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As days bled into weeks, the nation celebrated a milestone of Ashiq Salehin's marriage, Katrina Khan counted the last pieces of her heart she put back in place.
Katrina kept herself busy. She bore increasing workload at the office, and was always kept on her toes by her brothers at home. Her father had stopped receiving phone calls from their acquaintances. The buzz surrounding her broken engagement was slowly dying down as other events passed.
As new projects were entrusted upon them, the girls were required to stay behind at work till quite late into the night. Public transportations were no longer a viable option, and before Katrina could figure out a solution to this problem herself, Tamara reached out to Salman, and then Arif Khan for permission, and took it upon herself to make arrangements.
Katrina was furious at her cousin to say the least. She knew she could have made their office provide transportation at the condition of safety and convenience, or found figured out another way; but Salman had more than agreed to bear the responsibility.
As Salman began driving them home the nights the girls had to be held back late for work, he would have a smug smile plastered to his face the entire way. She had refused to let him learn the address of her street, but now he was allowed to drive all the way to their gate; that too with her father's permission.
Katrina did everything possible to not show her annoyance. Tamara was ecstatic; it was mostly because she could get to ride his fancy car more than once, and Salman even let her play with the buttons in front during traffic jams.
Katrina's cousin had clearly taken a liking to the man. Several times a day, she would see Tamara greeting him as they crossed paths, and when they were returning home Katrina's ears would be filled with tales of "Salman Bhai this, Salman Bhai that."
Fan girl would be the more appropriate term for Tamara. Katrina's embarrassment knew no bounds.
It was another late evening when Salman gave them a ride home. The streets in front of their house were still busy. The vendors were only starting to wrap up, and people were dispersing to take the directions of their home.
"Thank you," Katrina muttered with a heavy heart, avoiding his smug smile reflected in the rearview mirror.
"You're the best, Salman Bhai," her idiot cousin gushed.
A grin spilled on his lips. "You tell them, Tamarind," he said, winking at her playfully.
As they proceeded to get down from the car, Salman did too to ensure the girls reached safely inside. A whole bucket of water splashed from above.
One second, Salman was standing dry and fine, the next, he was soaked to the bone. They all lifted their gazes to find Jabir and Tauhid smirking through the second storey window.
