Ajeeb

Did you choose? Or were you a choice?

"I want you to find clients who'll pay for exclusive content." I could tell, Zohair was desperate. While Amir and Sohail were a part of the senior and celebrated top management in the company. Zohair was new and still on probation, which meant he still had to prove his worth. Basically he had to 'create a need' for himself and for 'content'. The foundations of which were set by Sohail who managed marketing but now 'they' wanted to test how profitable it could be if 'creativity' had its own department. See how corporate works is simple — they experiment. They'll experiment with everything at least once and it's almost always to improve turnover. Literally no one is actually needed to sustain a business, if you want you could make it run like a machine on autopilot. That's the real truth and an even bigger truth is, the only part of this machine that actually mattered or made any money was managed by Amir in Advertising. So everyone else was by all means expendable — at least that's how they made us feel. "& I don't care who's ass you have to kiss, kill or convince to do it."

Office politics aside. Work was wonderful. Would you believe it? The only two people I really liked at work were related. Coincidence? I think not. "I told Amir you call him 'Mamo Uncle' behind his back..." Saba said jokingly. She couldn't blame me. They did not look like cousins! "He said he doesn't care as long as you don't say it to his face." Well as long as all of us agreed he looks old..er than her.

"I'm guessing if I work here long enough — I'll know why he looks so old." It wasn't only his age. It was also the way he treated her. Like he was her big brother. Like she was his responsibility and every time he walked by, he stroked her head. A gesture of his affection. The first time I saw that, I saw him. I remember thinking — do people who have everything even know it?

"It's not like he even acknowledges me while he's here." She clearly didn't. "I'm surprised you could even tell... that we're related." She makes her point while squeezing a paper weight like it was a pressure ball. I smile, she and Amir were identical. In so many ways. I couldn't even begin to explain.

"I mean he must've acknowledged you when you were working in his department?"

"It was only for a few months and my job was organizing client lists."

"So were you just organizing client profiles or they're payment plans?"

"Like... It was pretty much everything."

"Um..." I wonder, "Can I get a copy of these client lists?"

She raised an eyebrow saying, "Sure you can... Why don't you ask for a personal assistant while you're at it?"

His smell alerted me before I heard him, "What are we eating for lunch today?"

I exhaled from exasperation. Finding clients from scratch on Facebook was taking a toll on my mood. "Well 'I' am staying here for lunch because 'WE' are not going anywhere." together ever! The anger from the other day poured into my reply. He tried to ignore it and kept talking until he noticed I wouldn't budge...

"Rai... I'm not saying sorry about what I said the other night. It was the truth and I'm not gonna apologize for being honest. It is how I felt about you." I still refused to look up. "...but I swear Rai, I'm glad you proved me wrong and I'm sorry for hurting your feelings." My heart melted a little. His honest approach disarmed me. I didn't expect it. Him.. To even be capable of making an apology. He pulled up a chair next to mine, "What are you working on?" It didn't take him long to figure out, "You know I have the Master List of all the clients we have on board. Right?" He raised an eyebrow, "You could've just asked me." I don't turn around until he shuts my laptop.