to him with full commitment and believed that this was the love of her life. That had not stopped him from cheating. She had caught him in the act at his home during their final year of medicine.

She still remembered the day!

She had walked in on him while he was passionately f*cking the brains out of one of their seniors. How the woman cried out his name in the throes of excitement while he emptied his b*lls in her depths. Uggghh!

Her entire world had fallen apart. She had broken up with him but the trauma of seeing them together at the same college for another year had wreaked havoc with her mental peace and self-confidence. She had gone into depression and tried to commit suicide. Luckily for her, Andy, her best friend, had been her support throughout this phase and helped maintain her sanity.

Although Andy was studying engineering, he would make sure he spent as much time as possible with her. She slowly healed and concentrated on her studies with renewed vigour, making sure that she was among the top 5 students.

But the scars of that experience had changed her forever. She used to be the life of a party. Her infectious smile, quick wit and constant chattering could lift the dampest spirits, but now she had grown up. She had made herself a promise that she wouldn’t give herself up to anyone again, that she would never, ever, be so vulnerable!'

She had fallen asleep while thinking about her past. The doorbell woke her up with a start. It took some time for her to get oriented to the present.

She jumped out of bed, slipped a T-shirt over her head without bothering to wear the bra and opened the door to let Jenny in.

Jenny waltzed in with excitement, “Babes, you aren’t ready yet? We will be leaving in an hour. Haven’t you checked your messages?’ She complained with a pout.

Mia laughed, “Sorry, I was asleep. Don’t know where the phone is. I will be ready in ten. Promise!" She nudged Jenny playfully with her elbow, "I don’t have to dress to impress. You are the one smitten with the birthday boy. Where were you, anyways?”

“Duh! Buying a present for Dane & I needed to visit the parlour to look presentable. Unlike you, I like to look well-groomed,” she poked her tongue out teasingly.

Mia rolled her eyes and went into her room. She chose a black halter neck, knee length rayon dress. It would be perfect for the warm night. It had a simple cut with big sparkly white stones at the neckline to add just the right amount of bling. She paired it with a black handbag, put on a silver strapped watch, and silver hoop earrings. She teamed it with black heels.

She teased her curls a little to get them in shape and left her hair open. With light makeup, red lipstick and just mascara, she looked at herself in the mirror. Satisfied with her appearance she called out to Jenny while strolling into the living room.

Soon enough, Jenny joined her in the living room, looking drop dead gorgeous. She had gone in for a sexy smokey look for her black eyes. Her straightened hair and perfect make up made her look like a socialite out for a party. She had chosen an aqua coloured sleeveless dress that hugged her breasts perfectly and then had an umbrella cut below her waist flowing freely up to her knees. When she moved, the dress moved with her long legs, attracting attention.

Mia whistled and teased her. “You are dressed to kill, sweetheart! Why did you even bother to get a gift? You only need to bat your eyelids to make him forget everything else.”

Jenny blushed. She wanted this evening to be perfect for Dane. She liked him a lot. Looking at him did something to her tummy and raised this strong desire to do naughty things to his body. She had stopped short of imagining his fingers touching her sweet spot when she had returned from the hospital and gone into the shower. She controlled her thoughts, which were making her nervous and Mia’s teasing would only make it worse. Thankfully for her, the doorbell rang, stopping Mia from saying anything further.

Mia was closer to the door, so she opened it and saw a Greek god standing there, smiling.

He had the most mesmerising light brown eyes which looked at her in appreciation. His muscular arms and toned body were visible even through his white linen shirt. It looked like he trained regularly. His casual denims were stressed at the knees and his smile was breathtaking.

“Hi. I am Dr Raj Sen, Dane’s friend from Pune. Are you Jenny?” Said the sexy stranger.

That’s when Mia realised that her mouth was open. She quickly composed herself and said, “no... no, I am her friend, Mia. Where is Dane? Is the evening cancelled?”

The cancellation of plans was quite normal for them.

“Ahh, thank God! Dr Mia… No, not at all. He is caught up with some work at the clinic so he asked me to pick you and Jenny up. We would be meeting him directly at the location.” said Raj, still smiling.

Mia didn’t get the “Thank God” part of it and the constant smiling was muddling her thoughts, but she ignored that. “Well, we are ready. Where are we going?”

He responded, “That’s a surprise!”

***

Raj

Raj couldn’t keep his eyes off the gorgeous girl who had opened the door. He couldn’t stop smiling at how flustered and cute she looked.

She looked like a teenager but she was an intern here, which meant she would surely be in her early twenties.

The black dress that clung to her every curve left little to the imagination of what hid underneath that dress. She had gone for a natural look with red lipstick enhancing her full lips.

How he would love to taste those luscious lips...

And the eyes… He could have sworn he saw a well-masked vulnerability there.

And her smell, that fresh minty smell made him think of early morning arousal.

What the f*ck am I doing? Why am I thinking of arousal? Why am I still smiling? He thought to himself.

Gathering his wits, he made sure nothing showed on his face, except his smile...

He was here for his buddy. Poor guy was stuck 'on call' in this village on his birthday. But knowing him, he must have arranged this situation to spend time with his current object of fascination.

When Mia opened the door, he was taken aback by the instant connection he felt with her. For a minute he thought he was drooling over Dane’s girl until she said that she wasn’t Jenny.

He felt a huge wave of relief and blurted "Thank God," but why?

He wasn’t going to meet this woman ever again! Anyways, he was going to follow Dane's instructions and take them to the surprise location that Dane had planned. Stupid love- struck guy!!

He is 32 for goodness’ sake and behaving like a teenager!

He had planned his own damn birthday party only so he could celebrate it with Jenny. He rolled his eyes internally.

But Dane’s plan just got more interesting with him meeting Mia. He now genuinely looked forward to the rest of the evening...

***