Adultery The Aarogya Wellness and Intimacy Clinic

[prasannas2001]

 

 
Naveen heard the words and felt something turn over in his gut.
 
"Is there a treatment?" he asked.
 
Dr. Menon opened a drawer.
 
She took out a card, thick, cream-colored, expensive-looking, and slid it across the desk.
 
The Aarogya Wellness & Intimacy Clinic
 
Below the name, a phone number.
 
Nothing else.
 
"There's a clinic," Dr. Menon said.
 
"They specialize in exactly this."
 
"Female sexual dysfunction, intimacy disorders, couples counseling."
 
"They're discreet, which is why you've probably never heard of them, and they work on referral only."
 
"I've sent several patients there over the years."
 
Naveen turned the card over.
 
The back was blank.
 
"They're expensive," Dr. Menon said.
 
"I won't pretend otherwise. But they get results."
 
"And they take a very limited number of patients each year, so the waiting list can be long."
 
"If you're interested, I can make a call."
 
Naveen looked at Seema.
 
She hadn't moved.
 
He wanted to know what she was thinking.
 
He wanted to know if she was hearing what he was hearing, hope, a way forward, a door opening, or something else entirely.
 
"Seema?" he said, softly.
 
She looked up.
 
Her eyes met his, and for a moment, something passed between them, something fragile, something that might have been gratitude or might have been dread.
 
Then she looked at Dr. Menon and nodded.
 
"Yes," she said.
 
Her voice was very quiet.
 
"Please."
 
 
They didn't speak in the car.
 
Hyderabad moved past the windows, the traffic, the billboards, the migrant workers on the median selling balloons and plastic toys.
 
Naveen drove with both hands on the wheel, his eyes fixed on the road.
 
Seema sat beside him, her face turned toward the window.
 
The card was in his shirt pocket.
 
He could feel it there, a small weight against his chest.
 
Frigidity.
 
He kept turning the word over.
 
It didn't fit her.
 
It didn't fit the woman who had laughed at his jokes, who had cried at their wedding, who had stood in the hotel room on their wedding night and let him undress her without pulling away.