Hello guys !! 😃
See i'm updating this one too ! 😆 this one foes out to every reader i made wait ! 🤗
Chapter 4 :"Erm, better... Hot chocolate for this wintery morning ?" Asad asked understanding that she needed some space to recover and to compose herself.
She nodded, silently grateful for his patience, she got up with the tray in which Humaira had left some milk, cocoa powder and sugar. Once in the kitchen, she breathed a sigh of relief and tried to have a hold on her emotions and tried to block the tears which had nevertheless rolled down her cheeks. She sniffled and washed her face in the sink of the kitchen and wiped her face with her sleeves and when she had finally taken a hold on her tears, she started to make the hot chocolate.
While she was taking out a casserole from one of the carton boxes, Asad had come to see if she was ok and was relieved when he saw her more composed. She silently poured the milk in the casserole before putting it on the stove and lighting the flame. Asad leaned on the door frame trying to gauge her face's expressions.
"Aren't you a little hyper-active for somebody wounded so badly ?" Zoya asked without looking up but felt him straightening, somewhat startled.
Asad was embarassed at being caught and Zoya couldn't hold back her smile, "How did you know i was here ?" He asked confused and she smiled sadly.
"I always lived alone, so now i have developped the ability of feeling people around, you might have not noticed but the wooden floor on what you are standing is making enough noise for a person like me to hear the presence of a person..." She raised a brow at him and he looked down at the floor sheepishly.
"Don't worry, you won't be liking my presence in this house once you'll know why all this happened to me..." Asad muttered under his breath but Zoya heard him and looked up at him confused.
"Why ? I don't think you are a psycho, you can't be a criminal or else you would have attacked me or threaten me by now, you nor can be a 'bloody rapist' or else you wouldn't have been worried about my safety last night. In fact, you look like the 'shareef banda' type and even if you turned out be like that, don't worry i have my pepper spray for my safety..." Zoya giggled while repeating his own words and he blushed a little.
"How can you be so sure that i'm not like that ?" Asad asked softly making her look up at him and she just looked at him in the eye and replied.
"I just know !" She smiled proudly while taking out two mugs and pouring the hot milk in the mugs and adding sugar and cocoa powder, "Go and sit while i bring these !" Zoya said softly and he smiled a little, obeying.
"Here !" Zoya handed him a black mug and herself got seated on the couch while sipping on her blue mug.
"Thank you so much !" Asad genuinely smiled at her, grateful for whatever she was doing for him and Zoya smiled back and shrugged with a gesture of the hand.
"Come on, now tell me your dukh bhadi dastaan !" Zoya smiled and tried to lighten up the mood while making herself comfortable on the couch by pulling her legs against her chest and he chuckled at her choice of words and took a sip before getting lost in those memories.
Asad started by telling her about his family background, he had a little baby sister Najma, his mother Dilshad back home and his father Rashid died from a car crash when he was a child. Since then Dilshad had managed to earn their lives, his mother was a teacher, so they had to live on that salary. Through the years, she worked so much that she had developped a major kind of disease. Then Dilshad had decided to send Asad to the US with her savings, so that he could pursue his studies and become independant. Thus Asad had come here with a student visa, along with his studies, he was handling small part-time jobs so that he could send money back home.
He had started as a waiter and the years passed by and he also started taking interest in the cooking so when someday the cook couldn't come, Asad had managed the kitchen and had served the clients. The restaurant's owner was pleasantly surprised with the amazing response for the food by the clients, so at that moment Asad had got promoted as the second chef of the restaurant. Soon, he had completed his studies and he worked in that restaurant for years but then the restaurant had to shut down due to some reasons, but this was a shock for Asad because cooking had become his passion and the bigger shock was that he had no job anymore, he never did savings since he always sent the money back home to Dilshad and for her treatment. For a month, Asad searched for jobs but when he found none, his landlord threw him out, he had spent days and nights outside in the cold weather.
Then one day, he had an encounter with Mr. Haider Sheikh, who was one of the best clients of the restaurant Asad had worked for. Since Haider had been very impressed by Asad's cooking skills, he hired him for his own Indian restaurant as the chef and since Asad had no more place to live at, Haider had given him this very manor to live in for rent.
Because of some errors of addresses, Asad never got the letter on which was written about his visa which had expired. Asad had come to the US at the young age of 18 and now he was 28, never did he went back to India to meet his mother who was now alright, because even though Asad had been lonely in the beginning, he had become used to this environment and he liked the US. His aim was to become a bigger person for his mother so that she wouldn't have to work, though at multiple times Dilshad had called him back, he felt like going back to his home town but he had to stay to make a name for himself.
When Asad got to know that his visa had expired, he went to the immigration office and asked for a resident visa but it had been refused. So then he showed them his work permit but still the immigration officer had argued about the fact that it had been too long of a period since the day his visa had expired and that it was only now that he was coming for the renewal, so his demand of resident visa had been refused. Asad didn't know what to do, he told Haider about his problem and Haider, even though he was really happy with the profit of Asad's cooking, he didn't wanted to land in any kind of trouble, so he fired Asad but didn't know how to take back the manor from him. So one day, he sent goons over to scare and threaten Asad, but since Asad was nothing of a coward, he replied to them saying that he wouldn't leave and that led to a fight during which they all beat Asad black and blue, despite his fight back, he was not strong enough against 15 men. They didn't even realized how much they had beaten Asad and when Haider saw how badly he was injured, he feared being punished by the law because even though Asad wasn't an American citizen, he still was a human being. So he decided fastly and locked him up in the big almirah in the cave. Afterwards, Haider sold this manor to Zoya the next day and he himself took all the money and fleed back to India and after 3-4 days when Zoya moved in, that's how she had found him.
It was now logical why Asad didn't wanted Zoya to contact the police or the hospital for him because the first thing they would ask, would be his papers, his ID card, and then they would know that he isn't an American citizen and would deport him.
Zoya was left speechless, Asad looked at her trying to gauge her reaction but nothing came out of her mouth, "How come the immigration office didn't come to deport you yet ?" She asked curiously but that was a pang in his heart, Zoya smacked herself mentally, "I'm so sorry, i meant that how come thet didn't found you yet ?"
"Erm... I guess that on my old papers, it's my old address from where i was kicked out..." Asad said a little awkwardly, "But they might find me soon with the work permit i had showed them, they would go to the restaurant and search for me..." He sighed sadly.
"But that's really unfair ! Just because of the fault of one of their employee who didn't noted down your address, they are refusing to give you a resident visa ?!" Zoya exlaimed angrily and he smiled sadly.
"I can't do anything, i'm not in a position to sue them... All i'm left with is my wallet and this ring that my Ammi gave me to give to her 'future daughter-in-law'..." He said taking out a beautiful white golded ring with a big diamond in the middle and smallers around it, it was simple yet beautiful, "Mothers i tell you ! All they can think of is marriage !" Asad joked trying to ease the tension but when he looked at her, it seemed like his joke didn't went well with her.
They were broken out of their thoughts when they heard the doorbell, they exchanged glances, thinking it to be the immigration officers, Zoya put her finger on her mouth, gesturing him to be quiet and got up to look out of the window, she almost laughed in relief when she saw that those were the people who came with the rest of her belongings.
"Asad, lie down, don't worry it's just the people who came with the rest of my stuff..." Zoya smiled at him and he looked at her a little shocked.
"So you won't kick me out ?!" Asad asked surprised, "Zoya i don't know if you realize but you might get yourself in trouble by..." Asad was cut off his rant by Zoya.
"Let me make one thing clear, i'm not going anywhere, nor are you in the position to go anywhere and how did you even think that i would kick you out ?! Anyways, we'll talk about all this later, for now, not a word in front of these people !" Zoya told him with her hands on her hips and before he could say anything, she walked out to open the door.
The men did put everything according to Zoya's demands, she told them exactly which things she wanted to be put in which position, while Asad was seated on the couch with his legs out-stretched on the couch. Zoya asked about his opinion at multiple times but since Asad wasn't much into interior decoration he would only nod, making Zoya roll her eyes and the men laugh.
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Zoya knocked on what was now Asad's room door, since all her furniture had come, she had told him to shift in a room, on a bed which would be more comfortable than the hall's couch.
She entered his room when she heard no response, he was lying on the bed uncomfortably but sound asleep, a small smile curved up her lips looking at how innocent he looked, she concluded that the painkillers did their job since he was asleep. Soon she came out of her little staring session and wrote a note on which she had written that she was going to the groceries store and that she would be back soon.
She covered him properly with the blanket, it was winter and he was only in a vest, suddenly she felt a pang of guilt for having cut his shirt, but she smiled when she saw him snuggling in the blanket like a child.
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"Wow ! Give it to me, i'll help !" Asad suggested opening the door, surprised to find Zoya whose face was barely visible due to the big full paper bags.
"No ways ! Even though you are a little hyper-active, you are not allowed to lift weight ! Now please step aside, these bags are heavy !" Zoya ordered and then complained making Asad chuckle and he gave her way to get in the house. Asad laughed seeing her breath a sigh of relief at putting down the bags in the kitchen and she narrowed her eyes at him, making him lift up his hands innocently.
When Zoya brought the rest of the groceries, they started arranging things in the cabinets of the kitchen despite Zoya's protests.
"Asad ?" Zoya asked while arranging things on one side of the kitchen and Asad 'Hmm' in reply, prodding her further, "You are a chef, right ?" She asked confused and he chuckled.
"Koi shaq ?" He chuckled while looking at her from over his shoulder, before turning around and looking at her properly who had a sheepish look on her face.
"No... I mean that... Erm... You eat like anybody... What i meant is that a chef is always supposed to throw tantrums... I mean, chefs hamesha nakhrelu hote hain, nahi ? I mean you ate a pizza which was full of cheese and all, you even ate Humaira's breakfast as if it was delicious..." Zoya asked innocently and Asad grinned when she called him 'nakhrelu'.
He scratched the back of his head an blushed a little before giving her his answer, "Honestly, i was ! Well i was exactly the way you described untill i had been locked up... Actually when you are hungry then even the choosiest chef can eat a more than oily pizza and an overcooked breakfast !" Asad went back to his chef mode, making Zoya laugh whole-heartedly and his grin widen at her reaction. When she finally calmed down, Asad asked teasingly, "So ? You tell me ? Can you cook ?" He asked with a raised eyebrow and crooked smile but her mouth fell agape in shock of his question.
"Of course i can cook ! But the fact that i don't like to cook is another fact !" Zoya exclaimed outraged but voiced the second sentence in a low voice making this time Asad laugh. She smiled seeing him laugh so carefreely.
Asad started taking out more stuff from the paper bags but was confused seeing some clothes. A sky blue shirt, similar to his favourite one, the one Zoya cut the previous day, a nice and warm black jacket, a sweater with stripes along with blue jeans.
Before he could say anything, Zoya spoke, "Erm... I wanted to apologize since i cut your favourite shirt and then i thought that you weren't having your clothes neither, so i bought these, i hope you liked it..." She said with an apologetic smile while Asad looked at her very touched.
"Zoya... I don't know what to say... Thank you.. That was very thoughtful of you..." Without thinking further, he pulled her in for a hug, Zoya's eyes widen, she was a little startled by this movement, but slowly put her arms around him too.
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A/N : please pleease please forgive me for any mistakes, i know nothing about American law, i'm a french citizen only so i did the way i thought to be right 😆 about Asad's past, honestly it was a little difficult for me to shape up Asad's past, at multiple times i changed his back story and then finally ettled on this one, honestly i went with the flow when i was writing ! 😳 i dont know why but i feel like i lost a lot of readers because the numbers of 'likes' decresed a lot and the comments too, so please guys, make ur presence known once again ! 😃 please press the 'like' button and leave me a lots of
COMMENTS !! 😉
Edited by SBanoMalik - 11 years ago
Anupamaa
47