Meher •completed•

37.

It was a Sunday and Meher was buried in her books, working and preparing for university exams was no joke.

She looked at the clock, it was 7 pm which meant that she had been reading for the past 9 hours.

She shut the book and got out of the chair, stacking her books on the dinner table, she stretched her limbs trying to get rid of the knots.

"Meher Bibi." Gul called her from the kitchen.

Meher walked into the kitchen to see Gul placing a bowl into the fridge.

"You haven't left ? It's 7." Meher said to her.

"I was about to leave, I called you to give you this." She said handing Meher a cup of tea. "And to tell you that all the preparations for the dinner is done, you just have to cook." She said giving Meher a tired smile.

"Thank you so much Gul, you make my life so much easier." Meher said taking a sip out of her cup.

"It's no problem Bibi Ji. If you want I can stay back and help you with the dinner as well, bhaijaan must be coming home soon." Gul offered.

"No it's alright, not much work to do anyway since you've practically cut, chopped and peeled everything for me." Meher gave Gul a grateful smile. "Only you and Arham are the two people I know who are so willing to work on Sunday's as well." Meher said rolling her eyes and Gul chuckled.

"I'm going to leave you with the kitchen now, I'll be back in the morning." Gul said taking her leave.

"Well, it's time to cook." Meher said to herself and switched on her radio.
The melody filled the space of the kitchen as Meher pulled out pots and pans and placed them on the gas hob.

'Zindagi
Kaisi hai paheli, haae
Kabhi to hasaaye
Kabhi ye rulaaye
Zindagi'

She removed the cut vegetables and uncooked sea food from the refrigerator and placed them on the counter. 

Meher quickly mixed all the spices in the large pot as she hummed the tune of the song, basking in peace of the silence preceding the storm which was going to uproot her life, the life she had come to known and like.

"Hey there!" The voice made Meher yelp and jump in her place dropping down the empty glass bowl shattering it into pieces.

Meher turned around to see Arham standing hairs breath away from her looking at her with a playful smirk.

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Butt." Meher yelled at him poking her finger into his chest. "I could have died of heart attack, I could have hurt myself or you, I coul-."

Meher's rant was brought to stop as Arham captured her lips in a toe curling kiss. Meher closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth and the care pouring out from his gesture.
A throaty moan of protest escaped her mouth when Arham pulled out from the kiss.

"I am starving and if we continue we'll get no food to eat." He said letting out a chuckle.

"Of course." Meher whispered turning around to hide her red face. Mentally kicking herself at her desperate behaviour she bent down to pick the broken glass pieces.

"So.. how was your meeting ?" Meher asked picking up the pieces carefully.

"Great, we'll sign the contract tomorrow afternoon, I'm so glad after months of hard work, it's finally paying off." He said happily.

Meher chuckled the glass pieces in the trash and turned towards Arham, placing her hand on his bicep she smiles at him. "You deserve it Arham." She said.