Hello beautiful people! I am so glad that you guys liked this story, I wasn't sure of the response I would get since it doesn't follow the show's story line but I was pleasantly surprised. Here is the second part, it's a lot longer than the first part since I have verbal diarrhea when I write. Do lemme know what you think, and for those of you who read Clueless, don't worry, I will be updating it tomorrow!
Part 2
"Sanam are you sure about this?" He asked as I opened the door to my apartment.
"Yes, and Aahil if you ask again I swear I am going to leave you out in the cold New York winter, uh fall that feels like winter." I said stepping back and letting him into the house. He was still mumbling to himself cutely, holding his arm, which was in a sling, with his other hand. He hadn't shaved for a few days and the stubble lining his jaw made him look so much sexier than he usually did, and he looked absolutely wonderful standing in the middle of my apartment in his oversized grey sweatpants and black jacket.
"How can you trust me? What if I am some criminal or something, aren't you scared?" He asked, still looking at the floor with that little pouty angry face of his.
"Buddy, I have seen you for every day for the past month, you don't have any violent tendencies, you abhor loud noises, you can't stand the smell of smoke, you crave some of the world's most expensive truffles and you watch Spongebob Squarepants on TV...that just screams criminal to me." I said rolling my eyes as I walked in the door and hung my jacket up on the hook by the door.
"Holy, do residents get paid enough to afford this?" He asked finally looking around the apartment with an amazed look on his face causing me to smile, my dad would be beaming at the flabbergasted look on his face since this apartment was his choice, as an architect himself he took apartment hunting for his daughter very seriously.
"Definitely not, they are swimming in student loans. But my parents are loaded." I explained hanging my keys by the door, where they belonged. "Let me give you a grand tour."
"This is the living room where you can watch Spongebob. Kitchen, where I cook yummy food when I have time, piano room-"
"You play?" He asked sounding surprised.
"No my mom was all like that room is made for a piano so she just got me one." I explained causing him to laugh, that was Zoya Farooqui-Khan for you though.
"These are my beautiful books, feel free to browse through my babies." I said as he walked over to the bookshelves that took up a whole wall, I loved to read, a trait I had inherited from my father. And I loved having physical copies of the book, which my mother didn't understand, she had bought me a Kindle but it lay in its box, still unused. I watched the smile on his face as his fingers traced over the spines of the books.
"Is it weird that I remember reading this book?" He asked pulling out my battered copy of Oliver Twist. Ah, so he read Dickens too, could this man get any more perfect?
"Do you remember the story?" I asked him tentatively, hoping that I was wrong in my assumption that he wouldn't remember it, it was almost as if any personal memory stores he had were impacted by his injury, he remembered weird things -facts, world capitals, stock market prices. And he obviously retained his procedural memory, he still knew how to drive and do a whole range of tasks.
"Yeah it's about-" He started but then stopped. "I-I remember reading it but I can't remember the story..." He whispered sounding dejected again and my heart broke for him again, he would get so excited when he remembered something and his face would fall when he couldn't recall more.
"It's okay Aahil, it'll come back to you. Let me show you your room." I said leading him towards the guest bedroom. He nodded and followed me.
"Ah, this seems very luxurious." He smiled looking around the room, it was decorated in tones of gray and blue and was a very calming, and masculine room. The latter fact was one that my mother abhorred whenever she stayed over, she wanted to paint one wall and I quote this perfect shade of pink that would go so well with this blue.
"I am glad I have your approval. That over there is your bathroom and that is your empty closet which we need to stock up for you." I said.
"You don't have to Sanam, I feel like I am burdening you with all of this. You are giving me a place to live and I can't even pay you for it or anything-"
"Hey! I was looking for someone to guard the house while I go to work." I teased. "It's okay Aahil, you can pay me after you remember who you are." I reassured him.
"What if I turn out to be broke?" He asked with a teasing smile.
"You can work off your debt as my slave." I laughed. "But you wear a Rolex, Armani suits and Gucci dress shoes...I am quite sure you're not broke."
"Ah, so you are helping me for the money since you need it so much." He said looking around the apartment, the teasing evident in his voice.
"Oh, you've caught on! Whatever will I do now." I said and he laughed.
"You are adorable." He said and I felt myself blush. Allah Miyah, what's wrong with me?
X-X-X-X
"Owww." I heard him groan from his room as I worked in the kitchen the same evening. I tried to get him to remember his favourite food but he got nothing, he said he knew he liked Indian food and pizza but that was about it.
"Aahil?" I said walking towards his door and knocking. "Are you okay?"
"Uhm ye- OWWW." He groaned again, he sounded like he was in a lot of pain so I threw the door open. He was standing in the middle of the room his good arm in a shirt as he tried to squeeze the other sprained one through the sleeve.
"Stop, you'll hurt yourself!" I said rushing towards him and straightening out his sprained arm. And that is exactly when I realized that he was standing in front of me, almost shirtless, his beautiful toned stomach and chest on display, but then I caught the bruises adorning the sides of his body. My fingers involuntarily traced over the bruises on the side of his stomach, it was only when I heard his breath hitch in his throat that I realized what I was doing.
"Sorry!" I said blushing and pulling my hand away. "Let me help you." I said taking the shirt off him. I tried not to hyperventilate as I slid his sprained arm through the sleeve, my fingers were trembling and I was sure he noticed. I could feel him staring at me as he put his good arm into the sleeve, but I dared not to look up as my heart hammered in my chest. I held the shirt close in front of him and started buttoning it figuring that he couldn't do so himself, I tried my best to not graze his warm skin as I buttoned his shirt but it was really hard considering that my fingers were trembling. The white shirt looked absolutely sinful on him, as if he wasn't tempting enough already.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I hit his hand by mistake and he hissed in pain, my hands automatically wrapped around his as if it was going to stop the pain as my eyes flashed up to his. I let his hand go as my eyes looked anywhere but at him as I started buttoning his shirt again. I couldn't help but look up at his face every few seconds though, every time I looked up he was staring at me which made my heart beat faster as I looked away again. I finished buttoning his shirt, I should have moved away from him but I couldn't, my eyes were locked onto his and my hands rested on his chest, his heart was hammering away just as fast as mine was.
I felt my breath hitch as his eyes moved down slightly, looking at my lips, which parted on their own accord. There was just something about the way he looked at me right then, I had no idea what was going on but something was changing. We were broken out of our little bubble as the timer on the microwave went off. "I-uh..dinner is ready." I said and then all but ran out of the room trying to calm myself down.
X-X-X-X
"Why are you up so early?" I asked as I bounded down the stairs in my scrubs a few days later.
I stopped when I caught sight of him, he was wearing those grey plaid pajamas we bought along with a black t-shirt that stretched sinfully across his broad chest. His hair was all messed up and floppy and he had a little smile on his face as he stood in front of the stove. My heart thumped and my mouth watered, and not only due to the wonderful smell wafting around.
"Making you breakfast." He said as he flipped the omelet.
"You know how to cook, and that too with one hand?" I asked surprised, I could see my mom's eyes going wide in my mind, marry him, she would scream and then go on about how dad managed to turn the whole kitchen into a zoo to make a single pizza.
"Apparently." He shrugged. "It's so annoying that I remember things like this but not my own name." He sighed.
"You'll be okay, don't worry about it too much Aahil." I said loving the way his name rolled off my tongue.
"Une omelette pour vous mademoiselle." He said plating it and putting it in front of me.
"You know French!" I gasped.
"Uh, I guess so." He said.
"Maybe we should start looking through people with the name Aahil in Canada too." I said as I took a bite of the omelette. "Ahhh, this is so good." I mumbled as I went in for another bite.
"I'll consider this a success since a cook of your caliber likes it." He said as he started on another one.
"Definite success, you are spoiling me, my breakfast is usually a banana."
"A banana is not breakfast, and you deserve to be spoiled." He said causing me to smile. He was so sweet. I watched him make his food and realized that despite these wonderful omelettes his movements in the kitchen weren't smooth so I figured he didn't cook much.
"I am guessing you have to watch movies alone today." I said, we had spent the past few days just lounging around and talking, hoping that something would trigger a memory.
"But it's not fun without your -Allah Miyah, that makes no sense! - and other outbursts." He teased.
"Yeah yeah. I'll see you later then, take care of yourself. You have my number in case of an emergency or anything."
"I am pretty are I am capable of lounging around without putting my health at risk."
"I just worry." I shrugged as I walked out the door.
"Sanam?" He said from behind me.
"Yeah?" I said turning around and looking at him with a confused smile.
"Nothing." He said shaking his head.
X-X-X-X
"I think you were an adorable child." He said as he flipped through the album two weeks later.
"Ya Allah, those clothes." I cringed as a picture of me in red plaid skinny jeans and a black top showed up.
"This was in style back then wasn't it?" He asked.
"I suppose."
"So stop freaking out." He laughed. "You two look exactly like your mom, it's kind of scary."
"My mom says she has super DNA since we both look like her, but I am like my dad in a lot of ways, Seher not so much."
"You miss them." He said giving me the look. When he looked at me like that it was almost as if he could stare into my soul.
"A lot, it was initially so hard to stay away from them. We've always lived together, our parents - they didn't have the best childhoods but they made sure that we had one, they were always around, and the four of us were always together. It felt so lonely at first. There were many times where I just wanted to give up and go back home." I admitted, and I hadn't shared that with anyone before him.
"Good thing you stuck around, Doctor Sanam Ahmed Khan." He teased.
"Resident."
"No one but doctors know the difference." He laughed. "I know this is the part where I am supposed to reciprocate and tell you about my childhood but I can't. And I feel like I don't even want to think about it you know? It's kind of weird."
X-X-X-X
"What the hell is that?" I asked walking into the living room a few days later, I had just gotten back from work when I noticed the abomination on the middle of the room.
"A Christmas tree!" He said with a huge smile on his face.
"It's huge...and real." I said my eyes wide. "How the hell did you get it up here?" I asked, his arm was a lot better but he was in no state to carry a tree.
"The dude gave me a skateboard!"
"The dude?"
"Yeah, I met some dude down the street. He bought this and his wife hated it, so he was giving it away. And then while I was standing there I realized that I don't really remember my religion either, I mean, I am probably not Christian considering my name and stuff but you never know right? And it's so pretty, I thought we could decorate it and then you'd miss your family a little less too." He said and I swear I melted into a little puddle right there with how sweet he was.
"Okay then, get your jacket, we're going ornament shopping."
"For real?"
"For real." I laughed dragging him out the door.
X-X-X-X
"Holy shit, I can't believe I don't remember this!" He said watching the screen avidly as I munched on popcorn. We were both sitting on the couch watching TV, our legs lay tangled on the ottoman in front of us as we slouched down shoulder to shoulder on the comfy couch.
"I'd be so sad if you weren't a Harry Potter fan, I'd have to rethink this friendship." I teased.
"Is that what we are?" He said grabbing a handful of popcorn and munching on them as Ron tried to pull Harry back into the car in the movie. My eyes grew wide and my heart thumped in my chest with his words.
"Why do you ask?" I asked after a while looking at him but he just smiled and shook his head. "What?" I asked.
"You're blushing." He smiled.
"I am not! It's just hot in here!"
"Really?"
"Yes." I said but it was actually freezing.
"You are a horrible liar."
"You talk too much."
"I do not, you should hear yourself when you get animated over something."
"Are you calling me a chatterbox?" I gasped.
"If the shoe fits." He teased.
"RUDE!" I said whacking him with a cushion.
"Isn't it against the Hippocratic Oath to beat patients?"
"Perhaps, but you aren't a patient."
"So I am not a patient or a friend, so what exactly am I?"
"Annoying." I said whacking him again but he grabbed the pillow out of my hand and looked at me with a devious smile.
"Oh really?"
"Yep!"
"I'll show you annoying." He said and then all of a sudden I was laying back on the couch and he was tickling me.
"AAhhh- A-Aaahil st-stop!" I got out in between laughs.
X-X-X-X
"Your friend is scary." Aahil said as we shut the door to the last of my dinner guests, my friends at the hospital had insisted that I make them Indian food, and I loved cooking for people so I invited them over. They finally met Aahil, and I didn't miss all the arched eyebrows, I was going to get thoroughly interrogated at work when I went in.
"She is not." I said walking back towards the kitchen.
"She carries around mistletoe." He said as if it automatically classified her as scary, it was odd but she was Britney, she was a little eccentric but a complete sweetheart.
"It's December." I shrugged.
"She is scary."
"She just likes you." I laughed at his face, Britney was obsessed with Aahil it seemed. She had taken one look at him and fallen for his exotic charm. I had rolled my eyes and laughed because Britney fell for a new guy at the speed of one guy per day.
"Maybe I should ask her out then." He said and my eyes snapped up to his to see a teasing glint in his. He was playing with me.
"Go right ahead."
"That hint of jealousy in your voice, and that look states otherwise." He said leaning against the kitchen counter as I put the leftovers away.
"I am not jealous."
"She says after grabbing mistletoe out of Britney's hand as she held it over me."
"That's because you looked uncomfortable."
"Sureee."
"Shut up."
"I just said sureee."
"I am not jealous!"
"Yeah right, friend."
X-X-X-X
"Uhm, Aahil?" I said again but he just stood there with his mouth wide open, blinking. "Aaahilll?" I tried again with a small smile.
"Huh?"
"I asked if I looked okay?" I said looking down at my red dress.
"Uh-huh." He nodded, his eyes wide. I internally did a happy dance with how amazed he looked right at that moment, he had frozen as soon as I stepped into the room and his eyes had widened adorably.
"Should we go then?" I smiled pointing towards the door, he shook his head and murmured something to himself before he walked towards me.
"You look more than okay, you look absolutely stunning. Beautiful." He said causing me to blush; he was just so sweet and it made me happy that he felt the same way that I felt when I looked at him. I had taken a double take seeing him in the white shirt and black coat when I walked downstairs; he just looked so gorgeous.
"Thank you." I smiled. "You look very handsome."
"Just keep Britney away from me then." He said causing me to laugh.
"It's a hospital fundraiser event, where she works, she'll behave." I smiled but I might have told Britney to back off, which had resulted in a lot of teasing but it was worth it. Everyone at the hospital knew he was off limits.
"Good, she should behave since I am going with you." He smiled as I locked the front door.
"It's not a date." I said.
"It's not a date." He said nodding yes but that huge smile on his face said otherwise.
"Stop smiling when you say it!" I said as we stepped into the elevator.
"Right, friend." He said nodding, trying to stop his smile but it wasn't working.
"You're annoying." I said.
"I am yours for tonight, no matter how annoying, since you asked me out." He teased.
"I just said I had no one to go with." I said still blushing. I didn't know why we did this whole back and forth thing about our feelings, but I liked it for some odd reason.
"Because you want to go with me."
"I do not."
"You know you bite your bottom lip whenever you lie." He said and I swear I heard him murmur that he wanted to bite it when the elevator dinged.
X-X-X-X
"AAHIL OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T THINK OF THIS!" I yelled as I threw the door to my apartment open a few days later. Aahil was sitting on the couch wide-eyed beside my father and I saw my mother beyond them in the kitchen. Aahil looked traumatized and dad's angry face indicated exactly why. I was in trouble, big timeee. "Hi guys! How was Milan? What are you two doing here?"
"The question is what is he doing here?" Dad said pointing towards Aahil, my mother rolled her eyes as she walked across the room and wrapped her arms around me.
"Hi baby." She whispered.
"Zoya, can you let her answer-" Dad started but then halted when mom have him the look. My dad sighed and ran his hand through his hair, he didn't say anything but he had that look on his face, the speak now look.
"Uh, well, I found him in the alley behind the building groaning in pain. And I called 911, he was beaten badly and had a severe concussion. And he has post-traumatic dissociative amnesia, he doesn't remember much of his past except his first name and the occasional -I used to watch this- and stuff like that."
"What is he doing here?" Dad asked. "And when were you planning to tell us this? You didn't think that this was an important thing to mention in all those phone calls."
"Well the hospital had to discharge him and I wasn't going to leave him out there all alone." I said sitting beside Aahil who was staring at me, a worried look on his face. "And I was going to tell you...soon."
"Sanam, you can't just do that. You have to think of your safety too, he doesn't even remember who he is, he was beaten by people, what if he is a criminal?"
"He's not." I said.
"How do you know?"
"He's too nice to be one dad. And you say I am good judge of character. Look at him and tell me that he looks like a criminal."
"Sanam, you can't-"
"Sir, I am sorry to interrupt. But I get where you are coming from, and I told her exactly what you're saying now. I don't know who I am, she doesn't either but she's too good of a person to leave someone stranded out there and I am internally grateful to her for that. I understand your concern but trust me when I say that I wouldn't ever do anything to hurt her." He said.
Dad sighed and ran his hand through his hair, which he did when he was annoyed. Mom grabbed his hand and squeezed it, reassuring him as she looked between Aahil and me with a peculiar look.
X-X-X-X
"You like him." Mom said as she sat beside me on my bed later that day.
I sighed realizing that it was true, I couldn't even deny it anymore. I liked his cute little habits, that sleepy smiley face of his and the things he said and did. Not to mention the fact that his sexy sweaty body was the object of my dreams and fantasies since we started using the gym in the building together.
"Yep."
"He's cute."
"Very." I agreed.
"But baby, he doesn't remember his past life, what if he has a wife and kids waiting somewhere?" She whispered and I felt my heart break a little having never thought of that, how could I forget about something like that?
"He is not wearing a ring." I bargained.
"Many men don't."
"But he's-"
"Baby, he is a year or two older than you, most people your age are married by now or engaged." She said.
I felt a weird pain settling over my chest as I realized how true it may be. He may be married and here I was falling for him like an idiot.
"You have to distance yourself now Sanam, just in case." Mom warned before wrapping her arms around me. "My poor child." She whispered as I cried.
X-X-X-X
"Why are you avoiding me?" He asked a week later, mom and dad had left, even dad had come to like him. The Asad Ahmed Khan letting a man live in the same apartment as me without a ring on my finger and a new last name meant a lot, I was absolutely shocked. But he had suggested about ten alternatives, all of which led to Aahil leaving, before he caved and I knew that mom had a lot to do with it. There was nothing in the world that Zoya-Farooqui Khan couldn't do!
"I am not." I said to him as he came out to stand on the terrace beside me.
"Sanam." He whispered lightly grabbing me by the arm and turning me towards him. "What's wrong?" He asked looking at me, I looked away immediately afraid that he would be able to read my eyes.
"Nothing."
"You are lying, something is wrong." He said, I flinched when I felt his hand touch my face and he stepped back abruptly. "I am sorry."
"I-"
"Tell me what's wrong Sanam."
"I think I am falling in love with you." I whispered finally admitting the words out loud. I tried my best to not think of him, to not smile at the things he did, to calm my heart down when he was around but it wasn't working. If anything it made me realize that my feelings ran a lot deeper than I thought they did.
"And you're avoiding me because of that? Even though it's obvious that I feel the same way." He whispered.
"I know you do, that's why I am avoiding you Aahil. What if you have a wife and kids, or a fiance or even a girlfriend out there waiting for you." I said and he froze, I realized that he probably hadn't thought of that either. "And with your type of memory loss there is a chance that when you get your memory back you'll forget all of this." I whispered pointing between us. "You'll forget me and all this time you spent with me. And I don't know how I'll survive if either happens so please let me distance myself while I can."
He had tears in his eyes that probably matched my own as he nodded, his fists clenched tightly before he walked back inside.
Edited by astonm - 10 years ago
