"Good morning, ladies!" Ahaan greeted Mrs. Fernandez, Aisha and their aunts, who we're working, as he sauntered into the kitchen, casually picking up an apple on the way and juggling with it.
"Good morning, dumbass!" Aisha who was perched on the countertop, greeted him back, not looking away from her phone.
"You don't talk like that with your brother, Aisha!" Aisha's mother reprimanded her and hit her on the head.
Aisha only rolled her eyes in response.
"Whom are you talking to?" Ahaan shouted into Aisha's ear on purpose, and peeked into her phone, wanting to irritate her.
"Ow, Nothing!" Aisha immediately locked her phone before he could have a look while rubbing her ear with her palm.
But unfortunately for her, Ahaan had already seen her chats.
"Did you really save Abhi's name as 'Jaanu' with a heart at the end?" Ahaan gave her an incredulous look and pretended to gag.
This got everyone's attention, making Aisha blush.
"That's none of your business!" Aisha glared at him and pushed him away.
"No but, why are you hiding your phone? What do you guys talk about?" Ahaan gave an evil grin, attempting to snatch the phone from Aisha's hand as she tried to hide the phone behind her back.
"Don't run away, sister. Do guys have uncensored chats?" He widened his eyes and fake gasped.
"Mom! Tell him to leave me alone!" Aisha whined.
"Scaredy cat, always hiding behind your mother. Whom will you hide behind after your wedding? Abhi's ass?" Ahaan teased her further and chased her around the kitchen.
"Go away! Why did you come here?" Aisha shouted at him.
"To irritate you?" He smirked at her.
Aisha threw an apple on him and started hitting him only to be intervened by her mother.
"Oh God, stop it you both! You aren't kids anymore. And Aisha, you are the bride. Have some decency. Go and wake Amira up, I have to discuss some things with her," she shooed her out of the kitchen, while Ahaan was laughing.
Aisha glared at both of them and walked out.
"On second thoughts," she said, walking back into the kitchen and grabbing Ahaan's hand with a smirk on her face, "why don't you come along with me, brother dear? "
Aisha dragged him out of the kitchen and kicked him hard on the backside.
"Ow, what was that for?" He said, rubbing the area that hurt.
"That was for making me embarrass in front of all the ladies," she snarled at him. "Now look, if you want my apology you will have to get me a gift but right now, you have to go and wake Amy up because I'm going to the terrace to meet Abhi!" She finished it all in one breath.
"Woah woah, wait! When did this happen? Abhimanyu is here? He was here the whole day yesterday, can't you both stay away from each other? Save some for the wedding!" He teased her.
"Shut up! There's a different kind of excitement in meeting each other secretly. It's romantic!"
"God, people in love are so annoying!"
"You're saying this now, but you'll experience all this yourself when you fall in love!" She smirked at him.
"Not gonna happen!" He rolled his eyes.
"Wish I had time to debate on this with you, but Abhi is waiting for me. Meanwhile, do me a favour and wake Amira up. We also need to do some things for the wedding!"
"But why me? Why can't your friends wake her up? And why doesn't she wake up on her own. Always the princess, thinks that everyone should work for her!" He said the last line bitterly.
"Woah, looks like you don't like her much!" She chuckled.
"My friends have gone to the beach and Amira was unwell last night. You know that! You yourself carried her to the room and cooked for her. Which reminds me, she wanted to eat your fingers, why don't you give her that for breakfast!" Aisha teased him this time. It was a revenge for embarrassing her in front of the elders.
Ahaan just gave her a death glare, when in reality he was trying hard not to not let the warmth spread to his cheeks at her comment.
"I am going to strangle you!" He gritted his teeth and moved towards her in attack, but she slipped away giggling.
"Later, alligator! Just wake her up and give her the medicine if she's unwell. Okay bye!" She said in a sing song voice and ran away.
"Use protection, you both!" He shouted after her and she turned around to flip him off.
❀
Ahaan gingerly entered into Amira's bedroom and closed the door behind him.
His gaze swept around the entire room, taking in the surroundings.
Amira's laptop lay open on one side of the bed along with some notes and what appeared to be trousseau designs.
"This woman is working despite falling sick last night. When is she going to realize the importance of her health?" Ahaan thought to himself.
His gaze landed upon the huddled form of Amira, shivering under the blanket.
He realized that the AC was on at 16°c.
Who the hell uses AC in winter?
He walked up to her side and switched off the AC with the remote control.
He kneeled down in front of her, observing her features.
Even in sleep, she looked troubled. Her eye lids were twitching and there were dark circles underneath.
He wondered if it was work pressure that gave her sleepless nights or something else.
He pushed the hair strands blocking her face, behind her ears and gently stroked her cheeks. And as he did that, he saw her troubled features relaxing.
He had no idea what was happening to him at this moment, or why was he not in control of his movements but he just wanted to stare at her face, which had now turned pink because of the cold.
Her nose and ears had a slight tinge of red.
He used to love it when her face turned red, every time during winters. She always looked cute when she turned red, as kids.
Ahaan kneeled down to her side and continued stroking her hair. He smiled as he saw her features relaxing.
He felt bad that his overreaction the day before had more or less resulted in Amira falling sick, but he didn't know how to make up for that.
The truth was, he was shocked to meet Amira after all these years. It was just that he didn't expect to meet her here all of a sudden. And his first natural instinct was to be indifferent to her.
When he saw into Amira's eyes, all he could see was hurt, and all their past memories would come back to him.
His ego and the pent up frustration kept him from being nice to her.
Well, he didn't expect neither of them to be comfortable with each other just within a day. After all, so many years had passed, they both changed, and somewhere the old connection was also lost between them.
Maybe it was his nature, but he once got hurt by opening up to Amira, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let that happen again.
He got up from his position, and as he did, his action made Amira's purse fall down from the nightstand, making all the contents spill out.
He bent over and retrieved all the contents, which were mostly small chits, papers and Amira's personal items.
But one particular thing caught his eye.
It was an old yellowed photograph, chipped at the edges and dark blotches covering the front.
He picked it up and gazed at it for a long time.
It was a picture of two ten year old kids, a girl and a boy.
The boy was pulling the girl's ponytail, as the girl shouted at him, so it seemed. It was their picture. Ahaan and Amira's.
He didn't even remember when it was taken, but was amazed at how Amira had still preserved it, like it meant something to her.
"What are you doing in my room?" A startled voice almost squeaked from behind.
Ahaan instantly got up and turned around, with the purse in his left hand and the right hand holding the picture, reflexively going behind his back.
"And what are you doing with my purse? Were you planting a bomb in it?" She tried to fake anger.
Amira really hated talking in the morning, but Ahaan's unexpected presence in her bedroom made her want to more than that.
"As much as I'd wish to plant a bomb in your purse, no I didn't. In fact I was sent to wake the Princess up from her beauty sleep!" He said the word 'princess' with so much emphasis that it made Amira cringe.
"You didn't have to — "
"Amy, you woke up finally!" Aisha barged into the room, interrupting whatever argument was about to start between them.
"I had sent this jackass to wake you up 10 minutes ago! God knows where he was loitering!"
"Don't tell me you and Abhi finished your intercourse in ten minutes! That man needs some training!" Ahaan teased Aisha.
"Shut up! Go down, mom is calling you! And Amy, get ready super fast, we have lot's of things on our agenda today!"
Aisha pushed Amira towards the bathroom, while Ahaan left from the room, slipping the photograph in his pocket.
❀❀❀
A/N
Hey guys,
I know I've already disappointed you all by giving slow updates. But I'm here to add a little more disappointment to your platter. The next update is going to take more time than usual.
I'm really sorry, but a lot of things are going on in my life right now and I need to clear my head before I start writing and updating again.
I'll be going on a hiatus for a while. Thank you for still sticking to this story despite my crappy update schedule! :)
(08.11.2020)