3

Areesha was sprawled on her bed with an arm draped over her eyes to block out the sunlight rays that were coming through the curtains.

She didn't feel like waking up yet. She had been up till late last night. As if on cue, her alarm started blaring. She despised mornings. Her phone was on the bedside table too far away from her reach. So she let it ring and went back to sleep.

After a while, she was woken up by another alarm. She had multiple alarms on her phone as she never woke up to a single one. Groggily, she threw the blanket off her and scrounged for her phone with half open eyes as her mind still hazy from sleep. She had to do a puzzle for the alarm to stop ringing otherwise it would keep ringing till the battery drained. She resisted the urge to throw the phone across the room and quickly did the puzzle lazily as she stifled a yawn. Her eyes were threatening to shut as if they weighed like boulders.

Before the waves of sleep could seduce her in its charm, it dawned upon her that it was the first day of her job today. Her eyes flew open with a start and she blinked rapidly, as her eyes adjusted to the rays of the sun that seeped through the gaps between the curtains and bathed the room in their glory.

"Sh*t!" An involuntary groan left her mouth.

Panic engulfed her and she was spurred into movement. She rummaged through her wardrobe and quickly grabbing the first dress she found, she hurried to the washroom to shower and change.

She didn't wash her hair as they would stay wet. Grabbing a brush, she quickly piled her hair high on her head and secured them with a band in messy bun.

Grabbing her purse, phone and heels in her hands she skipped down the stairs two at a time. She went to the living room and found her mother was still sleeping. She quickly scribbled that she was leaving for work on a post-it and pasted it on the fridge. Yesterday, after a long time, her mother had been happy with her and she was determined to make her proud.

There was no time for making breakfast as she was already getting late, she took her car keys from the key stand and hurried out of the apartment after locking it.

She took the lift to the ground floor and dashed out of her apartment building running like a mad person as fast as her heels could allow.

 She slumped down in the driving seat of her car, taking a second to catch her breath.

Slipping her sunglasses on to protect her eyes from the sun that was glaring stridently at her, she started her car, reversing recklessly out of the parking lot of her apartment building.

It was a hot, muggy, humid summer day. The air was very thick and it was hard to breathe. Heat could be seen radiating off of the scorching hot road. The grass outside of the road had turned brown from the sun, and the colors of the leaves on the trees were very dull and turning brown around the edges.

Her car was in the middle of a three lane road, with concrete barriers along the edges and in the middle of the road. She impatiently drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and willed the traffic light to turn green. If the traffic didn't start shifting soon she would be very, very late and might even get fired on her very first day. She felt a twinge of regret at not waking up on the first alarm as she thought of he mother's disappointment.

A multitude of sounds filled the air; the beeping of horns, squeaking of metal, and the rolling of tires across the uneven pavement. They were just giving her a headache and on top of everything she was sleep deprived too.

A honk from the car behind her, snapped her out of her pessimistic thoughts of being fired, and she looked to find the signal had turned green.

The cars around her continued to inch forward, as she pushed lightly on the gas pedal and then on the brakes. This routine went on and on, and it felt like it would never end, like a pendulum moving back and forth.

There were just too many traffic signals on this route. She needed a short cut, if by any miracle she was allowed to do her job. After breaking a few traffic signals, she had finally reached work.

She entered the company with a proud look on her face. It was only 7:01. She had made it in 22 minutes! She went towards the elevator and saw that it was coming back from the top floor. Knowing that it would take her very long she decided to take the stairs.

The first few flights didn't tire her that much. Her legs throbbed with the strenuous exercise and she could feel her heart pumping blood through her body. Soon the lack of oxygen started taking toll on her body, and she slowed down.

When she was on the seventh floor and her fragile legs couldn't take it any more so she decided to take the elevator for the remaining six floors. She looked around to see the elevator doors were closing and yelled "Stop the elevator!" hoping someone would hear her. 

Thankfully, someone stopped the elevator with their hand in between the doors. Still huffing and pufffing, to restore the oxygen, she hurried in to find her boss standing there with his hand keeping the elevator from closing.

She glanced at her watch and found it was 7:06. Seven floors in five minutes! Impressive. She thanked her boss for waiting for her.

"Why does it look like you have run a marathon?" Mr. Ali asked her

"Because I have." She replied still out of breath, flicking a bead of sweat off her forehead. 

"I wouldn't have fired you if you were a few minutes late." He said to her and relief crossed her features.

"Or who knows I might now." He added looking at her with a smirk thoroughly enjoying her flustered expression. 

"You know I was here at exactly 7:01, but the lift wasn't free so I came till here from the stairs and -" She started ranting with a worried look on her face. She couldn't loose her job already!

"If you had waited another minute for the elevator, you wouldn't have wasted five minutes running up the stairs like a mad woman," he said as a matter-of-factly.

"Oh well that didn't occur to me." She admitted sheepishly mentally smacking herself at her stupidity. She didn't even comment on the fact that he had called her a 'mad woman' when normally she would have had his head for saying anything even as small as that. What could she do? She was a little too hot-headed for her own good. What had possessed her to dash up the stairs like that and that too on such a hot day? A sheen of sweat covered her back. She could feel the drops of sweat trickling down her body like insects crawling.

After they got out of the elevator, she followed her boss toward his office.

Once they entered the office, she took a seat in front of his desk waiting for him te tell her what he had to do. The air conditioner made her feel a little better.

"OK. So first off you need to get familiar with our clients, there's a whole list of them in the computer, so make sure you read everything about them. Second there are some files in your cabin that need to be sorted out by date and then you need to compose some emails to clients. I'll forward you what the emails are about." he started and she made a mental note of everything hoping she wouldn't forget them later.

"You should get a notepad to make a list of everything. Its way too hard to remember them like this." He said with a knowing smirk on his face. She was caught of guard at how he had read her face expression. Now she needed to go and get a notepad.

"Don't be so surprised. And don't worry there are some notepads in the drawer in your cabin."

What? Is this guy a mind reader or something or was she too plain to read?

"Yes sir. Anything else?" she asked professionally.

"No nothing else. You may leave now."

She made her way out of the office when he called her.

"Miss Areesha?"

She turned around with a questioning look on her face.

"I am not a mind reader." He smirked at her.

Flustered, she walked out of his office. How could someone whom she had known for a day only figure out her thoughts this well? Maybe her expression said it all. She really need to keep her expressions under her control.

***

By the time she was finished with her work it was 3:00. She was tired as hell and even her fingers were aching with all the typing she had done today.

She had only had some cookies in between so she was very hungry too.

She looked around for her phone when she heard a beep indicating a text message.

She found it in her purse. She turned it on and found a text from her fiancé, Aamir. He had asked her if she could meet him in ten minutes for lunch.

Excitedly, she replied with a yes.

She was allowed to leave after she was done with all her work. So after informing her boss, she sped her car towards the restaurant "Royal Foods" It was their favorite restaurant.

She went inside and found Mr. Dasti the owner of the restaurant who was also a friend of her late father's. She went to him and greeted him. She inquired about her his daughter Fareesa who was also a good friend of hers. Whenever she went there they got all sorts of discounts.

After seeing him, she went to her usual spot and waited for Aamir to come.

She found him entering, looking all hot in his shades. She smiled and waved to him as he made his way over to her. She always smiled and blushed like crazy whenever he was around.

"Salam beautiful!" He said taking a seat across her as he pocketed his sunglasses. 

"Walaikum Salam! So what's up?" She asked him cheerfully

"The sky's up. Well in this case the ceiling is up." Aamir replied with a small smirk playing on his lips.

"Nope. What's up with you?" She asked her lips curled in a small smile. He really knew how to cheer her up.

"You. You're what's up with me!" He said staring deeply in her eyes, and she thought that he could look right into her soul. 

"Umm...let's order?" Areesha said, as a blush adorned her cheeks. He smirked at her knowingly and rolled his eyes.

They ordered their favorite club sandwich and some coke.

"Guess what?" Areesha said, as she sipped her drink.

"You love me!"

"And you already know that. It's something else!" She said, unable to keep it from him. He was an important person in her life, perhaps the only one who cared about her. She told him everything and he was always there to listen.

"That's the only thing I know!" Aamir replied with a grin but in reality he was feeling uneasy. He couldn't do anything about her feelings towards him. He really didn't want to break her heart. But unfortunately for her, and fortunately for him, he didn't reciprocate her feelings. He loved Shazre and only her. He still hadn't broken his engagement with her as she was already going through a tough time after her father's death. They were good friends and her comany was always joyful but he didn't love her that way.

"You're boring!" She said, annoyed at being ignored by Aamir who was deep in thoughts. "If you are still trying to guess, don't put unnecessary pressure on your little brain!"

"So what were you telling me?" He asked leaning forward as he stared at her with a small smile playing on his lips. He stared at her in amusement as she pouted and jutted out her lower lip. She looked cute. He shook his head at his thoughts. It wasn't fair to Shazre if he found other girls cute. He quickly averted his gaze and stared at her hands instead. His eyes flitted to her engagement ring and memories of that day came back to him. Things would be so different after they broke their engagement. Knowing her, she would never want to keep any kind of relation with him.

God! What was wrong with him today? Why was he being that way?

"Oh yeah! I was going to tell you that I got a job!" She revealed excitedly.

"Really? That's great." He had invited her today to tell her about Shazre, but seeing how happy she was over her new job he just couldn't do that. He liked her as a friend and he could never do that to her.

"Aren't you going to ask what the job is about?" She asked him with a pout

"Yeah of course. So tell me, how do you like it?" He asked her, pretending to be interested. But he wasn't even listening to her due to the conflicts going on in his brain.

"-Its very demanding, sure but I love it." She was saying.

He took a bite of his sandwich still pondering over what to say to her. He had come prepared with a speech he had to do to convince her that he wasn't the best guy for her, but seeing her it all went under the drain. It was as if he couldn't focus in anything else.

"You seem awfully quiet today, anything wrong?" She asked him looking concerned.

His eyes snapped up to her in surprise. She knew him so well. Before he could even think of a reply, his ringing phone saved him. 

For the first time he was happy that his older brother had called him.

While he was on the phone, Areesha ate her sandwich. 

"Uh Arshee? I need to go. This is really important." He told her, after he hung up and hoped she wouldn't get mad at him.

"Oh sure! Don't worry about me. I'm fine." She said ignoring the pang in her heart. She really loved him and wanted him to stay longer.

"Ok thanks! I'll see you later then." That's what he loved about Areesha. She was always so understanding.

After she was done with her food, she called a waiter for the bill. To her utter surprise, Aamir had already paid for it. That little gesture made her fall in love with him more if that was even possible.

After that she left the restaurant and headed home after the tiring day, with only one thought in her mind which was sleeping. She really needed to sleep as she had been up last night reading a novel on wattpad. Damn wattpad, she thought.