Missed Flights And First Times

Chapter 4

As night fell, Warisha realized they weren't getting out of the country and home any time today. With a slumped figure, she let Izhaan order a ride and take them to the nearest hotel—despite her insistence that they could just take a room in the airport's hotel.

So, now, they trudged inside a hotel after having paid the taxi driver. She looked around the lavish lobby, unknowingly pouting her lips as her eyebrows stayed furrowed. While she looked around, Izhaan stared at her and how adorable she looked with her lips jutted out. He set down Warisha's suitcase, pushing down its trolley with a sigh and turned to the woman behind the reception.

"One double room, please," he requested, casually leaning an arm against the counter with a charming smile. The woman behind the counter swooned, making Warisha frown surprisingly. It was possessiveness that she'd never thought she'd feel, and she might've been able to dwell on it more if she wasn't so horrified by his words.

One room...? Warisha had thought he'd been kidding about the sleeping 'together' thing he'd said earlier at the airport.

"One room?"

Izhaan looked at her with a raised eyebrow, trying not to let her reaction sting too much. "Why is that so shocking? Aren't we husband and wife?"

"Yes, but...but..." She was at a loss of words for an explanation or excuse. Izhaan waited with a blank face for her to give him any reason that made sense.

"But?" He urged her on.

She pursed her lips, trying to make him understand with just her pleading face. Izhaan, who could gauge out what she was trying to say, didn't let it show. "Izhaan!" She cried out in part annoyance and part exasperation.

He blinked. "Jee?"

*"Yes?"

She sighed and shook her head, spinning away and sitting on one of the couches behind them. The receptionist watched in a mixture of bewilderment and amusement.

"Your wife..." She began to say, and maybe it was the slip of her tongue that she didn't realize could cost her her job.

Izhaan's face hardened. "Not a word about her, please." He said with a tight-lipped smile and took the key card, grabbing the suitcase again. He wheeled the bag to where she sat and waved the card in her face, silently telling her their room was booked. In return, she followed him wordlessly, up the lift and onto their fifth floor.

Finally, once they'd reached the carpeted hallway of their floor, Izhaan broke the silence that had started to gnaw at him. "Naraz hain?" He asked in a whisper. Maybe he'd book a separate room for her only to please her. He wasn't sure he could handle her going silent again. No. He couldn't.

*"Are you upset?"

Warisha's head snapped up from where she'd been staring at her feet, her hand toying with the strap of the travel bag she wore over her shoulder. "No. It's just that... Mama was concerned. When I told her about the missed flight, she was worried about us being stuck here." She smiled then, almost sadly. Izhaan frowned. "And I couldn't tell from her tone if she was glad that I was here with you or worried that I was here with you."

His frown deepened. What was it with her family and them having a problem with him despite him being Warisha's religious and lawful husband? "Then what?"

"And if we were to sleep in the same room, in the same...bed..." She hoped he'd understand her implication without her having to say it.

"Yaar!" He banged his head and fist against the wall, stomping his foot simultaneously. She jumped, startled. "Aapki family ko masla kya hai mujhse?! Aisa konsa gunyah kardiya hai meine?" He complained, punching the wall once again.