After stopping a rickshaw, she told the driver about the way to her college and sat inside it. In front of her eyes, that scene was lingering. Their eye-lock, his smile, his soft tone, his ocean blue eyes which captivated her in their depth, and at last when he grabbed her wrist.
Nisha looked at her right wrist which was in her lap. She kept on staring at it for a while before she touched it with her fingers. She didn't feel anything. But why it was different when Ruhaan did it? She felt electric sensations in her whole body at that mere contact.
But how could she let him do it? It was wrong. He was na-mehram for her. She shouldn't have let him touch her. Water pooled up in her eyes at the thought. She never allowed any men to touch her not even Haider or Huzaifa did something like this.
(A/N: Na- mehram means a person with which you aren't blood or spouse-related. Who is a stranger to you)
"Bibi G, we have reached," the driver's exclamation brought her out of her thoughts. She looked out of the window at this. They really had reached. Giving the rent to the rickshaw driver, she jumped out of it. Thank God, she was on time as ten minutes were still remaining at the start of the college even.
As she walked inside, Unaiza came to her.
"Nisha Api, you are late today. Is Khala Ammi fine?" She chortled in anxiety.
"Huh? Hmm yes, Ammi is fine...I had a small work to do... Unaiza, my class is about to start. Will meet you in off timing," she diverted the topic by saying this and lazily strode towards her class.
She wasn't feeling herself today. Her interest died in practically every subject and every activity. In her eyes, in her mind, only one person was engraved and that was Ruhaan. She couldn't help but think about him.
It was recess time and she was unlike usual still sitting in the class. Her friend Zoya turned confused seeing her like this.
"Nisha, what's wrong? Why aren't you coming out?"
"Zoya, I am not feeling well," she said playing with her fingers which were placed in her lap aimlessly.
"What happened to you?" Zoya genuinely got worried and sat next to her on the bench. "Because of Aunt?" She referred to Tabinda.
"Perhaps," she shrugged her shoulders.
"Don't worry Nisha," Zoya placed a hand above hers. "Aunt is fine now. I'll bring something to eat for you. Then both friends will have a chat. Okay?"
Zoya left the class after this, leaving Nisha to drown in her thoughts again.
What thoughts? It was just Ruhaan all around her.
_______________________
Reaching home, she greeted her mother and directly left for her room to change her uniform. Afterward, she laid down on her bed straight. She didn't even have a meal. Her mind was haphazard. She felt like she was going crazy. She again looked at her wrist. Suddenly she felt Ruhaan's hand's warmth again encircle her. She just left his office without even bidding a proper goodbye. What would he be thinking of her? That she is so rude.
Something came to her mind and she turned around towards her bag and opened its front zip. Her hand disappeared inside and later on, came up with a white card. It was Ruhaan's business card which he gave her. She again laid back and looked at the card without blinking her eyes before her fingers started outlining Ruhaan's name.
His name is just as stylish as his personality. She thought as a faint smile appeared on her lips.
________________________
Ruhaan scratched his neck in dismay thinking about what happened. Everything was going according to his plan and then he did that blunder. How could he forget that she was a desi girl who would not like to be touched by any stranger? He was used to seeing all this in the West but now he had to be cautious. He couldn't afford her anger with her. It would mean she would maintain a distance from him. And it wasn't any good for his plan either way.
After a lot of pondering that her mother wouldn't be that healthy to get up, he dialed the landline number from which she called yesterday.
She picked up after a few bells.
"Hello?" He heard her confused voice.
"Hi...how are you?"
"Y-you?"
"You made me so happy at this instant that you yourself have no idea, Nisha," he beamed in happiness.
Nisha became more surprised at this. Did she make him happy? What was he saying?
"You recognized my voice that's why I am saying you made me happy," he thought to explain his first statement when he didn't find any questions from her.
"Oh!" That was all that could come out of her mouth. "Yes, I...I recognized you."
Why she always stuttered?
Bloody drama.
He rolled his eyes. He wouldn't deny he sometimes gets annoyed by her constant stammering.
"You are angry at me, right? At what I did. I am sorry, I shouldn't have done that. It made you uncomfortable even though I didn't intend to do that. It just happened all of a sudden. Seeing you leaving me like this, my heart felt a pang of sadness."
It was alright until he said that last line. And it was deliberate obviously. He wanted her to take it in another manner. He now wanted to speed up the game and love was the player of that game. Nisha didn't know whether it was his words or his voice that made her heart flutter, but it did tremble for a moment.
"I am not angry at you," she confessed and Ruhaan's lips curled up in a smile.
So I was succeeding so far.
"Then why did you leave like this? I know it was because of that---"
"No Ruhaan, it's not like this. Yes, I felt unusual for a moment but why I left was because I was getting late from my college."
She heard a sharp inhale from Ruhaan which caused her brows to knit together.
"You called my name for the first time today. And it sounds so wonderful from your mouth. I want to see the view of the way your beautiful lips form my name," he whispered but she was too taken aback by the compliment that she couldn't utter a word.
"Okay see you next time. Don't forget to have dinner, Nisha. Give my greetings to Aunt. Bye." He disconnected the call for ages but she still couldn't bring the earpiece down. It was still attached to her ear.
"I want to see the way your beautiful lips form my name." His words reverberated in her ears again.
"Who is on the phone, Nisha? She jumped out of her place when she heard her mother's voice.
" No--No one. It was a wrong number," she could just say this.
"Oh...come and have dinner," Tabinda told her.
"Just coming Ammi," she whispered and put the earpiece on the telephone back.
Suddenly she felt weird. Was she ditching her mother by talking to Ruhaan like this without her permission? But what should she do with this heart? It was obvious to her that she was in love with Ruhaan. Her restless heart which picked beats on his sight, eager eyes which got bloomed on his sight, and blank mind which become inked by his words proved it.
Despite promising herself numerous times that this call would be the last and this meeting would be the final one, it always turned the opposite. What would happen if Tabinda would find out she not only meet and talk to but also was crazy for the son of her enemy? Now she was stuck in a deep pit and didn't know how to come out of it.
Ruhaan smiled cheerfully putting the phone aside. He spread down on his giant-sized bed and made a pillow of folded arms for his head. It was perfect now. Her being mummed on his meaningful words ascertained that she also had feelings for him.
He again grabbed his phone and dialed a number.
"Bashir, send me the location right now. Also, till tomorrow morning I need the information about Nisha Sikandar on my table. Start working," he ordered in a stout voice.
After a while, the supposed rickshaw driver with whom Nisha went back to college sent the location of her college to Ruhaan. He ran his tongue on his lower lip as he amusingly read the route.
________________________
After dinner, Nisha took out her books and sat at the study table. But she couldn't read a single word. As usual, Ruhaan's thoughts prevailed in her every sense. Closing her English book, she again brought out his card from her bag's front zip. Lovingly rubbing her fingers on his scribbled name, she closed her eyes and recalled his words from a while ago.
"I want to see the way your beautiful lips form my name."
Still, in emotions, she opened her eyes and carried the card near her face, and pressed her lips to his name.
"I can't believe I have fallen in love with you, Ruhaan. I don't know what you have that I can't think of anything else except you. Your thoughts have paralyzed me," she mumbled under her breath.
Abruptly the telephone rang. Her eyes widened with happiness and her heart started beating crazily.
It must be Ruhaan.
She thought and ran out of her room. Reaching the lounge, she didn't even waste a second to pick up the call.
"Hi Nisha, how are you?"
But the voice coming from the other side not only saddened her but also revealed many truths about her. What the hell had she been doing? Thinking and loving another man when just in a month, she was going to marry Haider. Not only this but she was also ditching her mother by being in contact with Ruhaan like this. She needed to stop this. After talking with Haider, she made a firm promise to herself that she would neither talk nor meet Ruhaan again.
________________________
"Sir, She is an orphan. Her father died when she was five years old. Since then she had been living alone with her mother. The area of the lower middle class. Her mother sews clothes and that's where their bread and butter is linked. She is nineteen years old. The only child of ---"
"Bashir, next! I know all of this," Ruhaan interrupted him and flared in anger.
"Sir, she just has one friend Zoya Saddique. And Sir, Nisha Sikandar is all set to marry her cousin Haider a month later. I think they are engaged on informal terms as well. And since---"
"Wait!" Ruhaan raised his hand in front of his face.
"Set to marry her cousin?" He scratched his chin with his nail.
What the hell was this?
"Okay, fine Bashir. You may leave," he asked him to get out with his finger flick.
"Sir, the money which you said--"
Ruhaan glared at him. "You will get the money, you hungry. Now get lost!"
Bashir rushed out of the room quickly.
Ruhaan held his temple with his hand. If she was going to marry someone else, what would happen to his plan then? Getting her share of the property would not be possible without marriage. He had to make a legal relationship with her to claim it by tricking her into signing the ownership. What should he now do with this cousin? One month was too early and he had to haste his plan so that she would marry him in her cousin's place.
________________
She spent her whole last night vowing to herself that she would never maintain any contact with Ruhaan. She was Haider's mandate and to be honest, it was wrong to even think about another man. Secondly, Ruhaan was none other than the son of the person because of whom she lost her father. Her heart was stupid that it fell in love with an enemy. She felt too ashamed of herself for this. She didn't even think about her mother while letting herself get engrossed in Ruhaan's thoughts.
Something came to her mind as she took out his card from her bag's front pocket. She gazed at it for a maximum of two minutes. The charm and heat radiating from Ruhaan's name and the fact that if she was going to do what was in her mind, she would lose his contact forever, made her hesitate. At the same time, her mother's face appeared in front of her eyes and she didn't even let a second before tearing the card harshly into small pieces.
Warm diamond crystals fell from her eyes when she tore the final but the most important part of the card into probably thousands of pieces and it was Ruhaan's number.
As she put the pieces back in her bag so that she would dump them somewhere far away from herself in the morning, she was finally feeling at peace.
But was peace really in tearing Ruhaan's card from her life or was it because of his presence? The answer to this was too humiliating for her.
Because she indeed found peace in him. Her restricted self found an air of freedom in his presence.
________________________
AssalamoAlaikum/ Hi guys!
How is everyone doing?
I am finally back with a new chapter.
Do you like it?
What do you think will happen next?
Please do vote and comment a lot. ❤