"You're late today." Ramya mentioned the moment her daughter in law walked in one day. She didn't like how the girl was failing to maintain the balance.

"Yeah, I was working." Shehnaaz replied with a shrug and walked over to the dining table to grab a glass of water.

"The dinner sets at 9, you should be here by that time. Itna kaam kyu karti ho? Dekho, kitni thaki hui ho.." Ramya's concern laced voice came out.

"I'm fine aunty. It's just an event coming up." Shehnaaz replied.

"I understand and about that.." Ramya took a seat across Shehnaaz's.

"Make sure you be with Sidharth in the event, I mean you're his wife. Make sure you prioritize him as well." She suggested.

Shehnaaz nodded, focusing on the food their house help got her. She shook her head, 'wife' the term was getting into her head a lot now. Didn't they know she was a working woman before she got married!

She made her way up, planning to change and sleep the moment she'd enter when she came across her husband. He was busy shuffling through the items in his night stand, looking for something. The constant sound of his medicines and other items scratching against each other irked her.

"Kya kar rahe ho yaar?" She asked him, it made him stop.

"Apni dawai dhund raha hu." He replied.

"Chup chap dhundo!" She snapped at him, storming into the wardrobe to change. She returned to find him settled in the bed with his laptop, working.

"I wanted to turn off the lights. Mujhe bohot nind aa rahi hai." She told him.

"Hmm." He replied, turning the lights off except for the table lamp at his side. She slipped into the quilt and covered herself when she heard him uttering profanities after calling his assistant.

"Why am I getting mail at this hour of the day Adith? Kal docket pe meri sign lega tu dophar tak aur bhejega!" He scolded his assistant. They had to send an order of items needed to a local retailer to get started with a local project's construction but his team could not prepare the docket by the deadline.

"Mujhe acha nahi lagta raat ko 10 baje call karna, I'm so done with these guys!" He added, hanging up.

"What happened?" She whined, scowling at him for not letting her sleep. She had a tired day and no one was helping.

"You didn't sleep yet?" He asked.

"Sone de kaha rahe ho? Chilla rahe ho!" She whined, rubbing the sides of her forehead.

"Chillana padta hai, uske bina kaam kaha hota hai." He shrugged, carrying his laptop and mobile and walking out of the room after switching off the side lamp to let her sleep.

The next day Sidharth was in a hurry to leave for his office, so he skipped his breakfast. Everytime he would let his employees loosen up a little and they would not get the job done in their due time. It was always the case.

"Good Morning sir, ye rahe papers. Bas aapki sign chahiye." Adith presented to him the papers he asked for.

"Also sir, the consignment has arrived early today. Godown me rakhwa diya hai maine. Labours aake wahi se saman le jayenge kaam pe ja ne se pehle." Adith further informed.

"Good. Ja coffe le aa." Sidharth told him, resting his back comfortably now that the docket had been sent and the consignment of construction materials arrived early.

"Mam, sir aaj jaldi chale gaye." The cook informed Shehnaaz when she found the boss's wife looking around aimlessly.

"Oh. Ek kaam karna, unka lunch aaj jaldi bhej dena. Aur sunn, mujhe bhi kaam hai. Mera breakfast bhi pack kar de." Shehnaaz replied, gathering her essentials to leave for her office as well. The event she had been preparing for was going to take place the next day and she had so much to look after.

"Social media pe pichle do hafte se promote karna chalu kar diya tha, responses have been good so far." Nishant told her as they sat together in a team meeting.

"Caterers aur Music system wale bhi ready hai, kal subha se set up chalu kar denge. Khanna's se menu double check karwa liya tha." Her assistant, Ria, informed.

"Good. Aur wo host jo tune book kiya tha. Usko please dress code ache se bata dio. Check on the decorations one last time for me." Shehnaaz told Nishant and he busied himself with the work she gave him.

It was 8 and she decided to wrap up because she didn't want to listen to Ramya's lecture again. Even though the lady didn't matter, Shehnaaz simply didn't want to give her a chance to point out any shortcomings.

"Meri keys?" She wondered about looking for her car keys in her handbag until she realized she had asked her manager to get her car serviced. She booked an uber and waited in her office because it unexpectedly began to rain outside, playing with her phone to pass the time.

"Hello, bhaiya kidhar ho aap? Kitni der se adha ghanta hi bata raha hai apka location." She called the uber driver.

"Madam traffic me fass gaya hu." The driver replied. There was nothing he could do on his end as well, she regretted not asking anyone from her team to drop her off.

A smile overtook her face when she found her sister's post on instagram, Mankiran was clubbing with her friends in Bangalore and celebrating someone's birthday. At least she was doing what she wanted to, engineering was her dream! Shehnaaz was happy for her, however she didn't like the way her sister looked with the smokey eye makeup that had been smudged after hours of dancing.

Another notification popped up where her Uber driver had cancelled on her because he wasn't sure how long the traffic was going to take. She wanted to call someone but didn't know who to. If it was raining and the traffic was so bad, then Sidharth wouldn't be able to come and pick her up either. And why would he come over to her office that was in the opposite direction from his way to home?

She walked out of her office to catch an auto instead of staying in. Something would be better than nothing, especially when the weather was so bad.

"Oh God!" She disapprovingly sighed, covering her head with her handbag and walking into the footpath, while the rain drenched her beneath her head. She unwillingly called her husband, to see if he'd be able to send a car instead.

"Hello? I can't hear you Shehnaaz!?" He answered, all the thundering and raining interrupted the network. She couldn't completely hear him as well.

"Can you hear me? Sidharth, I'm stuck outside my office. Meri gaadi servicing me hai, so can you send someone to pick me up?" She asked.

"Where are you?" He replied, even though he could hardly get all of what she said.
"Western Heights, Sanjog Nagar, Andheri West. You know near Rama-" she was answering.

"Text me. I'm not getting you." He replied and hung up. How rude! She thought but didn't blame him either and sent her location.

"I'm on my way." His text arrived and she took a relieved breath. 

"Security ke liye kitna zaroori hai bodyguard rakhna pata hai na tujhe? Why didn't you tell me before?!" He scolded Ravi. He had asked Ravi about the bodyguard right after he ended his wife's call and got to know that she refused to have one.

"Sir, mam ne mana kiya toh-" Ravi was really scared.

"Toh? I've hired you, right? I pay you! And switch off the AC." He snapped at him, trying to maintain his calm as they reached Shehnaaz's office building. There she was, all drenched in rain, taking shelter under a small tea stall's shed.

"Haaye, thank you aane ke liye. Itni barish aaj hi honi thi? Just when I sent my car for servicing!" She didn't wait for anyone to open the door for her as soon as she recognised the car and got in. Rubbing her palms across her hands to heat herself up, she sat there watching her husband staring at her.

"Where's your bodyguard?" He calmly asked her. For a moment he felt like shouting at her for not carrying a bodyguard along when he had almost assigned one for her. And she didn't even inform him that she didn't want one. Why was this girl so difficult to be with?! Didn't she realize how her name attached to his would bring her unwanted attention and threats from his rivals!

"I don't have one." She replied.

"Why not?" He asked again.

"Because I didn't need one." She shrugged, wondering what he was up to.

"Okay, one last time, why? When I asked you to carry a bodyguard around!" He snapped at her.

"Again, I don't need one. Na mai tumhare jitni koi famous hu aur na mujhe koi aisa chahiye jo poora din mere peeche peeche chale!" She explained it to him.

"Oh God! Tum kabhi meri baat ek baar me nahi maan sakti? Kuch toh soch samajh ke maine bhi tumhare liye bodyguard appoint karwaya hota?!" He retorted, looking away to restrain himself from fighting in front of his driver and bodyguard. That's when she realized she had pissed him off.

They made their way home, she almost ran into her room to take a warm shower and change herself into something warm.

"Mam soup." Pia, the househelp, knocked at the door, making her presence obvious and kept the tray on the bed.

"Sab ne kha liya?" Shehnaaz asked, blow drying her hair.

"Sirf mam ne khaya, sir ne soup upar bhejne ko kaha." Pia replied and took her leave.

"Kal tumhara bodyguard aa jayega." Sidharth announced as he entered the room, sat down and held his bowl of soup.

"Yaar, zaroori hai?" She almost whined to find him nodding his head.

"Kyu?" She sulked, settling down on the bed with a quilt around.

"Protection ke liye." He replied and she stayed quiet, he looked at her expecting her to question his decision.

"Fine!" And there she surprised him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey there.. aa gaya agla chapter..

So the thing is we're going to take it slow.. kyuki care bol ke nahi.. kar ke dikhai jati hai❤️