"Areesha! Honey, wake up! We are going to get late!" Her mother's voice drifted from outside.

Areesha put the pillow over her head and went to sleep again. Then someone started rapping on her door. She tried to block out the noise but it was too loud.

Throwing the covers off her she marched to the door to give this annoying person a piece of her mind, 

"What the hell Zayan?" She yelled at him as she swung the door open.

"Woah! You look scary with your bed head! That's what poor Fawad is going to wake up to everyday! I already feel so bad for him."

"Shut your ugly mouth." She snapped at him.

"No really! You could pass for a scare crow right now!" He said with a smirk.

Before she could retaliate her mother appeared from behind.

"Areesha? Look at yourself!" She said in shock.

Great now her mother was going to tease her too!

"Wait are you going somewhere?" Areesha asked her as she took in her appearance.

"Yes and so are you! So hurry up and get ready! Chop chop!"

"Where?" She asked confused.

"To Fawad's house? Amira called us over for lunch. Remember? It's already 2:00 PM. This is the third time I've come to wake you up."

She smacked her forhead in realization. She had been up till late night finishing a story on wattpad. She hated wattpad at times like this. It had been almost a week since her nikah and she had been avoiding Fawad. Once he had called her mother who had made her talk to him but she really didnt say anything except for the salams. Her mother thought she was being excessively shy. Shy. As if! Areesha and shy don't go in the same sentence.

"Dress up well beta. Nothing to be shy about!" Her mother said to her.

She just nodded and Zayan smirked at her.

"Now hurry up, we don't have all day!" Zayan said.

She went back to her room and opened her wardrobe to slect a good dress.

Before she could think about it, her phone started ringing. She picked it up without checking the caller ID.

"Hello? Yeah well whoever it is I'm really busy right now so I'll call you later. Bye." She said into the phone in one breath.

"Wait!" She heard a familiar voice from the other end before she could cut the call.

"Maya that you?"

"Yup the one and only! So why were you busy?"

"Aren't we coming to your place? Wait you called us today right?" She asked suddenly realizing that Maya didn't know about it.

"Yeah, yeah, so you're getting ready huh?" She said with a teasing note in her voice.

"Yeah, I am. Ok wait tell me what colour shall I wear, red or white?" Areesha asked her while rumaging through the hangers.

"White." Maya replied after a second.

"Ok. So why did you call?"

"What? I can't call my bestie who's now my bhabhi too? I knew you would turn into the mean type bhabhi after marriage!" She said faking a upset voice.

"Figured it now have you?" Areesha said rolling her eyes at Maya's dramatic behavior.

"Now meanie shutup or I am going to turn into the evil sister-in-law!"

"Woah really? That would be so adventurous! I've always wanted to plot against someone and I have watched too many desi dramas so beware!"

"Now shut up Areesha because bhai here...." The rest of her voice became muffled.

"See! I knew it!" Areesha said suddenly realizing that Fawad was right beside her. "I knew you had the phone on loudspeaker! Now you better excuse me while I get ready!"

"Wait you aren't excused yet...." Areesha didn't wait to hear what she had to say and hung up. She really wasn't ready to talk to Fawad right now. And also she didn't want an angry mother on her case right now.

She took the white dress and went off to have a nice shower and get ready.

***

They were seated in Fawad's drawing room right now. Everyone was engaged in deep conversation while her eyes waited for the one person who was yet to make an appearance. She kept fiddling with her fish tail which loosely hung to the side on her shoulder. Bangs framed her face and she had a light coat of lip gloss on. She was very nervous as to what Fawad would think of her. She wasn't used to dressing up at all. Zayan had taken the opportunity to tease her all the way in the car. She still didn't want to talk to Fawad about what Aamir had told her but her heart wasn't listening to her.

"Bhai is in his room getting ready. Why don't you go and call him?" She looked to see Maya speaking to her with a smirk on her face.

"I-"

"Yeah beta go ahead call him I don't know why he is taking so long." Auntie aka Fawad's mother said this time.

She had no choice but to comply.

She nervously made her way to his room. Before entering the room she took in deep breaths to calm down her nerves and gave herself a little pep talk to not make this awkward. She raised her hand and politely knocked.

She heard a barely audible voice of Fawad from inside. She took that as her que and walked in. Fawad's back was turned to the door. The room was extremely untidy with clothes littered on the bed. 

"Maya, hurry up please do my tie for me." Fawad said with a tone of urgency, without turning around to see who actually came in.

"I-I-" Areesha stuttered, feeling embarrassed.

Before she could say anything Fawad swung around and froze when he saw her.

"Uh Auntie is calling you d-downstairs." She said hurriedly and turned to leave.

"A-Areesha?" Fawad called, as he recovered from the shock.

"Yes?" She asked turning to face him hoping that her expression didn't betray the havoc that was going on inside her.

"Do me a favor please?" He said, hoping she wouldn't mind.

She raised an eyebrow at that.

"Do you know how to tie the knot?" He said showing her his tie. She almost laughed at his adorable face as he looked so frustrated about it.

She took the tie from him and made its knot around her own neck. She felt very nervous standing in front of his dressing table in his room. And as if it wasn't awkward enough already he kept staring at her with the corner of his eye.

While she was making the knot Fawad tried not to look at her. She looked so beautiful with her hair on the side. Her white embroidered dress complemented her skin too. He thanked God that she wasn't mad at him right now the way she had been on their nikah day. He still hadn't found about the reason and he wasn't going to ask her directly unless she said something herself.

His trance was broken when Areesha dangled the tie in front of his face.

"Oh sorry. I kinda zoned out." He said as his ears turned a little pink in embarrassment. Guys don't blush, he told himself and quickly took the rie from her hand.

"Yeah, I could see that very well." She said with a snort, trying to look indifferent.

"Yeah when you have a beautiful girl in your room one kinda tends to day dream." He said with a flirtatious smile, as he glanced at her through the mirror and put the tie around his own neck and fixed his collar.

"Are you trying to flirt with me?!" He just winked at her and she melted right there. This was the second time Fawad had complemented her like this. The first being on the day when they had had their nikah. Her heart clenched when she thought about that day. She wanted to live a normal life with Fawad, but she was very angry about the money thing and didn't want to confront him about it. She wanted him to tell her that himself.

"Come on, lets go or everyone might start thinking of what we could be doing here." He said with a suggestive smile after he had put the tie on his neck.

Areesha blushed scarlet when he said that. Her dirty mind started visualising some things. There was something definitely wrong with her blood vessels in her cheeks today.

He switched off the lights and held open the door for her.

"After you mi'lady." He said in an attempt to be chivalrous.

"Such a gentleman!" Areesha scoffed at him. He shook his head at her an followed her out. She made him feel things and say stuff he would never say to any other girl. But then she was his wife.

His wife. He liked the sound of that very, very much.

They went to the drawing room and he greeted her mother and Zayan. 

"Mashallah you two look so good together!" Fawad's mother gushed while everyone else said Mashallah to protect them from the evil eye.

"Took your time didn't you?" Maya snickered from beside her and Areesha shot her shut-up-right-now glance making her smirk at her uncomfort.

"I'll arrange the breakfast, you all must be very hungry." Auntie said. "Maya come with me beta." 

At this point Areesha's mother shot her a meaningful glance and quirked her eyebrow towards Fawad's mother. 

Getting the signal, Areesha quickly said with a pleasant smile, "Auntie, why don't you sit down. Me and Maya can arrange the table."

"No, beta its fine, its just going to take a minute."

"No no Amira the girls can do it you stay here." Areesha's mother said and signaled Areesha with a tilt of her face to go.

She sat back down and let Areesha go.

Areesha went to the kitchen and Maya told her to put the food in the dishes while she set the table.

Areesha went to the stove and reheated the food. When it was done she poured the contents of the pressure cooker in the dishes.

When she was placing the cooker back on the stove she accidentally touched it with her bare hand. She flinched back as pain shot through her burnt finger.

She rushed to the sink and put her finger under the cold faucet. Her eyes watered from the pain.

"Are you okay?" A voice said from behind her.

She turned around to see Fawad drinking water. 

He carelessly placed the lass back on the shelf and before she could say anything he rushed to her side and inquired what had happened.

"How did you burn your hand?" He asked her as he went forward and inspected her hand, carefully holding it between his own.

Areesha blushed slightly and fought the urge to pull her hand away. 

Slowly, he brought his lips to her hand and pressed a small kiss on it making her eyes round in shock. Her heart seemed to be doing gymnastics as it flipped wildly.

"Better?" He asked with a mischevious glint in his eyes as he eyed the pink adorning her cheeks.

Areesha shook her head slightly. "No." She said in a small teasing voice trying to keep away her amusement and discomfort.

His face fell and he kissed her hand softly again keeping his eyes trained on hers all the while. Areesha's ears grew hotter by the minute and she could pratically feel the heat radiating from her cheeks as her heart drummed wildly in her chest.

"It's better now?" He asked again with a small smirk spilling on his lips. Her blush was doing wonders to his heart, making it flutter with happiness.

As if her body had a mind of its own, her head bobbed up and down out of its own accord. Fawad smirk widened at her response and that was when she realized what she had done.

But that wouldn't be a lie becuase she had almost forgotten even where she had burned herself and her only focus was on the way he was holding her hand. It wouldn't be the first time a guy had held her hand, as Aamir never had much regards or the no-touching-rule, but this was the first time she was reacting in this way to such a casual touch.

"Put toothpaste on that burn." He said as he dropped her hand with a wide smile, trying to calm his heart from going over drive.

"Toothpaste?" She almost snickered.

"Yeah I swear it works wonders." He grabbed a toothpaste from the sink and took her hand in his. He squeezed some paste out of it and put it on her finger. It felt tingly at first but then the burn stopped stinging.

"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat from behind them.

They moved away from each other in shock and spun around to see Maya standing with a teasing smirk on her face. Areesha breathed in relief slightly as she had been feeling scared that an elder had seen them.

But this was halal, she reminepded herself. He was her husband.

"Areesha, you know bhai doesn't even care when I  burn my hand. I am getting really jealous here!" She said her eyes shining mischeviosly.

"Get used to it then!" Fawad said rolling his eyes at his sister and left the kitchen after flicking her forehead and Maya swatted his hand away.

"Come on. We were waiting for you." Maya said to her. Areesha nodded, still feeling robbed of her speech. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself.

What just happened? Wasn't she supposed to be angry at him?

***

They were having lunch and Auntie kept piling more food on Areesha's plate. From chicken legs to more gravy, everything. When she dared protest about it she was scolded for being too weak physically. Then she went into a long lecture of how a woman needs to be strong physically as she has to bear children as well. Typical desi aunties! She hadn't even moved in with Fawad yet for goodness sake! Areesha had almost coughed out the water she was drinking at that point while an amused Zayan patted her on the back while the elders smiled at her teasingly.,

Fawad sat on her other side as his mother had insisted that they sit together.

When Areesha had eaten almost double the normal amount she decided to stop before she got an upset stomach. The food was very tasty with all the desi dishes made by Fawads mother but she had eaten a lot already.

"Everything is very delicious auntie." She said to her with a genuine smile.

"Jazakallah beta." She replied to her with distinctive pride.

"Yeah, Amira you need to give me the recipe of this nihari." Her mother said.

Zayan muttered something along the lines of 'trying to be on the good side of your saas (mother-in-law)' making Areesha step on his foot under the table to make him quiet.

Areesha turned on her phone and saw a notification of an available wifi network. She opened it and saw that it was probably from this house.

She poked Fawad under the table to ask him about the password and gestured her phone towards him.

"I love you." He muttered.

"Excuse me?" she said whisper yelled, outraged at him. "We are sitting in the middle of everyone!" She hissed.

Fawad's hand froze midway between his mouth and the plate and he slowly turned towards her with a small smirk adorning his lips.

"Oh so you want me to say that to you when we are alone?" He said with a smirk thoroughly enjoying her flustered expression.

"Shut up!" She hissed at him and cleared her throat and looked around hoping no one else noticed.

"The password of the Wi-Fi here is 'I love you'"

"What?" She raised an eyebrow confused.

"Yes darling!" He said amused at her. She looked away utterly embarrassed, realizing that it was the password. Such a weird password. Who would put that as a password?

She typed the password into the phone, a swarm of messages came in. She opened Aamir's whatsapp message curious to what he had to say and saw the message 'Did you ask him?'

She knew he was talking about the cheque thing. It really dampened her mood to think of that again. That had momentarily slipped mind amongst all the hustle and bustle. She was just trying to be comfortable around Fawad. She turned her phone off and tried to focus on the conversation eveyone was having.

She hoped that she would be able to confront Fawad about it someday. She was really mad at him about that but she wanted to clear that up and be comfortable with him before she moved into this house in less than a month now.

****

Salam.

That's all folks ;)

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