Her Encounter | Islamic Story

Chapter 5 ✓

I was working my shift at the restaurant where I had been working for the past four years.

I didn't have to pay for my accommodation in the hostel because of my scholarship but since it didn't provide me money for the clothes or anything else, I did a part-time job in a restaurant as a waitress.

The story of getting a job here was a highly unusual one. I actually received a letter from the manager for the vacancy of a waitress. Not to mention, I never applied for the job. What was stranger was the fact that my wage was three times more than my colleagues which earned me a highly deserved anger from them. On the bright side, it saved me from distancing myself from them.

I was cleaning the table after the family seated on it left.

A boy about the age of fourteen called me from his table right by the window.

"Good evening," I said as I walked over to him.

"Good evening," he replied back with a toothy smile, then looking at the menu he continued. "I want to have some pasta and an orange juice."

"Sure, your order will be here in about ten minutes," I told him while jotting down the details. I walked over to the kitchen and attached the paper on the order board.

All the chefs were busy working; the orders were strolling in quick, leaving minimal time to relax. Sunday evenings were really hectic.

I quickened out of the kitchen in the main hall: all the tables were adorned with a blue and purple tablecloth which went well with the brightness of the place. The hall was quite airy.

All around me people were busy with their meals, chattering happily. What intrigued me most were the couples who occupied most of the tables. I wanted to laugh in their faces; I wanted to slap the reality into the girls' head, 'This guy here, he does not love you!'

Boys are treacherous and that's a bloody fact! Nobody ever thought that Axan would do something like this to me. Not because he was all love and romance but because he was the complete opposite.

The days when I missed my shift or the days when I came late, as a punishment I was made to clean the place and wash the dishes after closing times. In those days, for my assistance, I would call Axan.

As one might expect for normal couples, there was nothing sloppy about these rendezvous. We didn't spend the whole night drinking and getting smoochy-smoochy. What we did was have food fights, literally play hide and seek, run around the tables trying to catch the other. Ours wasn't a relation marked by intimacy. Except for a time or two, we never got cosy, yet we understood each other the best. I had no idea what made him turn into a deceiver out of a sudden or if leaving was his plan since the beginning. I wish I knew. Things would be easier that way.

According to him, it was because of my poverty. Although I wasn't really poor but for a person who could get anything she laid her hands on to the one who had to cut short her expenses, well, I was very poor. And this was that one fact which I mentioned around Axan quite a lot. Had it not been for the five years of running away from 'that' man, I would have found it quite hard to live like that. The suffering of those five years was beyond scary. Even thinking of it brought shivers down my spine.

Just as my mind was lingering on the past, I got called by the same boy again and that's when I realized I had placed his order in the kitchen ages ago. I apologized to him and rushed to the kitchen, bringing his tray on my way back.

"I'm sorry kiddo, I...uh never mind," I said apologetically. I seriously didn't feel like becoming a jerk here.

"It's okay," he said unconcerned and turned his attention to his food and his cell phone. I left his side and looked around the hall. All the tables were filled. Thankfully, there was no new customer. I could relax for a minute.