Retrouvailles

In B/W 5 (ii)

Karachi,5:30 PM

Amid the strange fluttering inside her heart and the numbness spreading around herself, she tried to persuade him to not go out without telling anyone the guy might have changed some but he still was the adamant annoying Fakhir and that was proved when he stopped the car only in front of an eatery they used to visit a couple of times in past.

"Jao Bhai mai to nahi aa rahi..." she jammed her feet and told her hugging her bag to herself when he was about to say something.

"Annie..." he tried.

"Uh hm..." nodding a NO she turned away from him.

"Annie...I am leaving the car you better leave as well," he told her while exiting.

"Fakhir, please don't do this...I know someone will spot us here and then." she reasoned making him prop his arm on the window of his side.

"what... Annie, what is this aur kisne kya kehna hai, aur kyun kehna hai bhai?" she sometimes didn't make any sense but he was not getting her for real this time.

"I don't know, if you want to eat something go and have but I am not leaving the car," she told him with finality.

Her answer didn't make anything clear why she was behaving like that but he had to clear a few things to her so he opened the door and took the seat beside her and then touched her arm to make her turn to him.

"Annie, I already have had a big desi lunch I can't even breathe after it, I brought us here so that we could have some time alone from the very start of this trip... At home we would again become the son and the daughter-in-law of the house, Anaya's parents and that's lovely but in the past, we could not handle it all...I don't know if we can still do it or not"

She had looked into his eyes when he touched her arm but could not maintain eye contact when he started talking, he was saying something important, something about home and Anaya, what was he saying... she had to focus, with the thought she looked up again and with a chill noticed he was now holding her hands.

When did that happen?

"Annie, let us not start as that, let's start as Annie and Fakhir...what say?" Fakhir finished and waited for her to say something but when she didn't say anything but kept staring at their joined hands, he rubbed her fingers with his thumb to get some reaction.

"Fakhir, what are you doing? We are in a public place" She looked up abruptly and tried to pull away her hands but he didn't leave making her feel his warmth. He stared into her eyes trying to understand her.

"busy somewhere else Annie, or something else is the reason..." he asked her with a glint of that mischievous smile in his eyes and she swallowed whatever she was thinking. She had been mistaken, this guy was a stranger and he was doing so many things to her or was it just that she was seeing him after a long time, she could not decide and his warm palms weren't making it any easy either.

"You used to have so many things to say back then what happened now...Did something or maybe someone make you speechless Annie..." he asked her knowing very well, that his words were tormenting her somehow but he liked seeing her reaction, he liked this new equation, he liked this new Annie.

"I'll come with you," she said still not meeting his eyes and then pulled her hands again and this time he let her and the moment she got herself back she left the car as if something suffocated her and he smiled. This was not how he had planned all of it.

They circled the car and then crossed the lane and made their way towards the entrance of the building, Annie all the while aware of his arm hovering around her, not touching but close to her.