Rab Rakha

Chapter 28

"Parde lene padenge." Madhu mentioned, looking around the plain faded yellow walls of the apartment.

"Thik hai, kal chalenge." Shehnaaz replied, resumed helping Sheena with the bedroom set up again.

Just then her phone rang with an unknown number, the Truecaller said that it was a Zomato delivery guy. She received the call and went to pick her parcel since the building didn't allow delivery boys inside. She used the lift to get down, a few strangers exchanged smiles with her on her way down, just some uncles. Not up for a small talk or any introduction, she acted as if she was busy on her phone and walked out of the lift as soon as it reached the ground floor.

"Sorry. Sorry." She bumped into a tall guy.

"Shehnaaz?" Sidharth wasn't expecting her at all. All he knew was that she'd shift to the city soon, but into his building? No! Why?!

"Sidharth. Hi." She felt like she wasn't seeing him and rather imagining him because of Gurjot's constant blabbering about Sidharth.

"What are you doing here?" He happened to ask.

"Shifting?" She replied, it sounded like a question to herself as well. Didn't Sheena tell him about her job and everything.

"No, I mean. Kab aayi tu?" He rephrased his question.

"Aj hi." She answered. She wondered why on earth didn't Sheena know where her beloved brother lived. Only if she'd have told, Shehnaaz would have saved herself from this encounter.

"Aur ghar pe sab kaise hain?" She asked nevertheless.

"Badhiya. I'll just get going." He replied, taking his leave since he was home in the middle of the day just because he had forgotten a file.

"Yeah. See you around." She nodded and watched him leave. She didn't know why she was so nervous about meeting him again because he just saw her and asked how was she doing like any other normal person would do. She didn't feel awkward at all that she was expecting to feel.

Sidharth on the other hand took a deep breath once he was inside his apartment. Out of all the buildings in the entire city, she chose the one in which he stayed. Was she doing it deliberately? How could Shehnaaz not know where he was living? Because Anju and Rajiv very well knew, they had visited his place once! But why would she intentionally shift to his place when she didn't have anything to do with him? His mind was too clouded to fathom everything along with his workload.

He walked out of the lift into the lobby, got into his car and saw Shehnaaz standing outside, looked like she was waiting for somebody. He wanted to go and ask her if everything was fine but then he wondered if she'd also hide from like she didn't tell him about her new job in the city. So he simply waited for a few more minutes, watching her.

"Kya bhaiya? Kitna time lagate ho?" She complained when a delivery guy came into the view.

"Sorry madam. Galat wing ke samne chala gaya tha." The boy apologized, handed her the parcel and she made her way back with it.

That was it, he didn't see her after that for the next few days. He didn't know if she had joined her office or if she was on leave or if her timings were simply different. He left for his mother's place for a couple of days to celebrate Holi with them.

"Tel laga doge baalon mein?" Sidharth asked his mother, done with dinner when everybody were retiring to their rooms.

"Ha chal." Rita Ma nodded, letting him tail behind her to her bedroom. She settled at the corner of the bed while her son at her foot on the floor.

"Kaisa chal raha hai kaam?" She asked him. The little oil-my-hair used to be their quality time together where they'd share the insights, talk about the things going on in their minds.