A Piece Of His Heart

Twenty-four

Eliza

I stood in the door frame, silently staring at the man who sat on his desk chair, his laptop open in front of him while he used his phone to type e-mails. In the past ten minutes I'd been watching him, he'd rolled his neck thrice, let out at least five groans and a few curses too.

But he hadn't moved from that chair. He hadn't moved from the chair for three damn hours.

And I admitted that I was worried about him. He looked freaking miserable and frustrated and exhausted and just done with life. He said this current project was his company's biggest achievement, but I was coming to hate it when I could see how much pressure it put on him.

"Waleed?" I finally found the courage to walk up to him and spoke ever so gently, eyeing both the devices that his gaze was flickering back and forth between.

He jumped, seemingly startled. "Eliza? When did you come?" So he hadn't even noticed me watching over him like a hawk? I didn't care for myself that he was working so much. I could live without a few hugs and kisses, even cuddles because I knew he was too tired to do anything but sleep when his head hit the pillow. But I wasn't liking how it was taking a toll on him. He had eye bags for the size of my pinkie, for God's sake!

"How much longer do you have to work for?" I asked carefully, not wanting to sound accusatory. I wanted him to stop working for his sake, not mine.

He looked like his tongue had been tied. "I— sorry, it's just there's a lot of things to look after."

I came to stand behind him and held his face to tilt it back, then brushed his hair off his forehead to drop a kiss there that made him sigh as his hand came over mine and grabbed it to kiss the inside of my wrist. "Do you have ten minutes to spare? I want to show you something."

He looked hesitant but nodded nonetheless, and saved the draft of his e-mail before coming with me. I quickly grabbed a tie of his that confused him but I just asked him to have patience and led him down the stairs before bringing the tie in front of his eyes to blindfold him.

"Eliza, what—"

"Shh, trust me." I whispered in his ear and because I couldn't help myself, I blew on his hair too, causing him to visibly shudder then exhale deeply.

I took hold of both his hand and led him to the dining area, pulled out a chair and sat him down before sliding the dish to rest in front of him on the table then untied the blindfold.

He eyed the dish in confusion while I stared at him, barely containing the anticipation and excitement for his reaction. "This is..."

I grinned, taking a spoon from the utensils stand we had on the table, realizing too late that I'd forgotten to bring bowls. "Gajar ki kheer, yes." I scooped some in the spoon and stuffed it in his mouth before he could protest or even react. He blinked, savoring the taste and I bit my lip, waiting for his reviews.

"Well?" I urged on when he said nothing.

"It's very good, it really is, but..." I frowned and his eyes narrowed. "But the taste is oddly similar to the kheer my mother makes."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Oh, well... I might or might not have called her to ask about your favorite food and then gotten the recipe from her."

That had gone well, except the part where I asked her if we needed carrots and she laughed hysterically saying that of course we needed carrots for gajar ki kheer.