chapter : 18
for sale

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i am on a trip, hence this late and random update!

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n o o r
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Flats for sale.

I strongly believe that when God was handing out packets of good luck, I must have tripped on a rock and hit my head causing me to go into deep slumber. Hence, missing my spot in the line.

I had planned to act sternly and ignore my alleged husband but my luck, this afternoon while I had gone to Kabir's cabin, I received my dad's phone call.

He asked me about my health and how my newly married life was treating me. But all this was just the tip of the iceberg. It was longer and more cutting.

His call had thrown me into an ocean of problems, one that was deeper than my current situation. He asked me if I had finished shifting my belongings to Kabir's home. As much as he cared for his daughters, he was a firm believer in the norms of our culture.

Married women are supposed to be respectful, should
live in their husband's homes, and should cater to all their needs and duties. Basically, spoon-feed a grown-ass man.

So it was assumed and understood that I would have shifted with Kabir.

This wasn't actually true, owing to the loving relationship my husband and I share. So loving that he fled from the city on our wedding day.

He didn't ask this directly though instead he told me that he was planning to offer the flat in which I habited to one of my relatives who hadn't found a perfect home in Mumbai. So splash me surprised when he asked if it was okay with me.

'No Dad. The thing is your son-in-law is a confused chimpanzee. At first, he works like a magnet, pulling and tugging me towards him and then decides to play as if he is fire and I am the oil that will blaze him up. So no, he and I live separately. Because he has assumed that if he is near me, he won't be able to control his urges.'

But as expected, I had just answered with a yes. I just asked him to give me a few more days as I had left my stuff back there.

Moment of truth, as of today's afternoon, your girl is homeless.

Good thing? They aren't aware that Kabir and I used to live next door.

This sudden problem has caused me to search for different housing options. Lucky for me, I have money that I kept aside for my business. But now I'll have to use some of it for this new requirement.

I am not planning to buy one right now, it's going to be an expensive plunge. Instead, I'll find a home that is on rent so that it doesn't empty my pocket in one go.

It's a task to find a house that fulfils all my needs, I need something near the office. I don't mind if it's smaller than the one I currently reside in, but I want it to be closer to work and Kabir's apartment.

I need to keep track of the future complications that can arise if his grandfather or my family decides to show up as a surprise. Seeing their history, it's highly possible.

The office is silent as everyone has left for their lunch break now. Almost all the employees prefer eating either in the pantry area or going outside to the various food chains that are located nearby. I prefer eating at my desk, alone or with Sana.

Sana is on leave today, which gave me a golden chance to search for a perfect flat utilising this time. I ordered a bowl of creamy Alfredo pasta and am now slurping on the spaghetti as I call my dear best friend for help.

"How did you get time to call this no-one during your working hours?" Dheer's voice sounds cheerful as always. I can hear him munching on his food while he greets me.

"Very funny. Are you busy?"

"Not at all. Unlike you, my boss does deem me as an interesting species to keep me busy even during lunch." His sarcastic self has me rolling my eyes.

"Your boss is your mother, so obviously you aren't going to work during lunch."

"But your boss is your husband, baby."

"Fake. Temporary. Facade."

"Tomato. Tomahto. Same thing. Now tell me what's the problem."

"I need a new apartment," I tell him about the phone call made by my father. He hums in response understanding the gravity of this situation.

"I'll see if I find some rentals available. When do you have to vacate?"

"Probably tomorrow."

"Oh. That's too quick, can't you extend?"

"You think?" If I even ask for some more days, it will put me on the hot seat and I would be subjected to the thousands of queries they will have.

"That's a no then. So until then come and stay with me. My mother would be happy to have you home. She as it is loves you more than me."

"I am loveable that way."

"So that's final then? I'll come to help you shift out."

"Yes. I'll arrange for some packers to hasten the shifting. It won't be an issue right?"

"You are an issue yourself." This isn't Dheer's voice. Instead, I hear a very high-pitched voice that is shrill enough to drill a hole in my ear drums.

"I'll call you later," I whisper my words to Dheer and end the call.

Focussing my attention on the intruder who has barged into my space. She looks at me pointedly, too close for my liking.

"What do you want?"

"Let's not talk about what I want because if we list that, the first thing I would need is to get you kicked out of here."

Her bright pink lips seem so glowy and bright. Her tight pencil skirt stretches over her thighs as a slit runs long. She is chewing bubble gum and blowing balloons as we speak. It disgusts me but I try to refrain it from showing on my face.

I don't need more drama.

Managing to get on my nerves, she leans on my desk, her cleavage popping because of her open buttons.

This girl makes me want to commit murder. She acts so goody-two-shoes but would slice your throat the moment she gets her golden chance. She is one of those who wouldn't blink an eye before stripping someone of their self-respect.

"What do you want?" I repeat.

"Being so tardy at work. Tsk tsk. Chatting with your boyfriend, making plans of shifting to his house because obviously, you can't afford shit. So poor."

"So you were eavesdropping on my conversations? How cheap of you."

"You bitch."

"What is happening here?" Kabir's loud booming voice reverberates in the corridor. He saunters closer to us. He had also taken a quick stroll outside during the lunch hours, something he rarely does. Normally, he likes having his meal in his cabin or going back home for a good lunch.

"Nothing sir. I was just here to deliver this file to Noor, who was busy chatting with her boyfriend planning to move in with him during work hours. I told her to focus on work but she started calling me out names." Barbie blinks her eyes and puckers her lips acting innocent.

I can put up a fight, and tell the truth but I don't want to create a scene. People who try pulling you down are the ones who are insecure, jealous and often deem themselves inferior to you.

"But I heard you using a profanity directed towards Noor. Do you want to tell me something?" He directs the last sentence at me.

"No, sir." I don't even try.

Kabir looks at me, his eyes directing a glare at me. They flare up and his face morphs into a troubled look. I can sense him fighting something in his head, the cogwheels of his head running.

"You should leave, Vidhi. Now."

"But sir—"

"And Noor, you come to my cabin."

He darts to his cabin and I follow him inside. I see him making a call to the head of HR, asking her to clarify the decent work attire and behaviour for everyone. He stands in front of the desk, using the desk landline to make the said call.

I stifle a smile upon hearing his words. The light from the glass window illuminates his frame. He is facing towards the glass panel side and I gawk at his back which seems scrunched up in work pressure.

Other than blatantly checking him out, I also go through the schedules, and the initiatives to see if there's some pending work.

"What did you—" I start asking. I have to get back to my pasta that's getting cold outside.

"You are shifting out?"

"Sorry?"

He is standing like he was, not looking at me but his words carefully hit me, darting like a bull's eye.

"Are you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"My dad is selling out my flat, he thinks now that...well he assumed that I don't live there anymore."

"Where are you going?" But it doesn't sound like a question. It's as if he is testing me. I would have truthfully told him about going to Dheer's but I first have to clarify that Vidhi's words weren't true.

For someone who had no idea about my personal life before we ventured into this contract, he doesn't know that I had been single ever since I started working for him. My only source of social set-up is provided by Sana and Dheer.

"I asked you something." There's anger dripping and coating his words. His tone is condescending. Condemning.

"It's none of your business." I hate the way he is talking to me. I might be working in a lower post than him but he cannot treat me like this.

"Oh well, but it is." He spins in a quick movement. Looking at me aggravated. Fist clenching on his sides.

"It is not. Whatever I do in my free time is none of your business."

"You will move in with me."

"Absolutely not."

"I am not offering you a choice."

"I can do whatever I want to do."

He is ambling and pottering, one step at a time. His lips tilted in a sly smirk. His face remains bare but his eyes are shimmering with annoyance. He is near now, closer than I like.

Okay. I like it, but what I dislike is the way we got into this situation. It's a repeat of that night, a pinch of hurt tickles my heart.

He cannot do this. He cannot play me like a rag doll, pulling and pushing.

"You can do whatever you want but you will not live with someone else when you are my fucking wife."

His words are like cotton wools, whispering and rounding my body. They make a mesh, a trap, alluring me like always.

Why haven't I learnt my lesson? How can I stop myself from feeling this weak before him?

His words numb my intelligence, tingle my senses, and heighten my desires. He has cast a spell on me, hypnotising and enticing. That night something in me cracked, breaking me.

How can I start feeling for someone who admonishes me at every step? He left me alone on the wedding day, he is playing with my feelings, he stepped on the borders, and he has done things to confuse me and hurt me.

He has never done anything to make me like him. He taunts me, he piles loads of work on my shoulders. Scolds me, and chastises me for my messy behaviour.

But he also cares for me, he makes me feel lively. He was the missing piece in the puzzle of my life. A part I never thought I would need but strangely completes the picture.

I am losing it, tumbling and falling. Wrong. These unwanted emotions are wrong, and unrequited. I need to throw my heart into a cage, bounding it. Clasping it tightly. It can't get to fly or fall, it's not a situation. It's a disarray of domino sequences.

"Fake wife." So he does remember that we are married.

"Legally wedded wife." His answer has my skin dropping in a sheet of goosebumps. The hair on my skin pricks. There's cold and frost, and yet I feel so balmy. My skin's feverish and scorching, my soul is freezing.

"I didn't know you were aware of it."

"I might have done my share of error but I will not let my wife live with someone else. If you have to move out, it's our house you are shifting to. This is not up for any negotiations."

"I refuse to abide. It's not our house. It's yours. Even married, you and I aren't one, Kabir. You were the one who made it clear right from the start. Don't act as if you are the victim here."

"I said, irrespective of my foolish behaviour. I won't share you, Noor. Not even with your boyfriend. You are my and only mine."

"Fucking stop saying things you don't mean. If you hated this, you should have been careful. You fled, you marked your stance. I am free to do whatever I wish."

"Cheating is immoral."

"Stop giving me lessons on morals, when you don't even follow it yourself."

"I have made myself clear. You are going to move in with me. That's not up for any further discussion."

"You are an asshole."

He is the epitome of infuriation, he has the power to light up the firecracker of pique within me. It spars and detonates, blistering with lights and harming.

"As you please."

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