Twice Shy

08 TWICE SHY

A Renaissance painting of us invents itself out of thin air, capturing my bewildered expression and Ilyaz's triumph in the most burlesque manner, and then-

"What do you mean ours?"
"Yours and mine. I bought it for us," His eyes are unfazed.

This—
But—
He—
!!!

It makes no sense whatsoever for him to buy another house. We already have one we're fighting head on in until one of us waves a white flag in defeat and the other is released forever.

"Are you.. glitching?"

I glare at him, although he's right. I am glitching, my circuit software is aflame. I have a house. A gorgeous one at that.

"I take it you won the toss," is the only sentence I can push out of me.

"Yep," he replies casually. I can't believe he is so laidback about this situation. This is a giant investment, and given how things are moving between us, we won't even last in the same house without demolishing every brick around us. I'm even angrier at the fact that after we part in our individual directions, he's going to swoop in his next wife to this magical place instead of me when I'll be dumped in a dorm that smells like frat parties.

"But, this.." I try to find the words, but my brain spaghetti abandons me, "An entire house, Ilyaz,"

"Humne adha khaaridh neki koshish ki, lekin koi ghar jiski chaadh gayab ho ya darmiyaan sei gum ho nehi mila," His joke passes right over my head.

"How did you even,"

"I bought it from one of your coworkers, Umer,"

"Umer?" I can't believe this is happening. "You bought this house from Umer Iskander?"

Ilyaz chuckles, "I'll tell him you remembered his last name correct, he'll be flattered," There was one incident where our group had dinner at a turkish kebab grill, and Umer pointed out that his name is on the menu. He meant Iskander, and I guessed kebab. In my defence, I was distracted.

"This is ridiculous," My fingers tangle in my hair as my legs give up on my weight and I'm sitting on the veneer, "Couples do this together, Ilyaz. I wasn't involved in this at the slightest,"

"I wanted this to be a surprise,"
"You wanted,"

He stares at me blankly, "Ilyaz, I'm your wife. Despite whatever low assumptions you have of me, you are the first man I've been with. This place," I look around us, "This has no essence of me. It's a stranger, Ilyaz, I had plans and dreams of how I wanted to decorate the first house I buy with my husband. You can't just drop a bomb like this on your wife and shatter her hopes. This isn't fair,"

He's smiling, which is exasperating, "First, you change your entire wardrobe and you're wearing that preposterous behemoth," I point to his chocolate brown beanie, to which he laughs, "And then you disappear for days. You're not at work, and I don't know where the hell you are and with who. Do you know what feels like?"

"Yeah!" he cries out loud, "I do, Ilyana, because that's what you do all the time. Your body's here, but your mind is elsewhere. It's like a loop of disconnected motions all the time and I can't even reach you. I'm left all alone here,"

If anyone's left alone, it's me. While his family picks on me at every occasion, he'll sit quietly like a mute child and not stand up for me even once. But I push that though aside for a later time.

I choose the dumbest reason to pick on this house and what comes out of my mouth even baffles me, "I've always wanted a stable in the backyard. For horses. Like aristocrats,"

Ilyaz stares at me. His mouth opens and closes, he's the one malfunctioning now. The way he looks at me says, "tumne-nashtay-mein-ghoray-ka-anda-kha-rakha-hain".