The Wake.

32

Shifting in her sleep, Iraj slowly felt more awake after trying to keep her eyes closed for a few minutes till she realized that it was not possible for her to go back to sleep now. Left side of her face was on Azfar's chest and she tilted it slightly to check if he was awake.

Creeping sneakily, she slid out of his arms and then went towards the window to check her phone. Her friend had messaged her, there were no messages or calls from her parents, as usual. Many missed calls from her brother, whom she had spoken to before her conversation with Azfar but it seemed like he wasn't convinced with everything she had told him.

Crawling towards the door to leave least impact on the man sleeping on the bed she went out of the bedroom and sat on the floor of the corridor, messaging her brother. She would use speech to text function for texting now that she liked to keep her finger movements limited.

A while later she went back to the bedroom to offer her night prayers and took off her nail paint cleaning it properly she went inside the dressing room to change her clothes. After offering her prayers she moved towards the couch and sat there.

There was definitely a difference in her husband's behavior and attitude ever since the last two days she'd spent with him but that wasn't enough for her to forget what he had said about her to her in front of the many people who worked for him, two months ago.

The more she wanted to forget about it, it became more dense in her mind. She had never been the person to not let go of anyone's past mistakes but why was it so hard for her to forget about Azfar's words. Maybe because she loved him. Maybe that was the reason of it all. Love had made her feel it all more than necessary, definitely.

All she needed to do now was to forget about the whole love part and just forgive him. And then, maybe she could leave. Everything.

"Jaan?" Azfar's voice made her startled and the flickering movement of her body got his attention.

"I thought you were asleep—" She breathed out slowly, no matter how much she tried she could never get used to him calling her that word. Jaan.

"Sorry, I think I scared you," He gulped a little and then sat down on the floor facing her above on the couch, "Should I bring dinner?"

"No, I'm good. You should eat if you want." Iraj stood up and walked to the bed, then slid into the bedcovers.

"Do you not like the taste of the food they make?" Going right next to her side of the bed he stood there.

"No, I just—"

"It's because you're tired right?" His brows furrowed with a pause, "I'll get the food, you can stay in bed, I'll be back."

He left the room quickly enough for her to not be able to stop him and then some minutes later he entered with food. He sat down and was about to feed her the dinner himself but she took the plate, sitting up and finished it all on her own. Azfar's eyes patiently watched her, then he gradually took the plate from her when she was done and got up to take the tray back to the kitchen.

"What about your dinner?" Azfar turned to look at her.

"I'm not very hungry right now. Had a lot for lunch." Passing a quick smile he went out.

Iraj lied down and closed her eyes. The bed at the end of her legs dipped in and she felt hands on one of her feet which made her eyes open. "It will help you sleep." It was Azfar.

"Azfar, you don't have to do this." Words rushed out of her mouth before she could even think.

"Iraj, lie down jaan, please." His eyes were too serene for her to even fight.

"Acha nahi lagta Azf—"

(It doesn't look good Azf—)

"Mujhe acha lagta hai." His fingers moved with slow pressure as he massaged her foot, "Please, Iraj."

(It makes me feel good.)

It was useless to argue with him, she could see he wasn't even waiting for her to respond and his focus was on his task now. Iraj lied down with much reluctance and felt like she was drowning towards sleep within few seconds.

The next morning she was on call with her brother after breakfast when Azfar found her leaning holding a curtain fisted into the palm of her tiny hand and her phone over her ear in the other hand.

He waited for her to end her call and kept on standing behind her. After a long chat of doing her best to convince her brother she finally said bye to him and turned only to bump into her husband's chest but before she could fall his hands went around her waist holding her firmly. "You alright?"

It was the first ever time she'd heard him speak this gently when she had been the one to stumble and almost fall. He hadn't scolded her or said how clumsy she was, "Uh, uh, ye-yes."

"I was going somewhere, do you want to go?" He steadied her to a standing position and let his hands stay on her waist.

The sensation of his fingers was not letting her think properly, "Somewhere? Yeah, yeah." Iraj was nodding till she took her realization seriously. "Somewhere, where?" She took a step back making his hands free of her touch.

Disappointment was evident in his eyes when he lowered them to look at the floor for a brief moment, "It's nothing special really, an ordinary grocery store and a shop."

"Since yesterday everything's been more than special because you like to now suddenly jump off cliffs in the middle of market tours." The true Iraj had snapped back without any intention to speak that way.

Her remark shifted his previous expression to a smirk, "Do you want to do something more fun then?"

It left her agape, "Wha—what?"

Azfar stepped closer bringing his nose touching hers for the shortest of the second's length, "We can do something more thrilling than cliff diving if you want."

"Of course. That would be you keeping your mouth shut and distance from me." She was only feeling her body all heating up, especially, her cheeks growing red and burning as she pushed him away moving past him.

"So, you going with me or not?" He laughed at her back that was hurrying towards the bedroom door.

"Never!" She opened the door and turned to look at him, "Stay away!" The thump of the door closing with much force was heard the moment she'd yelled at him.