Relativity. [Zayn AU | ENG]

One.

It was a bit later than 9am, when Aaliyah parked the car outside the Art Rooms building in Shipley. She closed the small door and she hurried up on the stairs: she was a bit late, she had lost the sense of time to sort one of the last boxes out that were still laying on the floor of her living room.
The clean air of the morning and the fresh breeze coming from the canal activated her brain better than a dose of caffeine. She greeted her co-workers with an hand gesture and, without joining them to drink their usual coffee, she went straight to her office. Her job consisted of putting the orders she received online together, replying to the e-mails coming from every side of the world asking to get a Jacky Al-Samarraie artwork saying thanks and explaining the method of payment, and then she would gather all of the daily orders and send an e-mail back to the artist. Interested people would hardly come to the headquarters, so her sporadic delays didn't really matter: Aaliyah would usually be accurate to a split second. She put her bag on her desk and she hung her coat on the hall stand, switching the laptop on and checking her agenda if she had missed something.
It was a relaxed working day, she did everything she had to and then she knocked off work. She had a part-time job only for the morning, so she was free to take care of her house she had just moved in in the afternoon and take up her free time with graphic design, her true job and her passion.
Aaliyah had moved to Shipley a few months earlier, renting a studio flat which was five minutes away from the Art Rooms. She'd still remember when she was house haunting and she couldn't make a decision, held back by the flaws she would see everywhere. Eventually, she took an apartment which had furniture on almost every wall in the bathroom and in the kitchen and some appliances. Rent and bills were cheaper than the prices she had found around and she even had a parking space. Everything was still messy, but that place was hers and it made her feel very good, so she was happy to have a place in the world for herself. The several commissions she had to do forced her to get a car and use it quite often. Having a parking space, she could leave the car there and walk to the Art Rooms, but she preferred to use it and gather some things to do in order to optimise the use of her car. That afternoon, for example, she went to pay the bills and do some grocery shopping: her fridge was empty and she had to fix that.
When she got back home, she meticulously put all of the things she had bought in the units and then she cooked some roast chicken breasts with lemon. She washed all of the stoves she had used, she went to the bathroom and then went to bed with her extra-large sleepwear. She didn't had to work, so she dedicated that time to reading.
She had always loved reading books, but since she had moved in she got into the habit of re-reading books she already knew and it made her get bored easily, since she would discover again things that weren't hidden to her anymore. She absolutely needed to find a bookshop in the neighbourhood, but since she had never seen any, she looked for them on Google: in a few minutes she found a couple of them. She recommended herself to postpone that research to the following day, so she turned the phone off, she took her glasses off and she let herself fall asleep.

If Aaliyah had to describe herself, she would surely mention her methodical, ordinary and of fixed habits behaviour. She had her usual routine: she would wake up at 7:30 am, she would have breakfast with biscuits and coffee, she would get ready wearing high-waist jeans and some random t-shirt and then go out to reach the Art Rooms. Then, when she would get back home, she would work on her computer or watch a tv show or listen to some music. Even that Friday morning she had followed all the steps of her ritual and she had even left home earlier to compensate for that delay of the previous day that had her made feel guilty for basically nothing.
She parked the her inside the white stripe outside the building, paying attention to not crash any other car or make any kind of damage, then she got out of the car and checked everything was fine: she smiled satisfied by the perfect position of the car and she went inside.
Everything was going boringly on, until, at 11am, Claudia knocked on her office door.
«Do you want some tea?» she asked opening the door.
Aaliyah nodded and followed her, listening to her speaking for the umpteenth time about how boring Shipley was.
Claudia had told her that she was born there and she had never got so far away from her birthplace. She just travelled a bit and getting back home would only make her feel snagged. But, in spite of her young age, she was managing the Art Rooms and it was the main reason for her to stay, she was aware that finding a better job wouldn't be easier.