Five Weeks by Shruti Omar (any book recommendations .txt) 📕

“Oh, you came.” Anahita raised her vision, putting pizza slice on the plate and wiped her lips, “I waited for you but I was so hungry that I couldn’t control and this stuff was so delicious.” She dusted off her palms in her fancy pants and patted the place beside her, “come on!”

Yuvraaj wiggled his arms to loosen up his muscles and padded to join her on the couch. “Damn! I am so hungry. What’s there in menu?” he unscrewed the lids and the aromatic fragrance of food wafted in his nostril, making him hum in appreciation. Anahita served him chicken and passed the fork, “What took you so long?”

“You remember the woman we saved last night?” He asked, receiving the plate and Anahita paused on chewing the lasagna, pushing to recall and nodded, “Hmm. What about her?”

“She brushed past me and we stopped for a brief conversation. She was thankful to us for saving her life and wanted to meet you but I delayed her. I told her that I’ll pass greetings to you.” He told her with his mouth stuffed with delicious lasagna.

“So you were with him all the time?” She dryly asked, instantly losing her zeal to enjoy the food. She disliked the woman for a reason unknown to her, maybe because she didn’t receive good vibes from her or it could be her deeply ingrained jealousy. She sighed out, “I was waiting for you here to join me.”

“No, I told you we brushed past briefly and she was with her…”

“Can we stop talking about her?” She disrupted him in between and made a face, “I am still mad at her for ruining my bed. The room service guy was giving me serious patronizing glares.” She groaned, recalling the awful piece of memory and Yuvraaj grinned, feeding himself with pasta. “Never mind, how about we finish this delicious meal first?”

“Sounds about right,” he winked at her. She smiled at him in good spirits and held the forked chicken before his lips. Yuvraaj held her wrist and took his sweet time to scrape the chicken from the fork.

“Oh, I forget to tell you. We’ve an invitation from the hotel. It's a kind of celebrating the autumn and welcoming winters they say but overall it's a ball for the guests." He filled her in and appreciated the taste of the dish, “hmm… this tastes damn good. Can you take the pain to learn this recipe? I want to eat it more often."

"Sure." She gleamed, "You know I've learnt so many local dishes and I am planning to treat everyone once we go back. How's the plan?"

He made a wow sign with his finger and thumb and chuckled. “Hope you’ve learnt right process, I don’t us to become constipated for rest of the week.”

“If you don't pull my leg one day, you won't die. So you can try complimenting sometime, you know." She sighed, shaking her head and he smirked, “For that you need to do something worthy of compliments."

"In your eyes, I don't think I will ever me capable of earning compliments because you are so full of you, Mr. Haughty." She scoffed, stacking up the empty plates, "That reminds me, we need to take gifts for everyone."

"Why?"

"Because it's a new place and everyone must be expecting us to return with something for them." She explained.

Chuckling, Yuvraaj shared his perception. "Of course, they must be but you know what, my sweet little wife, it's not gifts they are waiting for. It is something else." He winked at her and flicked her nose with his index finger.

Blush rose up to her cheeks and she got up, fixing her hairs, "Shut up and finish it soon because we've a lot of things to do." She feigned to hide the fluttering in the pit of stomach of her. Ridiculous it could sound but she adored the idea of having a mini version of Yuvraaj. 

Yuvraaj was tracking her moves with his teasing gaze and grinned at her visible coyness. She returned the plates to the bellboy, came back and begun to make the bed for them. She unfurled the bedcovers, dusted off the dirt and spread it again, “Listen, you didn’t tell me what you want to buy for baba?”

“I don't know...something like a shirt or wristwatch." Yuvraaj replied, stretching on the couch and threw his head back, “What about my baba?”

“Your baba?”

“Your dad I meant,” Anahita lost the shine in her eyes and her hands on the bedspread paused. She pressed her lips together and her voice grew into a whisper, “I don’t know. I am not sure what dad likes or dislikes. I am not sure if I know him at all, so just pick whatever you like. After all, he would never refuse the gift you will buy for him.”

She twisted to give him a languid smile and hid the glossiness in her eyes with genuine acceptance. Yuvraaj’s heart twitched with pain but he nodded, silently. He knew that her relationship with her father was in tight spot ergo he didn’t scratch the sore wounds, “Then it is decided. You shop for ladies and I will fix something for men."

"Okay!" Anahita nodded but she was shaken from inside. Her willpower of keep fighting with everything finally came to an end. Entire life she followed whatever her father asked, she never complained. And, just because she took one wrong step, her father refused to extend an olive branch to her?

She was his daughter after all but the estrangement her father had created only made her break into miniscule fragments. She was alone. The only person who stood by her without expecting anything was Yuvraaj. He stuck to her when he had options and reasons to walk away. He brought happiness to her with little means. He taught her the best lesson of life – trust and gave her chance to choose.

Without promising anything, he bestowed her with everything. Within fights, he hurt her but he was the healer himself. He had developed himself as a better person for her because now he was compelling her to voice her opinions.

She dragged her eyes at him, he was sprawled on the couch, going through his phone and hid his yawn behind a click of fingers. She grinned, sucking her cheeks and her inner world lightened up with fireworks when she acknowledged her feelings.