Hamesha Wala Pyaar – Chapter 17
After their evening coffee, Sidharth and Shehnaaz were seated on the couch in the living room.
Sidharth was engrossed in reading a book, where as Shehnaaz was lying down with her head perched on his lap, browsing thru her phone.
“Sidhaaaarrrtttthhhhh” she called out, as he poked his head out of his book.
“Ha baby” he asked softly running his hands through her silky hair.
“Main bore ho rahi hu yaar. Kitne din ho gaye hum kahi bahar bhi nahi gaye” she whined.
“dramebaaz.. hum roz toh machaan pe jaate hai” he retorted, shutting his book.
His baby needed attention and he was totally up for it.
“Ha machaan pe toh jaate hai, but kahi aur.. I mean bahar.. is estate ke bahar”she frowned, looking up at him.
Sidharth looked at her with affectionate eyes. She had been really patient with him throughout. He understood people her age are generally excited about life for no reason at all.
He never experienced that cuz of his inhibitions, but he obviously wouldn’t want to kill that free spirit in her.
“Thik hai hum kal chalenge” he smiled cupping her chin.
Shehnaaz wasn’t in a mood to back down.
“Nahi abhi chalna hai” she said brushing his hand, as she sat up straight.
“Baby it already 6.30 now, thodi der mein andhera ho jayega, kya karegi bahar jake?” he tried to reason with her.
“thik hai, tu baitha reh yahi pe, sadu kahi ka”she huffed and started walking towards the door when she saw two men entering the gate.
She stopped.
She knew them, they were Rakesh and Hari from the nearby village where she would often visit.
Inquisitive, she awaited them to come over to the porch. Sidharth was also by her side by now.
“Didi, bhaiyya namaste” they greeted.
“Namaste Hari” she folded her hands.
“Aap log iss time yaha pe kaise?” she asked.
“Woh tubewell ka kaam pura ho gaya hai ab. Bohot suvidha ho rahi hai gaanv mein sabko” hari spoke, smiling at both of them.
“Ussi khushi mein humne ek chhotasa samaroh rakha hai gaanv mein. Hum chahte hai aap log zaroor aaye.” Rakesh said.
Shehnaaz turned sideways to look at Sidharth who was beaming with pride right now.
His smile touching his eyes.
“Aapki didi zaroor aayengi” Sidharth replied for her, smiling at the men.
“Nahi hum dono aayenge” she quipped instantly, hugging his arm.
His face turned ashen.
There will be people. Atleast a hundred of them. He couldn’t imagine being there, even if he wanted to. The thought of being surrounded with people made him shudder.
His childhood fears came crawling back instantly making his mood sullen. He just walked back inside wordlessly, leaving the three on the porch.
Shehnaaz immediately knew what just happened and she was determined to help him come out of the dark vortex he had drowned himself in for so many years.
Flashback Alert:
It had all started a few days back.
Things had shifted radically. As the days passed by, Sidharth and Shehnaaz became more expressive towards each other.
Verbally, physically and emotionally.
They would speak about nothing and everything, voicing their thoughts to each other without any filter.
They had both poured their hearts out, baring each others soul, telling each other about their deepest, secrets even.
And all this without the fear of being judged.
But it was their physical proximity that was peaking. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. It was like the tender touches, assured them both of the growing affection between them.
Everything was going smoothly until a storm hit them. But not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.
Shehnaaz had received her first ever Salary.
Preeti handled all of Sidharth’s finances that even included releasing salary payouts to his staff.
Though the barrier of employment had been surpassed long ago, it couldn’t be denied that she was still his employee who worked on his payroll.
As a routine her account details were synced with Preeti’s office and her staff had released her salary.
In the morning, her phone had dinged announcing that her bank account had been credited with 25K as they had agreed upon.
Instead of being happy, she was furious.
It just screwed the dynamics of their budding relationship. She had forgotten that she was here as an employee. She was getting more and she was giving more than it was required from an employer/employee.
She did what she did for him out of love and no money could ever compensate for that.
She felt humiliated that he would have to guts the pay her for taking care of him, spending time with him.
Was she still “one of his staff” for him? Well if he still considered her that, she was doing much more than a normal assistant would do and that would classify her into the ranks of a derogatory category. It felt wrong at so many levels.
She felt cheap. Her feelings were insulted.
Shehnaaz stomped out of the room looking for him. He was still fast asleep. She felt like running away from this place, away from him for being such an ass.
But she needed answers.
She wordlessly went through her morning routine, organizing all his stuff.
She was already seated in the porch when he returned from his jog. She was engrossed in her laptop.
His mischievous side kicked in.
It was a habitual prank for him to brush his face on her after his jog.
She hated it and this kicked up a funny banter between them which he loved.
This particular morning also he tried the same thing. He dropped himself behind her on the lounger and laid his sweaty forehead on her shoulder. He expected her to cringe, to swat him away, to pull his hair and he would resist her by holding her hands and caging her in his arms as she mumbled some choiciest gaalis in Punjabi.
But today there was no reaction at all.
Surprised, he turned her face to him, cupping her chin. “Oye.. ki hoya tennu?” he asked mimicking her.
She looked back, her face devoid of any expressions. She just smirked looking into his eyes. “Mujhe meri Salary mil gayi aaj. Thanks.” She said with a coldness in her voice and walked out from there.
He didn’t knw what to make out it. Was she sad? Was she angry? Was she even his employee anymore?
Oh fuckkk, now he understood why she was angry. She must have felt like he had paid her. After all what had gone down between them it obviously felt wrong to compensate it with a paycheck thrown at her face. He will have to make her understand, but before that he needed to sort things out with Preeti.
After a long chat with Preeti, Sidharth understood that it was all a mistake done by her office staff.
They obviously didn’t knw how Sidharth and Shehnaaz’s equation had changed.
“I don’t know if it is time to say it, but she is more like…my girlfriend.” He stuttered “I cannot be paying her a salary. It is wrong” he spoke to Preeti.
“I understand bro, m sorry. But obviously my staff didn’t know of this and none of us even gave this thing a thought. Not even u Sid” she bit back.
“I know, it didn’t strike me even. But anyway what’s done is done, henceforth, please instruct your staff to consult with me, specially when it comes to Shehnaaz” he said.
“I will baby. Chal ab jaa tu, go back to being Shehnaaz’s bitch, bohot manana hai abhi tujhe. All the best” she cackled.
“Fuck off Pri” he barked back and disconnected the phone.
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Sidnaazkidiwani