Chapter 44 Aisha Kapoor
Aisha Kapoor
“Why does your husband keep sending flowers?” Sasha asks, agitated as she places the third bouquet of pink roses in my office.
“I don’t know, Sasha,” I say, trying to hide the smile on my face and the giddiness in my voice but failing to do so. “You might as well call him and ask.”
I turn to my monitor to send a few emails. Our book tour with Sienna is approaching soon, and I don’t want to make any mistakes. This book tour is extremely special and crucial for us.
Personally, I was very happy with the timing of this book tour because when I announced my wish to get divorced, I knew it would be a good distraction. Now, knowing that things are getting better between us, I don’t really want to go away from him for too long.
Clingy or whatever it is called. I want to spend time with him. After all, I have spent years with distance between us.
“Girl, I think you should ask him,” she says, plopping down on the seat in front of me. She has way too much free time these days. I think I should assign her some more work.
“Usually the men in my life only send me flowers when they mess up,” she says, pointing at me.
Honestly, the men in her life are trash.
For someone who gives such profound relationship advice, her taste in men is questionable.
But she has a knack for looking at the bright side, always finding the good in people.
And when you have a heart like that, it becomes extremely difficult to understand who is better for you and who is not.
“Well,” I start. “I don’t think he messed up. I think he is the one who is doing things right currently, and I am the one who keeps messing up.”
She raises an eyebrow, surprised by me taking his side.
“Are you taking his side? Am I dreaming? Are you guys back together? Is this why he keeps sending you flowers?”
She bombards me with questions, and I can literally see the heart eyes she already has going on.
“No, we are not,” I clarify. “But we might. I don’t know; I am not going to say anything for certain.”
Truth be told, I am just too much of a chicken to make anything permanent. Suddenly, I am the guy with commitment issues who keeps giving hints to the woman they are talking to but won’t accept their feelings.
But even if I know we won’t be separating, I still want to test the waters before falling headfirst into this relationship again.
“Don’t you think you are prolonging this way too much now?”
“What do you mean?”
I turn to look at her fully, and I can see that she is not joking right now. She has her poker face on, and that’s the face she usually has when she is sticking to business.
“I mean that maybe you are letting your fears get in your and Reyansh’s way. Do you think he isn’t scared too? I am sure he is. But he is making efforts, but are you?”
She says the same words my mom and Maa keep telling me, but I don’t know how to make them understand how my chest shrinks when I think about the what-ifs.
They don’t know how depressing the past few years have been, what they made me and how much effort it took to get to a point where it stopped affecting me loudly.
I know maybe it is unfair to him, but I can’t shut my mind off too much.
But I am trying. I am trying to let go of all of my fears, even if it is difficult. I don’t know how long it will take me to completely surrender to him, but I can’t rush it.
“Sasha, you know everything about me, about us,” I say, and she nods. She is my only friend here and in general too. I am not in touch with any of my college friends.
“How do I explain it to you? Whenever I try to take a step towards us, there comes a voice in my head that keeps nagging me, saying that this can all go wrong. That this is all temporary. I don’t know how to stop it.
I know, maybe it is unfair to him because if he was a bad husband, I was a bad wife too.
If he didn’t take steps to fix things, I turned a blind eye too, letting my ego get in the way, thinking, “If he doesn’t care, why should I? ”
I huff out a breath, and her eyes soften as she looks at me.
“I am trying to put in efforts. I don’t want to let him go. Not anymore because despite this fear, I know if there’s one person I would risk it all for, it is him.”
“I know, baby,” she says, coming to hug me. While she may not understand my situation completely, she is still supportive. She knows what this man means to me, and despite me yelling on top of my lungs that I want to divorce him, anyone who knows me and us knows that I could never leave him.
The telephone that connects me to the reception rings, and we break apart.
“Madam,” the receptionist says in a bored and tired tone. “There’s another bouquet addressed to you.”
I chuckle. What is he up to?
“Sasha will get it for me.”
Sasha rolls her eyes as I say the words, stomping her way out, making me laugh.
Seriously, what is he up to?
I pick up my phone, which was on silent the entire time, and see that he has texted me more than ten times ever since I came to the office.
I ring him up, and he picks up my phone on the third ring itself.
“Hey, baby,” he says sweetly, making me blush.
“Reyansh, why do you keep sending me flowers?” I ask.
“Because you are my wife,” he says, and I roll my eyes. As if that’s the reason alone. “And you weren’t answering my texts.”
“So you sent me flowers? Four times? Are you that rich?”
I mean, I know he is rich. But I don’t have that many defenses.
“Baby, you know I could fill your office up with bouquets without making a dent in my account.” I can imagine the smirk on his face as he says the words.
“So humble.”
“Always. Now that I have your attention, tell me, why didn’t you answer my texts?”
“I was busy, and my phone was on silent.”
“Nice excuse for ignoring your husband.”
“Well, I am learning from the best after all.”
Before I can overthink my remark, he laughs on the other end, and I feel my heart relax.
With our continuous banter, I always forget when I am being mean, when I am being sarcastic and when I am being funny.
“Don’t you have work today?” I ask when he doesn’t make a move to hang up.
“I do,” he says. “I just wanted to let you know that I am picking you up today.”
“But I drove all the way here,” I argue. I don’t like to leave my car here in the office. Because then my brain constantly keeps thinking that it got stolen.
“Let Sasha take it home,” he says. “I am not letting you argue for this one.”
My eyebrows furrow. The kaleshi in me is rising to the surface.
“So, you think I always argue?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you insinuated that I do.”
“No, meri jaan,” he says, coming to his defense quickly. “You never argue. I am the one who does that.”
I chuckle, knowing that is so not true, and slowly get used to the old us once again.
God, I missed this. I missed us.
“True,” I say. “Anyways, I have a meeting now. I will see you later.”
“See you. I love you, meri jaan.”
He hangs up, and I keep the phone attached to my ear for a while.
“I love you too.”
* * *
“Take care of my car,” I say for the hundredth time to Sasha, who looks ready to drive over me now.
What can I do? I have an emotional attachment to my car. Reyansh bought it for me on my birthday after we got married, and I have held onto it for as long as our relationship.
“If you say it one more time, I am deliberately going to drive it into a wall,” she threatens.
“Don’t you even dare,” I say, and at the same time, Reyansh’s car comes into view, flashing lights directly on our faces.
I squint as he stops and comes out with another bouquet in his hands. I don’t know if I love them or hate them right now.
I have been enveloped with their smell enough for a full day. I think I have had enough flowers to last me a decade.
“Hi, baby,” he says, coming up to me and handing me a bouquet. He takes out a small bunch of flowers from the inner pocket of his coat and hands it to Sasha, who smiles.
It makes me happy.
“Thanks,” she says. “Please take your woman with you. She is driving me nuts.”
He looks at me, amused.
“I was just telling her to be careful with my car.”
“I will buy you another one if anything happens. Drive safely, Sasha.”
“See,” she says with a smirk, and I roll my eyes. “He is a gentleman. Learn a thing or two from him.”
She blows a kiss to my annoyed face before going towards my car.
“Shove it in my face that you’re rich, huh?”
He pulls me towards him by the waist and pecks my lips, making me forget my next retort.
“Only for you, baby.”
“Anyways,” I say, pulling away from him and moving to sit down in his car. “Why did you insist on picking me up?”
“Because,” he says, rounding up the car and sitting beside me. “You’re my wife. Plus, we get very little time together. I want to make use of every single second we can get together.”
“Aw, you miss me?” I tease.
“I always miss you, Aisha,” he says, taking my hand in his and kissing the back of my hand, sending tingles down my spine.
“Are you excited about the dinner tomorrow?”
I know he is so not excited. In fact, he is the opposite of excited. He is every word that defines not being excited at the moment.
“Sure,” he shakes his head. “I swear, if he didn’t bring that much money to the table, I would never let him speak in front of me.”
“Is he that bad?”
“Extremely. Tomorrow, please ignore most of what he says. He has a habit of making the nastiest, vile comments and crossing boundaries, and then he laughs in that stupid English way, making your blood boil. Don’t take whatever he says personally, and let me know the moment you want to leave.
I swear, I would cancel the dinner if you didn’t insist on us going. ”
“Relax,” I say, placing my hand on his thigh calmly. “You know I can handle it. Besides, you will be there. He won’t do anything to piss me off.”
His eyes wander down to my hand on his thigh, and I notice his ears turning red. Just to enjoy teasing him, I don’t take my hand off of him.
“I know.”
“What should I wear tomorrow?” I decide to tease him further.
“You have plenty of clothes,” he says nonchalantly, and I just very lightly slide my hand a little higher, still staring ahead.
“Maybe that backless red dress I wore on that Valentine’s Day,” I say, and he side-eyes me.
He got me that dress specially for Valentine’s Day, and that night was extremely…special.
“Sure,” he says. “Whatever my wife wants.”
“You won’t mind?”
He shakes his head in a no, slowing down the car at the isolated roadside.
“Because after that I will do whatever I want.”
He unbuckles my seat belt in a quick moment, and I gasp as he pulls me up in his lap swiftly.
It all happens so fast that I barely get the time to register what happened.
Guess the teasing worked.