His chest inflated. It had been a year to the start of their relationship, and yet the way she wanted him, sometimes needed him, swelled his breath to bursting. They had met only a handful of times this year, but what memorable meetings they had been. Late night drives where he drove (in case of check posts), followed by early mornings spent at his flat sharing breakfast (upma banned), and talking about so much that he knew he had exhausted the entire dictionary, and yet still be ready to talk the next time they met.
SAMAR
Have you seen the time? Everyone will be waking up
It was 6 in the morning.
AMAAL
I
don’t
care
Fuck it.
Samar was already ready. He shut the windows, switched off the fan, grabbed his keys and left his flat. In record time, he was parked a few hundred metres away from Aamir Haider’s house, pressing the button to dial his top Favourites contact now.
“What?”
“Come out.”
“You are seriously here?”
“Hmm.”
“Eeeeeee!”
“Don’t scream.”
She cut the call. A minute later, she was bounding down the slope, her arms out like a lunatic. Sometimes he saw Adil, Noora and Maha all stuffed inside her. Samar laughed, unlocking his car to let her slide inside.
“Hi!” She threw herself onto him, and he engulfed her, breathing her scent in. Lilies, sleep and coffee. He pressed his mouth into her neck, kissing skin and hair and comfort that he had embraced after three long weeks. The shortest they had been apart, but it was getting difficult to do so with each passing day.
She kissed his mouth quickly because the day was bright already, and pulled back, enough to look decent if they were to be seen. The CM’s house was not far away.
“I miss you,” Amaal said what he had been feeling, her head falling sideways to the headrest and knees folding up. He liked how she instantly became comfortable in his car, curling herself like this whenever they went out.
“Me too.” He pushed her hair over her shoulder and stroked it before pulling his hand away. He wanted to do so much to her, he had planned it in detail for tonight. “What’s your day looking like?”
“Secretariat, then all-party meeting at Atharva’s house. That’s what you are here for, no?”
“Not only that.”
She frowned.
“Remember I told you I had been compiling solid reports for HDP?”
“Yes? 18,000 party workers across Himachal.”
“Those were preliminary, active members. Mainly from Solam, Palampur and Manali. I had kept the sleeping members count out of it. We are crossing 50,000 this month.”
“What?!”
Samar smiled.
“Seriously?”
