Oh to be loved by Umeed Pasha! To have your heart in her tiny fist, to have your days shimmer with her light, to be smoldered by her bewitching laughter.
Farjaad Khan Bahadur would've never known how it felt to be loved if it wasn't for Umeed Pasha. He wouldn't have experienced a plethora of emotions that left him giddy and nervous if she hadn't snuck into his car that night or if she wasn't friends with Mimi. He didn't want to think of a world where the possibility of him crossing paths with her was null.
She made him silly in love, giggle in solitude, and sent butterflies in his stomach whenever his eyes found hers. He wondered if he should tell her that when she randomly fixes his hair strand for the sake of touching him, it makes his breath hitch. Or when she placed her lips on his cheek every time he'd drop her at Pasha House unbothered by the sneaky gazes of her neighbors, he was taken aback for a second, and later on, he kept on replaying that moment for the rest of the drive back home with a silly grin on his face like a twelve-year-old boy.
The five-foot-two-inch menace had him on his toes. Be it barging into his office with food from his favorite restaurant when he was overloaded with work or sending him a note wishing him luck for his projects, she always had him on his toes. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that she had tabs on all his meetings already. They weren't even married yet and the woman knew more about his schedule than he did.
He was never complaining.
How could he complain? He remembered someone telling him once that deep down we love to be taken care of. It feels great when someone notices the tiniest things about us and Umeed was that person in his life. His heart jumped in delight when in the middle of working on a nerve-wracking project in his office, Umeed would surprise him with a cheerful smile and a bag in her hand smelling of homemade food.
He could never forget the day when she visited him in the middle of the day when he assumed Miss was busy at university. Of course, she bunked for him. She came right in with a beaming face holding a cactus.
"Ye kya hai?" He raised his eyebrow when she placed the plant on his desk while he was still bewildered at her sudden landing in his office in the middle of the day. Not expecting her at all because last night madam told him "uff bohat kaam hai uni ka Farjaad bohat kaam hai."
"Rocket hai." She uttered, rolling her eyes. "Tsk! Dekh nahi rahay cactus hai, AAP KE LIYE." The excessive stressing on aap had him. He was amused by the way she gloated about her present as if she cracked a big deal. It was her happiness that made him happier and until that day Farjaad hadn't known the joy of having a cactus in your office cabin could be so infectious. Being with Umeed made him realize it wasn't about looking for happiness in big things but finding joy in little things that actually mattered.
"Cactus? Mere liye? Umeed, ye kya tareeqa hai taana maarne ka?"
"Taana nahi hai, meri muhabbat hai. Ye cactus ap hain aur iske ooper khilay huwe phool mein." She fluttered her eyelashes and despite resisting his lips curled upwards. Holding the cactus in her hands, she reduced the distance and adjusted herself in his lap. Placing the plant on the table, her arms around his neck, and her chin jutted at him, demanding him to kiss her on the chin to which he obliged.
"I love you." She said after a while and then he realized how much he needed to hear it, not that he doubted it but just the constant affirmation made him happy like a 7-year-old. He felt this renewed energy to work without grimacing or shouting at others.
She was truly true to her name. Umeed. Full of hope even when there was none in sight. Always making him see through the best. She'd know when he was having a hard time at work and the next moment he'd find her by his side, in his office or at home, going through files, listening to him. Not that she necessarily had professional advice to give, but for the first time in years, it felt great to have someone by your side, listening to your woes. Patiently listening how hard it gets with clients sometimes, how investors leave you hanging and frustrated, how you've to take risks that don't let one sleep for the night. Umeed would listen to everything patiently running circles on his palm, her other hand caressing his shoulders, and that was all he needed to deal with anything in life.
