Chapter 10 / 51 · 3 min
The Habit of Touching Fingers
Part 1
Sabbir’s eyebrows were tightly furrowed.
“Niharika, be honest. Why did you react like that?”
Niha suppressed her irritation. Why did he need to say be honest? It wasn’t as though she had ever lied to him. But Sabbir always used her full name when he was angry.
“You were driving too fast,” she said. “I got scared.”
“Seriously?” Sabbir replied. “I’ve driven even faster with you on highways before. Nothing happened then.”
Tears threatened to return.
“Do I not even have the freedom to cry? Am I not allowed to cry?”
Sabbir became even more serious.
“After marriage, the only thing I’ve done is ask you not to text people late at night. What freedom have I taken away from you?”
“That wasn’t a small thing, either.”
Then quietly:
“Sabbir… I want to be alone right now.”
“Answer a few questions first.”
“What questions?”
“Did you have any relationships before we got married?”
Something twisted inside her.
“Can we not talk about this today?”
“When you were crying, you said a lot of things without realizing it. I just want the full story.”
“Yes,” she said. “There was a relationship. But it’s a long story. I don’t want to tell it right now.”
Sabbir’s eyes reddened.
“How intimate were you?”
“Will you at least listen to the whole story?”
“No.”
He stared directly at her.
“Just answer one thing. Did you sleep with him?”
Niha couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
For a moment she wanted to slap him.
Instead, she smiled.
A cold smile.
“Yes,” she said. “Not once. Several times.”
The reaction was immediate.
A slap.
Hard.
She lost her balance and fell sideways.
Blood filled her mouth.
Her lip had split open.
She touched it quietly.
And discovered she could no longer cry.
Part 2
Years earlier.
Topu texted:
“Want some french fries?”
Nawshin replied:
“Weren’t we supposed to go for a walk on Shagufta Road?”
Topu called immediately.
“Come to Shagufta. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?!”
“Your house is literally one minute away.”
“I need time to get ready.”
“When you dress up, you look like an old witch. Don’t be late.”
Naturally, she arrived thirty minutes late.
Topu pretended to be annoyed.
But the moment he looked into her eyes, everything disappeared.
There was something magical there.
Something he could spend a lifetime staring at.
Yet he said none of that.
They were only friends.
Or at least that was what he told himself.
When she playfully pulled his hair and called him an idiot, he wished time would stop.
He wished their fingers could remain touching forever.
Part 3
One day Topu asked why she had refused to ride in a rickshaw with him.
Nawshin replied:
“I’ve never ridden in a rickshaw with a boy before.”
Topu felt embarrassed.
“So I don’t qualify?”
“You always misunderstand everything.”
Then she paused.
A long pause.
“I never said you couldn’t become that special person.”
Topu’s world turned upside down.
“Do I need to propose?”
“Yes.”
“Okay… Nawshin…”
“Wait! You idiot! Who proposes over the phone?”
“I’ll come right now. Ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes is too long!”
Topu jumped on his bicycle.
He couldn’t believe happiness like this existed.
Maybe that’s why it lasted only five minutes.
A car braked suddenly in front of him.
He swerved.
Another vehicle struck him from the side.
He hit the road.
Still alive.
Then a second car crushed into him.
Blood spread across the black asphalt.
People began running toward him.
The world became noise.
Confusion.
Pain.
His right hand still rested on the road.
His fingers searched blindly.
As though still looking for another hand to touch.
He never knew that years later, Nawshin would drive down this same road with her husband and suddenly break down in tears remembering him.
She could keep waiting.
Topu could no longer wait for death.
Five minutes later, his world blurred.
Then faded completely into darkness.