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Part 2 - "Back Story"
The lady in Red had a name. "SANAM"! Aahil thought to himself as he drove home. It suited her. He had heard her friends toast to her. "To Sanam"! Congratulating her for dealing with the "Rich Douche Bag", which was him! No one liked being the subject of humor for anyone. Naturally Aahil had felt his temper rise at the way she had presented him to her friends. But maybe in her mind that is how she saw him? As some sort of arrogant rich guy? Yes he was rich, and yes he could be arrogant. But that didn't make him a "Douche Bag"? Surly? He usually didn't care what anyone thought of him? So WHY did the idea of this "Sanam" having a less than elevated opinion of him matter to him? Why did it get to him so much that she had been cracking jokes about him to her friends? He was taking the long way home, coz suddenly the rest of the night stretched in front of him endlessly. Even his brother was not home, so the only refuge from his thoughts would be to play a video game when he got home.
He had dropped Simran off at her flat, and told her that it was best if they didn't see each other anymore. She had been upset and insisted on knowing what she had "done"? He had insisted back that she had not "done" anything, but he didn't think they had enough in common to continue to see each other. Of course she had cried and he had tried his best to be patient with her. But in the end, he had had to walk out. He felt like a bit of a heel, but the truth was there was no point leading her on, when he had lost interest in her totally. IF he was even that interested to start with.
The fact was that Aahil had never had a serious girlfriend. He had never felt the need to. He liked women and he liked their company. But on his terms, and he had never wanted commitment. He was soon going to turn 30, and coming close to this milestone birthday maybe it was time to reflect on his relationship status? "You knew for months that you were turning 30 Aahil. So why is it a cause for reflection tonight? What is the matter with you suddenly? He had to ask himself? He felt restless. Admit it or not, his meeting with the lady in red Sanam, had stirred something in him. The way she viewed him bothered him. How she had dismissed him as an arrogant rich guy with a bad attitude got to him. Nothing got to him. Well almost nothing. He only ever cared what a few people thought of him. All of them belonged to his family. He had never cared what anyone outside thought. But suddenly the opinion of a girl he had only just met seemed to matter to him? Yeh muje kya hogaya hain?"
He had never been in love. He didn't even know if such an emotion existed for real? He had heard friends of his talk of "being in love" and how they just knew someone was "The one" and he had always just laughed it off. He had never really seen an example of it close to him? Maybe that was the reason for his cynicism. He had never really seen a happy marriage. His Mother had died when he was 4, and his father had re-married when he was 8. His step Mother had been kind to him, and they had got along well. Maybe because he didn't remember his own Mother much, he never felt like she was replacing her. So he had found it easy to accept her in his life. She herself had a 4 year old son from her first marriage. Rehan. Rehan Imraan Qureshi, to be exact. Rehan's father had been an Army Officer and died in the line of duty. So for both her father and his step mother, this was a second marriage. His Father had never been a demonstrative man. He never remembered his Father ever hugging him. He had always been very strict and had never hesitated to use his belt on him at the slightest provocation. He remembered his Step Mother had been shocked at this behavior and many times tried to stop him from acting this way. Having a small son herself, she had been appalled by the way his Father acted. She had tried her best to keep the whippings at a minimum. They had settled into a sort of "Semi happy" existence. The best addition to his life from his father's marriage had been Rehan.
In Rehan, he had found a companion. They had become close and spent all their free time together. He had two sisters Nazia and Shazia who were fraternal twins and 4 years his junior, but they had never been very close to him growing up. They had gone to boarding school as kids and they had only seen each other mostly during school holidays. Sometimes they would all go overseas to their Mother's sister and family who lived in the States. Those were the only times he had spent a lot of time with his sisters. Sometimes Rehan had joined him on those trips too. Nazia and Shazia were currently living in the States. They were in their mid-twenties now, and involved in further studies. Both Aahil and Rehan had lived in America for a number of years as well, going to Business school. But now they were both back in India, running their family firm "Ibrahim Holdings". Rehan was his right hand man, and there was no one he would trust more with sharing their business decisions than his brother. If nothing else, he would always be thankful to his father for marrying Tanveer, because through her, he got a great brother, Rehan, who was more like his best friend.
When Aahil was 15, his Father had died in a hunting accident. He had been accidentally shot during a hunting trip with his high class cronies that he used hunt with. Hunting was his passion and he had gone on trips whenever he could. Aahil wondered now if the marriage between his Father and Step Mother had ever really been a happy one. He seemed to never miss an opportunity to leave home and most times she didn't go with him. He had heard them argue several times before he went on one of his "trips". In hindsight he wondered if there had possibly been other women too? Not that he would be surprised if there was. His father had loved his whisky as well. All he remembered feeling after his Father died was a slight feeling of melancholy followed by a sense of relief. At the time, he had felt a certain amount of guilt at the fact that he had never really missed his father after he passed away. But maybe that was more his father's fault than his? As an adult he understood that the sort of person his Father had been, it would have been hard to miss him.
These days it was just their Mum, Rehan and him at home. His Mother's cousin and his wife lived with them too. But these days they were not always in town. Their son Azar lived in Delhi, so they spent a lot of time with him too. Their Mother traveled part of the year as well, and visited her friends and relatives, and she annually went to America to see his sisters. She was involved in charities. She no longer took as much interest in the business. Because he and Rehan took care of that now. But lately she had mentioned to him several times that since he was turning 30, maybe he should think of marriage? But of course he had laughed it off, saying he had ages to think of that. To be honest, he had not really thought he would get married. He had told his Mother that Rehan and his sisters could provide the family with heirs. "They can provide me with grandchildren Aahil, but they can't provide this house with an heir, only you can do that"! She had correctly pointed out that HE would have to have a child to further the Ibrahim name, which his sisters and Rehan could not do.
He had never thought of himself as a romantic, but even he drew the line at marrying just to provide his house with an heir. Something in him cringed at the thought of committing himself to someone out of convenience or for expedient reasons. Somewhere deep inside, he had always thought that if he DID get married, it would only be because he absolutely wanted to. Nothing else would compel him. But what would make him "want" to get married? Falling in love? Why did he even think it was possible? Or was it that he thought no one would fall in love with him? He knew he was a catch. He knew girls loved the "Idea" of him. Girls had told him in the past that they loved him, but he had never believed them. They didn't even really know him? So how could they love him? They knew nothing about "Aahil" the guy, just "Aahil" the image. So whatever they thought they loved was just a projection, not the real deal! His childhood had not really compelled him to believe he was lovable. His own Father had not loved him. Even though he didn't fixate on that anymore, deep seated beliefs were hard to shake.
He had always purposely dated the type of girl that he could just have a surface relationship with. He had never felt seeing any girl like he wanted to "stop and stare". Well not until tonight. No one had ever taken his breath away, but tonight, when he had seen Sanam standing in front of him, for a moment he had almost forgotten to breath. He had forgotten why he had asked to see her, and why he was even there? That had NEVER happened to him before. He had met many beautiful and attractive women over the years. He had had relations with some of them too. But NEVER had he felt like he couldn't take his eyes off them. But from the moment he saw Sanam, his eyes had just been glued to her and followed her wherever she went. When she was out of his sight, he had wondered where she was? Wondered what she was doing? And who she was with? Even now, he found himself thinking the same. "Aysa peheli baar huwa hain mere saath, ke nazar se door hojane ke baad bhi, koi hayalon se door nahin ho jatha".
What was he going to do with this feeling? He had lived 29 years without feeling this "Pull" towards someone that made it impossible for him to stay still. He had never felt out on a limb like this before. He had no control over this feeling and he didn't like the way that made him feel. He was at it's mercy and Aahil Raza Imbrahim didn't like the feeling of not being in control. He reached home and after parking his car, he went to his room and changed into track pants and t-shirt. He went through his collection of video games and nothing appealed to him. He suddenly looked at his phone and it was still 12.30. He could call Rehan? He dialled his brother's number, and it rang a few times before he picked it up!
"Ha Bhai"? he said.
"Hey Rehan...what's happening"? He could hear the sound of loud music coming from the background. "Are you at a club"?
"Yeah...people from the conference decided to go clubbing. What are you doing calling me at this time on a Friday night? Aren't you out with Simran tonight?"
"We broke up"!
"Oh...Sorry I guess, but I can't say I'm surprised!" laughed Rehan.
"Sarcasm ha Rehan?" chuckled Aahil.
"More like realism Bhai!"
"How's the I.T conference?"
"It's amazing bhai" said Rehan with more than his usual enthusiasm for such things.
"Amazing?" Aahil questioned sarcastically. "The last one you went to I recall you said it was dull as ditch water'?"
"Let's just say...the view is a lot better this time" said Rehan with a laugh.
"Why you player?...Better view ha?"
"Yeah...MUCH better Bhai"!
"Badmash! I'll let you go, coz that bloody music is taking my ear off. You're back on Monday right?
"Yeah. Catch you later Bhai"!
"Don't do anything I wouldn't"!
"So that means... I can do it all??"
"Cheeky bas***d! Have fun" laughed Aahil and cut the call.
He felt much better after talking to Rehan, as he always did. "Me and my Bromance" he thought as he settled down to play a game. At least for a while it will give him some respite from his thoughts of the Lady in red. The only upside to the whole night had been that unlike he had originally presumed, she had not been on a date, but having dinner with her friends. Wearing THAT Red dress, if she had been on a date, would she be going home alone?
"STOP thinking of her Aahil", he reprimanded himself as he took the controls of his PS3 in his hands.
Sanam had waved her friends goodbye and gone into the house around 2am. It was pretty late, but working in the restaurant business, she was used to late nights. Even her Badi Ammi was used to her hours now. Unlike her sister who was a programmer and web desiger, and mostly worked on contract and sometimes from home, she was always working late at the restaurant. Especially since they just opened up last month. This had been her dream always, to own her own restaurant. She and Seher had invested money from their inheritance to buy the plot and build the restaurant.
Their parents had left them a trust with money. Of course they had used a lot of it for their education. But they were lucky that the house they lived in was freehold and they also had money left over to go into this venture. In the past 2 years Seher had slowly established herself in programming and web designing, so she almost had a steady income from it now. Until a few months ago, Sanam had been Head Chef at a well-known Italian restaurant, until she had quit to open up S2'. Her close friend and Sous Chef there Sean Winget had joined her. He was pretty much like her "Co-Head Chef". Seher also helped out whenever she could with the restaurant. Since the death of their parents in a car crash when they were 16, they had become even closer. They were always tight, but the death of their parents had been a very traumatic event for them both, and they relied on each other to get through it. Badi Ammi had been so distraught at the start that they had to parent themselves for a while. They had been living in London at the time, having moved there when they were 4, because her Father had wanted all the family to be close to each other.
Their uncle Ayaan and aunts had rallied around them. But Badi Ammi had said she just couldn't live in London anymore, in their family home coz everything reminded her too much of Ammi and Abbu. She had insisted she wanted to come back to India, live her last years in her homeland. They had not wanted to be parted from her, so they had come back to Bhopal with her. After finishing high school they had gone on to College in Bhopal. Then Seher and Sanam had both gone to New York for 2 years and lived with their aunt Zeenat while Sanam had studied in a top culinary institute and Seher had gone to NYU to further study programming and web designing. They had both achieved more qualifications in their chosen fields and come back to India 2.5 years ago, with plans to make it in their chosen professions. Since then Sanam had worked as a chef and Seher as a programmer. At the moment, Badi Ammi was away visiting some relatives in Luknow, and her sister was in Mumbai at an I.T conference.
Suddenly she missed Seher a lot and felt like talking to her. Even though she had had a great night, the earlier events of the night had left an impression on her. A feeling she could not quite shake had stayed with her. She recalled a pair of intense brown eyes boring into. The look in those eyes were hard to forget. He had looked angry, but not just angry. Offended as well, and something else, something she couldn't place? He had looked at her, like he would very much like to make her detract the words she had said about him to her friends? "Well he deserved it" she told herself as she started to change out of her clothes into her night things. She went to the bathroom and took her make up off, and went back to her room.
The red dress she wore was on the armchair in her room and she picked it up to hang it up to air. As she hung the dress, a sudden vision of how Mr Pompous had looked at her when she stepped from behind Sean came to her mind. His eyes had moved up her and for a moment she had felt heat creep up her skin at the look in his eyes. But she had been determined not to let his insolence get to her. She knew his type. "Totally objectifying females. I bet he thinks we are only good for one thing!" She thought derisively. That is probably why he had been so surprised when he saw that a woman was the Head Chef and not a man. "Chauvinist" she thought. Her friend Rhea was so taken with him, and even the rest of her friends had admired his obvious hot looks and his title. But SHE didn't care about any of that. She was not the type of girl who got swept away by such things. No. Mr Pompous was welcome to the type of girl she had seen with him tonight. The type that hung on his every word and probably didn't have an opinion of their own. The fact that he was with her said more about him, than about her. It was clear he didn't like women who were smart and on par with him. "Typical" thought Sanam. She really should not waste any more time thinking of Mr Pompous. She had better things to do. "Wonder what Seher is doing"? It was pretty late, but she was at a conference, so quite possible she might be out.
She thought she would at least try her sister's number and see if she would pick up. She dialled Seher and after several rings she picked it up.
"Hey Api...?" She called her Api even though they were twins, coz she was technically older than her. Having been born 20 minutes apart.
"Hi Seh...What are you doing?" she could hear some loud music in the background.
"Out clubbing. The conference crowd wanted to go out. I was just on the balcony, so heard my phone. Are you still out with Nat and the rest"?
"No. Just got home now"
"How was the party?"
"Really good, and we really missed you babe"
"I missed being there too. But when I get back, let's all have dinner AND go clubbing OK"?
"Sounds good. How's the conference?"
"Pretty good. Interesting crowd this time!"
"You mean hot guys"? Laughed Sanam.
"That too. Will tell you all about it when I get back".
"You're back Tuesday right"?
"Yeah. Is Badi Ammi back next week?"
"No. She called yesterday to say she will be another week at least. Catching up with more of her relatives!"
"Hey...Seher...You coming in?" Sanam heard a male voice say in the background.
"Better go Api"
"One of the hot guys?" laughed Sanam.
"Hot AND Cute", said Seher laughing back.
"Like THAT ha? Have fun, but don't do anything I wouldn't do".
"Oh. So does that mean I should go back to my room now and start reading a book"?
"WHY you little...".
"Bye Api...love you!"
"Love you too"! Said Sanam, laughing and cutting the call. Talking to her sister always made her feel better. They were like each other's foil. She got into bed and looked towards her Night stand. "The Book" she had been reading for the past week came to sight. She laughed as she remembered what Seher had said about going to her room and reading a book. She had always been the more serious one. She had always been more into reading than Seher was. But she did know how to have fun.
"I bet Mr Pompous is not in bed with a 'book' at this time on a Friday night" she found herself thinking. "Miss Whiny was probably gracing it right now". "WHY am I wasting my time thinking about him? Kya Hogaya hain muje? I think I'll just watch re-runs of MKR!" she thought as she reached for her IPad which was also on her night stand. She suddenly remembered what Sean had said when describing Mr Pompous when he first came over to her to talk about "the issue at table 3" as he had called it. "You know the type? Dressed in Ralph Lauren, probably loaded, watched Masterchef and MKR and thinks he knows everything about cooking?"
"STOP thinking of him Sanam"! she scolded herself as she took her I-Pad and started to browse the internet for episodes of MKR.
So that night, Mr Pompous and Lady in Red both fell asleep with their digital aids clutched to their hearts.
To be continued.
So this was the back stories of Aahil and Sanam. I wanted to give some details about them before moving on to the next part of the story which will be fun! :)
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Cheers,
M
Previous part - Part 1 - "Lady In Red" Next Part - Part 3 - "The Talented Ms Khan"
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