Dedicated to @DarklyAlone
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"Laura please, just throw away these flowers. I don't need them. They're a nuisance to me," Zahra told her friend, scrunching her face. "Why? They are looking so good, Zee. The smell is just heavenly. It's a wonderful change from the stinging smell of antiseptics and pain relieving gels. Your room seemed like a hospital ward before. Now, it feels like home. Besides, you can't deny that you too like this new atmosphere, don't you?" Laura asked wiggling her eyebrows, satisfied to come up with such a good argument.
"This room needed some freshening. And, these flowers have made such a difference. Oh! How I wish, someone would give me so many flowers like these," she said, faking sadness to tease Zahra further. "Shut up. You're thinking it the wrong way, okay. He just brought me flowers because I am ill," Zahra replied, angered. "I wasn't thinking of it any other way.........Ooh, I get it. So there's another way!!"
Zahra hurled a book at Laura to make her shut up, which she dodged unmistakably and went out of the room cooing and laughing about 'David and Zahra sitting on a tree...!'
'God! What should I do about this girl?!' Zahra wondered, irritably.
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David's nerves were wrecked to the core ever since he came back from her apartment. He was in a muddle as to how he should proceed in his attempt to win the girl. He had thought of helping her out with her problems but she would never accept his help, even if he begged her. That night, he couldn't sleep a wink. Every time he closed his eyes, those lighted outlines of her face rose in front of his eyes and he became restless. He desperately wanted to see her, but he would look crazy to them if he went there again.
All the months he had known her were going on in a countdown in his brain. That moment they had collided in the street more than six months ago, his lips had lightly brushed against her forehead in that one second they had bumped into each other. He felt a smile grace his lips thinking of that moment and its aftermath.
That, was actually the starting point of their opposition. It was a roller coaster ride after that. Sometimes he liked her, and at other times, she annoyed the hell outta him. And the moment he had witnessed the day before, that was the starting point of his love for her.
Now he was seeing things in another light. A soft and rich light of 'love'. What would his friends say if they got to know about it? 'They would definitely go crazy and celebrate,' he thought. After all, it didn't happen every day that the stone hearted, short fused CEO fell in love! But they didn't have to know about it, not yet.
David was fascinated with what Zahra practiced with such conviction. It came naturally to her. She never made show of her body or anything. Her scarf had accidentally slipped once and the skin of her neck had showed. She had covered it within seconds. They were in a meeting and everyone's attention was on him, while his attention was unusually in her direction. Had he begun to like her so long ago? If he had, he didn't even know what triggered it!
He meant to make her Mrs. Walworth and give her a better and stress free life where she didn't have to toil day and night. It wouldn't be a problem to convince his father. But would the others accept her, his friends and the media? 'They didn't have to know anything,' he decided.
Zahra was a pious girl who held her ground, even when people taunted her and laughed at her because of her all-black ensemble. Was her religion so different from what people pictured? He would definitely look it up. She was a very innocent and a good woman. No one could picture her as some criminal for even a second. But things were the other way round here. She was a victim and some gang was after her. Why? He had no idea, but he determined to find out.
David couldn't believe how severely he'd treated her. Maybe it was all because he thought she lived a peaceful life, while he had to tackle with a new and urgent problem each day. But that was certainly not the case. Zahra lead a very much hectic life than him. She had a thousand problems on her plate. And each one was more urgent and difficult than the last. Even her life was in danger!
He felt weird knowing the truth about his heart's condition. It had never hammered away like this before, when he thought of anyone. That day, when he saw her sleeping, he couldn't resist and had quickly snapped a picture of her. Unfortunately, Laura had caught him in the act, making him delete it! But, he was smarter than that. The picture was as good as real in his phone, still.
David had tried not to look at it because it wasn't morally right since Zahra wore a scarf. But now, he let it all go to nothing and opened the picture. There she was, the 'Sleeping Beauty' looking so tranquil and striking with the curled locks strewn across her face. He brought it closer to his face and kissed the screen repeatedly and passionately. And then he mentally smacked himself. What was he doing??
It was official. David Walworth had gone, utterly, hopelessly crazy!!
The days passed on smoothly. Zahra was getting better each day. She could walk on her own now, but with the help of crutches. She had an appointment with the doctor one day. Laura was in a fix as to how she should take her there as the lift was out of order since quite some time now. After thinking out a thousand techniques, she decided to call David and tell him the problem.
"Hey, Laura. How come you remembered me today? Is everything fine?" "Oh yeah. Actually, I needed some help. Zahra has to go to the hospital today, and the lift's not working. I don't want her to take the stairs, she might fall. Can you come down for a bit?" "Certainly, I will. Don't you worry, alright," David assured her as he hung up. He had another motive to see that girl again.
"Um...hey. How did you know I had to go out today?" Zahra asked, as she saw him come up the stairs towards their apartment. "Oh right! Laura must have told you. Well, you don't need to worry, I can manage on my own," she said and headed towards the staircase. "Ms. Fatimah please let me help you. It's too dangerous. You might fall," David told her worriedly. "You don't need to tell me that. I know what's right for me, okay."
But, as soon as she stepped on the first stair, her foot slipped. She was on the verge of falling when David quickly grabbed her hand from behind and pulled her towards him. "I told you it's not safe," he spoke in a soft but stern voice.
"Now let me do what Laura has called me for, which is help. Just stay calm, don't worry and let me handle things. Leave these crutches, Laura will pick'em up." And with that, he picked her up and began to descend the stairs quickly but carefully. When Laura saw him carrying her, she felt extremely happy and smiled.
Zahra needed that kind of a guy in her life.
Her face was merely inches away from him. She kept staring at him to comprehend what had caused such a drastic change in his conduct towards her. He had gone out of the way to help her, and she couldn't say no this time. After all, he was her boss and her job depended upon him. He had been very helpful these few weeks. And his presence had become quite indispensable to Laura. What was going on in that brain of his?
"Thank you," Zahra spoke in a husky voice. Her emotions were getting the better of her. "No problem," David replied looking down. He so wanted to kiss those lips but he forced the thought out of his mind, and avoided looking at her more than was necessary.
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*********SOMEWHERE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD*********
"What can I do, Jake? Grandfather wouldn't like it if I killed you. Your stupid dad served him for a long time," the mystery man says in a dangerously calm voice. Jake is hanging upside down from the ceiling, his feet tied. "Please master, have mercy. I can go to her apartment and kill her right now," Jake pleads. "Give me one last chance."
"No. I don't want a domesticated crime, that's not my forte. Besides, it won't rake in much publicity," the mystery man thunders. "I'm sparing you for the last time. Go work with the boys. You're not my guard anymore, I've reduced your rank. And send Mac Leer in. He will stand in your place now. If you want your place back, you'll have to prove it to me. Get out," the mystery man says, cutting his rope as his henchman falls to the ground in a heap.
"It's so good to see you Daniel," Demetria drawls, as she lets herself in. "How've you been?" She puts her arms around the mystery man's shoulders and leans in to kiss him. The man pushes her away from him. "You've disappointed me, big time. Don't act as if nothing happened, you b*tch. Or I know another way of handling girls like you," he says in an aggravated tone. "What? I brought what you asked for?" "But can she do it better than you? I don't think so," he spat.
"At least try her once. I'm sure you'll like her. Jake, send the girl in," she orders the man. "He can't take orders from now on. All he'll do is rub the floor. Go send my guard in and tell him to hurry," Daniel says in a clipped tone.
"The girl is an excellent hand. I've taken help from her a lot of times and she never fails to surprise me," Demetria keeps interceding for her former assistant. After a while, a gigantic man, probably Mac Leer, enters the room. "You called me, master," he says in a gruff voice. "Send the girl in, you dumb head! And stand at the door. It's your duty now."
A very sexy looking blonde (Scarlett Johansson) enters the almost dark room, and the mystery man (a.k.a Daniel), abruptly gets up from his seat in astonishment. He never thought she would be such a stunning specimen! "Dan, meet Ciara Jackson, the P.A to the new Regional Manager at 'Walworth & Co.'," Demetria perks up after seeing his reaction. The girl is white as snow and her features match some ancient goddess's.
The mystery man greedily runs his tongue on his lips. "Sit down, please. Hmm, not bad. She's better than what I expected," he says, running a finger along her jawline as he inspects the specimen. "Now, baby. I've some work for you," he whispers, leaning into her. "If you succeed, I'll shower you with dollars. And if you fail, I'll shower you with bullets. Are you ready to do it?" "Try me," she says after some deliberation, in a softer-than-silk voice.
"Er... we should proceed. Shall we?" Demetria butts in, when she jealously sees that none of them is moving. "What's the hurry, love? You explain the plan to her and I'll fill the gaps in. You know who Zahra Fatimah is, don't you?" Daniel asks the blonde, and she nods back in answer. "Well then, half the work is done. You've to do her in, and Demetria will tell you the rest. The advance is in the drawer near you."
"Consider it done," the blonde says, counting the bucks.
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"Have you ever been in love, Zee?" Laura asked her friend one night, while she applied some ointment on her arm. Her plasters had been removed a week ago, but she'd got blisters on both her affected limbs. Zahra heaved a deep sigh and said, "I have. But, why do you ask?" "Oh! Just like that. Nothing important. So......who's the guy?"
"Who was would be a better question," Zahra replied, her eyes glistening with tears. "I'm so sorry. You wanna talk about it?" And then, Zahra began her story that only two people knew about in the whole world: Avi and her Abba. She had to let it out some day.
"I loved football when I was a teen. We had a hometown hero in our school, Yusuf Zaki. I used to go see him practice in the school grounds. I was a great fan of his. Whenever there was any home match, I never missed to watch it. He was two years older than me. I was fourteen and he...he was sixteen."
"There was one such game that day. I had got late for some reason, and the stadium was packed. I had to take the first row. People never sat there because it was too dangerous. So, cursing my fate, I took a seat. Not even ten minutes had passed since the match started when what I had feared, happened."
"Yusuf hurled the ball with extreme force, and it hit my head. I was blinded for a second, and then finally, I passed out. When I came round, I was in the nurse's room in our school. The poor woman was anxiously patting my forehead with her hands. Yusuf was standing on the other side looking down at me."
"'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit you,' he spoke slowly." "'You are not playing? Has the game ended?' I asked him worriedly." "'No, I'm not playing. They didn't show me a red card, but they sent me out of the game. And the game's ended. We lost it,' he told me sadly." "'But, that means we're out of the championship. Aren't we?' I asked, and he shook his head." "'We've been given another chance. So, everything's not lost yet. Will you be okay? It's stifling hot in here,' he said looking around, and I waved him nonchalantly, to tell him it was no big deal."
"'Hey, do you want some ice-cream?' he asked me and I nodded excitedly. We sat licking ice-creams together that day. It was fun! The next day I found a note in my school locker. It had two tickets for the match that a school in the town next to ours was hosting. It also had bus fares for two. It was a do or die game for our school and I wouldn't dream of missing it."
"Abba was not willing to let me go alone so I let Avi into my plan and we both went to see the game. Our team won and thankfully, we were still one of the top contenders for the Champions Trophy. After the game, Yusuf came to us and treated us with ice-creams. We had become quite good friends by then. I had a secret crush on him too but he didn't know that. We were football and ice-cream friends. All we talked of together was football and all we ate was ice-creams. We had a lot in common, like we both were great fans of Messi."
"Time flew by slowly, and we were still the friends who met at the Ice Cream Parlor across the road from our school. Sometimes, Avi went with us too. Yusuf was in 12th standard and I was in 10th. He was eighteen now, and I was sixteen. He soon would have to leave the school and go to college. I was very upset about it, because he was going out of the city and I was gonna miss him a lot."
"One day, on the last day of school, he came to me at break time and told me to come with him. He took me to a quiet corner of the school grounds. No one was around. He kept quiet for a few seconds, either staring at me or the ground, deep in thought."
"And then he told me what I wanted to hear for so long a time. He said that he loved me and he would come for me after some years and marry me. I was awestruck. I never knew that he liked me so much. I told him that I too liked him and would wait for his return. He was extremely happy and he hugged me, kissed my forehead and went away."
"That was the last I saw of him because the next day............dad broke the news to me. Yusuf had died in a road accident." Zahra sobbed hysterically by the time she could complete her sentence. Laura herself was very much grieved with the sad ending of such an innocent love story. She pulled her into a consoling hug. "He must have been twenty five now, right?" she asked. "Yes. And we would have been safely married," Zahra replied in a muffled voice.
"Your parents wouldn't have let you marry him, don't you think? Because they had decided to get you hitched with somebody else. You know who I'm talking about, right?" Laura asked, trying to reason with her. "Yes. But, Abba would've helped me. He would've managed things. He always did when it came to me. That's why he was so heartbroken to give me away to Adel."
"You should stop it now, Zee," Laura told her friend. "Stop what?" Zahra asked, surprised. "Stop giving yourself the pain of remembrance. Just let it go. It has been so many years. Maybe, it was just a summer romance. They don't last long, believe me," Laura explained quietly.
"You can't get back what's lost, can you? Observe the world around you, and you'll see hundreds of opportunities knocking at your doorstep. I don't want to be the one to tell you this Zee, because you'll hate me afterwards, but somebody cares a lot for you," Laura said, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"David is a nice guy, Zee. You should consider him for once." "God! I knew where it was headed. Why are you and Avi so eager to set me up with him? Has he paid you or something?" Zahra asked, exasperated.
"Let me tell you once and for all, I can't marry him because he doesn't practice my religion. And even if he converted, he'll have to tackle with my parents first. I don't go around setting myself up with people only because they are rich, okay. Yusuf was the only exception and he was not rich."
"You are too stubborn. But let me tell you, he'll prove to you one day that he's necessary in your life. You mark my words."
Laura never knew her words would prove to be true, so soon!
—————-AUTHOR'S NOTE———————-
Share this story with ur frnds n family if you like it. Well, I'm off.
Enjoyeee.... ;) :D Feel free to point out any mistakes.