Farmeed / One-shot Series

~ an unwanted dinner ~

It all started with Farjaad asking her to join him on a family dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Majid. His fault really. A couple of months since they had been married, and by virtue of being one of his closest partners, Majid had been inviting them for dinner ever since. Umeed, however, was completely averse to the idea. So every time the discussion came up, Farjaad had to make up another excuse to bail them out. Umeed had categorically stated that she would meet anyone and everyone, other than this one man.

So when the Saturday night came along where she had to finally give in, and sit down in a fancy upscale restaurant in Karachi, opposite to Mrs. Majid, she was not pleased. The woman was drier than a rock! No wonder these two had been married for years. Both of them were deprived of any signs of life and normalcy. Throughout the one hour and twenty minutes of this painful dinner, all that the men had talked about was business, and all Umeed had to listen to were stories of their kids' school and about the latest art galleries. She physically had to stop herself from banging her head on the table.

So she did the only thing she could do – give Farjaad signals to leave.

She did this in a number of ways: by tapping her fingers on the table, loudly banging the cutlery on the plates and continuously coughing. When neither of those got her any reaction other than a side eye, she had to look for more drastic measures.

So she used the other method she knew. It started with placing her hand innocently on his knee, which was met with a mere tilting of his face in her direction and an amused eyebrow raise. That wasn't enough. So she continued. As she slowly ran her hand up his thigh, making sure to run her fingers in a manner that would tickle him, she saw him lose his composed posture.

She had finally found her sole amusement in this otherwise torturous dinner. So the movement of her fingers became much more suggestive, moving around more freely along his thigh. She could feel him tense under the touch, and she knew he'd break any moment. Her husband wasn't the strongest soldier on the block. She noticed how he clenched his jaw in an attempt to maintain his composure. She could see he was getting irritated, but she could care less. He placed his hand on hers and tried to get her hands off of him, but no use. She was determined.

So when her fingers made their way higher and pinched his leg, he involuntarily let out a small scream, drawing attention in his direction.

"Farjaad, aap theek hein?"

Majid sahib asked him.

"Uhh jee jee, bas wo kuch din se tabyat zara kharab hai. Aik dam se sir mein sharp sa pain utha hai. Migraine hai shayad."

"Oho, bata detay, hum dinner postpone kar detay."

"Aray nahi, pehle hi itna delay ho gaya tha."

"Acha aap jayein, rest karein ghar pe. Ye sab baatein to hoti hi rahein gi."

After a handful of formalities, they were in their car, on the way back, and Umeed could sense that he was not pleased.

"Farjaad, kuch to bolein"

"Kuch bolnay ke liye reh gaya hai Umeed is bachpanay ke baad?"

"Bachpana kya tha is mein?"

"Nahi, bari mature harkat thi!"

His jaw was clenched and he merely turned to give her a glare before turning his attention back on the road.

"Ab aisa bhi kuch nahi ho gaya."

"Umeed, mere itnay important business partner hein wo. Un ke saamnay itna embarrass hua hoon mein, idea hai tumhein?"