𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴

• 14 •

Her musings abruptly came at a halt when a loud honk from a truck standing beside their car hollered. 'What the hell Naina! Yeh kya kar rahi thi... Kuchh bhi sochti hai...' She was flabbergasted when it dawned upon her what actually she was thinking.

But it wasn't her fault, was it? This was the very first time she was sitting this close to him, well in her opinion it was close, and therefore this was the first time she was practically checking him out. And about that tattoo, she thought he must have gotten it recently since she had never noticed it. 'Notice? Really?' To be in the middle of a stressful situation, it wasn't favorable for her to have these kinds of thoughts. With that, she tried to completely shut off her mind from them by closing her eyes.

Sameer's voice broke her trance, "Naina..." She opened her eyes instantly and glanced towards him, "Ji..." He sighed and slightly turned towards her, "Thanks." She frowned but understood why he said that "Koi baat nahi..."

He again turned and gazed out the window and said in a gentle voice, "Humein bohot savdhani se kaam lena padega. Koi galti nahi honi chahiye. Woh kuchh bhi puche, hume bas unhe kaise bhi karke yakeen dilana hai. Ek bhi chook hui, sab kharab ho jayega. I hope you understood?"

She hummed and turned towards her side  watching the trees and houses moving past the car as they rode. It won't be wrong to say that he didn't trust her, otherwise, he won't have given her a slight hint of warning by those words. And why would he even trust her? It wasn't his fault that he hardly knew anything about her. And she wasn't even planning to tell him anytime soon.

As she looked out watching the familiar building come into her vision, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a sec, 'Koi galti nahi honi chahiye Naina...'

Sameer too wasn't in a right state of mind. He couldn't fathom the upcoming challenges. It was going to be a big day for both of them. Though he had decided to announce his marriage, he was somewhere feeling uncertain of it. She was going to be introduced as his wife. The CEO Sameer Maheshwari's wife. His mind was revolving around people's responses when they would come to know about it. It was obvious that they would be having high expectations from his wife, not only in terms of her nature but also her personality, her appearance, the way she would interact, and technically everything.

He had a slight idea about how she might be feeling since it was evident in her restlessness throughout the whole ride, but he couldn't bring himself to console her. He just couldn't do it. He didn't even know about her background, what family she belonged to. As far as he had noticed, her lifestyle was decent. He knew that it wasn't a good thing to validate her like this but he couldn't take a chance when it came to the business world. People here would always keep their noses too high to heed those who weren't worthy enough to stand beside them. He didn't approve of this, yet he couldn't do anything but relent on it.

When she had descended down the stairs this morning, he couldn't point out, but something had definitely changed around in the air between them. He was actually seeing her dressed like a married woman, as his wife. Till now, he was trying to avoid this marriage but looking at her had pulled him back to the reality. He didn't have any problem in living with her though. As long as they won't interact, it would go smoothly. That's what he thought but everything doesn't happen according to our wishes and that is what he realized this morning. 'Waise achhi toh lag rahi thi', his mind spoke but he instantly diverted it before it could go further,
'Calm down Sameer...'

*****

The car halted at the entrance of the 'Maheshwari Industries'. Sameer came out first. She was about to open the door to her side when she found Sameer already standing there. He opened the door for her with a neutral expression. His gentlemanly gesture took her off guard. She wasn't used to all this and hence, chose to not display it.