Andy was standing outside the atrium cafeteria, wearing a set of bright red scrubs, which were the oddest things that she had ever seen in her life. The laundry service had heard about the impromptu wedding and found them somewhere.
It was nice of them to dig up something special for her, and even kinder to find these scarlet scrubs. Andy had resolved not to be upset that she wouldn’t have a traditional Indian wedding and that no one from her family would be there, but if the laundry service had dug up white scrubs, Andy would have felt obligated to wear them. Looking like she was going to a funeral might have been too much for her. At least, with these bright red scrubs, she was wearing the traditional color for an Indian bride.
Red scrubs were weird, though. The surgical teams wore blue. The medical doctors wore blue or green. The nursing staff wore navy blue or mauve.
Red scrubs should not exist. The red fabric would disguise blood stains, which could lead to the transmission of infectious disease within the hospital. Reducing iatrogenic infection was a major concern, especially since hospital-acquired infections ran a higher risk of being resistant to antibiotics. That’s why surgeons wore those blue scrubs. It was easy to see blood on them.
Yet, here they were.
The scarlet scrubs even fit Andy.
It was like a miracle.
But Andy didn’t believe in miracles. She did believe in purchasing errors that were covered up until they became fortuitous.
Beside her, Raji stood, holding a bouquet of bright red and peach roses for Andy and a smaller bouquet of the same for herself. Andy had gotten all weepy about them, but Raji had teased her until she had recovered properly.
Raji pulled her phone out of her purse. “It’s two-fifty. You ready for this?”
Andy smiled at her. “Yes. So much.”
Raji wrapped her arm around Andy’s shoulders and jostled her around a little. “You look a lot happier than you did yesterday.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I think I am.”
“I was ready to pull you out of there. I kept thinking, why was I letting my friend do this? Why wasn’t I kidnapping you and throwing you in the trunk of a car?”
“Kidnapping charges would mean that you would lose your medical license.”
“Would you have pressed charges?”
“Well, no.”
“And it’s not like I had committed Medicare fraud or something.”
From the hallway behind her, Andy heard a shout, “Andal Kumar!”
Andy flinched. That angry voice belonged to another one of her uncles.
Raji’s arm tightened around her shoulders, and she said, “Oh, what fresh hell is this?”
They both turned, and Raji switched her arms to keep one around Andy.
The uncle strode down the hallway, his pissed-off footsteps thumping even above the crowd milling around, walking toward the elevators to go to the patients’ towers.
Andy pulled herself up taller, as tall as she could in her sensible shoes that she wore to work, and clenched her fists. “I am not going back with you.”
The uncle’s mouth was a hard line below his white mustache. “You will not marry this boy. Your parents have spoken.”
Raji whispered to her, “Say the word. I’ll call security. Or I’ll punch him.”
Andy wrapped her arm around Raji’s waist to keep her from punching the uncle. “Uncle, I am marrying that man now. How did you know I would be here?”
“Your sister tried to convince your parents to give you their blessings.”
Andy rolled her eyes. She should have specifically told her sister, Umamaheshwari, not to tell her parents anything at all. She probably thought that she was helping. “You need to leave this hospital, or I will call security.”
They argued. Uncle refused to leave and insisted that Andy go home with him. Raji hugged her shoulders and kept whispering to let her know when to punch him in the throat. Raji was taking Krav Maga and might just want to try it out.
Neither Andy nor Raji saw one of Andy’s cousins slip past them into the atrium cafe.