Burn The World

Meeting of the Hearts

This can’t be for me! It’s just spam. It’s not meant for me.

Meerab was staring down at her mobile screen, frozen in denial and disbelief. Her heart was racing with fear. Her brain was whirring away fast, trying its best to rationalise the situation.

This message couldn’t possibly be in reference to her and Murtasim’s relationship! No one knew. Well Saba knew. But she knew damn well Saba wouldn’t tell a soul.

She didn’t know if Murtasim had told anyone, but Murtasim was the one who was hell bent on making sure they kept their private business, private. She doubted he could’ve told anyone, let alone anyone who would then message her about it.

Yes, that’s it! It’s just nonsense like the rest of the messages were. It’s not meant for me. Calm down Meerab!

Meerab decided to block the number by turning on an auto-reject setting for all private numbers. She’d been a fool to take such rubbish as a source of entertainment to begin with. She should’ve changed her settings ages ago. While this did mean she had effectively blocked all people that could be calling her with their number hidden, not just this particular one, there weren’t many times she would need to receive a private number call anyway.

Meerab then spent the next few minutes trying to calm her erratic heartbeat. She paced from the kitchen to the lounge many times, taking a drink of water in every round, trying to calm her nerves.

Once the pizza arrived, they ate on the couch in front of the T.V.. Meerab tried her best to follow the movie that was playing, but she couldn’t retain any of the story. The actors voices just sounded like incomprehensible noise in her ears. Meerab chewed on her pizza crust without really tasting it.

A heavy sadness seemed to have taken hold of her. Even if she had deleted the message and blocked the number, it had done its damage. 

Isn’t that what people say about women who sleep casually? Who sleep with men outside of marriage? That’s what they call them.

When she had slept with Murtasim her instinct had told her that being with him was right. She’d been so caught up in a whirlwind of desire and affection that she had forgotten everything else around her. For society, she was in the wrong. And for women especially, society had harsh and unfair judgement. If a man broke society’s rules it wasn’t the same.

She knew she shouldn’t be taking that ridiculous text’s words to heart. She knew her self worth couldn’t be defined those words. It was simply no one else’s business if she had chosen to sleep with someone.  But the words seemed to have done their job and they had spread their poison within her successfully.

Murtasim glanced over at Meerab sitting beside him and saw that she looked zoned out and glum.

“Hey,” he said, placing a finger under her chin and turning her face towards him. “What happened bunny?”

“Nothing,” replied Meerab in a small voice.

“You don’t feel sick, do you?” he asked, vaguely wondering if she was catching the flu. She was usually very hyper.

Meerab shook her head. “I’m just a little tired. I can’t focus,” she said, hoping her answer would put him at ease.

Murtasim spread his thighs outward. “Come here,” he said. Then he gently took hold of her shoulders and helped her lay down across the couch, easing her head onto his lap. Meerab lifted her legs off the floor and placed them on the arm of the couch.

Murtasim ran his fingers through her hair slowly. The warm tips of his fingers lightly brushed her scalp. Meerab closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of safety and serenity he provided.