Zainab's POV

"First setting tables of food for me and now this. Like who you are doing all this? As my cousin, as my friend or..." he deliberately stopped and glanced at me before continuing, "or as my wife?"

Shaiq's question caused my jaw to drop. I never became so speechless like right now. Everything around my surrounding felt like faded and colorless figures.

Why was I doing all of this? As his friend? Of course, as his friend!

But! My inner voice pointed out.

But I never did such things for him before. Preparing one dish, two dishes of his taste might be correct but adorning the whole table full of his favorite dishes was the first time I did it. Thinking as his friend, I always used to tease him by doing everything opposite of what he said. With the intention not to spoil him which could make him a brat, I didn't for once do such things. Instead, I always made him treat me a meal with his money.

And then his favorite coffee: he always used to get it after annoying me and getting curses from me to the core. The reason was the same; not to spoil him.

As my cousin? Well, as much as I adored him as my best friend, sometimes I tended to forget he was my cousin as well.

Then was it due to I started to think of him as my husband? I felt my heart racing fastly at this thought. My love for him had started to change my behavior as well. The emotions which I easily hid from him five years ago when I told him to leave me, had now started to depict in whatever I was doing; all thanks to my longing and wait for him due to him not being in contact with me when he was abroad and now not talking to me.

I glanced up at Shaiq who was already looking at me with an amused expression on his face. I gulped quickly as I licked my dried lips before opening my mouth.

"I...I made tea for myself so I thought to..." I deliberately stopped when something came to my mind.

You made coffee for him Zainab, not tea. And not just simple coffee, you made the coffee he loved. Which you always hate to prepare because of how much effort and hard work Ias required to make it.

"Why do you ask this? I mean, does it really matter? Do I have to think about our relationship to do something? We live in the same house and...."

"You know," he spoke all of a sudden, causing my words to die down in my throat. He bent down towards my direction as I was squatting on the floor, "when you rejected me, I pondered upon it very much later on. I wouldn't lie, my self-respect got hurt when you said you don't consider me your husband. I truly loved you Zainab and I still love you. You have laid such magic on me that till now, even though you have rejected me, I can't bring anyone else in my heart. It's like you have permanently marked my heart that it should only and only love you. I met many girls there; some even tried to approach me but I never responded to them because you weren't getting out of my mind, heart, and imagination. I never thought that the best friend whom I never consider more than a friend, I would fall for her so hard after the marriage that she would control my heart, brain, and everything. I wouldn't lie, Zainab; I used to dream about you there. Sometimes I used to hallucinate about you that I imagined you around me; staring at me and smiling at me. I just forgot that you were once my friend. In my eyes, you were my wife, the girl I was deeply in love with. But to my bad, the girl I fell in love with, doesn't love me back. Instead, my love is a burden for her," he let out a sarcastic laugh in the end.

"And please forgive me for still having feelings for you, for still loving you. I can't guarantee you that will I ever be able to stop loving you," he said while running his palms on his face.

I didn't understand what he meant by his last line. But this long confession of love completely left me off guard because I wasn't expecting this. He had said similar lines to me before as well but right now, I felt different emotions from both his eyes and his tone.

"But that hurt me more when you said; you don't need me as a friend as well. It directly hit here," he paused for a moment while pointing his index finger towards the left side of his chest.

"It hurt so much that for many days, I felt terrible that I failed to become your ideal best friend whom you could have relied upon," he sighed heavily and for the first time, I felt the tinge of hurt in his voice.

"Shaiq..."

"Whom you could have trusted upon. In the heat of the moment, you questioned and doubted my sincerity of twenty years as a friend for you," he interrupted me and continued.

"It hurt so much, Zainab. So much that I wasn't able to sleep for many months due to the weight of your words on my heart," he whispered but my gaze was on one thing; his red, swollen eyes which were filled as they would overflow any moment.

"The reason why I didn't contact you was that you said you want me to stay away from you. I didn't want to bother you and..."

"Shaiq, I never meant it this way. You are constantly misunderstanding me, " I said in a low voice.

He ran fingers through his hair before looking back at me, yet again ignoring what I was saying, "but now I think I should respect what you wanted and still want. I won't force anything on you; be it my friendship or my right of being your husband. You are free to decide whatever you want; I will let you have a lead."

I felt something broke inside me at his words. As though someone had clutched my heart tightly. Tears started pouring out of my eyes at the mere thought of the outcome of whatever he said a while ago.

"And you don't have to do these things for me," he pointed towards the cup of coffee before getting up and walking away.

"Shaiq, wait," I semi yelled as I stood up and rushed after him. I grabbed his arm and turned him towards me.

"W...what are you saying? That's not what I told you, Shaiq. I never dissed our friendship. It is the world's most dear relation to me. You...you can't do this to me. You are making every assumption on your own," I asserted while jerking his arm.

"You did it, Zainab. You did it," he mumbled while pushing away my hand from his arm, "even if I try my best now, I can't bring myself to think about you in the same way. It's better if we end it now. At least it would be much better for you. Because when according to you, you don't want to remain my wife, then what's the use of this friendship?"

He glanced at me for a moment before again striding away. Seeing him moving brought me out of the trance of his words and I scrambled to block his way. I stood in front of him at which he let out a sigh. I didn't know what made me feel devastated more; him saying in hidden words that he would divorce me or him telling in open words that he would end our friendship.

"No, Shaiq, you can't do this. Look, I am your Zainab. Yo...your best friend, " I grabbed his both hands and made him cup my face with those hands, "don't you remember? We...we used to play together, study together. Even we used to cry together and laughed together. Don't do this to me Shaiq. I have no one except you, I will die like this," I couldn't believe I was full in tears right now.

For a moment, I felt like his eyes softened a bit and his fingers started caressing my cheeks. But I was wrong since he took his hands away from my face.

"It's not possible, Zainab. It would be even difficult for us to see each other, let alone to keep this friendship, " he announced in a dry tone before finally heading out of the room.

And it took a minute for me to understand what he meant by this. He would divorce me. My legs felt so weak right now to even take my whole weight which actually caused me to fall on the floor while causing my eyes to spill all the tears they had.

             
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Assalam o Alaikum guys!

How are you?

I am back with another chapter.

How is it?

Finally, Shaiq spoke lol. But it wasn't something we wanted to hear. :(

What do you think will happen next? Will Zainab ask for divorce as Shaiq has handed over this decision-making to her.

To know this, don't forget to read the next chapter.

If you like this chapter, plz vote, and comment.  ❤❤