Professor Khan ✔️(completed)

17. j h o o t - a lie

     "No." She lied. She always did. So natural that it almost tasted like truth on her tongue. It was easier to lie than cut herself open emotionally and put her torment in words.

     "Okay is when your heart is calm even when the whole world is burning in chaos around you. When life is uncertain, but you know wherever it'll go, it will work for you. Okay is when everything is falling apart, but you have faith in your Almighty knowing he is putting together something bigger and better for you. He won't burden you beyond your ability to bear. And okay is having that glimmer of hope when everything is choking your throat with hopelessness."

     "I've never been okay. Nobody taught me to be okay."

     "You will be. I promise, Rabi, you will be."  He heaved a sigh and she heard a slow meow of the cat. "Just so you know I'm changing his name to Willow." She knew he changed the topic to distract her and she couldn't have been more thankful

     "Willow... I like it. We found him under the willow tree didn't we?"

    "Yes. Hence the name."

     and her phone buzzed again. She removed the phone from her ear and looked at it. He had texted her. Sliding it open, her lips curved even though it felt like lifting a mountain. She did smile, nonetheless.

     "Oh my God! That is the cutest photo I've ever seen." He had taken a selfie with Willow sleeping in the crook of his arm. "My heart." She sighed.

     "Don't stare at it too hard. You might fall in love."

     "With you? Never. Astaghfirullah"

     "You just called me cute. I prefer something else but that'll work too."

     "I was talking about the cat, Mr. Khan."

     "Sure, Sure, Miss Noor."

     "Thank you."

     "For what?"

     "For everything."

     "Everything?"

     "Everything."

     She stared at the ceiling in the darkness as she listened to his calm breathing.

     "Can you stay on the phone for me?"

     "Always."

     That silence between them. It was there. But he was there. She could hear him breathe, knowing he was there listening to her. It soothed her nerves. No words were meant to be spoken. He was listening to her unvoiced agony. Just knowing he was there worked like a sedative for her and before she knew it the arms of sleep wrapped around her and she had fallen asleep listening to him and Willow. 

     The wind caressed her face as she drove down the highway. The sun rays warming her. It was a struggle to leave the bed. Easier to lay there and let the pain consume her, twisting into her gut like a knife. Memories working like salt on her wounds.

     But She had to move or else Sanaz would have noticed and created a storm if she found out what she did to herself last night. It had taken her hours to just dress up and leave.

     She had to take food for Willow. And just the thought of seeing Asfandyar Khan made it easier for her to drive to his house. His presence, it made it easier for to open the knots of her past. It was easier to remove the hands of vicious memories from her throat when he was there. He listened and all she needed was someone to listen, to care that her pain mattered. To look at her and see the girl behind the façade and he saw her.