Reyansh Carter
Aisha is stiff in my hold, and I am not able to hide my smile at all. Nor do I make any effort to because I want her to know that I meant every word.
“Are you mad?” she says, bewildered, even when her own body gives me her reaction.
I take a step back from her, letting her breathe, and her floral scent envelops me. I hope I continue smelling like her for the entire day.
“For you? Yes. Always.”
She shakes her head with a smile.
“When will you go to pick up Chhavi?”
“I will come pick you up during lunch. Then we will both go together.”
“Fine,” she says, opening the door of her car and settling down inside. I lean over the hood of her car as she carefully secures her seat belt. “I will see you then.”
“Text me when you reach your office,” I say, and she stares at me, probably not expecting me to say that. “Bye. I love you, baby.”
She doesn’t say it back, and she doesn’t even need to. I can see it in her eyes. The way she looked at me before is the same way she looks at me now, and God, I am so hopeful now.
I know nothing can break us apart anymore.
I just hope I turn out to be right after the end of this month.
* * *
“Your dinner is scheduled for this Friday with Louis Maxwell,” Henry reminds me as I finalize our documents.
I roll my eyes. I can’t stand that fucker, especially after the way he kept looking at Aisha’s picture and his eagerness to meet her.
I love to show off my wife, but I don’t like ugly people having their ugly gaze on her.
I am fiercely protective and maybe even borderline obsessive.
But she is the only one I have got. She is the only one I have.
“I want to cancel it,” I say, firm, and while I am the boss here, I do give some leverage to Henry as well.
“You can’t. It’s big money, you know it. You just have to sit there with Aisha for two hours.”
“Exactly,” I point at him. “I will have to sit in his obnoxious presence with my way-too-beautiful wife, and I don’t really like the sound of that.”
“Were you always this possessive?”
“Yes.”
“Geez, Aisha has bad taste.”
I deadpan him, and he just smiles.
“Look, like it or not, you know he is important for our company. Aisha will be fine on her own, but with you there, she will be more than fine. Take it as an outing. Ignore him if you want; just go.”
“Sure, Mom. Anything else?”
He checks the notepad he carries with him everywhere because he likes to write down little things in case his short-term memory loss kicks in.
“Not right now. I will let you know in case there’s anything else.”
“Thanks, boss,” I say, careful with the sarcasm in my voice.
He shakes his head as he makes his way out, and I take that time to check how many more hours till I get to see her.
The amount of times I miss her when I am away from her is unimaginable.
I don’t have enough caliber to express my feelings for her such that they do justice, but if I had to put them together in the minimal vocabulary that I possess, I would say that she is the sun and I am the moon orbiting around her.
I would say that when she goes away, I experience the same withdrawal in every fiber of my body as someone with any addiction would.
I take out my phone, something I rarely do at work because I like minimal distractions, just to stare at her pictures.
She is so beautiful to me. Her beauty is that soft kind that heals your heart with just one look, and her words are a balm for my broken soul.
Not being able to resist, I text her, not knowing what I would say besides a few words.
“What are you doing?” I text her and keep my phone on the side to try to be patient for a few minutes at least.
Her reply comes almost instantly.
Meri Jaan: “Taking a bath.”
My mind fills with ideas instantly like a pervert until I realize the sarcasm in her words.
Me: “Can I Face Time you then?”
I smile knowing how she would have rolled her eyes at my words and shaken her head in exasperation.
Meri Jaan: “You are disgusting. What would I be doing at work?”
Me: “God forbid a husband misses his wife and tries to talk to her.”
Her reply takes a few seconds to come, and I know that slowly but surely she is settling back down into the feeling of us.
Meri Jaan: “Why do you miss me?”
Me: “When do I not miss you, Aisha?”
She leaves my text on read, so as shameless as I can get, I double-text her.
Me: “I also wanted to let you know that we have our dinner scheduled with my obnoxious client on Friday.”
Me: “You can cancel it if you want.”
Meri Jaan: “No, why would we cancel it? I will be ready on time; don’t worry.”
Of course, she wouldn’t cancel.
Me: “I don’t want to go, baby.”
Meri Jaan: “But he is important for the company, isn’t he?”
Me: “Yes.”
Meri Jaan: “Then it’s fine. We can work through stubborn people together. Besides, I have experience in that.”
Me: “In what?”
Meri Jaan: “In dealing with stubborn men.”
I roll my eyes with a smile.
Me: “Haha, very funny.”
Meri Jaan: “I will have lunch with you today. Then we can go pick up my cousin.”
Me: “Should I count it as a date?”
I feel so giddy inside, like a child being given their favorite candy. Aisha even proposing to come meet me of her own accord is a big deal for me.
Meri Jaan: “In your dreams. We both didn’t bring lunch; that’s why I said that.”
Me: “Sure, baby. Besides, in my dreams we do more than just eat lunch.”
She leaves me on ‘seen’, and I know that that is a sign that I have rendered her speechless.
Win for me.
The happy hormones—whatever they are called—running through my body make me go through my bland day at a much faster pace.
* * *
“Please make sure the files are ready for tomorrow’s meeting,” I say on the call when Henry practically barges into my office without knocking, making me frown. He opens his mouth to speak, so I raise my finger up to silence him, but does that jerk listen? No
I swear I have given him way too much leverage for someone who works under me. Sometimes it feels like he is the boss around.
“Aisha is here,” he says, a hint of a smile on his face.
Sometimes it is good that he doesn’t listen to me.
Times like now.
“I will call you back later,” I say and hang up without waiting for the other person.
“What?” he asks, “No happy smile? Should I send her back?”
“Only if you want to lose your job,” I say with a smile. “Always send her directly to my office.”
“Yes, boss.”
He salutes, and just then, Aisha walks in. The most beautiful sight I have ever seen.
Even though I only saw her a few hours before, I can’t believe how much I missed her. It is like when I see her, it is the moment I start breathing again.
She truly is the epitome of my universe.
“Hi,” she says, and despite how much I try not to show it, the way my voice sounds all breathless makes it known the effect she has on me.
“Hi.”
I walk towards her with my hands in my pocket, and she stays rooted in her spot.
“You look pretty,” I say, tucking her hair behind her ear. I lean down to kiss her cheek, but she moves behind, making me frown. She motions toward the open door, gesturing at the bustling people of my company.
“You saw me in the morning,” she states, and I just shrug. It doesn’t matter because she always looks pretty to me. If only I could make her see what I see when I look at him.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, closing the door and then pulling her closer to me.
She gasps as I pull her closer to me by the waist and lean back against my table. I lock my hands around her waist so that she doesn’t have anywhere else to go.
“What are you doing?”
“Adoring my wife.”
She rolls her eyes and tries to push me away, but obviously she fails. I don’t put in hours at the gym for nothing.
“Reyansh, stop. I have brought lunch, and then we have to go pick up Chhavi. Maa has called me thrice already. I swear I will break my phone if she calls me once again.”
I chuckle as I leave her, and she goes to sit down on the couch in my cabin.
I loosen my tie up slightly to get more comfortable and sit down beside her.
Only God and my heart know how much I have waited for days like this. How much I have longed to be close to her. I love the simple moments between us.
While both of us are complete opposites when it comes to our personalities, the one thing we both have in common is our love for soft, slow and simple moments.
We both cherish them more than grand gestures because we both believe that love can be quiet.
It doesn’t have to be loud and extravagant to be real.
She plates the khichdi on one plate, and I stare at it.
“Khichdi? Why?” I ask.
I am not really fond of it, but I will eat it if she has made it.
“Because ever since both of our moms have come, you have been eating all kinds of food you normally wouldn’t. Especially with my mom, she cooks with a high spice level, and I know you don’t like it.”
“But you don’t like Khichdi either.”
The number of changes she has made in her lifestyle because of me has been huge. While for someone these might not matter, to me, they are everything.
Punjabis are known for their food and hospitality, and she has always sacrificed her taste buds for me.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Thank you, Aisha.”
“What for?” she asks as she brings a spoonful in front of me.
My eyes soften as I open my mouth and eat it, my eyes locked on her at the exact moment.
“For everything that you do for me. For loving me the way you do.”
She doesn’t say anything, choosing to feed herself and me.
“It is nothing special.”
“Everything you do is special for me. The way you talk to me, the way you smile at me, look at me. Even the smallest actions have that effect on me.”
“Even when I am rude to you?” She humours me.
“Especially when you are rude to me.”