Chapter 38 #2
“Already filled.” His arms came under her to lift her and she shrieked, rolling away to the other side of the bed and landing on her feet. “You sadist!”
He laughed. She rounded the bed to run to the bathroom and he lunged. She shrieked again, finding her opening and throwing herself through the open door before he could turn. Amaal locked the door.
She turned, and the bathtub was empty. Dry.
“YOU FUCKING LIAR!!!”
Dark, rich laughter rang outside the door as he left her bedroom.
————————————————————
He took her to the diagnostics centre like he had once before.
But this time, Amaal leaned on his arm as they sat waiting for the doctor to draw blood.
This time, she smiled tiredly, and he slipped his arm around her shoulders, raising the collar of her suede coat up and around her neck, keeping his hand there to shield her eyes from seeing the horrifying sight of the needle going into her elbow.
This time, as she turned away from the pain, she did so into his neck.
“Done.” He said this time, rubbing her shoulder and helping her slip the coat arm back on.
This time, he took her to breakfast instead of home.
“I don’t want to eat…” she whined, feeling half groggy, half needy.
“Drink this.” He settled into the driver’s seat, pushing a mitti kullad into her hand. The spicy scent of chai filled the car as he closed it and turned the heater on. In this summer. But she needed the heat.
“It’s hot so I will drink it.” She croaked, pushing her face down to inhale. He was already sipping and looking like he relished it. Amaal’s mouth dropped open — “You are a chai person?”
“Hmm.” He smiled over his kullad at her.
“You could have told me yesterday morning…”
He just sipped quietly.
She didn’t know how to make good chai, never needed to. Coffee was her poison of choice. Now, she wanted to learn. She took a sip and the strong ginger and cardamom hit her whole face. She wasn’t a fan of the taste but the sinuses did open up. Her throat felt soothed.
“Nice?” He asked.
She nodded, holding the kullad in the cups of both palms and drinking. It was over before she knew it and a knock startled her. Amaal glanced at her window and Samar clicked it open. The man passed a paper plate of toast triangles smelling of butter and jam, and then two more kullads.
“I don’t want to eat.”
“Hmm.” He pressed a triangle of jam sandwich into her hand that was perfectly crisped.
“Samar…”
“Drink this and eat that.” He handed her another kullad of tea. She pouted, not even being able to remain angry at him.
“Samar…” She whined.
“Come on, one bite,” he circled her wrist and pushed it to her lips. She opened her mouth and bit into the sandwich. It was crisp outside but gooey soft inside. And smelled of coal.
“This is different…”
“He makes the jam sandwich and then toasts it on open fire,” he pointed to the small hole-in-the-wall shop. “See.”
“Mmm…” she ate the sandwich quietly, eyeing the man make a dozen jam toasts on open coal fire and run out within a minute. She was not about to admit that the combination of spicy tea and buttery-sweet jam toast was a surprisingly good fit.
“Did you inform at the Secretariat that you are not coming?”
“No, why would I?”
“Then go with 103 degree fever, that sore throat and… the headache will return soon, by the way.”
“What are you here for? Give me something stronger than Dolo and I’ll be ok,” she argued, but knew that there was no way she could function today. Second day of period plus illness that could be malaria was a no-go for work. And there wasn’t anything urgent going on at the moment.
“Until your results come, no medicine for you except Dolo.” He plucked the empty kullad out of her hand.
Then got out of the car to throw away all the waste and pay.
Amaal observed the tight street. The morning hadn’t completely claimed Jammu yet but the warm air was flaring with the sun’s rays, people piercing them to fill the street.
Taking milk home, having tea, hands behind their backs on morning walks…
such a simple, easy slow life. Life that she hadn’t seen in Srinagar before Atharva’s time.
Even now, it wasn’t like some magic wand had been waved and everything was back to normal.
Police and military posts were still common, just reduced drastically in number.
Atharva was a hands-on CM who kept a tight hold on the security of the state.
He was also unapologetic about being unpopular if he went after famous militants.
Case in point, Usama Aziz, the young adult militant who had suddenly risen on Twitter to become popular among misguided boys and smitten girls.
Charm and wrong intentions were the worst combination in public personalities. They rose to power like a rocket, then came crashing down, burning a whole lot more than just themselves.
Amaal startled as Samar opened her side of the door.
“What happ…”
His hand came to her nape and he leaned over her, pushing her seat to horizontal. That’s when she realised that she was half-asleep. Amaal squinted up at him as he reached into the backseat and tucked a shawl around her.
“When did you get this?”
“Sleep.” He closed the door.
She turned to the driver’s side and folded her legs up. Her view would be good until she fell asleep.
————————————————————
“It’s positive, Amaal.” Came his voice from behind her as they entered the house.
“How did you get it so quickly?”
Samar locked his mobile and closed the door. “Doctor perks.”
“Meaning?”
“The official report is not typed but he tested it and informed me. Go sit on the sofa.”
“This is my house.”
“So go sit on your sofa.”
She ground her teeth. But went to her sofa and lay down in rebellion. She heard his footsteps around the house. And then he was walking to her.
“Take these.” He handed her three tablets. She popped them into her mouth and drank the water he offered.
“Always ask before swallowing.”
She coughed, shocked. “Excuse me?”
His eyes squeezed shut — “Can’t you think straight when ill?”
Amaal burst out laughing.
“Ask what medicines someone gave you before swallowing.” He shook his head, moving away. And then she felt him settle on the cushion beside her head. He raised her head to his thigh and a cold cloth touched her forehead.
“Pffft, I am not a baby,” she began to sit up but he pressed down on her chest.
“Samar, I know you are a doctor but I am not playing doctor-doctor.”
“Your fever is high, keep lying down.”
He held her head steady with one hand and pressed another icy cloth. She hissed. Amaal glared at him upside down — “You are enjoying this way too much.”
He smiled.
“Do you have a kink or something?” She asked just to scandalise him.
“Would you participate?”
Her mouth dropped open.
“You did not just ask me that.”
“Who started it?”
She felt heat rise to her face. The idea of it…
she had been naughty in college. Then adulthood had hit and hit hard.
Nowadays, self-pleasure was the only way to go, and that too once in a blue moon when her head wasn’t weighted with the hundred things she was supposed to do the next day.
She had fallen hard for Samar ages ago, and attraction had been wild for those few months.
After the last two days of tame domesticity, the idea of being naked with him was…
like thinking dirty in a temple. But oh god, what a thought that was.
He seemed to be not the bland man she had thought him to be…
“What are you thinking?” He ran a finger down her cheek.
“Nothing.”
“Then why is this dimple popping?” He poked it.
She stopped smiling.
“Ummm… Samar?”
“Amaal.”
“What did you like about me?”
“Hmm?” He changed the cloth.
“Like? You do like something about me, no?”
“Your never-say-die attitude.”
“And?”
“Your ambition.”
“And?”
“Your determination.”
“Anything that is not meant for my CV?”
His eyes softened. “Your smile.”
“Ugggggh.”
“What?”
“Ok, you have a problem with question framing. Let me reframe. What were you attracted to in me?”
“Your joy that pulled everyone in, even on a bad day.”
She inhaled, praying for patience.
“Something that is not under eighteen.”
“What does that mean?”
She threw her hands over her face and shook her head, ready to cry. “Sa.Mar!” She opened her eyes to peek up from between her fingers and found him trying to hold back a smirk.
“Fuck you!” She pulled her hands down. “You are making fun of me!!”
He laughed. “I am not.”
She pulled the cloth from over her forehead and threw it at his chest. He caught it, dipping it into the ice bath, still laughing.
“We are not talking about this ever again, no sex talk with you ever…”
“Your body stirs the basest part of me even when I have given up on intimacy,” he laid the cloth on her forehead and tamped it down with his palm.
Their eyes clashed, and her breath suspended at the intensity that his emanated.
He slid down, putting the side of her head in close proximity to his lap.
“You don’t know what you do to me even when you lie here being tended to.”
She swallowed down her aching throat.
“Don’t mistake my control for indifference.”
She blinked.
“Hmm?”
“Hmm.” She made the answering noise. His finger stroked her cheek again and pushed into her dimple. And Amaal realised she was blushing, smiling, thrilled like she had never been before. He slipped back and she turned and laid a kiss on his thigh.
“Amaal.” He warned.
“You cannot give me a weapon and not expect me to use it.”
His free hand slipped under her nape and fisted her hair. She gasped. “It’s a two-way game. Remember.”
“What can you do? One player is sick.”
He leaned down until his mouth was over hers. His eyes were so close, she could see nothing but black.
“Not forever.”
His teeth pressed into her upper lip and released. A split second of pain before it was gone. Even on malaria medicines under fever, her stomach began to throb. She clenched her thighs together.
“What is it?”
“Period cramps.”
“Are they?” He smirked.
————————————————————
Samar got the alarm system installed, cooked her his crappy upma that she didn’t even pretend to like, ensured she was medicated on time and got her fevers down with a constant supply of Dolos and cold cloths.
For the next three days, he remained in her house, pushing his date of travelling to Srinagar until her course of Lariago was drawing to its end.
“Amaal?” His hand patted her cheek.
“Mmm?” She squinted, wondering what time it was and where she was. The sun was streaking through her curtains. “What time is it?”
“Time for sunset.” He pressed a tablet into her hand. “And medicine.”
“Uggh,” she made a face, the taste of the medicine itself making her think of nausea.
“It’s the last one, your fever has also tapered in the last 12 hours. Come on. Last one.”
“I’ll vomit on you,” she warned, even though she hadn’t vomited at all in the last four days.
“Go ahead.” He helped her up, pushed the tablet between her lips and held the water up. She drank it down, suffering through a full-body shiver as the taste made her whole mouth bitter. He patted her cheek, grinning — “All done.”
She adjusted his specs, feeling loopy out of sleep. “So all the malaria germs are gone from inside?”
“They are about to.”
“So if I kiss you now, will you get malaria?”
“You’d have to bite me deep enough to deposit the parasite into my bloodstream.”
“You are calling me a mosquito?”
“Malaria mosquitoes are female.”
“Ooooh… taunting me in doctor talk. How do you think I will give you any attention after I get back on my feet?”
His arm slipped around her waist, pulling her body flush against him. “We’ll have to wait to find that out.”
“Why?”
His forehead dropped over hers. “I have to go tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
“Amaal,” he cupped her cheek. “I wish I could stay longer. I pushed my dates by two days but there are panchayat elections in all of North Kashmir, and SMC…”
“I know,” she whispered. “I get it. I understand.”
He huffed. “The CM takes the party’s major decisions but the grunt work is the President’s.”
She twined her arms around his neck, feeling such intimacy with him that it all looked like a dream.
“Had I still been the Media Head of KDP,” she nuzzled his stubbled cheek that was darker and bristlier.
“I would have been yelling at you to go at this point. And go with either a clean shave or a taming of this.” She pressed her nose into his bristly chin. And felt it vibrate.
“Pick one.”
“Trim it.” She poked her nose over his rough, hard chin.
“Ok.” He pressed his mouth to the bridge of her nose, laughter in his voice.
Amaal inhaled him, closing her eyes. “Go, win those elections. I have to get back to the Secretariat and catch up on a lot as well.” She pulled back and smiled up at him. “But now I will do that thinking about you, and when we will meet next.”
“And when will that be?” He pushed her hair behind her shoulder with his knuckles, holding the column of her neck.
“When we come back to Srinagar in two weeks.”
He paused.
“What happened?”
“You stay in Aamir Haider’s house.”
Her mouth opened, then shut.
“Samar…”
“I am not blaming you.”
“I know… but Iram asked me to stay there. Ada was alone, Mirza was there… and I just needed a room to stow my stuff in because I spend 16 hours at the Secretariat anyway.”
“I know.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb, his eyes on that movement, soft. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I may start looking for a place for myself…”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” His eyes rose to her.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
“It’s the savings… I had never imagined that the opportunity of a lifetime would not be as financially sound for me. If I want that house in Srinagar, with the property rates inflating thanks to the infra monster Atharva and Qureshi have unleashed… I will need to save every penny.”
He smiled. “Who else do you want with you in that house?”
“Mom and Dad.”
“And?”
“My hammock.”
“That’s for sure, since all this property scouting is happening for that one hammock.”
She nodded.
“And?”
Two could play at this game. “And…”
“And?”
“Oh…” she bounced.
His brows rose.
“And my hatchback! You know I bought a cute red car in Srinagar?”
“Only you would call a car by its colour and cuteness. What model is it?”
“Hyundai petrol.”
“That’s the car company.”
She scowled. He pulled her face closer and kissed her mouth.
“I think,” he said slowly, heightening her hopes. “You should also have a pain relief spray in your house.”
Amaal grabbed her pillow and slapped it across his body. He laughed, trying to get up.
“Listen,” she caught his elbow.
“Hmm.” He sat back down.
“We are not telling everyone yet, right?”
“Telling everyone what?”
“That… this happened.” She gestured between their chests.
“No.” He circled her hand on his elbow. “I don’t think we should, yet.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm?” A naughty little tilt tipped his lips.
She whacked the pillow across his mouth this time.