Dancing Jodi

Chapter 4: (Un)Happily Never After

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English translation to above song: https://www.abcsonglyrics.com/atif-aslam/woh-lamhe.html

Thank you for reading & voting!

Noori's heart was pounding against her chest by the time she got back to her place. She moved through the dark, not bothering to turn on any lights, using the lightning reflecting through the windows to illuminate a path for her. The shots of espresso Meyer had expertly mixed up for her which she had downed in seconds during the end of her shift were just settling in.

Noori felt haunted. A slideshow of images played through her mind on repeat. Every memory she had suppressed for three years was playing on loop like a never-ending movie reel. She dropped her bag by the door and her keys on the kitchen counter. Noori's place was small, dingy, and often made her feel claustrophobic but tonight was a special case. Tonight, it was constricting her.

The first sob was escaping from between her lips before she even had a chance to slip down to her knees on the carpeted living room floor.

Their first meeting. Their first few conversations. Their first date.

Their first fight. Their second fight. Their final fight.

First kiss. First love. First true heartbreak.

Noori had experienced it all with Meezaan in the span of a whirlwind of eight months.

After he made the decision to walk away from her – on a day she was going through the worst moment of her life – Noori didn't stop him. She didn't want to admit it on that day, and she still didn't, but she was almost glad he did it. If he hadn't... she'd be a different kind of broken now. Noori had let him go because it was difficult to hold onto him. As kind and gentle as he had been in the beginning, it was difficult to voice her wants and needs as time went by – Meezaan was older and wiser (his words) so he called all the shots. And their breakup was one such decision that was made entirely by Meezaan without Noori ever getting a word in otherwise.

She let him go because she was too weak to walk away first. But, he left behind so many questions, so much anger, and Noori still loved him for the next six months she spent alone. She had wanted and tried so hard to make their relationship work but it was like trying to hold on to sand. He wanted out. And if that wasn't enough, he took little pieces of Noori with him until she was left with only a shell of herself.

And now he was back.

One-sided decisions made in split seconds were Meezaan's forte. Noori needed time, space, plans, and backup plans to come to a sound choice.

For the first six months after the breakup, Noori had spent days crying, and some nights imagining reuniting with him again, showing him that she wasn't a broken bird, a fragile doll, but a strong, independent woman who didn't need his loving hands and mesmerizing eyes; she could have any man she desired or no man at all because she was just as capable with and without one.

And now he was here.

Three years later.

And she had just froze. Just about fallen apart.

Because with Meezaan Zahir came all the difficult and depressing memories. Everything terrible that happened after he walked away. Like the quick, light flutter of a pair of butterfly wings, a domino effect of bad luck had engulfed Noori's life and was still looming over her like a gray cloud, constantly raining on her parade.