Page 209 of Tall, Royal Hater
The struggle of finding time when we were both free to call each other. The twinge of longing when we video-called but really, I wanted to be able to touch and hold Shehryar. The dwindling fun of phone sex because I couldn’t smell him or feel the heat of him around me. And the disappointment when we tried to plan a visit, but the conversation always ended prematurely with,“I can’t do that week.”
Yet, oddly, not once in the near three months since I’d last seen Shehryar did I consider calling it quits. In fact, our relationship grew more solid and my feelings even deeper day by day. And it was all because he kept true to his word, prioritising communication between us so it didn’t feel as crappy not having him close by all the time.
Shehryar didn’t wait until after New Years to head back to work with Esmeralda. He wasn’t overtly restless about it, but I noticed he was keeping in contact with Yunis much more. And while his face always twisted in distaste at the idea of leaving Raven, I knew he missed his duty too. It was his life’s work after all, and as much as I selfishly wanted to keep him with me, I didn’t want him to feel like he had to pick between me and Esmeralda.
I was the one who urged him to book his ticket to Prio for the morning of the thirty-first of December so he could accompany her to the New Year’s party. Little did I know that he’d booked a ticket for me immediately after, having planned with Esmeralda to add me to the soiree’s guest list. I was confused as fuck when my parents arrived at my apartment, claiming they were dropping both of us off at the airport, when I’d been preparing myself to drive Shehryar and say my goodbyes.
I’d been pleasantly surprised, but I’d also been pissed that he hadn’t given me any time to pack. Only to discover that he’d already packed a small suitcase with basics and a party outfit and given it to my parents to hide at my family home. I wasn’t sure what I’d been more baffled by, the fact he’d paired my shoes, dress, and jewellery perfectly, or that I hadn’t once noticed that some of my possessions were going missing, considering I’d been officially unemployed and at home with him for nearly a week.
Nevertheless, I’d had a great night with him, Esmeralda, Kai, Kareem, and all the royals of Touma. But on the evening of the very next day, he went back to Jahandar with Esmeralda, and I flew back in the opposite direction to Raven.
I lasted about one week of joblessness into the new year before I asked my parents to onboard me as the events and networking admin in their firm. As much as I fit right in and fell in love with my role, things had been super hectic with meeting clients and planning a schedule of events for the year.
Shehryar had been just as busy, travelling Jahandar with Esmeralda to her meetings and public appearances. Butonlyas her private secretary. After a lot of back and forth between him and her, that I somehow ended up being the mediator of, Shehryar handed over full rein of her security to Yunis, allowing him to focus solely on managing her schedule.
He’d also kept in touch with his dad and had even met up with him twice. It was slow progress, understandably so, but I’d noticed the way he sounded less and less tense on the phone when he told me about Andrew Platmon. He was getting on a lot better with his half-sister, Ablah, and Esmeralda and I spoke to her a lot too. The same couldn’t have been said for her brother, Johnny. Shehryar hadn’t spoken to him since their fight, and it hadn’t seemed like that was going to change any time soon.
But before either of us knew it, Shehryar turned twenty-eight and Esmeralda twenty-four, the Peace Celebrations in Khaas came and went, and the end of March was in sight.
Yet not one of our plans to visit each other had managed to work past the discussion stage.
It was frustrating and soul-crushingly disappointing, but if I’d learnt anything from my five years of being irritatingly hung up on him even when I didn’t want to be, it was that Shehryar Dickhead Timur was worth the wait, and I wasn’t planning on letting him go any time soon.
So, it was no surprise that I was bloody annoyed when on the day of my birthday, Shehryar went radio-fucking-silent on me without warning.
Not a single message from him had popped up in my phone’s notifications amongst the birthday wishes from friends and family. Not one. Not a“Sorry, baby, I’m busy so my replies might be slow.”Not even a fucking good morning.
He hadn’t even read my“Is everything okay?”text!
I rubbed my teeth together as I stared down at the empty notification bar on the lock screen for the hundredth time since I’d woken up and gotten ready for work.
Brows crinkling, I let out an exasperated sigh and thumped my mobile face down on the white laminate desk I was sitting at in the office before setting my fingers over the keyboard. There was an email open on the large black monitor that I’d been trying to reply to for the last fifteen minutes, but being so pissed with Shehryar, I was struggling to concentrate on my work.
What the fuck are you doing that you can’t even drop your girlfriend a quick happy birthday message, huh? Fucking dickhead.
I doubted he’d forgotten. Shehryar wasn’t forgetful, plus he had a calendar entry for everything—we’d spoken about it less than a week ago too. I hadn’t been demanding, hadn’t fuckingasked for anything or for him to come see me, but I’d expected some sort of message of acknowledgment at the very least. Apparently, even that was asking for too much.
“It’s your birthday today, so why are you grumbling and sighing like your enemy stole your man?” someone said in the desk chair next to me, snatching me away from my irritated train of thought.
“Huh?” I said as I snapped my head around.
Priya, the twenty-eight-year-old social media manager of my parent’s company, cocked a dark brown brow in amusement. “I said, it’s your birthday, so why do you keep sighing so much?”
Before I could answer, Martin, the dark-skinned man of a similar age, sitting on the other side of Priya, angled his head past her shoulder. “It’s the phone. She keeps sighing and glaring at the phone,” he said.
Heat snuck across my cheeks as I realised my irritation had been so obvious to them, and I looked back to my monitor. “It’s nothing,” I muttered as I continued typing.
Priya chuckled. “Oh, it’s something all right. Are you waiting for someone to message you?”
“It has to be someone important,” Martin said, musing it over. “The boyfriend?”
I gritted my teeth when he hit the nail on the head, my fingers halting over the keyboard.
“Oh, that makes so much sense,” Priya agreed, and her chair squeaked as she swivelled back to face me. “Is it the boyfriend? Has he not messaged you?”
I glanced across my shoulder at them both, my lips curling up, unable to decide if they wanted to pout or sneer. “No, he bloody hasn’t.”
Priya and Martin both bared their teeth in a grimace before Priya said, “Like at all? Or he just hasn’t said happy birthday?”
