The Wake.

28

"What are you doing?" Iraj held her mouth open with a sour face.

"What am I doing?" Azfar knotted his brows.

"You're supposed to eat your food not look at me." She pointed at his breakfast with her eyes.

"But I want to look at you, I don't want to eat the food." He pressed his lips together.

"Apko memory loss hogaya hai kya?" She rolled her eyes. They had been at the breakfast table since fifteen minutes and Azfar had only been staring at her constantly instead of eating his food, holding his fork in hand hanging the lower end of it in the air.

(Did you get amnesia?)

"Nahi."

"Why are you behaving like this, since yesterday?" Iraj was trying to be less aggressive but it wasn't possible for her.

"How am I behaving?" He casually asked.

"Mental." She snickered at him.

"Iraj." A smile formed on his face.

"Yes?"

"Say that again, please." Azfar's nose scrunched up as he bit his lip.

"What?" She sounded like she was already fed up.

"Say that again, please, please." The sound made him realize as well that he was behaving very unlike himself.

"You've gone completely mental, I'm sure of it now!" The disbelief of Azfar's behavior had made her spat out with shock though it didn't seem to have any impact on him as he grinned at her words. "Why are you smiling? Azfar, I'm serious, aap ne nashay karna shuru kar diye hain kya?"

(, have you started doing drugs?)

"Iraj, give me your hand please." Extending his hand towards her across the table he pleaded.

"No way." She shook her head in seconds.

"Right, okay." Trying to make sense of how she wanted to avoid his touch he cleared his throat and pulled a smile to keep his thoughts stable."We're going shopping."

"Where?" That was a sudden change of subject now.

"Local market." He tried to keep it brief and didn't want to annoy her which would make her say no.

"What if I don't want to go?" He had known she'd say that, but he couldn't let that happen.

"They have something you don't want to miss." Azfar said in a nonchalant manner so that she would agree.

"Fine, I'll go then." Relief washed over him hearing it and he continued finishing his breakfast.

Soon after she got up and went back inside the room to lie down before she changed from her sleeping shorts to something she could be seen wearing at the bazaar. She came out of the main entrance to the garden that surrounded the cottages, her purse hanging on her shoulder as she hopped round and round the well maintained nursery taking a good look at the plants while waiting for Azfar to come out. Iraj didn't dare to touch anything, she just wouldn't.

"Hey, you want to take a look around or shall we go right away?" Azfar's voice made her turn.

"We can just go, I'm not interested in looking around." She walked towards him and then past him moving towards the exit gate.

"Of course, now you're not." He said to himself walking out as well.

Iraj walked wherever he was walking assuming it was the market area around the town. She was glad she didn't stumble even once through the long walk. They reached after twenty minutes of walking and fortunately it was wasn't very hot or humid outside which could've made her more tired.

The area had some small shops and then stalls, it didn't have massive departmental stores or anything like that. Iraj stopped at the handmade bracelet stall, the colorful threaded and beaded bands made her want to buy them all. She picked out a handful and then opened her purse only to be reminded that she didn't have the currency cash and it was just her card that would be useless.

She placed the bands back at the stall now feeling too sad for coming to a shopping area without any money and her thoughtlessness had made her miserable again. "I'll take these." Azfar came from behind her, whom she had believed had been busy somewhere with a books stall. He paid the lady at the stall and bought almost triple the number than what Iraj had wanted to get.

"You wear these now? Your taste has changed quite a lot Azfar." With a tiny nod she snickered.

"Meri dusri biwi ke liye hain." He gave her a tight smile and Iraj's expression changed in an instant.

(They're for my second wife.)

"Oh." Her chest turned heavy and she looked away moving towards a stall aimlessly.

Her mind was now elsewhere, she didn't even put her attention to be able to identify what stall it was and then she lifted her head up. A shop with blue doors and windows at the corner of the street made her walk towards it and she went inside. There were dresses that she liked and picked up staring at them with a gloomy smile hinting her misfortune of not being able to even purchase one. Iraj turned around and left the shop after ten minutes of admiration for outfits she found to her liking.

A whole ten more minutes later she realized that she had forgotten about Azfar and he was not anywhere around the street. A loud throat clearing from behind her made her turn and she saw him standing with a few paper bags in his hands. "I thought you said there would be something here that I wouldn't want to miss." She avoided staring at the bags full of things for his second wife.

"There is. Come, I'll take you there." Making a sour face she followed him reluctantly.

"Aisi bola tha mene, serious hi hojatay hain hamesha." She whispered to herself with annoyance.

(I just said it randomly, he always gets serious about such things.)

He stopped at a door of a shop with frosted glass and went inside, she was busy rolling her eyes and strolled inside as well but the moment she had stepped in, she froze with her eyes all wide. It was a swimwear shop.

"I thought you'd definitely want to shop here." Azfar tried his luck at making her snap at him but Iraj was so nervous and shy with the two pieces and single piece swimwear hanging all over the walls and racks of display. "You like swimming so—" He bit his own tongue holding it from making him laugh.

She gasped as her cheeks turned red and heated up not meeting his face even for a moment. "I—I don't, uh, I'm, uhm—" Her stutters became very obvious and she gulped blinking her eyes to make the view in front of her disappear away.

"Do you want me to choose for you?" Now that definitely made Iraj irk. He had taken a very dangerous step.

"Shut up! I know very well what you're trying to do! You're so shameless Azfar! You want me to do this vulgar shopping for your second wife right? Get lost!" She angrily stomped her foot on the floor making the other customers turn to look at her but she left immediately with hasty steps towards the door.

What she wasn't aware of was that her husband had now finally accomplished what he had wanted all along, getting her outburst.

Second wife. What will Iraj do now with this man?💀