Chapter 42: First Kiss

Na im sighed, bringing her even closer to his body as he closed his eyes and hugged her a bit tighter. He had been back to the palace since yesterday in the late evening and for the decision he had finally come up with, Na im decided that it would be best if he didn t come to see her or to even know that he was back. But it seemed his heart was stronger than his brain and when he found himself tossing and turning, not being able to even breathe properly, he knew he just had to come and see her even for a few minutes. But he had to.
She was still crying when he lifted her face from his chest and the smile he had lost for the last seven days came back to his face with a full bloom. "Why are you still crying?" He asked with a soft voice and Maryam pouted her lips.
"I thought I'd never see you again. I kept waiting...but that soldier friend of yours has never come back." Her lips were trembling as she spoke and Na im realized those seven days he had spent in the hospital and didn't ask Hafiz to bring the phone to her were the toughest seven days of his recent life. So, he wasn t the only one that had suffered in them, she was included too.
"I'm sorry, it was my fault, I didn't ask him to." Pain flashed in her eyes and even though she had tried not to show it to him, it showed itself. "I figured you might need some time alone, Mairam, I didn't want to bother you by always calling you..." His words were made guttural when her first punch landed on his stomach and he groaned in pain, but she didn t stop.
She was badly crying as she spoke, "I was here thinking that it was his fault, that maybe you ve asked him to bring the phone but he didn't. If I had known it was you that didn t want to speak with me, I wouldn t have wasted my days crying and waiting for a sign of you!" He had never seen her this angry before in his life and it was like watching the little fiery show. He couldn t help but find her irresistibly cute and for the first time in the months he had gotten married to her, Na im found out she was attractive in a way he would have preferred he were dead than find her attractive that way.
She had lifted her hand to punch him when he held the tiny wrist and she wriggled it out of his touch and rolled her eyes angrily at him, "You re just as bad as you were those days. I'm not going to speak to you again, go out." She stomped to her bed and sat on its edge, angrily wiping at her tears and Na im found himself smiling as he walked towards her.
He sat down opposite her on the bed and she slowly shifted away, "You can t run away from me. I'm finally here to see you, I've been sick for almost two weeks and just when I got discharged I ran to you but this is the warm welcome I'm getting?" She looked at him once and took her eyes off, with her hands wrapped around her chest as she turned away from him entirely.
"If you were so worried about me why didn t you find a way to come to me or for someone else to call me for you?" He knew he could only accuse her into speaking to him. If he stayed there and just spoke while he tried to apologize, she might not even listen to him, or they turned out to have a fight his heart might not be strong enough to handle.
She fiercely turned to look at him, the nerves of this man! "You asked me not to leave this apartment for the life of me! We have no phone with us and Bilkisu said she couldn t ask anyone to call you among the guards and the maids because none of them have your number," rolling her eyes at him, Maryam turned to have a better view of him face as she fumed. She had missed him terribly, but that didn t mean she wouldn t have to give him a medicine of his own. "Or would you have preferred it if I asked for your father and told him everything?" She was being sarcastic and strangely feminine that he had to take his eyes off her face because of what he felt stirred in him. When she saw that he couldn t speak for a moment, she grunted in annoyance, "Just leave, since that s all you want; to be away from me." She tried to stand up to go to the bathroom or just somewhere where she could run away from him, but he held her wrist and pulled her to him, having her rest on his laps.
She gasped and tried to get away from him but she was no stronger than he was and she finally relented before he spoke, "I thought I was getting a gift for calling your names better than anyone else. And now you re asking me to leave?" She rolled her eyes and he felt even more intoxicated. "Is this how a wife should treat her husband, Mairam?"
She looked away from the angle of his face. Being seated on his laps alone was enough and she couldn t afford being that close to his face. And now that he had spoken about the so called gift, she knew if she stayed the way she was, it was easier to him to locate her lips than it was now. "You re not my husband." She said in a voice that did nothing to hide her anger and Na im only stared at how she was fuming.
If only he would tell her the hell he had lived in for those seven days, she wouldn t have imagined. And it was all because of her. He had to do what he did for sanity and control to unveil in their lives, but it seemed all those days he had endured were useless, because here he was. Feeling even more than what he should feel for her, being pulled to her as though she were a magnet and him, an iron of any kind.
He gasped dramatically and she turned to stare at his face, "You just said I'm not your husband, Mairam. I'm heartbroken and you didn t even ask if my wound is healed." She wanted to smile at the expression he had plastered on his face, but she kept a pucker face.
"You ve been trying to show me that I'm not your wife for over five months now and I ve never done it even once." She looked directly into his eyes and repeated what she had just said, "You re not my husband anymore."
He chuckled, she has indeed grown up. "When is your birthday?" He asked and she stared at him squarely, as if she didn t want to answer him but something compelled her to and she sighed.
"Why are you asking about that all of a sudden?" He wished he could tell her why, but he couldn t. He wanted to know the exact months it had left for them to no longer be husband and wife, so that he decide whether he was going to spend those months being estranged from her or spending them with her to the best of his ability.
"I'm just asking because I want to give you a gift, but if you don t want the gift, then it s fine." He saw her battling with her inner self on whether to tell him or not, but it looked like he had won over her, once again.
"15th May, when is that? How many months are left or days?" She had lost the count of days since the day she had lost her Baaba and became his wife.
His eyes bulged out and he smiled at her, "It s today, Mairam! Happy birthday, you re 17 today."
She couldn t help the smile on her lips. She had always loved her birthdays. She stared unbelievably at him as if she couldn t believe that she had indeed turned 17 years old today. "Thank you!" She said excitedly and squirmed on his laps, she wanted to get down on the bed. "Can you let me down, please? I promise I won t walk away, I just want to sit on the bed instead." Instead of him to do what she had asked of him, Na im shook his head and wrapped his hands around her tiny waist, bringing her closer and making his hold on her more firm than intended.
"I have to give you a gift, a birthday gift that has never been given to you." The thought of getting a gift for the first time in her life was what took her mind off the fact that she was on his laps, the hands on her waist and how dangerously close they were.
"Really?" Her eyes straightened with curiosity and joy, "Can I see it please?"
He shook his head sadly, "No, you can only feel it, Mairam." He was smiling decently at her, but only he knew what was going through his mind. He didn t know how she had stopped crying since he put her on his laps but she had stopped and was now smiling at him.
"What is it? I thought a gift was something one could give you so you can be seeing it everyday? And it will remind you of that person."
"But that wasn t the gift you wanted to give me for calling your names better than anyone, was it?" She shrugged off her shoulders as she thought about what she had intended to give him as a gift. Or rather, what he had chosen as a gift because she wasn t planning on giving him now, didn t even agree of that even if she were giving him a gift.
"I wasn t the one that chose that for you, you did." She looked away from his face, from those eyes that were staring dreamily at her, "And I never agreed to do that gross thing to you, Captain."
"What if that's the gift I was planning on giving you? You ve turned 17 years after all, a year less than being an adult. What would be more a precious gift than getting your first kiss on that day?" He stopped midway when he saw her expression changing and he nearly chuckled, "And it s sad to say I'm getting my first kiss a decade older than yours." He made a face that made her roll her eyes at him.
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