A Piece Of His Heart

Thirty-eight

Waleed

A blunder. A disaster. A fucking mess was what that dinner was.

I couldn't blame my mother. I really couldn't. It was an innocent mistake, not even a mistake because she'd just been talking. And Najma Aunty couldn't be blamed either. She was just talking too. I just wish... I just wish both of them had been a little more careful because Eliza was present. I myself had been walking on eggshells around her since the first day, always careful of what I was going to say.

And I hated lying. Especially to Eliza, after she'd put so much trust in me. I went and lied, even reassured her that I wasn't lying when that's exactly what I was doing. It was the perfect opportunity to tell her the truth, too. But I couldn't have. A kitchen setting with our families outside for dinner? Not the ideal setting. And after that I'd just lost the guts to tell her anything.

A coward was what I was.

"No goodbyes for me?" I tried to start a conversation with her as I'd done since Friday night. She'd gone silent mostly. She didn't bring up what she heard again. She didn't ask me what that was. She didn't ask her mother. Not my mother. Not her family. And not mine.

I realized I'd rather her know the truth and yell at me, even hit me if she had to, instead of going silent. Another thing that had been bugging me was that I didn't know if she remembered what I'd asked her on our first... date. I'd asked her if she remembered me. And if she remembered that now, she would be able to put two and two together.

She would be able to put together that I was lying.

She looked up from her tablet where I knew she had been designing again and passed a small smile. The smallest smile I'd ever seen from her. Then she set it down along with the stylus and walked up to me to wrap her arms around my waist and put her head against my chest as I hugged her back.

If I wasn't enthusiastic about leaving her before the dinner, I was seriously thinking of cancelling my flight now.

"I'm going to miss you, even if it's only for a week." I said to her, my voice muffled by her hair.

"Will you? I think I clearly remember you saying that you would enjoy the 'peace'." She looked up at me, her smile now a little wobbly.

"It was a joke, jaan. You are the last person— you're not even on the list— on this earth that I would ever want to leave or be away from." I told her honestly, not only to cheer her up but because it was the truth. I hadn't wanted to leave her eighteen years ago, and I didn't want to leave her now. Of course, I knew it was different, because this was only a short business trip, but I'd never handled being away from Eliza well.

I also didn't miss how she hadn't told me that she would miss me back. It was okay though. I understood if she wanted some time alone, to herself, to gather her thoughts, especially after recent events.

But I silently promised her and myself that I would tell her the truth when I returned back.

"Have a safe flight. I still don't understand why you're going to Lahore by air when you can easily drive there." She grumbled out and I felt a little drop of relief in my heart to see her being her normal self. At least as good as it could get.

"Sweetheart, I'm not trying to show off, but you do understand that I have the money to buy myself a jet too, right? Taking a flight is nothing." I kissed the top of her head, wanting to do more than just that for her. If she'd been in a better mood, I would have given her a proper goodbye and showed her just how much I would miss her.