Anurag sleeping in the office was getting more frequent. When it first happened, Prerna would find him early in the mornings, totally knocked out on his chair as if he was there the whole night. He was in his kurtas too. After he woke up, he’d go to the bathroom to freshen up and change into his suit. She never asked him if he had spent the whole night in the office but she knew why and smiles.
He wasn’t sleeping with his new wife.
There was a time she asked him to forget her and move on, but he had refused to be with another girl. Prerna hopes he was still that Anurag. The one who let her only stake her claim on him.
Whenever he slept, he’d do so deeply. Like he forgot this painful world and went somewhere else. Curious to know where he went she would steal glances at him, wanting to join him in that world, to see what he had seen and to be with him.
Bahaar banke aaoon kabhi tumhaari duniya mein
Guzar na jaaye yeh din kahin isi tamanna mein
Prerna lifts his hand up and holds her breath while she looks at him, his eyes are still closed. She lets her eyes roam over his face, memorizing the straight bridge of his nose and his clean shaven chin. Her gaze rests on his lips. He had kissed her many times with those lips. Anurag wouldn’t want to forget her. She won’t let him.
His chest rises and falls as she leans forward and presses her cheek into his hand. She missed this! Feeling his skin against hers. Prerna gasps and her eyes quickly dart to his face. Her heart flutters.
He’s still asleep.
She waits for a moment before closing her eyes, snuggling deeper into his palm.
Remember me.
Prerna lets another moment pass before gently letting go.
✥✥✥✥
Anurag is awake when she steps into his cabin but he is too tired to open his eyes. He knows she wouldn’t disturb him and for that he is thankful. Prerna never nagged him. Sonalika nagged him. That’s why he is here.
It’s not time for him to wake up just yet, he had set his alarm clock to ring five minutes later. What surprises him next is when he feels her cut the distance between them and stops a feet or two away from him. She leans against his desk. They’re not even touching but the warmth of her body radiates around him.
Then she pulls his hand and slowly lifts it up to her face. It takes all of his willpower to keep his eyes shut. He wants to know what she’d do next.
Her eyelashes tickle him before her soft cheek caresses his palm. Her fingers gently trace his knuckles. Anurag almost forgets how to breathe in that moment.
He can smell her floral perfume, feel her body heat and it should disturb him. He didn’t even let Sonolika this close to him without feeling suffocated.
His skin tingles. He forces his breathing to remain even.
Unknowingly, had he stolen her heart?
Had she stolen his? Anurag doesn’t open his eyes and instead waits for Prerna to say something, to explain her odd behaviour. In silence, he begins to realize that this was familiar.
He refuses to burden her from holding his heavy arm and holds it in place himself. Would she notice that he wasn’t sleeping? Anurag hears the alarm go off.
It’s only after when she lets go that he opens his eyes.
••❂••
