Besabriyan

31|THIRTY ONE

Maheen and Aahil stared at each other in complete aghast- a hundred thoughts running in their mind. Zaviyar was utterly pissed off after their encounter with Rayyan at the campus. To say it set him off wouldn't be an understatement. She hadn't seen him look so furious in a while and for a man who preferred to mask his emotions from others, he was really expressive- the way his eyes spit fire and his skin burned when he took a hold of her hand and asserted his place in her life. Zaviyar hadn't shown that side of him to her before. She didn't know a man as pure as him could have an alter ego.

"Hello?" Aahil initiated so he could get out of the looming awkwardness that was swallowing him. Maheen blinked at her husband who sat afar and kept to himself. He knew he couldn't go home raging like that and he knew Meraki wasn't the place to take her to before the rest of the world knew about their marriage and so he took her to the place he usually sheltered under whenever his father threw him off the cliff- Aahil's apartment.

"Assalamualaikum." Maheen muttered and tried to be polite only to end up setting her husband's friend on flames.

"So this is how it feels like to finally meet your bestfriend's wife," He nodded to himself, feeling another wave of awkwardness wash over him. Looking up at her only did he realise she was looking at him expectantly as if she was waiting for something and then it him it, "Oh. Walaikum salam." He mused, scratching his nape.

To which, Maheen couldn't help but smile. It took a few seconds for her to recognise Aahil as the man who approached Zaviyar at the house warming ceremony and wondered how they were friends with their highly contrasting personalities. Whenever they talked on phone, Zaviyar hardly talked- it was her who spoke too many things and whenever he did, it was mostly about how he was raised and how befriended the only boy he found friendly back in childhood and how they had been sticking together since then.

"It doesn't usually feel like the way it does now. Not under any normal circumstances." She could see from the way he didn't bother to ask much about her except how he wondered about her presence under his roof and for all he knew, he was a private person and only his parents and Zaviyar were allowed to visit.

"Right."

Maheen nodded her head in an attempt to shake hands with an understanding. This was her world now. The people who existed in her husband's world would ultimately become a part in her own so there was no way she could avoid it. She hadn't met too many people from his life. She hadn't seen too many aspects of how he lived and how he saw most things. She wasn't sure when the door to his world would completely open but she knew how could open it- by winning his trust.

Zaviyar hadn't been so blatant after the night he found her in his living wall and pinned her against the wall. He chose his words carefully even to hurt her on the night of his engagement but the words he said to Rayyan were raw and unfiltered and as though he had no intentions of hiding whatever he was trying to do.

"Uh- do you want anything to drink or eat perhaps?"

"Since it's my first time here, can I make it for you two?" She said, getting up to escape the terrifying knot in her stomach.

"What can you make?" Aahil narrowed his eyes at her, hoping she would mention something he hadn't eaten before.

"What do you want?"

"Anything to drink will be fine-" He paused and looked over her head to find his friend sprawled on the bean bag with his eyes closed, "I don't think he can digest anything right now. Let's make something for just you and me." He said, showing her the way to the kitchen and then following her closely behind. Aahil had never eaten anything others, who were not his mother, made- Meraki's food and coffee and pastries from a cafe near his house being an exception.