The Addiction of Love

IX

Mahnoor sat on her cubicle chair and looked around the marketing department of the Khan Enterprises.
Since she had resigned her job, Ahad had suggested she join the family company. She was skeptical at first because she didn't want any favors but Ahad had assured her that she'd be joining as an intern at first and then she'd be given a permanent position, if and when she proves worthy of it.

Today was her first day with another four interns. After a quick introduction among the five, they were given a proper induction by the head of marketing department, Mr Iyer.

Before lunch break, a woman in her late-twenties came to Mahnoor's desk to inform her that Zafar had summoned her. The lady, who Mahnoor came to know was Sheetal, Zafar's assistant, guided her to Zafar's office.

Mahnoor knocked before entering the room. Zafar, who was speaking to someone on the call, passed a polite smile to Mahnoor and gestured to her to take a seat. While waiting for him, she subconsciously started to notice him. He had discarded his black suit blazer, his tie was loosely hanging around his neck, his sleeves were folded and his white shirt was clinging to his muscular body. And the cherry on the cake was his hair. The way his messy hair fell on his forehead made her fantasize about how it would be to lay on top of him and play with his hair.

As soon as that image entered her mind, she jerked a little in shock. Astagfirullah, what was she thinking? Zafar looked at her because of her sudden change in posture and raised an eyebrow in question. Heck, even that looked sexy to her. She shook her head immediately and turned her eyes away for him. Suddenly the room started to feel too hot for her. Is the AC not working? She thought to herself. Or maybe the guy sitting in front of you is the reason for the raised temperature.

Mahnoor was speechless at the kind of thoughts bubbling in her head. Was her period around the corner which had gotten her so horny that she was having such indecent fantasies about her own cousin.

"Mahnoor?" Zafar's voice brought her out of her dreamland. "You okay?" He had kept his phone aside and all his focus was on her.

"Yeah," She spoke, too quickly.

"Okay." He sounded like he was not convinced but he let it go. "How is your first day going so far?"

"It is really smooth. The office is great and so are the people."

"Great! If you have any problem, you can come to me. And just like you asked, no one knows that you're my cousin." He told her.

Just as she nodded, a knock echoed in the room. Zafar gave permission and Sheetal walked in the room with a file. She passed it to Zafar who scanned the pages quickly before picking up the pen to sign it. Mahnoor watched how his fingers moved to make the signature and she wondered what else those fingers were capable of.

What the actual fuck, Mahnoor? A voice snapped inside her.

"I'll take you a leave then." Mahnoor stood up before her brain could think of more scandalous things about her cousin. She passed Sheetal a forced smile and padded out of the room. She went straight to the washroom to wash her face to get rid of all the unholy thoughts. But little did she know, it was only the beginning of so much more to come.

_______________

"How about carnations?" Mahnoor suggested while popping some french fries in her mouth.

"Yes," Seher agreed instantly, "white and pink ones."

The ladies of the home, Almaas, Fauzia, Shaheen and Jabira nodded their heads.

It was a week later Seher had said yes to the proposal. The family members had been over the moon upon knowing that two of their kids would be marrying and that their princess would always stay with them. On the other hand, the youngsters were shocked at the revelation. However Mahnoor and Zafar came around much more quickly than the twins. Sahil and Shahid were still not able to fully accept why Seher agreed to marry their khadoos cousin. In the past seven days, they had asked Seher multiple times if she was forced and everytime she had said no with a blush.

But the person who was more excited than anyone else was Ahad. The yes from Seher for him had changed something inside him. And that change was visible to everyone. He had started to smile more often around Seher, his hard glares and strictness had melted into soft glances for her. But this blissful change was only for his fiance, the twins were still given the old, harsh scoldings. That also meant that Seher now had an upper hand on the twins and she made sure to not leave any chance to tease them.

"Why are we deciding on flowers?"
Sahil asked.

"For the nikah decorations." Almaas replied.

The wedding date wasn't finalized yet, but it was sure that it'd happen in a month or two. Seher and Ahad had both agreed to it since they had no reason to wait long. And so, the over-excited ladies had started with the planning right away.

"Damn kiddo, I still can't believe you're getting married." Shahid said softly to Seher as the women started talking about the guest list.

Seher gave him a stinky eye. "Right, I'm getting married so it'll be better if you stop calling me a kid."

"Oh no, that's not happening. Never. Even after you give birth to your kids, you'd still be called kiddo." Sahil mocked her while hi-fi-ing Shahid.

Seher pouted as the twins laughed at her, but when she saw Ahad return home from office, she jumped on her feet and walked towards him.

"Ahad." Her sweet voice called him, and his eyes snapped towards her. Allah, how beautiful she looked!

In the past week, Seher had dropped the bhai title and Ahad's heart still flipped everytime she took his name.

"Ahad, dekhein na, dono bhaijaan mujhe tang kar rahe hai." She stood in front of him. Her fingers played with her dupatta as she stared at him with her innocent eyes which were filled with hope. Hope that he'd scold the twins for her.

And Ahad did exactly what his girl wanted from him. "Why are you troubling her?" He asked in a gruff tone.

"Trouble!" Sahil gasped. "We're not troubling her at all."

"Yes, bhaijaan, we just called her kiddo and she went to complain to you." Shahid added.

By now, the elders had also stopped their discussion and were enjoying the show.

"Exactly, they called me kiddo. Even after knowing how much I hate it." Seher said, "Ahad, ask them to stop calling me that."

Ahad had to physically stop himself for leaning in and kissing the mouth that was so sexily rolling out his name. Just a few weeks more, and she'll be your wife. He chanted to calm himself.

"You both will not call her kiddo from now on." Ahad ordered the twins.

"But, bhaijaan, that's our nickname for her. How can we not call her that?" Sahil complained.

"I'll give you guys a new name for you to address her." Ahad spoke.

"What?"

Seher also curiously looked at Ahad.

"From now on, you'll call her bhabhi."

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

Hands down, one of my favorite chapters.

Coffee or Tea?

Tea, all day, everyday!

PS: I've uploaded a Q&A chapter in my book 'Be-shumar'. They are questions that some of you had asked me when the book had touched 100k, and I forgot to upload them. So doing it now. Check it out if you get time.