Love for Rent

x Catching Feelings x

Angry. I don't remember the last time I was this angry at someone. I couldn't stand to look at him. I knew he was trying to hide his smile, and if we were not sitting in the airport surrounded by people, I would have pushed him to the ground right now. It was five in the evening. I was waiting for my flight to Karachi because someone turned off my phone and I woke up and missed my train. On top of that, instead of apologizing to me, Shahzaib told me he was coming with me to Karachi. I had always been the one in control; I made all of my decisions in my life, and now he was trying to change that.

'You're not as nervous now' I heard him speaking to me, but I ignored him. I put on my headphone and closed my eyes.

'Why are you following me there?' I took off my headphone and turned my head to look at him.

'What else can I do when you don't talk to me about last night' He raised his eyebrows at me, asking me the same question as before. After we kissed, I didn't trust myself to stay close to him, so I left the room and slept in Aunty's room. She didn't ask me anything I was grateful for, but she told me one thing that stuck with me. I couldn't sleep easily, so we stayed awake and chatted for a while. She said to me we all have different experiences, said although she loves her grandchildren, if Shahzaib ever hurts me, I can always come to her, and she will put him in place. She probably saw me as a soft girl, so she thought I had come to her room because we had a fight. Last night, I saw a glimpse of a strong woman in Shahzaib's grandmother. She reminded me of my Ma. I smiled, seeing her being concerned for me, but I told her everything was fine between us. Then she said that even though Shahzaib is old enough to live alone, seeing him how I complete his life puts me at ease. She said now is not worried about leaving them because now he had me. She slept quickly after telling me everything, but I couldn't help myself from crying.

'Seher' Shahzaib covered my hand with his and looked into my eyes.

'I don't have anything to say about last night, your turn...why are you following me?' I shifted the attention back to him. I thought he would not say anything or say something else, but instead, the hold of his on mine became more firm, and he leaned forward and said.

'You know why' His eyes shifted from my lips to my eyes and back to my lips, and my hands started to sweat in nervousness.

'I have to persuade you to do my film' He held my gaze and slowly smiled as he leaned back to his seat, knowing he had won.

'Don't look at me like that,' I told him when I caught him peeking at me from time to time when I tried to watch a movie on the plane.

'Is it bad to look at your wife' He had the nerve to say?

'You forgot to add fake in front of it,' I replied without giving too much thought to it.

'I think our marriage certificate would disagree,' He responded quickly. I kept my eyes on the screen even when I felt his hand moving towards me, and he slowly brushed the hair from the side of my face, pushing them back behind my ear. I gasped when his finger traced my earlobe and moved down to my jaw and my collarbone, making me shiver and my stomach drop in a weird way.

'Coffee or tea, sir?' The flight attendant came to us, and I pushed his hand away immediately. I noticed the woman when she passed me a very particular glance with a grin before asking.

'Can we get a light snack too?' I asked the lady, and she gave us a pack of fruit cake and crackers with our tea. Shahzaib gave me his snacks without asking and started drinking tea. I opened the pack of fruit cake and handed it to him.

'Don't say anything, just take it,' I told him before he could say something absurd. My mind was trained at a very early age, when I was young, probably around eleven or twelve years of age, I remember I came home, and Ma gave me an envelope of money to give to our landlord to pay the rent. From a very early on, I had to learn to take care of myself and be my own person so even if I am alone, I can take care of myself. I felt like with Shahzaib, I was pretending, this was not me. I only watched out for myself, saved myself first and Ma before anyone else because we did what we had to do to survive, but with Shahzaib, I was becoming someone else. I was trying to win the approval of his family, I was trying to learn how to cook, I was trying to be friends with Saif. I never wanted to try with anyone before I met him.