Choosing Him

Chapter 14

"Areesha I'm going for lunch. You want to come along?" Fawad asked her.

"No sir. You go ahead." She said without looking up from her laptop. They were currently in the office and it was lunch break and Areesha being the workaholic she was stayed put in front of her laptop and continued typing the document she was doing.

"Areesha you're coming along and that's final."

"I told you I'm busy, I have to type out these documents." She said feeling a little irritated.

"I don't want your brother going for my head if you fainting again."

"Oh and I thought that you were taking care of your employees for once. You really broke my heart!" She said dramatically placing her hand on her heart.

"I am not going to wait for you. Hurry up." He said with a tone of finality in his voice. If it were someone else they would sure be intimidated but this was Areesha.

"I'm not coming. End of discussion." 

"Don't then! You are fired." He said. Wasn't she really stubborn?

"Really?! That is so nice of you!" She said rolling her eyes.

Whatever Fawad said didn't affect her. He wasn't even sure why he was insisting so much. If she didn't want to eat then let her be. Who cares?

"OK, don't look so sad I'm coming." Areesha said when she realized how hungry she was and her stomach growled.

"Me sad?" He scoffed. "Actually stay here, don't come."

"Now I will come along whatever you say! Just wait a second."

She grabbed her purse and followed him.

***

"What do you want?" He asked Areesha at the restaurant. It was her favourite 'Royal Foods' owned by her dad's friend Mr. Dasti.

"The fried chicken here is really good. You wanna try it?"

"Sure. Let's order then."

They ordered their lunch and made small talk.

"So the owner of this place is your dad's friend?" He asked

"Yeah, he's a very nice man. You should meet him someday."

"Tell me about your father. How was he?" Fawad asked, hoping she wouldn't mind.

"Baba was the best father anyone could be!" She said dreamily as if transported to a different place. She loved to talk about him."He was so broad minded. Once in university there was this guy who went up to baba and told him that I wanted to marry him. I got so scared that baba would think that I was in a haram relationship and I avoided him for two whole days. Whenever it was his time to come home from work I went to my room and pretended to sleep," she said smiling at those fond memories while Fawad sat in front of her listening vigilantly. He loved the way she gestured with her hands when she was excited or she would bite her lips when she was nervous.

"Then baba finally confronted me about it and he asked me to tell him the truth. I was so scared that he might get mad at me but he didn't. Instead he called up that guy and told him off. It was so funny when he sat there scolding him and the poor guy couldn't do anything. When he was scolding him I had sneaked in the room behind baba. He couldn't see me but that guy- whose name I don't remember- could see me and I kept on sticking my tongue at him. It was so funny and I was so glad that baba trusted me so much. He was never like those typical desi fathers." She ended. She didn't know why she was talking about her father with her boss, but she couldn't help it. She missed him so much. Every little thing around her reminded her of his absence. But she kept on reminding herslef that he was in a better place now and prayed to Allah to grant her sabr.