tried sleeping next to her. He stirred and moved and rotated, but could not sleep. She had been asleep, but his inability to sleep had disturbed her as well.
"Hey?," she spoke finally, extending her arm to his face. "You can't sleep?", she asked, gently brushing the side of his cheek.
"Na, I am sorry..", he was about to speak when she spoke again.
"How long?", she questioned linking it to his case.
"The time I was in jail!" He answered back, honestly. There was nothing he could hide from her.
Shehnaaz fell quiet for a moment and then raised herself up on her arm, moving to his side of the bed. "Should I put you to sleep?", she questioned making him turn to her side, placing her hand on his forehead
It was dead of darkness, the early morning around three. The chaotic rain and thunderstorm of the nignt had given way to a calm, composed and consistent rain, that made little sound as it fell. Siddharth turned himself to the other direction, his face towards the side that she lay on. Should the put you to sleep? He remembered her words and a slight smile crept his face. She had placed her hand over his forehead patting him like a little babe, but then the tiredness of the day and perhaps her age had taken over, she had drifted to sleep within minutes of promising him. And here she was, quiet and peaceful, not a droplet of discomfort on her face. He wondered what lands and dreams did she visit to have such serene sleep. Because he longed this, the lifeless sleep, he so wanted a peaceful sleep without any medications. It had almost become a dream, and her sleeping like that made him a little jealous.
He thought of picking up his phone, but the thought that the light from it could disturb a peaceful sleep like hers, made him decide against it. His eyes were heavy with sleep, but he found himself so incapable of that, the comfort of bed and the room, so contrasting to the fact that he had slept on the bare floors in the jail. The room was deep dark, his eyes trying to look at her as much as they could, but then the tiredness of his body ansmd brain would annoy him and he would twist and turn, while she slept covered in the quilt, unaware if what a chaotic brain could do.
Habituated to early waking up, Shehnaaz found sleep leaving herself in the wee hours of morning. '' Hmm..mm" she stirred a little, moving her head a little while her eyes opened to the alien room. The light from the early sun entered through the white curtains making lines in the direction they fell, over the grey walls. She turned her head and looked at the man sleeping next to her. His face turned away from her, his bare back still as hot as it was a few hours back. No she had no long nails, to claw her marks at his back while they did the deed.
Making sure that no extra, unwanted sound was made, she walked hersef to bathroom.
"God please!" She spoke to herself as she opened another of the cabinets looking for a new toothbrush, she needed to brush her teeth and get ready for the day.
Having found one, she splashed some cold water on her face and applied a cleanser. Thereafter she picked up the toothbrush applying toothpaste to it, while her other had tied her hair into a bun using another toothbrush. As she was done doing that, Shehnaaz looked into the mirror that stood at her front, while her hands pulled up Siddharth's t shirt away from her body, revealing her naked self to the mirror. She picked up the brush and put it in her mouth, while her eyes scanned her body. With an exception of a mark at her neck, Siddharth had left no marks on her skin, as if he had never been there. Shehnaaz looked at her mirror image and her looked at herself, throughly, while her hands touched her neck, moving slowly down to her breast and abdomen, for a moment she thought of what he could have thought of her. She was beautiful and bold and confident beyond usual, but even then a sense of being less crept in. Was that usual, could he have thought of her as ugly, not beautiful and even more, a woman of loose character? Was that okay, for her to have slept with him?
