In The Stars || AdiYa FF

Chapter 19 - Work and Plans (Mar-Apr)

It was somewhere in the 3rd week of March, Zoya and Noor were working late in the hotel office. Since it was past midnight, the girls decided to stay back in their personal suite in the hotel. They had to start working early the next morning and it would save time if they crashed in here.

The personal suite was modeled by Noor to match their house as close as possible. It was a small cottage, among the many others on the property. Yet the interior was much different from the others, which the patrons used. Their cottage was more homely. They had kept spare pairs of nightclothes as well as office formals.

Zoya changed into her night suit and Noor flipped through the room service menu, which in their resort was 24x7.

"What do you want to eat? A pizza?" Noor asked, eyeing the menu.

"Anything." Zoya replied and walked over to the mini-bar to look at the contents. Her sight fell on a small jar of pringles and an involuntary smile tugged at her lips. These chips would always remind her of Aditya. Anytime they were in want of food, he would magically retrieve a jar from somewhere.

"Why are you grinning at a can of chips?" Noor's voice cut through and Zoya jumped.

"What?"

Noor narrowed her eyes, "You have been smiling at the chips for like a minute. What's the story?"

Zoya felt her face go red, "There is no story." She lied.

At first Zoya had told Noor the same version that is the abridged version, of her and Yash's break-up that she had told her parents. Yet, one night when the sisters were working late, over a cup of hot chocolate, Zoya had spilled the beans. She told Noor about Yash's deceit and Aditya's immense help.

Zoya had refrained from telling Noor about her mixed feelings for Aditya and his equally mixed signals. The feelings were subjective, not facts and Zoya had disclosed only the facts to her sister. But Noor was smart. She had picked up the underlying sentiments, which Zoya had tried to hide.

"This is about Aditya, isn't it?" Noor had a big smile on her face since she assumed she was correct.

"No," Zoya lied again.

"You are a horrible liar, Appi," Noor declared, "What happened between you and Aditya?"

"Nothing," Zoya responded stiffly, to get Noor off her back. It was true, nothing happened between them.

"You like him!" Noor exclaimed, "Look at your face, you are blushing."

"It's getting late," Zoya responded trying to digress, "Order the pizza."

Noor put her fingers on her lips and looked lost in thought. Zoya clicked her thumb and finger to get Noor out of her reverie.

"What are you thinking?" Zoya asked.

There was a mischievous smile on Noor's face. "Nothing."

This time Zoya was aware that Noor was lying. She shook her head thinking if she had made a mistake by confiding in her younger sister. As she got under the quilt, Zoya contemplated that Noor was up to something. She was busy surfing her cellphone.

Zoya ordered the pizza and while she waited for it to arrive, she hoped she had not given her sister any wacky ideas.

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On a family meeting, during the first week of April, to discuss upcoming plans, Zoya was bowled over by a big news from Wasim.

Wasim, Noor and Zoya were going over a project- a new hotel that they were planning to open when Wasim stated, "Noor gave me a really good idea last week. For this new project."