Enwrapped

Chapter 25

He looked so good when he slept, she thought.

Sitting up in the middle of their bed at four in the morning, Saboor was clad in nothing but her silken night gown. She felt the chill on her arms and legs, but she really did not mind.

Leaning half on the pillow and half on his back, Muzammil's arms were crossed over his eyes, and he was sound asleep. Shirtless, going to the gym once a blue moon, and yet, he was a sight for sore eyes. Saboor hugged her knees as she gawked at this man, so different from her and yet so similar.

"Mmff..." He shifted, arms moving away from his face, one instantly outstretching to the space she had occupied until a while ago. "Saboor...?"

"Right here," she said in a voice just right for the moment. He looked up at her, and adjusted himself in the pillows, leaning more upright against the head rest. A faint smile came to his face, and right away, Saboor's cheeks heated up. Why, though? She never understood.

"Are you staring at me?" he asked, his smile widening by the second.

Saboor nodded just a little. "You look good," she mumbled.

Muzammil's brows rose up and he tilted his head. "Oh, do I, now?" He sat up and leaned forward to where his wife sat, so close that the unruly strands on his forehead tickled her temples. "And what about you?"

"What about me?" she whispered, looking up at him, trying to control her breathing. When she had thought about intimacy in a marriage, she surely had not imagined this.

Because this- whatever they were having right now- was so much more.

"You look better than good," he whispered back, like he was letting her in on a grand secret. "In fact-" he leaned closer, bending down to her ear- "I think you look like a real-life painting. And I think, I'm the luckiest man in the entire universe."

~

"More like, the unluckiest man in the entire universe," Saboor mumbled to herself, wiping a tear from her face. She had been lying in the overpriced hotel bed since the past... how many hours? She had no clue. By now, Muzammil had definitely woken up. Her constantly buzzing and vibrating phone was trying to inform her the same.

Maybe the phone was hot enough to fry an egg over. She had desperately wanted to throw it out the window of the taxi, but something didn't let her.

The bowl of fruits lounged on the glass table nearby like a prize for the taking, but Saboor wasn't really interested in it.

She was interested in the knife.

~

How many more floors again?

The huge golden sign shone in the warm lighting.

ROOMS 201 to 210 ←

SPA AND GYMNASIUM ←

ROOMS 211 to 220 →

The walls were cream.

The carpet was red.

Two hundred and one...

Two hundred and two...

Two hundred and three...

Two hundred and four...

Two hundred and five...

Two hundred and six...

Two hundred... and seven.

Muzammil's knees bent a little and he leaned against the wall, catching his breath.