Love for Rent

x Movie x

Shahzaib knocked on my door precisely at eight in the morning the next day. I had no choice but to listen to him when he reminded me of his rules again and that he would do whatever he wanted; I thought about arguing with him but stopped myself. This was all temporary, and such matters won't matter to me once we are done with our deal. I had to listen to him for this contact to work.

'You're really not going to eat' He looked at me after taking a bite from his breakfast spread.

'I don't usually eat this early in the morning,' I told him, taking a sip of cold water with lemon.

'You'll catch a cold,' He said, and I glared at him to make him stop watching me, but he didn't, so I kept drinking.

'What are we doing today?' I asked him instead, changing the subject.

'Here' He passed me a mini muffin. We kept staring at each other. I knew he wouldn't listen to me, so I grabbed it from him and shoved it in my mouth, and swallowed the muffin entirely in one go. His eyes widened, and the corner of his lips turned up.

'What are we doing today?' I repeated the question again.

'We are going on a date,' He answered. I gave him a questioning glance.

'I want to get to know you,' He explained to me.

'Jaan must have told you everything. There isn't much to add' I took another muffin.

'I want to know about your past,' I heard him say, and when I looked at him, I saw him observing me in the same way as before. He was not just looking at me. He was seeing me. Trying to find out more about me. This wasn't part of the deal.

'You're making me uncomfortable' I met his eyes.

'I haven't paid you to tell me no' His voice got cold.

'Is this how you will be? Anytime I will say no, you will show me that somehow you own me. I am doing you a favour as much you are doing for me. We are equal in this,' I told him and left the table to go to my room. I heard him following me, but I didn't stop. Before I could reach for the door, he rushed to me quickly and spun me around to face him.

'Where are you going?' He demanded from him.

'To hell, you're coming?' I said furiously. My blood was rushing to my face.

'Why do you want to know about my past? I have no past. I didn't have an exciting life. I grew with my mother, and my father died, and I went to school, then college, and then started working at Jaan's restaurant; okay that's it, now leave me' I tried to walk away from him to go inside my room, but he came after me and closed the door behind me.

'What's wrong with you Seher, will you listen to me?' I heard him say, stopping me from leaving.

'I am sorry' I fought back my tears. He was not the problem. I was. I was trying to erase my past, not relive it. Why was I so hesitant to lie to him about my past? I had no problem with lying to others than why him. Why was it bothering me so much? Was it hard to hide the truth from someone to who I owed so much?

'Look at me' He came closer to me and stood behind me. I felt his presence near me and took a deep breath before wiping my tears and facing him, dodging looking him in the eyes.

'I wasn't talking about your family or your job or education, Seher, I want to know you' He said, and I studied him.

'You don't have to tell me anything that upsets you' He made me sit down.

'Then what do you want to know?' I watched him as he went to get me a glass of water.

'I need to know everything that you feel comfortable with, what you like and dislike. What makes you smile and angry, what scares you, what makes you scared, what's your biggest dream, who broke your heart, what is one you want for yourself, what makes you sad, have you been in love...everything...I want to know more as no one else had known you.' He pulled me up from the bed and passed me the glass, I was so lost in his words that I missed the cue, and the glass fell on the ground.

I was about to pick up the broken glass when he pulled me back up and moved me away from the mess on the floor.

'You have been a casualty magnet recently. Let me take care of it, stay here,' He ordered me and went to pick the broken glass pieces. He got a cut with the last piece just as he threw it away in the garbage bin. I asked him if he got hurt, but he denied it and continued cleaning.

'And I am the casualty magnet' I frowned at him.

'You want to clean my wound like the heroines in the movie?' He said with a laugh and went to the washroom.

'Oh, please don't laugh at that. I grew up watching those scenes in movies. They are romantic in my eyes,' I told him and sat on the bed again, waiting for him to return.

'Don't tell me you like cheesy romantic movies' He returned to the room and looked at me with a sarcastic expression.

I nodded with pride.

'You just hurt my feelings' He shook his head in disappointment before coming to me and grabbing my hand to take me somewhere.

'Where are we going?' I asked him when we got inside the car.

'To fix one thing,' He flicked my forehead lightly with his fingers before started driving. When he stopped a car in front of a cinema, I couldn't help but laugh.

'Let me show you the right cinema' He proceeded towards the ticket kiosk and bought tickets to an international family drama that was ultimately out of my interests.

'Don't make it so obvious that you are not are interested in it. Watch with an open mind' He leaned towards me and whispered in my ear, and I jumped. He got too close. I turned to warn him to not do that again, but he didn't move back. I pulled my eyebrow up to check what was his deal.

'After this, we will start with you' He shook his head. I pulled back and stared forward at the screen as the movie was about to start. Halfway into the film, I peeked in his direction and caught him sleeping. I took a bag of popcorn from his hand and enjoyed the movie. Despite his choice in films was not a cup of tea for me, it's wasn't all bad. The movie ended, everyone left, but he continued to sleep. Then the lights turned on, and he finally woke up.

'That's why I don't like waking up early,' I smiled at him, and we exited the cinema.

'I like Karachi because of the beach. I go there with my Ma to catch the sunset on my birthday every year, it's not as clean as it used to be, but I still love it....' I started telling some truths as we continued driving on the long road on a rainy day. Suddenly he pulled the windows down, and I felt the rain on my face. I was about to roll up the glass, but he stopped me.

'What?' I laughed. I was getting wet.

'Put your hand out' He showed me, and I eyed him suspiciously but ended up liking the feel of it.

'Nice, isn't it? I thought most girls like rain,' I heard him say.

As a kid, I used to love rain, but as I grew up, the rain only brought me sadness, only problems. I started hating rain because my bus always got late, and I would always reach school, work, and home late. The ceiling in our house always leaked during rain, and there were always big puddles on the streets where we lived; my clothes would stain with mud, and the electricity in our neighborhood always went off during rain. I never imagined how some people found rain to be romantic. It was just in movies; in reality, it was nothing like it. Yet today, it felt different; there was nothing nice about it, but after a long time, telling him some good parts about me made me enjoy the rain.

'Hey, you there?' He spoke again, and I turned to look at him and his smile slowly dissolved, and he scanned my face quickly before turning his head forward. I brought my hand inside the window and closed the window.

'What?' I inquired as I fixed my hair and wipes the rain droplets from my face.

'Nothing' He shook his head as if he had just ignored a thought or he was about to say something. 

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