🎶 Remember That Night?
Published on 12.11.2022
❝ oh, i don't think you realise,
how long i had to fight to be living my life,
to get better and never have to try,
not to think of you until you reached out
and said, "remember that night?" ❞
🥀
In the evening, Inaaya found herself at Sheffi's place which was a daycare centre. She sat with her cold coffee, sipping the beverage with the help of a straw, watching the kids doing various activities.
"Is it bad that Maya can't keep anything to herself?" Akira asks walking towards Inaaya with her backpack hanging over her right shoulder. She takes the empty space besides her.
Inaaya let's out a hopeless huff. "So I'm assuming you already know?" A grin makes way on her face when she sees two little girls who were arguing sometime back, hugging and patting each others back.
Akira nods grimly. "About your and Ayansh's conversation? Yes."
"I wouldn't exactly say it was a conversation..... ," she drawls as her mind wanders off to the incident where he kept trying and she kept neglecting.
"I'll he honest with you," Akira begans, sitting with folded legs, making herself comfortable, "I didn't really care whatever drama was happening in your life but I think it's getting good now. I can't help but feel interested."
Inaaya scoffs. "You're horrible."
She shrugs nonchalantly.
Khushi rushes towards Inaaya, a big smile plastered on her face. She taps on Inaaya's knees continuously to catch her attention.
"What?" She waggles her eyebrows mischievously and then leans towards Akira and whispers, "If not for your daughter, I wouldn't be tolerating you."
"Trust me, the feelings are mutual." She says in an exaggerated manner making Inaaya roll her eyes playfully.
"I wanna dedicate a poem to you." Khushi says still tapping her knees, enjoying the activity.
"Me?" Inaaya widens her eyes and points at herself dramatically.
Khushi nods frantically, her pigtails bouncing up and down at the movement.
"Traitor," Akira mutters under her breath, her lips settled in a pout, clearly offended. "She never did this for me." She grabs the cold coffee that Inaaya had kept in the space between them.
Inaaya contains her laughter. "I'm dying to hear you," she tells Khushi eagerly.
Khushi beams. "Twinkle, twinkle little star," she starts, her eyelashes fluttering as she sings, "how I wonder what you're." She flashes Inaaya a toothy grin and sighs dreamily, making her chuckle. "Up above the world so high," she stretches her hand, pointing at the ceiling, "like a diamond in the sky." She gives her a flying kiss and Inaaya pretends to catch it and lock it in her heart.
Akira couldn't help but smile at the adorable sight.
Inaaya, who had her heart fluttering with joy and love at the tiny bundle of happiness, picks her up and makes her sit on her lap, planting a long kiss on her cheek. "I love you," she says cutely as if she was a toddler herself.
"Me, moreeeeee." Khushi says and giggles.
"Ofcourse, my baby." Inaaya hugs her tighter almost squeezing Khushi and making her whine and wriggle in her hold.
Inaaya laughs before letting her go and Khushi after running a few steps, stops and turns back, her eyes widening in apology as she looked at her mother.
Akira frowns at that reaction, confused.
Khushi runs towards her mother, gripping the end of her button-down shirt. "I love you." She mumbles, her voice low.
Akira's heart melts at that little gesture and she gets down on her knees, wrapping her arms around Khushi and kissing her hair. "I love you more," she pulls back and blinks at her before pecking the tip of her nose, making her grin. Khushi runs away, going back to her friends after kissing her mom's cheek.
"The girl is a whole football of sunshine," Inaaya remarks, looking at the little girl in sight with amazement.
Akira huffs. "Don't invent your own phrases, Inaaya." She straightens up and sits back.
"No, but seriously," Inaaya says with awe, "ball of sunshine is too small a word to describe her." She chuckles and Akira shakes her head.
Akira waggled her brow and Inaaya was confused, surprised too at her playful gesture. "What?"
"I need to know more about your life." She says, intrigued to the very core.
Inaaya gasps. She didn't know if she should feel happy seeing a playful Akira or feel offended about how the drama in her life was giving her life. "People around me have gone crazy today, I believe," she says in a solemn tone, "he again went on his apologising spree and here you're, showing your keen interest in my personal matters, so much that I fear you haven't shown this much interest in the entirety of the time I've known you."
Akira tilts her face, staring at her with a blank face. "And did you forgive him?" She asks after a moment.
The question makes Inaaya recoil slightly, her gaze narrows. "You think I should forgive him?"
Akira's gaze narrows too. "When did I say that?"
"Just now. You almost sounded as if you're rooting for him."
"Didn't know you could gauge so much just by a question about which I hadn't put much thought." She replies sarcastically.
"But you did," she says stubbornly only to receive a bored glare from Akira. "And the answer to your question is no. I'm not going to forgive him."
Akira nods. "And may I ask why?"
"Because I don't trust him." The answer being at the tip of her tongue because of the number of times she had repeated the line.
Her expression softens at that answer, the way Inaaya's guards were up again at the mention of Ayansh and the way she looked conflicted. "You really don't trust me?"
"Akira," Inaaya calls her name in warning, "don't irritate me."
"I wouldn't dare." She retorts, feigning fear.
Inaaya simply decides to look away, feeling a little unnerved. She remembers her coffee and snatches it from Akira's hand and focuses on her drink.
Akira kept staring at her inquisitively and it unsettled Inaaya. "Do you really not trust him or are you just scared?"
Her head snaps at Akira, her brows knitting together. Her mind thinks on the question only to come with one answer. "I don't get how they're different."
Akira then calls Khushi to them. She hunched forward as she inquires, "Remember the guy, Sam?" She points towards a kid in the far off corner and both Khushi and Inaaya follow her line of sight. "With whom you had a fight two weeks back?"
"He stole my rabbit and tore the pages of my notebook when I took his favourite pencil." She answers grumpily, displeasure written all over her face.
"That's harsh." Inaaya grimaces.
"Taking his pencil away is harsh?" Akira cocks a brow, her protective side surfacing.
Inaaya shook her head frantically. "I meant tearing the pages." She mumbles.
"Khush," she reverts her attention to her daughter, "but he apologized to you, didn't he?"
Khushi nods in agreement.
"So everything is good between you two?"
Khushi crosses her arms and huffs. "I'm never talking to him. I don't like him."
"Understandable." Akira hums. "And remember you fell down from the swing couple of months back and you haven't sat on it since then?" She raises her brows, reminding her of the incident. "Why? Don't you like the swing again?"
Khushi stays quiet and after a moment, she slowly shakes her head and murmurs in a low voice, "What if I fall again?"
Akira pulls her closer, cupping her face. "You won't. Next time when we go to the park, we'll both sit on the swing." She tries to cheer her daughter but she still stares with uncertainty. "Okay, let's not talk or think about this now. You can go back and play with your friends." She smiles and boops her nose, eliciting a chuckle from her.
"What was that?" Inaaya wonders, still confused as she tore her gaze off Khushi who went back and stared at Akira.
Akira mentally facepalms herself. "Do I really need to elaborate everything?"
Inaaya frowns, taking offence.
"Okay, it's a lame analogy because I'm comparing an inanimate object with a walking, talking, breathing little boy but whatever sails my boat." She says defensively, warning beforehand. "Khushi doesn't want to talk to him because she's past him, she simply doesn't care. Even if she accepts his apology she won't become friends with him because she simply doesn't want to. She couldn't care less if he's her friend or not. But with the swing? Even though she got hurt, she doesn't hate it. She actually wants to go back because she was happy when she sat on the swing. She wants that back and what's stopping her is the fear that she'll get hurt again. So Inaaya," she gazes at her solemnly, "do you actually don't trust him or do you not want to because you're scared?"
Inaaya gulps audibly, her jaw clenching.
"No, I don't need the answer." Akira adds nonchalantly. "I know it. I hope you know it too. By the way," he voice pitches higher. "I remembered something. Last night, I did a podcast with Ayansh."
Inaaya's eyed widen slightly at that unexpected information.
"He's dumb but still better than most of the men whose interviews I've to take," she heaves a sigh of relief. "What I wanted to tell you was he's roaming around with a picture of you looking like a ghost."
"Excuse me?" She splutters.
Akira looks unfazed. "Yeah. On his phone's lockscreen, there you were looking at me, laughing like a ghost." She says the exaggerated sentence in an extremely calm tone.
Inaaya blinks dumbly. Confusion splays out in her mind making it hard for her brain to wrap around the strange information. "Ghost? Laughing?"
"Inaaya!" She says irritatedly. "What are you? Two? You were covered in white powdery stuff and were laughing. You resembled a ghost and when I said it, the guy argued saying you look like a cute ghost. Idiot!"
Inaaya's mind wanders off to a familiar memory.
"Remember you said it's okay to make a fool of yourself? This would be for keeps."
"Since you're adamant on taking pictures then let me just give some good poses."
"That's the spirit."
A ghost of a smile appears on her face as she thinks about it, the present being forgotten for a moment and everything else seemed to be receding.
Akira stared flabbergasted. "These two are weird as fuck!" She mutters under her breath.
-
"Inaaya, don't do it." Maya says for the umpteenth time.
"You really called me for this?" Akira wonders out loud, looking at Maya disappointedly who had invited her in the morning to her place because she needed someone to make Inaaya change her mind.
"Shup up guys!" Inaaya snaps. "I've taken my decision. I'm going to take matters in my own hands. And this is where I start."
"You've lost the plot." Akira grits out in a dead serious voice.
"This is very immature, Ina." Maya scolds.
Inaaya shakes her head, dismissing them and their opinions. "I've had enough. I spent the whole night contemplating the decision and I'm going forward with it. I'm not going to let that guy make me dance to his tunes." She says aggressively and points a finger at them to emphasize more. "This time things won't happen as per his wish. He can't be the script writer and I can't be the main character in his story. I'll be the one who'll take charge this time- "
Maya throws a pillow at Inaaya to shit her up. "This is so very dramatic."
"You mean to say childish?" Akira offers, arching a brow. "Or maybe foolish because I'm sure Khushi can take better decisions than this human." She glowers at Inaaya.
Inaaya scowls like a petulant kid. She flips off the bird at her.
Akira gasps. "You know what, fuck you!" She spats, stomping towards the exit.
"Nobody even called you here." Inaaya retorts.
"Actually wait," she says, suddenly turning around, her gaze colliding with Maya's who looked on the verge of pulling out her hair. She pointed a finger at her as she screeched, "it's you who needs to fuck off. So, fuck off!" She whirls around and walks away.
Maya sat with a helpless look and Inaaya still had the same bad tempered expression etched on her face.
-
Inaaya wanted to approach Ayansh but hesitancy and dilemma got better of her. Ayansh tried to get her alone to talk but she managed to escape him everytime. She was adamant to not let him have his way with her even if it was something as harmless as wanting to talk.
She needed to set boundaries and when after few days she came to know Ayansh had shifted to the penthouse and his cast was gone too, she decided to take the step, breaking all inhibitions.
Inaaya reached office an hour before and told the security guard that she needed to meet her boss and it was urgent.
"Can't you wait for an hour?"
"No." The response was immediate from Inaaya.
The suspicions of the guard rose and he assessed her from head to toe.
"I'm not here to murder your boss come-on." Inaaya whines.
"True. You don't look like an assassin." He says thoughtfully and her mouth gapes open.
"You actually thought that? You see me everyday since months and this is what you think?"
He winces slightly at a loss of words. "I'm sorry." The apology comes out more as a question.
"Save it." Inaaya huffs. "Just let me go and meet him. It's very, very important."
"What if he gets disturbed?"
Inaaya's gaze turn hard. "I don't think you would like the consequences if something terrible happens because I couldn't get to him on time as you decided to stop me."
Fear can make people do anything.
The guard quickly made a call to Ayansh who told him to stop wasting time and send Inaaya.
Inaaya took a deep breath to calm her nerves as the elevator opened on the fifth floor. She staggered back when she saw Ayansh right in front of her.
"What happened?"
"Let me first come out?" She mumbles and his face scrunches in embarassment as he steps aside and beckons her to walk inside the penthouse through the door.
"Is everything alright?"
Inaaya gazes at him with a confident, straight face and then, outstretches her hand holding an envelope.
Ayansh's brows pinch together. "What's this?" He asks as he takes the envelope and starts opening it.
She crosses her arms over her chest. "You've eyes and I assume you're literate enough to be able to read."
He looks up at her sceptically before pulling the paper. There were two pages with something printed over them. He did a quick glance over both of them. "Is this some legal paper? It doesn't look like them but it still does."
With her eyes, she asks him to read them. "I need your signature on this."
Ayansh's brows shot up, mildly amused. "Okay, lemme first go through it."
Self consciousness started to crawl within her as she watched him going through the papers, his expression changing in every few seconds. Suddenly, she wanted to go back on her decision and forget this ever happened but she was way too in already now.
"Terms and conditions?" Ayansh voices out, trying his best to not burst out into a fit of laughter.
Inaaya nods curtly. "I need to draw some lines between us. It's necessary."
"Hmm, makes sense." He agrees. "You know you could have simply told me what I need to do and I would've agreed to it? You didn't need to make- ," a laugh spills out of his lips and he disguises it as a cough, " - make these papers." He completes, waving the papers between them.
"I don't trust you." She says lamely.
"Strictly being professional when at work during working hours." He reads out the first condition jotted down.
"Yes, because you've an unhealthy habit of taking advantage of your position and mix our personal and professional life." She states.
"And I don't regret it," he adds with a smile and she glares, "but if that's what you want, that is what will happen. Next." He reads out the second condition. "No touching. What do you take me for?" He inquires, frowning at her.
She shrugs her shoulders. "It's better for my sanity," she blurts out and immediately regrets as his eyes widen, "I mean, why do we need to touch? I mean, why do you need to touch me even? Stay at a distance." She cringes internally for sounding so lame and for practically having no convincing excuse.
Ayansh let's it slide, not wanting to pester her on the point. He moves onto the third point. "No messaging or calling each other except for work. Don't you think this is a little too much?"
"No," she replies sternly and shuts him up.
"No sending chocolates." He reads out the next point and he couldn't help the laugh that bubbles out. "Inaaya, you've lost the plot."
"So I've been told." She retorts sharply, annoyed at him laughing at her. "Just sign, Ayansh!"
His expression softens up. "I'll do whatever you want me to." He says sincerely and then, adds, "but what if I don't? You haven't mentioned anything about it."
Inaaya swallows. She hadn't mentioned because she hadn't thought. "I don't need to tell you that."
He chuckles. "And what if you are the one who break these conditions?" He stares at her intimidatingly.
She blinks under his stare. "Then- then I'll do whatever you want." She says finally.
Ayansh looks back at the papers. "No stalking. I don't stalk." He says, opposing the notion.
"And I'm Queen Elizabeth." She grins sarcastically.
Instead of feeling offended, he laughs lightly, remembering how years back she had said the same line to him. He didn't know if she remembered it or not but mahn did it not feel good to have a deja vu?
"Inaaya," he whispers her name, taking a step forward. She stays rooted at her place; confused, curious and unnerved. "Remember when we met at the cafe?"
Inaaya frowns, her mind replaying the recent incident where they met at Maya's crumbs and cakes with Josh present.
"For the project, Inaaya." He reminds her gently. "When we had to work as a team and we didn't really get along?" he says, his voice a blend of lost caves and forgotten stories, "We decided to remain civil and act cordial for a month till we had to work together. This eerily feels like that."
Her heart stills and then thumps at a newfound rhythm as she stares into his hazel brown eyes, enchanting her to allow herself to fall into the arms of a fond memory alongwith him. "Except the fact that it was a pretense from you side while it's not from mine." She mumbles, a flicker of hurt crossing her eyes.
"Me coming to the college to help y'all surely was for some other motive." He admits. "Me wanting to not be at loggerheads with you was too with a motive. Me proposing you also had an intention."
She balls her fists as emotion clogs her throat to watch him admitting that everything she once believed was a lie. Her chest squeezes in pain but she continues to hold his stare.
"The accident of that woman was staged too." He says, guilt coating his voice. "But remember when you slapped that guy and took a stand for a waiter? I admired you." His voice wavers as he confesses and a small gasp leaves her lips. "Remember when I wrote you the letter? There was no motive behind it, just gratitude. When I compared you with the sun? You're still the sun, will always be." A soft smile grazes his lips as he continues to look at her with love, adoration and longing. "And do you remember you replied to my letter by saying that I reminded you of hope." He chuckles and the sound pierces her heart. "Well, the truth is, you're my hope."
As the words leave his lips, Inaaya takes a sharp intake of breath, her vision blurry. For the next few seconds, she couldn't break out of his trance, the vulnerable, begging eyes of his that asked for nothing but trust.
Clenching her jaw, she looks away and says quietly, "sign the papers."
"Sure." He steps back.
"And Ayansh," she catches his attention and he looks up from the paper. "Delete my picture that you've on your lockscreen."
Ayansh sits on the chair, removing his pen to sign the papers. "I won't. If you want, you can keep my picture too on your lockscreen. I don't mind." He gives back carelessly and she scoffs at his audacity but doesn't say anything back.
After he signs the papers, she snatches them and walks out of his house.
***
Are y'all getting the notifications of the chapters? If not, then trying removing the story from your library and adding them back. Follow me too if y'all want lol :)
I really liked this chapter. Hope y'all did too. Will be waiting for your votes and comments ❤️
A question. Who are you biased for? Inaaya or Ayansh?
• Thank you for reading •