My Life is a Soap Opera

34. Faint crack of my heart.

"This behaviour is not cute. You can't run around attempting to murder people like that!"

"Attempting?" He tilted his head to the side. "There would be no attempts." There was a hint of something dark as he approached me. Unconsciously, I moved backwards until my back hit the huge glass window. He gently lifted my face towards him with two fingers. "You don't understand, do you? No one touches you and lives to tell the tale. No one."

Flip it around. You are the one in charge. Flip it around!

He fell to his knees and pushed mine apart. He looked up at me. "You are mine to touch, to hold and to worship."

Flip it around!

I grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled it forcing his head to tilt backwards and his eyes to meet. He took in a sharp breath. "That doesn't mean you act like a reckless lunatic." I hissed.

"I am not acting. I am one when it comes to you." He smirked, then grabbed my free hand and brought it to his mouth and pressed his lips on the back of my palm.That simple action caused a short circuit in my brain.

My body leaned in towards him on it's own accord until faces was inches from his. His hot breath hit my face. "We're not sleeping next to each other." I managed to say at last.

I straightened up as the smirk was wiped off his face. "What?"

"You heard me." I shrugged. "I'm taking the floor. I'm not sleeping next to you."

I don't think I can keep my hands off you if I do.

"What? Why?" He stood up quickly as I began to look for extra bedsheets.

"You clearly have some issues that you need to sort out. I am not going to encourage this weird behaviour of yours. So, until and unless you come back to your senses, I'm not sharing a bed with you." I finally found two spare bedsheets in one of the cupboards.

"Come on. You don't have to do that." He stood behind me as I laid the sheet on the ground.

My glare shut him up. I grabbed a square pillow for my head and a cylindrical one for me to cuddle.

"Fine. I'll take the floor. You take the bed."

"No."

"You know you aren't actually a reindeer. You will catch a cold."

I flipped him off before turning off and beginning to take off my shirt.

"Fine, if you really don't want me near you, I'll stay in another room."

I stopped midway while unbuttoning the last button and turned to face him.

"This whole floor is my personal floor." He shrugged.

Obviously.

"Call me if you need anything." He pressed a kiss to my forehead and walked out of the room.

After a couple minutes of waiting like that and realising that he wasn't going to come back, I put the pillows and bedsheets back to their original places. Stripping down to my underwear, I settled into the bed and tried to sleep.

And failed miserably.

No matter how much I twisted and turned, I just couldn't sleep. Hell, I even tried those calming sea sounds but nothing worked.

In the last few months, I had developed a habit of cuddling with him to sleep. Initially we cuddled before sleeping but as days passed, I didn't feel like pulling away from him to fall asleep. He was like my very own kolbalish in the flesh. No pillow could fulfil that role anymore.

Finally at around 2 am, I gave up. I wrapped a bedsheet around myself. Carefully, I turned the knob around to make sure there wasn't any noise. I peeked out into the corridor to see if anyone was there. To my surprise, there was no one. Not even Mohit, Ritwik's night bodyguard.

I walked out of the room and pulled the door gently close behind me. I turned to the room just on the left of the one I came out of and tried to turn the handle. It was locked. I contemplated calling him but decided to check the room on the right first.

I softly twisted it.

Bingo!

I peeked in. Ritwik was fast asleep. The soft yellow light of the night lamp hit his face. I felt jealous of how peacefully he could sleep.

The divorce would hurt me a lot more than it would even bother him.

"Come in." Ritwik's groggy voice invited me.

Busted.

I walked in. He sat up and held his arms open. I had to suppress the intense urge to throw myself right into his arms.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

"I tried sleeping but I just keep waking up." He grumbled.

I can't even sleep in the first place.

"I just wanted to check on you."

"Can you come here and check? I don't like how far you are."

Finally, I decided to sit on his bed. He looked adorable with his hair all messed up and rubbing sleep out of his eyes while pouting like a child. I still maintained a distance.

But he wasn't having it.He grabbed the front of the bedsheet I was wearing and pulled me causing me to land face first on to bed. I groaned and somehow managed to turn around and lay on to my back. He climbed over me. "Are you still mad?"

"I'm not mad. I'm worried." I touched his cheek. He closed his eyes ad leaned into my touch. "You can't keep doing that. We don't live in an ideal world. You can't keep assaulting anyone who misbehaves with me."

"I will kill every god damn person on this earth if I have to. I won't let anyone disrespect you."

"Ritwi-"

"You're my little jetpack. I take my maintenance duties seriously."

I rolled my eyes. "It's called a big spoon. Look it up."

"Sure whatever you say." He softly bit my nose.

"What the hell is wrong with your brain?" I huffed. Somehow both irritated and happy with that weird gesture. This man was passing his weird habits into me.

Instead of responding, he just stared at me.

"What?"

"I always expected that my marriage would be cold and formal." He looked away somehow still balancing himself on his elbows. "Something meant to benefit my family and business. It was supposed to be a transaction. I grew up with that knowledge. I accepted it." He looked back at me. The intensity forced me to hold his gaze. "Then you happened." He pressed a soft kiss on my forehead for the second time that night and I swear I heard violins in my heart.

Stop. This isn't real. This whole thing is fake.

"Well, I hope your real marriage is even better." I offered him my best imitation of a real smile. Somehow I couldn't find it me to smile at him for real.

He scrunched his eyebrows and chewed the inside of his cheek. After a few moments of tense silence, he spoke again."Will you help me plan it?"

It was a simple question. An expected one. After all, I still worked as his assistant. Yet it felt like so wrong. Like somehow he shouldn't have asked that question.

I smiled and nodded ignoring the faint crack of my heart. "Obviously, boss. If you don't get sick of me and fire me by then that is."

"I want you to plan it. I don't trust anyone else to be so thorough. Plus, you have the experience." He winked.

"That does make me the perfect candidate. Don't worry, I'll do it. Even if it's the last thing I do for you."

It would definitely be the last thing I ever do for you.

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Kolbalish - a cylindrical pillow to cuddle with. A favourite with Bengali people.