The hospital cafeteria buzzed with the usual end-of-shift exhaustion. Doctors, interns, and residents occupied every table, their tired laughter blending with the clatter of trays and the aroma of too-strong coffee.
Ann Rathore barely heard any of it.
She sat at the farthest corner, her phone screen illuminating her face as she reread the messages from her mother.
Mom: Ann, just listen once before saying no.
Mom: He’s a doctor too. Good family. Well-settled. Just meet him once.
Mom: We’ll talk when you get back.
Ann exhaled sharply and locked her phone before tossing it onto the table.
“Marriage talk again?” Meera asked knowingly, stirring her tea.
Ann groaned, rubbing her temple. “Yes. And they’re relentless. They act like I’m some ticking time bomb that needs to be defused before it’s too late.”
Vihaan smirked from across the table. “You say that like it’s new. They’ve been at it since med school.”
“Exactly. Which means they should’ve accepted defeat by now,” Ann muttered.
Karthik chuckled. “Parents never accept defeat. They just regroup and attack again.”
“True.” Ann shook her head. “But I don’t care how perfect their so-called proposal is. I’m not interested.”
Just as she took a sip of her coffee, a deep voice from the next table caught her attention.
“Marriage? You’re kidding, right?”
She knew that voice.
Her fingers stilled around the cup as she glanced sideways.
Prithab Rathore.
Seated with Ishaan and a few others, his long fingers tapped against his coffee mug, his expression unreadable.
“They said they’ll wait until my leave is over,” Prithab continued, his voice edged with irritation. “Then they’ll start pushing again.”
Ann blinked. Wait. He’s dealing with this too?
“Damn,” Ishaan muttered. “Bro, our parents should just open a matchmaking firm at this point.”
Karthik, clearly amused, leaned back in his chair. “Honestly, they should just arrange a mass wedding for all of us and get it over with.”
Ann scoffed. “Not happening.”
Ishaan grinned and nudged Prithab. “Hey, you and Ann should swap notes. Same situation, same stubbornness.”
Ann froze for half a second.
But before she could react, Prithab’s reply came, cool and dismissive.
“Not interested.”
Two words. Simple. Indifferent.
But for some reason, they felt sharper than they should have.
Ann wasn’t interested either. Obviously. But something about the way he said it—so easily, so effortlessly, like the idea of her wasn’t even worth a second thought—made irritation curl in her chest.
She shouldn’t care.
And yet.
Meera arched a brow at her, eyes gleaming with amusement.
Ann ignored her, lifting her coffee cup to her lips, pretending she hadn’t heard anything.
Whatever. It didn’t matter.
She just had to get through this leave, come back, and move on with her life.
Simple.
Or so she thought.
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