CHAPTER-8A MIDAIR MIRACLE Ridiculous.
Absolutely ridiculous.
No... scratch that. Make it infuriatingly, insanely, unbelievably ridiculous.
Actually I myself don't know what term this kind of situation where you have to sit for four whole damn hours in a plane, beside a person with whom you are supposed to play a happily married couple in order to execute a highly-risky mission and the very same person who didn't even spared you a single glance in all these hours. NOT A SINGLE GLANCE IN WHOLE FOUR FREAKING HOURS!!! Let alone saying anything. In fact there was a moment when I actually wondered if some unworldly power had actually turned this absolute jerk of a guy into stone.
I gazed wildly at the idiot who was unfortunately called Asad, sitting beside me in this business class part of the plane which NIB had arranged for us. They thought that us travelling in a plane together to Switzerland, instead of using their private jet, would make the base of our cover story a little stronger, giving to the fact that the Oberois could always check the flight details to confirm our flying-from-San Francisco-to-Switzerland-for-honeymoon story and the private jet really didn't go well with that picture.
Okay, so now coming back to the problem at hand, I felt like screaming aloud at the rage and frustration which were bubbling inside me in an alarmingly high level. I felt like a volcano ready to erupt, literally. I could feel my nails digging into my palms from fisting them so tightly and my desperate attempts to stop my nose from flaring and breathing fire like a dragon seemed to fail miserably. I wouldn't have been surprised if someone would have told me at that moment that my face resembled a tomato or rather a red chili. I could actually sense the subconscious of me getting uncontrollably violent to rip apart the guy sitting beside me. From the past four hours he had his face buried in the novel in his hands(Though I still have full-on doubt about the fact that he was actually reading it, giving to his terrible history or rather chemistry with classic romantic novels?!!!! I mean like seriously... Pride & Prejudice...and him?). I was now actually wondering if he had fainted with open eyes or had broken his neck as he never even looked up once from that goddamn thing( Though for the record I LOVE Pride & Prejudice). I almost exhaled loudly in annoyance. For the first hour I listened to songs, the second hour I spent watching a utterly weird movie which I didn't get the stamina to watch till end, the whole third hour I spent reading Julie James novel which actually managed to make me feel a bit better and the last hour I had spent glaring at this donkey and am still doing so without the slightest of success. To be honest, now I was just so desperate that even if he opened his mouth to announce that he was actually an alien from Mars, I wouldn't have minded it too as it would have at least brought his vocal chords to some action. I know that one would say that I myself could start a conversation as always the guy have to approach is a little bit clich, but tell me one thing, what was I supposed to say-" hey buddy! Don't you think the height of the icebergs in North Pole have decreased a little due to global warming? Oh! And have you heard how a gorilla in Africa has given birth to a dinosaur last week?", well I honestly don't think that was going to work.
I was now actually having the evil urge to give him 56 kicks, 79 punches, 105 slaps, 30 minutes of throttling session and throw him out of this aircraft... without a parachute of course. Ah! The idea itself was way too tempting to resist. Only thinking about gave me more pleasure than a bunch of pizzas. Well, now I actually regretted being a good girl.
" Are you ok?" The sudden words coming from the most unexpected source successfully threw me off guard and broke my train of thoughts, making me jump a little in my seat with a confused "Huh?". Perfect.
" Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He said with a kind of sheepish look and I continued to gaze at him, blinking stupidly like a lost puppy. Ok, so was it my frustration-driven stressed out brain hallucinating or this human being was actually talking with me. It took me all my powers to not gape at him at that moment. It actually seemed unreal, after waiting for so long. I had this sudden urge to pinch myself for confirmation but realized that keeping the shock in mind, I would probably need to punch myself and it wouldn't be the best thing to do at that time, I supposed.
" Are you ok?" He asked me again when apparently my goldfish expression didn't change. Now that I had a question which was waiting for an answer, I finally forced my mind to start functioning. Ok, so let's first check out all the parts of the mess I was currently in or rather going to land in.
1. I have rekindle my relationship with my ex-BFF to collect evidence against her husband who is a highly dangerous underworld king.
2. I have to reunite with my long lost cousins, one of whom is the right hand man of the very same don and the other one is getting married to his brother, and have to somehow bring both of them out of this whole mess.
3. All this while in order to execute this whole plan I have to pretend to be a so-in-love honeymoon couple with the only guy I had ever had any feelings for and who, for a fact, doesn't have an iota of feelings for me.
4. And, the most YAYY!!!' factor- even after all this I have to protect my heart from falling head over heels in love with this idiot, my pretend husband.
Well, these points pretty much spoke for my answer, didn't they?
"I am fine." I said quietly with a little smile and he nodded. Idiot.
" We will reach there soon." He added as if remembering suddenly.
Well done, Einstein.' I muttered in my mind but said nothing, instead just nodded.
" So, how is everyone in your home?" He asked after a little pause and I nearly fell off my seat. Ok, was I simply going crazy or Asad Ahmad Khan was actually trying to make a CONVERSATION with me?!!! I decided to not give away my euphoria or shock and smoothly ignored my subconscious which had already broken into a frantic happy jig.
" Umm... they are fine. How is everyone in your family?" I managed to let out in what I supposed to be a normal, cool and casual tone.
" Everyone is doing good. Api is now the mother of a six-year-old girl." He informed me happily. Well, it was indeed a happy.
" That's great." I said with an equally big smile. I had seen his sister once and she really looked like a very pretty and cute girl.
" You know, Ayat, her daughter, is really a huge fan of yours. She is practically crazy about that animation series of yours. Whenever I visit her, I find her watching that on TV. What was the name of that fairy? Nora... Lora... Dora..."
" Flora." I quickly interrupted him with the right name before he could butcher the name of my beloved creation more. This guy was definitely not in the fluffy or cheesy or girly things. I eyed the Pride & Prejudice once again, suspiciously. Something was definitely fishy.
" Sorry. I don't know why I always tend to forget that name." He gave me an apologetic smile with a rather sheepish look. In response, I mumbled an " It's ok" with an understanding look.
" You know, at first I didn't have any idea that it was yours but then I happened to notice the title card. I wasn't quite sure that it was the same Zoya Farooqui I knew. So I Googled you and well, it was indeed the Zoya Farooqui I knew. I was really surprised." He said and I felt a little faint. Ok, admitted that searching about someone via Google out of curiosity wasn't probably the most heart-fluttering or romantic thing to do but still the thought that he remembered me, in fact searched about me due to his own personal wish and not to actually hunt me down to be a part of some top secret mission, caused a little ticklish feeling in my stomach. Suddenly I felt like something a little more than a duty. And as much stupid as my mind called it, my heart warmed.
" I will really like to meet Ayat someday." I said instead with a smile.
" Oh! You don't have to worry about that. The next time she will come, probably she by herself will reach at your doorsteps. Since time I had told her that you were my old classmate, she had been driving me nuts to bring her to meet you." He ended with a chuckle and my smile broadened. I already loved that little girl.
" I also came to know that your recent movie is going to compete in the Oscars. In fact, the news portals were saying that your winning the Oscar this year is just a matter of time." He said with, dare I say this, admiration. I tried to calm down my fluttering heart at the mention of how close I was to fulfilling my dream. I didn't want to jinx things by talking about it but I know for how long I have seen this dream me winning the Oscars for making the best animation movie. And now coming so close to that dream, it gave me anxious shivers whenever it was mentioned.
" I felt really proud ... of you." He added quietly after a little pause and I was sure that I was dead. Those simple words pulled at something inside my chest so hard that my heart seemed to skip a beat or rather several beats. Asad was PROUD of ME?!!! Where was actually? In the middle of some Zoya In Wonderland?'
" Ahmm... th..thanks." After clearing my throat, I managed that with a little stutter. " I am sure that everyone who knows you will be proud of you too. You are doing such a great job. I mean you guys are the real hero, the ones who should be really admired as you risk your own life to save those people whom you don't even know. In fact, Mr. William was telling me how you were one of the best agents NIB ever had. This is completely great." I finished my ramble in one breath and from the stunned speechless look on Asad's face, I could safely guess I had in fact rambled a little too much. Oops. Giving to our history of eternal competitors and sworn-enemies during our whole school life( Old history and quite a shocking thing that I still managed to land in crush' with him), me praising him so much was indeed a little shocking. Well, in my defense all I could say was he started this praising thing( though I meant my words and fervently hope that he meant them too.)
" So..umm... woh... actually what are we going to tell everyone that about what you do? We can't say about your real job right?"I asked after few moments of awkward silence, in a desperate attempt to change the topic or whatever. I already heard about the software engineer story from Sanaya but thought confirm the details from the man himself to avoid any future bloopers and to be honest, I actually couldn't think of anything else to talk about at that moment.
" We are going to tell them that I am a software engineer in Google." He replied calmly and I choked on the air I had just inhaled.
" What? It isn't that unbelievable. In fact, I did get that job of a software engineer in Google but rejected it because I wanted to join NIB. You can still see the appointment letter if you." He said in mock-offence with a teasing gleam in his eyes. I however suddenly realized that my mouth was hanging open a little.
" You turned down a job in GOOGLE?" I asked with utmost incredulity which just met with a casual shrug from him.
" Well, that job didn't give me the kick which I felt from this job at NIB. I felt like I was meant for this job and I truly wanted to do it. Though, for the record, I can still land that job at Google whenever there is the vacancy." He ended with a smug look and I somehow stopped myself from rolling my eyes. Some things never change and this annoying gloating habit of his was certainly one of them.
Now one might think what was there so choking' about that new piece of information. So here came an old story. It went something like this. When I was in school, my ammi suddenly developed this obsession with Google and though always amazingly and firmly supportive about my all dreams, everyday she chanted for about 1000 times that I should be a software engineer in Google. As I had no intentions of being so, I always pacified my huffing and puffing mother saying that I would get her a son-in-law who would be a software engineer in Google. And voila! Look at the situation now after all these years. What was that thing called irony again?
Before I could brood over things a little more or anyone of us could say anything more, I announcement about our landing and I inhaled a deep breath. This whole thing was going to be one hell of a crazy experience and I could already bet my life upon that fact.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PRECAP: " May I?" I looked up at Asad hearing this who was holding the gorgeous ring in his hand. I looked at my sauce-covered other hand and then his expectant eyes. Why am I feeling like getting engaged... truly?'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey guys. I know I am late. But with three re-scheduled exams and my mother being ill, I was neither in the mood nor had the time to update. Thanks a lot for your love guys. It really means a lot. I am sorry for not including the precap here but the update was getting too long. Hope you will shower your love on this one too. Next update after 40+ likes. Thank you 😃
Edited by meera-kabhi - 9 years ago
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
Book Talk
Current Affairs
CID
4