She Is My Hayaat

Chapter 14: A Day in Retrospect

I tightly clutched the afghan around me as the temperature dropped. The movie was halfway over and Izhar had made comments on how underdeveloped Salman Khan looked and how hot Sonali Bendre was. We were on the scene where Prem comes to tell Preeti he'd break the engagement with her.

"She's beautiful!" Izhar placed a hand over his heart and exhaled out loud.

I looked at him through the curtain of my hair and said, "You've said that about thirteen times now."

He looked over at me and smirked, "If I don't call a beautiful girl beautiful, than what do I call her?"

"Nothing!" I looked back at the tv.

I could feel him come closer to me and his voice tickled my spine as he quietly said, "She's not more beautiful than you though."

I looked back at him ready to tell him off when I noticed our noses were only a few short inches apart. I was locked in between the arm of the sofa and him. His eyes trailed downwards and I looked away, my cheek brushing against his nose.

He pulled my chin back with his hand and leaned his forehead against mine. His eyes locked with mine, a small smile covering his lips. My eyes trailed to the scar underneath his left eye and I lightly brushed my cold fingertips against it.

"How did this happen?" I quietly asked.

We were a breath away from each other and if I moved my head at all, our lips would brush.

Izhar lifted his hand and trailed his fingers up and down where my scar was on the side of my right eye. "How did this happen?"

"I asked you first," my voice broke at the end.

"Ladies first," he grinned.

My eyes trailed down, and my hair surrounded my cheeks that flared with embarrassment. I was positive my accident wasn't as embarrassing as his.

"That's a story I don't want to embark on again."

He leaned his head towards my collar bone and in a deep voice said, "Tell me."

Izhar smiled up at me and the movie was instantly forgotten.

"When I was three, I really had to go to the bathroom so I told Mama, and she said I was old enough to go by myself and went to another room. I ran after her and hit my head on the edge of the wall. Mama and I were home alone since Bhaiya was at school and Baba was at work. I only remember waking up to laying on the floor, head in Mama's lap, and blood everywhere. She was frantically crying. And then I remember opening my eyes twice more, once while we waited for the doctors to stitch me up, and the second time I was sitting in the car seat with Mama and Bhaiya on either side of me as Baba went to get my medication."

I looked up at him and he intently listened to me. After I finished, he smiled at me and shook his head.

"You're such a rebel," he laughed.

I laughed and said, "Now you tell me. How did this happen?"

I gingerly touched his small crescent shaped scar and his eyes fluttered close at my touch.

"That's a story for another day. It's getting late, come on," he said.

He got up and took his laptop in one hand and came back to pull me with the other.

"That's not fair!" I declared.

I knew he hadn't been letting me in, and I promised myself I would do everything in my power to see him through.

******

The next morning as we sat around the table finishing up breakfast, Izhar said, "Let's go out somewhere. We haven't gotten out even once since we got married."