Short Serene Tales [A Collection Of Desi Short Stories]

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Sitting in the front car seat beside Haider Ali Khan, she was fiddling with her fingers holding her bag in place in her lap as she stared outside the window, watching the greenery as it faded in the distance slowly.

Her chain of thoughts broke when her pinged, her honey brown eyes looked at the phone in her hand. Her breath hitched and eyes widened when she looked at the unknown yet very well known number that sent her a message, her big honey brown eyes glanced at Haider who's attention was on the road. 

Gul e Nayab gulped and opened the message with her trembling fingers, she didn't know she was holding her breath while reading the text message, 

'There's a magical simplicity to your walk, A careless beauty that sings to me, Eyes that pierce the air around me, A hidden magic that inspires me to write these words.'

Her eyes went as wide as saucers reading the poem that this secret admirer sent her once again. She quickly deleted the message with her shivering hands yet she couldn't stop the fluttering in her heart that was caused because of the poems that she received every now and then. This secret admirer was not so secret admirer after he revealed himself to her, she still remembered when she found a card in her bag, that said that if she wanted to know the identity of this secret admirer she had to meet him in a coffee shop, Gloria Jean's on the street of their college. 

She went there without any second thought, Gul e Nayab just wanted to end this drama once and for all. She sat on a corner booth and waited for her secret admirer, she was staring outside the glass wall totally out of her wits and nervously playing with the strap of her handbag, she was scared someone from her family was going to see her. When a deep, masculine voice rang in her ears and Gul e Nayab quickly looked up with her wide honey brown eyes and she forgot how to breathe. 

"کاجل آنکھیں، ہونٹ گلابی، زلف اسیری،
گال پہ تل، دل نا دیتے، جان سے جاتے،
سامنے تھے ہتھیار بہت۔"

"Kajal ankhein, hont gulabi, zulf aseeri, gaal pe til, dil na dete, jaan se jate, samne thay hathyar boht." There he stood proudly in front of her, looking at her like she was the most precious thing in the whole wide world.

Ahmed Awan was standing in front of her in all his glory, a smirk dancing on his thin pink lips, 5 o'clock stubble covered his chiseled jaw, his straight nose enhancing his beauty and those long and curled lashes around his round black eyes were just cherry on top. His beautiful dark hair was perfectly styled and she forgot to breathe.

Ya Allah! Bar bar saans lena bhool rahi hun, asthma toh nahi ho gya? She gulped staring at him with her wide eyes.

Never in her wildest dreams she ever thought that Ahmed Awan could be her secret admirer. Girls swooned over him and yet here he was, wasting his precious time on her. Gul e Nayab.

"Zahe naseeb, zahe naseeb. Kis ne socha tha k hamare eik bar pukarne pr Gul e Nayab Zubair Khan khud apne pairon pr chali ayein gi." Her name smoothly rolled off his tongue like butter and her name never felt more beautiful. She gulped and quickly stood up like she were electrocuted or something.

"D-dekhein mein sirf aap ko yeh kehne ai hun k aap jo bhi kr rhe hain galat hai... mujhe messages na kiya krein. Mujhe yeh sab kuch nahin passnd." Without looking up at him, she moved around him and almost crossed the threshold of the cafe when she heard him behind her.

"Agr mein rishta tumhare ghar le kr aa jaon phir?" His breath tickled the skin of her ear as he whispered, her own breath hitched. An army of goosebumps rose on her neck and down her back as she visibly shivered.

Without any other thought she ran outside like a lunatic not even turning to look back at him. She quickly hailed a Rikshaw and frantically sat in and told the driver her address. Her phone pinged and she checked the message, it was Ahmed.