A Loveless Alliance

Chapter- 38 [The sketch]

MYRA'S POV

"Yes." I nodded my head. An embarrassed chuckle rolled off my tongue. "I baked it to celebrate the deal that you cracked."

Siddharth's brows raised in amusement. The realisation that I wasn't joking spreaded onto his face slowly but when it did, I had never seen a more charming sight.

Surprise crawled away from his eyes giving way for a delightful joy, just how a flower blooms. The corners of his lips stretched wide in a mesmerising smile, one that had me biting my tongue.

These were the most expressions I had seen on Siddharth's face in a single moment as if he was going through different stages of happiness.

Had I known before that this small gesture would pull this wide grin on his face, I would have baked him a cake every single day.

It took him a few moments to let the reality sink in. The night sky covered us but the stars in the eyes of the man in front of me shone brighter than those above our head.

A soft breeze travelled between us, causing one wet slick of his hair to fall down on his forehead.

"You are the first one to ever bake me a cake." Those words slipped off his tongue so smoothly, almost involuntarily as if it were a mere thought that he accidentally said out loud.

I frowned slightly. "How come? Um, on your birthdays?" Thinking about how grand the celebration of Poonam's birthday was, Siddharth's statement didn't sit well.

"Uh...," A soft sigh escaped Siddharth's lips. "When I was a child, we didn't have enough money to buy or bake a whole cake so my father would get us pastries sometimes."

He paused for a second, the silence pulsated with an unspoken tension which he brushed off with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Cake was a luxury not a necessity. So we could avoid it easily to cut down our expenses."

My gut clenched and twisted until my lips parted at the aching sensation. Not because of what he said but how casually he said that like it never hurted him even a bit.

A smile still remained on his face but this one had tiny prickles hidden beneath it.

"And when you grew up?" Younger Siddharth might not have been able to afford a cake but this man in front of me could buy several cake factories with a single call.

"I stopped celebrating my birthday when I grew up."

Ouch! It felt like something cracked in my chest. A lump formed at the back of my throat.

Birthdays were supposed to be a happy memory for everyone. A day where they are celebrated for nothing else but living, just for being with us and that reason was a hundred times enough to show appreciation to someone.

Everyone deserved at least a day like that once a year, didn't they?

My chest would never not slit for someone who didn't have a joyful birthday. And if that certain someone was Siddharth, it would split into half till a wide void of ache burned beside my heart.

Siddharth, out of everyone else I knew, deserved every happiness of this world and beyond.

"Let me guess." I narrowed my eyes. "Was it because you wanted to spend your time working instead of celebrating?"

"How did you know?" He laughed as if I cracked a code.

Siddharth's indifferent attitude towards the issue, as if it didn't exist at all, made compassion seep down my skin under the mask of frustration.