🎶 Mere Bina - Refresh Version
Published on 18.07.2022
| AUTHOR'S POV |
Ayansh had never been fond of people, atleast meeting new ones particularly. And why would he be when all they do is make him anxious, put him under pressure to create a good impression, make him struggle to fit in and not stand out like a sore thumb, make him feel conscious so that he doesn't end up embarassing himself and put him into an overthinking mode of what they must be wondering about him. Okay, maybe the fault wasn't of people. Maybe it was him who was to be blamed for taking too much unnecessary pressure and thinking so deep but that was him. Introverted, fidgety, bashful, diffident and awkward.
Yet many times you meet people who change your notion and later, you can't help but be grateful that they exist and decided to be a part of your life. If Ayansh had to make a list of such people in his life then Inaaya inarguably would be at the top. She never made him feel that he had to fit in. It was as if she was the one to fit in his world or maybe when they were together, a new world seemed to come into existence. And if she's the one who has effortlessly fit in his world like a missing piece of a puzzle than she has done it so perfectly that nowadays, as he sits with his thoughts, his thoughts have a way to drift towards her. Intentionally, sneakily, clandestinely. He wonders what it would be like to sit with her when the world sleeps and have a conversation and more than that he dreams what it would be like to share silence with her.
Today is his brother's Rahul's birthday and like the idiot Ayansh has been off late, he asked Inaaya to help him bake a cake. Rahul has a sweet tooth and Ayansh can't think of any materialistic gift that his brother already doesn't possess so he came up with the idea of baking a cake for him, the downside being he doesn't know baking or even cooking. Inaaya decided to miss the second half lectures and sent Ayansh the list of ingredients they needed for the choclate raspberry cake which was apparently Rahul's favourite. Ayansh, with the help of their cook managed to arrange the required items. When Inaaya had asked him why isn't he asking for their cook's help in baking, he simply said he didn't want to burden her with more work.
"You're late." Ayansh remarks as he walked Inaaya inside.
"There was traffic and moreover, I visited Nikita's house before coming." She says removing her sneakers.
"Everything fine?" His forehead creases.
"Her parents are still a little miffed with her since according to them, she hasn't given them "valid" reasons for breaking the alliance," she air quotes and continues, " Nikita hasn't told them the conditions Jay had put forward and frankly I don't blame her because the fact that she doesn't want to marry should be more than enough for them to get convinced not to go forward with it and since, I had been there with Niki when she told her parents that she doesn't want to marry, they think it's my influence." She chuckles.
"Woah," Ayansh breathes out. "I didn't think they would be holding it against her for this long. It's been weeks now."
"Where's the kitchen?"
"Wouldn't you like to sit for a while or something?" He asks courteously.
Inaaya shakes her head in denial.
"Give me your bag and follow me." He forwards his hand.
Inaaya stares at him and when he doesn't move or pull his hand back, she huffs and gives him her bag.
"I told Nikita that I'll talk to them but she told me it's of no use. Today was the perfect opportunity where I could meet her mother and have a chat without her knowing," she smiles sheepishly. "It didn't go that bad surprisingly. I thought she won't even listen to me but she did. And she also expressed her disappointment about Nikita going to Jay's place and lashing out on him for God knows what. I wanted to tell her the reason but then I stopped since I've already crossed the line by going behind Niki's back. Didn't want to do it more."
Ayansh gazes at her with a small smile and she raises her eyebrows at him. He shakes his head in dismissal. "Look, I've already removed all the ingredients that we require." He says triumphantly, moving his eyes around.
Inaaya nods in acknowledgement and after washing her hands, she moves to the oven to set it for preheating. "Take a large bowl, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt." As she turns around, she bumps with a firm body and yelps when her head hits.
Ayansh rubs his chin and his other hand reaches out to hold her arm.
"What the hell Ayansh!" She fumes, rubbing her forehead.
"I was just giving you the apron." He grimaces.
She places a hand on the centre of his chest and pushes him. "Now, give me."
"I'm just too excited to make a cake. I've never tried it before." He says with a silly smile, giving her the apron.
Inaaya playfully rolls her eyes and chuckles.
When Ayansh is done tying his apron, he finds Inaaya still struggling.
"May I help you?"
She turns around. As he starts tying the ends, she gathers her hair and tries to fix them in a bun.
"In- Inaaya," he whines, making her stop, "your hands are coming in my way. Wait a second."
"Oops." She settles on gathering the length of her hair in front on one side.
After Ayansh is done, she turns and proceeds to pull her hair back, run her hands through it and then roll them up. He simply stares at her doing that mundane action. His gaze unwavering as if he's watching a mystery unravel, learning about what they meant when they talked about finding utmost beauty in simplicity. Inaaya raises her gaze and her breath hitches finding his hooded eyes on her.
"Stop staring." She's surprised that her voice didn't break under the intensity of his stare. "It's creepy."
Ayansh blinks out of his daze and darts his eyes away, cursing internally.
"Bowl, flour, cocoa, soda, salt." She reminds him.
"Yeah, yeah." He says nervously turning around and then turning to the other side to look for the mentioned items.
Inaaya's chuckle makes him halt and his shoulders droop in embarrassment. "Take a deep breath." She whispers.
After a moment of calming his nerves, he removes the bowl from the cabinet. "The bowl," he hands it to her, "I'll remove the flour. The rest of the ingredients are already on the table behind."
"Here, flour." He keeps the container in front of Inaaya.
She looks at the container and then back at him. "This is wheat flour." She states, giving him a dumb look.
"Yes, flour. That's what you asked." He says innocently.
She grits her teeth. "I meant all purpose flour. Not this." She pushes the container back in his hand.
"There are different varieties?" He asks, baffled.
"Where did you find this?"
He points at a upper cabinet and she walks to find the container containing the flour they needed. Once she finds it, she puts the required ingredients in the bowl and whisks them.
"Keep it back and bring another bowl." She gestures towards the container.
They were making a mini cake since except Rahul nobody had a sweet tooth and then the family also had a party to attend later at night.
