"It's nice to see your deep admiration for elders. You do help around a lot." Nisha's father spoke with a ghostly smile causing Kabir to swallow. 
He gave him an awkward smile, "Of course, uncle. It's my pleasure. I admire you a lot." 

He looked around, spotting Nisha a few meters away from them. With a tilted head, she was examining them. 

"What's happening here?" Her voice reached his ears as she came closer to them. 
"Ah. We're just talking." Her father spoke, raising their interlocked hand as Nisha gasped, "What is that—"
"Ah! I held his hand as a token of admiration." Kabir's mouth was twisted in a rictus as he spoke. Catching the hint, she held in her laughter. 
"That's nice of you both. Keep talking."

She raised her brows at Kabir and left while he stared at her. 

"So, what do you think about the current politics?" His father asked as Kabir cleared his throat, trying to appear charismatic.
"Of course. The current politics is in bad shape, the government won't be able to progress at all!" He hoped whatever he forced out of his mouth aligned with her father's thoughts. He had overheard a few political conversations of the elders and caught a hint. 

But he had no idea of the current politics.

He used to at a time, but he was too busy with work and Nisha to focus on those anymore. 

—Time skip—

Nisha stared at the food, "Is there any lemon?" 
Priti gave her a clueless look, "I don't know. Let me ask Shams if he can get an—" 

Her voice was interrupted by Kabir approaching their table with a small plate of nicely cut lemons. He placed it near Nisha and smiled, "Does anyone want lemons?" 

She blinked twice, wondering if it was the power of telekinesis. 

"Wow, that's cool! Nisha was asking for lemons just now." Priti said as he gave her a knowing raise of his brows.

He walked to her seat and grabbed two pieces of sliced lemons, serving them to her. 

Her head turned back, catching a good look at his face. The small smile on his lips made her heart warm up, "Thank you, Kabir." 

"Anything for you." He spoke and walked away as Priti choked on her naan.

"Wait a minute. Did he just—"
"You eat!" Nisha shushed her, heaving out a deep shaky breath. She looked at his back, knowing well he was intentionally doing this to her. 
A soft frown coated her face when she noticed Kabir showing a thumbs-up to Adil who was smirking. 

A sonorous scoff escaped her lips. 

So that's the secret. 

After eating, they all settled on a few chairs as the elders and kids returned to the cottage. 
Shams and Priti were spending time alone while the boys were out somewhere, busy smoking. 
"Why am I always sitting alone?" Nisha groaned, scrolling her phone mindlessly, her thoughts returning to Kabir repeatedly.

He didn't smoke.

Then, where was he? 

A soft gasp escaped her lisp when she felt two warm arms sneak around her shoulder, hugging her from behind. 
She turned her head, smiling when his face came into her vision. His pretty, delighted face.
"It's me." He gave her a bright smile, melting the bitterness she was feeling. Turning back, she hummed, "I know." 
"I tried so hard to get to you tonight." 
"You ended up having a full family reunion, isn't it?" 

He scoffed, "Don't mention it. The incident with your father was the worst." 

Leaving her shoulders, he took a seat beside her and scowled, eyeing the chairs. He pulled his chair closer to hers, almost sticking them together and sat with a satisfied grin. 

"Can you stop sitting so close? People will notice." She mumbled tentatively. He rolled his eyes, "I can't care any less. I missed you." 

Her lips pressed into a thin line, "Didn't we just start dating today?" 
"So? I've had feelings for you for a long time anyway." 
She looked down, "Since when?" 
"The day I saw you." 

A noise died to escape her throat at his confession.
"Firstly, is this a 90s' romance movie? But you were so annoying... then." 
"I'm not talking about when we met." He casually spoke, making her brows furrow, "Then?" 
"I have known you for over a year now, Nisha. I've seen you on Priti's posts quite often. Shams doesn't post or talk about his friends but Priti loves to post about her family. Even... I saw you once six years ago while we were helping Priti and Shams sneak out. You could say, I've known you for longer than you expected." 

She stared at him cluelessly, unable to answer. 

Words died in her tongue as a feeling of uncertainty took over her. Was he being for real? She had never expected that. 
"Why did you never tell me—"
"Tactics to make you fall in love with me." He winked, making her huff. 
"Those don't work." 

"But we're here." He said, as if proud of whatever he had done so far. With a soft smile, she nodded. Her gaze fell to his hands and she wondered if it would be okay to hold them.
She really wanted to. 

But her courage wasn't enough. 

As if he had read her mind, he grabbed her hand gently and interlocked it with his, smiling at her. 
"You..." 
"Our hands fit so perfectly." He spoke delightedly. 
She smiled, eyeing their interlaced hands and said, "You're right." 

He caressed the back of her hand with his thumb and pulled it closer to his lap. 
"Stop. It's too soon to be so..." Her voice faded as she fake coughed. He chortled, "We've always held hands, what do you mean? This is nothing, Nisha. The real events are yet to come." 

A pause.

She tried not to appear exhilarated or surprised at his words, knowing well he would be enjoying every bit of her reaction. He already was. 

—Next morning—

Nisha stared at her boyfriend, who seemed happier than anyone else on the trip. 
He hugged her as soon as she approached him. 

"Tsk, you're so—" She was cut off by him saying, "Stop. Don't call me anything weird. I'm in a great mood."
"Did something good happen?" She asked with a soft smile, feeling his happiness slowly seeping into her veins as well. Without breaking the hug, he spoke, "Yep, the investors increased their share by ten percent which will be of extreme help to us." 
She gasped, "That's really good. You should be happy! Oh my god. What else??" 
He hummed, pondering on it, "It's our second day of dating."

She let out a snort, "For real?" 
"Yeah, that's also a happy thing." He smiled, pulling away to take a closer look at her face. He brushed off a few messy strands from her forehead, tucking them behind her ears. 
"Just two days ago you were bickering with me and now you're all changed. Wow." She spoke as he thinned his lips, "I can still bicker with you. But I have other ways to get your attention, don't I?" 

She hid her smile, "Yeah... well—" 

Her eyes fell on a lotus floating on the pond behind him. She let out a soft noise, "Woah, that's so pretty." 
His head turned behind, noticing the abandoned red lotus in the middle of the shallow pond. "Do you want it?" 
"Huh?" 

He smiled, detaching himself from her and walked towards the other side. Rolling up his jeans, he craned his neck to both sides.
"Are you going to fetch it now?" 
"You want it." 
"But..." 

He showed her his palm, flashing the 'Kabir' grin, "I'm getting this for you, wait." 

She gulped, watching him walk into the water and asked, "Do you even know how to swim?" 
"You don't swim in a shallow pond... It's only till my thighs." He sighed at her concern. She watched him take the lotus from the pond and return with a bright smile. 
"Here you go." He forwarded the flower to her, earning a small smile.

His eyes radiated satisfaction upon his deed which didn't go unnoticed by her. Why was he so eager to impress her? She wondered.

She didn't even ask for something yet he gave it to her. She had forgotten how it felt like to be spoiled that way.

Maybe it wasn't a very grand gesture but the little effort he put in was more than enough for her to smile.
"Thank you." She smiled. 

He gave her a dissatisfied shake of his head, "That's unfair. I went to the pond to get this and I only got a thank you." 
"What do you want then?" She frowned. 
He leaned in closer, facing the other side and said, "A kiss on the cheek." 

She gasped, "You're shameless—" 
"It's the price for this beautiful lotus. Imagine they become extinct cause of—" She cut him off by abruptly pressing a kiss on his cheeks and turned around, walking away at high speed.
His fingers slowly raised to his cheeks as a soft chuckle escaped his lips which turned into a proud laugh — watching her rush away.

Mission accomplished.

—A few days later—

"And Kabir is really... accomplished. I heard he's launching his new business next week!" Nisha said, in an unusually loud voice as Priti gasped dramatically. Both of their eyes kept glancing back to their mother sitting on the sofa, enjoying her soap operas. 
"That's cool! Shams has such a compatible friend! Ah... It's such a regret we don't have him in our family." Priti said, inching closer to her mother who eyed them for a second before focusing back on her show. 

Nisha pressed her lips, gesturing to Priti with her eyes to stop. She nodded, clearing her throat, "Woah, anyway... how's your work, Nisha?" 
"It's good... I think something's up in the company. The past few days after returning, I'm not getting any projects and people seem to act weird. I'm not sure about it though, I also have to talk to our boss about why my project was unfairly handed over to some newcomer."

Priti nodded, "Hope it goes well, then. Shams is really busy with his work too. Good thing I work as an elementary school teacher, it's only the effort of half a day." 
"Still, teaching kids is hard enough." Nisha smiled at her elder sister who nodded with a sigh. They continued chatting when Nisha's phone suddenly pinged with a few notifications. 

A smile appeared on her face when she checked it, 

kabir_95: What is my girlfriend doing?? 

nisha00: planning your murder. 

kabir_95: Wow. As if your beauty isn't enough to kill me.😥

A soft gasp escaped her lips at the text.
"Who's it?" Priti asked, making her shake her head, "One of my colleagues is pregnant." 
She nodded, looking at her suspiciously, "Why are you blushing then?" 
"I'm not blushing! My cheeks and ears just turn red when I'm happy." 

"I've known you for twenty-five years, not buying that." She paused for a moment and again asked, "Nisha, what's your progress with Kabir?" 
"What progress?" 
"Like... have you reached some flirting stage? I noticed how unusually close you were with Kabir in Saint Martin. I think he has feelings for you too." She whispered, making Nisha swallow hard. She shook her head, "Ah... we are just good friends right now." 

'No way am I telling her we're dating or she'll start planning the outfit for my kids.' She mentally thought before giving her a fake smile. 
"This isn't gonna work. I have to do something." 
"What do you mean?" 
"Leave it to me, your sister will make sure you're married within the next month." She got up and walked away from the dining table, leaving a confused Nisha. 

"What the hell did she mean by that?"

"Oh. I haven't replied to his text." She realized, noticing a few incoming texts from him.

kabir_95: Did you die? 

kabir_95: I didn't know you were so shy because of my words.🤔🤔🤔 

kabir_95: NISHA ANWAR?!?!?! 

nisha00: Yes, I'm alive. I was too unbothered to reply.

kabir_95: As if I trust you.

nisha00: Shut up. Did you eat? 🤨

kabir_95: Nope, you? 

nisha00: Why didn't you eat yet? What are you doing? 😐

kabir_95: At work. We're looking for a small studio. A few clients have already started booking us for our first business plan service. 

nisha00: That's cool! Will you be very busy?

kabir_95: Yes. But we can still meet if you want.😚

nisha00: When did I talk about meeting? 

kabir_95: Don't you want to meet? I do, though. 

She smiled and typed in, 

nisha00: Whatever you want then. 🙄

kabir_95: You know, you play really hard to get. 

nisha00: Really? 

kabir_95: Yeah, and I love it. 😗💌

nisha00: Instead of saying this, you should go and eat something. 🥱

kabir_95: I can eat later. I want to talk to you now. 

nisha00: Are you at the old studio right now? 

kabir_95: Yep. 

Nisha turned off the phone and sighed, getting up. Heading towards the kitchen, she took out a few vegetables from the fridge and soaked some rice in water. 
"Better feed him and kill him than him dying by himself." She whispered to herself.

—At the old studio—

"This place looks good. If our first month is a success, we might be able to shift into a new studio." Kabir said to his teammates who nodded. One of them spoke, "Are you sure we'll be able to decorate this place well?"
"I know a good interior designer, don't worry." He shrugged. 

"You guys should go ahead and grab a bite. We have a few touches left for the website." He said and looked at one of the guys, "Javed, you are the technical worker. Go eat first... You have to finish the website tonight. We've yet to launch it." 
"Kabir, I'll advertise this. You should search up a few materials for the upcoming clients who've booked certain days and times." One of them spoke.
"Alright." Kabir nodded and started typing on his laptop.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" He shrugged, "Later. You guys go on. I have to finish early and meet someone."

A few minutes passed by as he was immersed in work until someone interrupted, "Kabir, someone's here to meet you." 
His eyes stayed darted on the laptop, "Tell them to come in." 
"I swear if it's Shams or Atif..." He whispered, raising his head from the laptop with a soft frown but it dissipated once he found a familiar figure in front of him. 

"Nisha." The word automatically rolled down his lips as her sight caused a slight shake in his chest. 

She was here.