Jay's POV:
A set of questions were displayed on the screen once I touched the 'Next' button.
1. What is your partner's wake up time?
Amaira would always be awake by the time I wake up. Even though she goes to work later than me, she gets up earlier than me. The first question itself gave me a hint of how it was going to end. I took a wild guess and answered the question.
I typed seven thirty in my column and five in hers. I swiped down to read the next question.
2. What is your partner's favourite food?
I placed my phone on my lap and raked my fingers through my hair. Realising it might have made my hair messy, I let out a deep sigh. I'm helpless. I knew nothing about her. I closed my eyes and tried finding some clue which might get me the answer.
Images of Amaira having noodles with Arav when I saw her for the first time flashed through my mind. Her face looked the happiest at that time. If you eat something with the person you love then it will automatically become your favourite.
I hastily wrote Biryani in my column and Noodles in hers. On seeing the next question a smile spread across my face. It was a question for which I knew the answer. But the next second I was upset with myself for being happy to know it.
3. How many past relationships did your partner have before you?
Believing Arav was the first love of Amaira, I typed zero in the first column and one in her column.
I lost the mood to play further. The rest of the questions were randomly asked about preferences, likes, and dislikes. I just typed the exact opposite things to whatever I wrote in my column, for her. I had a feeling she would be having a contrasting personality from mine.
I saw the last question and my face was flushed with embarrassment. I never knew such vulgar questions were a part of our game. Vihaan designed the game and I cursed him in my mind for being dirty minded. However, the app was designed to evaluate how well we know about our partners. It takes into consideration all the aspects of a relationship and so questions like this could also be a part of it. I should have expected it at the least.
I peeked at Amaira and I noticed she was done with the game already. I leaned close to her and asked whether she answered the last question.
"Yeah yeah. That was easy. You better answer the same as me. I'm no joke when it comes to that. I'm quite ambitious too." Amaira answered proudly.
To say I was shocked will not justify what I truly felt at that time. What exactly is she trying to say? Is she well experienced in it? She seemed so proud of it.
I left the question unanswered and clicked on 'Submit'. The page buffered while loading our result. It stopped circling and a screen loaded from top to bottom.
'You got 10%☹️. Mend your relationship or find a new partner.' The words were displayed on the newly loaded screen. I wasn't surprised as I could foresee it coming.
I swiped down hurriedly to see whatever questions we got correct. There were only five correct answers out of the fifty. This is the first time in my entire life that I'm getting an 'F' on a test.
The favourite food question was one among the five and it made me sad that I was correct. She had written that I had one past relationship and I decided to talk about it to her later. I eagerly swiped down to see what she had written for the last question.
'The first position.' It said. I read it again and again, trying to comprehend what she meant. Is there such a position called the first position? How come I never heard about it? Am I still ignorant or is she well educated in it?
I recalled what she told me about being ambitious and looked at her answer again. I understand she took the literal meaning of the question and answered it bluntly. I fell into a fit of laughter thinking about how proud she was while answering it.
"Why are you laughing?" Amaira asked frowning.
" How did you know that I was an expert when it came to the first position?" I asked her teasingly.
"I have seen your potential and I know you will make it to the top one day. But I'm very much angry with you for not writing the same for me. Don't you think I have got the potential to reach the first position?" She asked innocently.
I couldn't control it any longer and snickered. My cheeks hurt from laughing like hell. But keeping jokes aside, I was happy that Amaira was still innocent. I was single all my life but I'm more dirty minded than her. She dated someone for quite a long time yet didn't know anything. I was right when I guessed she would be the exact opposite of me in everything.
I begged the crew to not display the real results of the game. They accepted and edited it out to be a sixty five percentage.
Thank god we were able to escape the second hand embarrassment we would have got by telecasting the 'F' we got shamelessly.
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Amaira's POV:
The ad film video got a good reach and it currently had five hundred and sixty five thousand views on YouTube. I felt like a celebrity after reading the comments of that video. Many people appreciated us for being beautiful and for being cute and lovely with each other.
If at all they come to know the reality, they might be upset with themselves for trusting a staged film. I really hoped from the bottom of my heart that they forget about us within a few days.
I didn't interact much with Jay after the shoot. It has become a routine for us to not converse for a few days and all of a sudden speak as if nothing happened. But whenever we spoke it becomes a memorable one. It could either be a good memory or a bad one but it would be an impactful one nevertheless.
His event turned out to be a successful one as it had a crowd more than what he had expected. I was there at the event at Jay's request. He told me that only then my help would become complete. He was super busy before and after the event. He hardly had any time to spend with me. I tried my best to not be bothersome and maintained a low profile.
"Let's have our team dinner tonight." My team leader declared. We had a monthly allowance for team dinners in our company and so it was mandatory.
My colleagues started throwing in suggestions for some good restaurants. Everybody became excited about the dinner as if they never had food outside before. I hated team dinners as they always end up making me feel like shit. I rolled my eyes thinking what they would be doing to me tonight.
We reached a multi-cuisine restaurant which Anwar suggested to be having some good chicken varieties. I parked my scooty in front of it and entered the restaurant with others after all of them had reached.
Everyone ordered foods of their choice and started eating once it was served. Our team leader did most of the talking, rambling about random things the whole time. I was silently having my food trying to be invisible until their attention fell on me.
"Someone among us has become a celebrity overnight. We should rush and get an autograph before they quit this low level job and take up acting as their career." His comment made everyone avert their gaze towards me. I had my mouth wide opened, in hopes of peeling the flesh off the chicken piece. Feeling awkward and shy under everyone's gaze, I dropped the chicken on the plate and shut my mouth.
My team leader was giggling thinking he made a joke. I chuckled nervously at him as if acknowledging his humour sense.
"Yeah, he is right. We must take a selfie together, Amaira. But before that call your husband and ask him to join us. Introduce him to us, please. We want to meet him and take pictures with him too." Rhea came up with some stupid plans.
"Absolutely. Call him immediately Amaira. We want to meet the star." Anwar added.
Others who were there nodded their heads in unison. My jaw dropped down to the floor on hearing it. Are they mocking me or are they serious? Why would anyone want to take a photograph with Jay?
"You never introduced him to me. Am I no longer your sister?" My senior at work, Madhavi, whom I respect a lot and consider to be a soul sister asked me with a puppy face.
"Jay is a little busy nowadays. I myself don't get much time to spend with him." I admitted.
"What kind of husband is he if he doesn't come running on his wife's call? He looked as if he would even lift the mountain for you in the video. Is it all a lie then?" Rhea built up her castle of nonsense, a little more.
She snatched my phone from me and unlocked it showing it to my face. She dialled Jay and kept the phone in my ear.
Why is she hell bent on meeting my husband? She never fails to annoy the hell out of me.
"Hello? Jay?" I said nervously.
"Yes, Amaira. Speak." He said.
"Are you busy?" I asked.
"No. I left work just now and will be home anytime. Why are you asking? Do you want me to buy any groceries?"
"No. It is just that I came out with my colleagues to a company dinner..."
"Oh okay. Have fun. I'll order something and eat." He interrupted.
"No, it is not about that. My colleagues are wishing to meet you. Can you come if you are free?" I asked doubtfully.
"Meet me?" He asked surprised.
"Yeah. They want me to introduce you to them."
"Okay. Text me the location and I'll be there." He said and cut the call.
I sent him the location and he was here within twenty minutes. I came aside from my colleagues to go get him. He came out of the parking lot tucking his phone in his pant pocket.
I waved at him and he noticed me.
"I'm sorry you had to go through all this. I couldn't deny their request." I told him pushing my lower lip down.
"It's okay. No worries. You helped me with a big thing. Before that this isn't much." He said smiling.
His smiles are intimidating me. It makes me realise I have got a weak heart. Screw it! Only then I realise that I have a heart. It pumps so loud that I can hear it loud and clear whenever he smiles.
" They think we have a good relationship. So please maintain that image." I asked of him.
"Huh! You need not mention it. I know what to do. You would have already seen my acting skills. So have trust in me and act along." He said.
We went inside the private cubicle our team was seated. They smiled and waved looking at Jay.
I introduced him to them and he greeted them. They had asked me to order food for him before itself, so a plate of biryani was awaiting his attention.
He sat beside me on the couch and ate his biryani.
"Is Amaira taking good care of you?" Madhavi asked him.
He smiled and answered, "Yeah she does. She selects my outfit daily and enquires if I ate every time she calls. To be honest she cooks very well. Her biryani is much better than this one actually."
I looked at him with a dead face. Exaggerations are fine but they should be believable to some extent. Seems like he would even tell that I invented vaccines and demolished a pandemic.
"Their wife is the best wife for everyone." Madhavi commented smiling teasingly. Jay reciprocated the smile and stood up abruptly.
"May I have all of your attention for a second?" He told out of nowhere.
I pulled his arm and mouthed what he was doing. He pried my hand off him and signalled to trust him and keep quiet.
Everybody focused on Jay eagerly waiting to hear what he was about to tell. I was deeply embarrassed by his behaviour. He might have watched too many dramas. Nobody gives announcements like that in reality.
"I appreciate all your hard work and the dedication you invest at work. I respect you all and am looking forward to being closely acquainted with you all."
Why the hell do you want to get close to my colleagues? I myself am not so close to them.
"With that, I ask this to you considering you all as my family. Please do take care of my wife in my absence. I'm handing over her to you with confidence that you will look after her. I hope you are good to her and I'm sure she will be good to you all. If not complain to me, I'll see to it. But please do overlook the small mistakes she does thinking of her as your little sister." He told and sat down.
I sat there mesmerized by his words. It was cheesy at the same time sweet enough to hike up my blood sugar levels. I had goosebumps which made the hair behind my neck stand in attention. Everyone giggled and commented in whispers to the ones nearby them. I already started preparing for a tease segment, my colleagues were going to conduct later.
Jay continued eating his biryani smirking at everyone's expressions. He all of a sudden interlaced his fingers with mine, with his other hand. He pulled our hands closer to him and looked at me flirtatiously.
I had the urge to lay my head on his upper arm. I acted upon my desires and leaned my head on his arm. He bumped his head on mine slightly and looked at our intertwined hands lovingly.
He was acting but I was living!
Ladies and gentlemen, Amaira got herself in deep trouble.
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