Page 88 of A King's Oath

“Here,” he passed her two pillows. “You still need them between your legs, right?”

She stared at his hand over the privacy screen.

“Right?” His voice came again, this time hesitant. The pillows in his hand waved to and fro. Avantika reached out and took them.

“Thanks.”

“You won’t be able to sleep all night. What will you do?”

“I’ll work.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“I can stay awake.”

“No, sleep. You have practise tomorrow.”

“I can manage.”

“No, seriously. Sleep. I have work to do.”

A pause. Then — “Alright. Wake me up if you get bored.”

She smiled. Hoping, badly hoping that she could lower the privacy screen and keep talking to him. She wanted to toggle the voice recorder on her phone and creepily record their conversations. To keep playing them back whenever she wanted to. But all she could do was knock on the privacy screen twice with a — “Goodnight.”

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It was some godforsaken hour in the middle of the night but it wasn’t morning yet. With her eyes closed behind her bunny eye mask, lying back on her stash of pillows, Samarth’s pillows under her thighs, one leg over another knee, music in her ears, she did nothing but think. Think about this night, and how incredibly precious it was and how wasted it would be. With each passing minute, she was missing out on what little she had gotten.

Avantika sighed, twisting to her side.Either sleep or wake him up,she told herself, knowing neither was possible.

Let’s check the watch. Maybe it’s morning and time to land.

She pulled up her eye mask to the top of her head and squinted at her wrist. It was 4.45 am. Still a good three hours to go. She wasn’t even hungry that she could call for a snack. Water… but too much of it and she would have to shuttle between here and the bathroom. And even if she wasn’t sleepy, her body was tired enough to slacken at the mere thought of getting up and going to the lavatory.

Avantika quietly sat up and smoothed her fingers through her hair. Maybe a movie…

She began to reach for her iPad when the phone light from across the privacy screen caught her unaware. She nudged her chin up, peeping over to see if it was a message alert or he was actually awake and messing with his phone. She couldn’t see much so she got on her haunches, holding onto the edge of the screen. A blasting Punjabi pop thumped through her ear, and her eyes feasted on Samarth’s tall frame turned to his side, AirPods in his ears, finger scrolling through his phone lying beside him. He was listening to music too, she peered.

It was 4.45 am. His pre-morning ritual. Did he still wake up early and listen to bhajan?

Curious, she leaned in some more, hoping to catch the playlist. The screen was too bright for her to make anything out. She now got on her toes, half rising, and lost her balance.

“Fuckk!”

She fell back in her bedding but the next thing she knew, the privacy screen went down and Samarth was in her face — “What happened?”

Her headphones had fallen off and around her neck, the music blasting loud enough for both of them to hear.

“Nothing,” she smiled sheepishly, trying and failing to act nonchalant. “I was just getting bored. You are awake?”

“Just woke up.” He pulled out one AirPod. “Did you sleep?”

“Barely. What are you listening to?”

“My bhajans,” he didn’t even hesitate this time.

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