Fated

Ch. 13

'Stop looking at me like that...' I woke up on the wrong side of the bed the next morning. The blouse that my mother stitched didn't fit right so I grabbed an old fancy dress that I wore years back to a party but that was the only dressed that seemed somewhat formal.

'You buy so many clothes, Maya, how come you don't have one decent formal dress?' Ramsha kept looking at me as I started doing my makeup.

'My definition of formal is different from what high society considers formal wear Ramsha...I have bright colorful clothes not pastels with laces and expensive-looking work on them...my style is different' I told her. I had clothes, nice clothes but they weren't the right clothes to wear at a business event. I just wished a plain blue silk dress with the mustard scarf was plain enough.

'Buy better clothes next time you go shopping' She kept going. I really wanted to kick her out of my room, she was only adding more pressure on me.

'Do you have jewelry to go with that?' She asked again while eating leftover pizza on my bed, busy being my fashion critic.

'Don't you have better things to do...like study for your tests?' I fired back. She apparently wasn't feeling well so she took a day off from school, but we all knew she wasn't really sick.

'I am all ready for exams' She defended herself. I applied darker eyeshadows in my eyes while leaving the rest of the makeup pretty light and tied my hair in a neat bun.

'Mama...can I borrow your jewelry box?' I called my mother for help. Minutes later she walked in with her beautiful wooden box and passed me one of my favorite jewelry pieces she owned. The gold earring with soft white pearls looked elegant and shined beautifully under the natural light.

'They will go with it right?' I pulled the earring closer to my ear and asked my mother.

'They just enhance what you already have...you are already so beautiful' She complimented and I couldn't help but smile wide at her. Mothers, they were something else.

'You never say such nice things to me?' My little jealous sister interfered asking for attention.

'Okay, you both are beautiful...happy?' My mother said quickly and we all laughed.

As soon as I got ready, the doorbell rang. It was exactly 1 pm when Zain and Anum arrived at my door. I grabbed my small clutch, also borrowed from my mother before heading out the door. Anum was dressed in a blue dress that she picked earlier from the mall and Zain was dressed in a burgundy pantsuit and a plain white cotton shirt.

'You look nice' Anum greeted with a lovely smile as soon as I entered the car.

'Thank you, you too...this color looks amazing on you' I told her and caught Zain's eyes on the rear-view mirror for a quick second before he started the car. It was quite a long drive, but finally, after a little over an hour, we reached the venue. It was a product launch of an all-natural skin and body care brand so the whole set up was decorated was very botanical-inspired. It was a very new experience but it was good, Anum explained everything that I needed to know about the company so I felt relaxed after a while. There weren't a lot of people at the event, but the people that were here seemed like they were famous and well off.

'How do you guys know the owners?' I asked Zain but before he could answer, one of the girls who I learned was the CEO of the company approached our table and grabbed Zain's hand and took him to introduce someone by the drinks section. I didn't know how to feel about that, I just knew I minded it.

'They are friends...or used to be...' Anum answered instead.

'They liked each other?' I asked her.