Adultery The Aarogya Wellness and Intimacy Clinic

[prasannas2001]

 

 
The fourth week, his mother called.
 
Seema was in the kitchen when it happened.
 
She heard Naveen's phone ring, heard him pick up, heard the rise and fall of his voice, polite, patient, the voice he used when he was trying to manage his mother's expectations.
 
She couldn't hear the words, but she didn't need to.
 
She knew what the call was about.
 
Grandchildren.
 
She might be saying something like “You should give a kid by next year.”
 
She stood at the counter, chopping vegetables, and felt her hands begin to shake.
 
The knife slipped.
 
She set it down.
 
She gripped the edge of the counter and breathed, in and out, in and out, until the shaking stopped.
 
When Naveen came into the kitchen, his face was carefully blank.
 
"Everything okay?" she asked, though she knew the answer.
 
"Fine." He opened the fridge, took out a bottle of water.
 
"Just my mother being my mother."
 
"What did she want?"
 
He hesitated.
 
"Nothing important."
 
"Naveen."
 
He turned to face her.
 
For a moment, he looked like he was going to lie.
 
Then he sighed, and his shoulders sagged, and he said, "She wants to know when we're going to give her a grandchild."
 
Seema felt the words land in her chest like stones.
 
She nodded, slowly, and turned back to the vegetables.
 
"We'll tell her when we're ready," Naveen said.
 
"There's no rush."
 
But they both knew that wasn't true.
 
In their world, in their culture, there was always a rush.
 
A newly married couple was expected to produce a child within a year or two, ideally within the first year after the marriage, parents wants to hear the good news.
 
Every family gathering, every phone call, every conversation with relatives was a countdown clock ticking toward an inevitable deadline.
 
And Seema was failing even to get to the starting line.