Forever Yours

Chapter Fifty Three

"Naaz.. coffee." Sidharth said, handing her a steaming hot mug of coffee. "Kya chal raha hai?"

Shehnaaz looked up from the papers and smiled at him. "Ishu aur Duggu ke projects, bas khatam hone waale hain."

Sidharth chuckled, arranging the papers scattered around her into a comparatively neater stack. Samyukta, sitting next to her, took the stack from him and kept it on the side of the table.

"Aap kidhar gaayab the saara dinn?" Samyukta asked. "Subaah se nahi dikhe."

"Jay ne bulaaya tha, the boys were hanging out." Sidharth explained. "Mein help karwa doon baby?"

Shehnaaz shook her head, "It's done. Just another few minutes." She said softly. "Maahi di kaisi hai, and the baby?"

"They're both fine. Jay is having the time of his life with Maahi's tantrums." Sidharth said, chuckling.

"You're free now, you should hang out with the girls. Maahi is missing you."

Shehnaaz nodded. "Soon."

Sidharth smiled. He sat across from the two girls, engrossed in completing the school project. Shehnaaz's hair was tied in a neat bun, small star-shaped clips scattered around her head making her look absolutely adorable. She was dressed in a long t-shirt (suspiciously similar to Sidharth's favorite blue one) and capri shorts ending just above her knees. He watched his little munchkin pouring over the project with so much concentration, and felt a surge of affection pouring through his eyes.

"Woh dono bandar kahan hain," Sidharth asked. "Jinka kaam leke baithi ho?

"They were here a few minutes back. Maa ke paas honge. Kahaani sunn rahe honge." Shehnaaz answered.

Sidharth smiled fondly. A few minutes later, Sidharth turned to his niece. "Mukku.. tera college kaisa ja raha hai bacche?"

Samyukta looked up from her own share of the project and smiled widely. "Accha ja raha hai mamu. Exams toh bahut acche gaye yeh time. Just two more to go and I'll be done with the year. Finally I'll have peace."

"That's very good. I am sorry, meri jaan, workload ke wajah se itna time nahi de paata, baat waat karne ke liye. If there is anything you want to talk about, I'm right here, chaahe busy dikhu, just come to me okay?" Sidharth said lovingly.

"Maamu you don't have to apologize. Aap mere superman ho, aapke muh se apologies acchi nahi lagti. Especially if they're for a non-existent reason. I know you're busy but you still take out time for us and that is all we need." Samyukya said softly.

"Kitni understanding family hai yaar meri.." Sidharth exclaimed playfully.

"Toh kya chaahte ho, choti-choti baat pe gussa ho ke baith jaaya karein hum?" Samyukta asked, smirking back at him playfully. "We can do that. It'll make your life adventurous. Kabhi koi gussa ho jaayega, kabhi koi.."

Sidharth chuckled. "Bilkul paagal hai tu Mukku."

***

Shehnaaz sat in the balcony of their room, watching the clouds in the vast expanse of the night sky and smiling to herself. It was a rare day of silence, peaceful silence in the house. Sidharth was reading one of his favorite books for the billionth time in their room, Maa was at Preeti Di's place for the week, because of the twins approaching quarterly exams much to the dismay of both Sidharth and Shehnaaz who had tried their best to stop her from leaving.

Samyukta was done with her exams, and was pretty positive about her result, the date that they had set for their marriage was approaching fast.

Another fifty days and Shehnaaz would be Sidharth's wife. The thought caused her to experience an unexpected attack of butterflies in her stomach and she blushed.