❝ I know. I could be happy until midnight if I wanted to. But what about after midnight? What about two AM? What about four AM? What about months and even years later?
I don't want to let him in knowing sometime in the future I'd have to let him go...
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Tabish looked at Daneen.
He shouldn't have, keeping all her highly expressed religious views in mind. But in the heat of the moment, he couldn't help it.
His eyes followed her movements—her slender fingers gripping the raggedy cloth, squeezing and pushing it into every dirty corner of his loafers, a crease of concentration between her eyebrows and her lips twisted into an adorable pout.
Tabish turned his head away just as an image clouded his mind—no.
Daneen never even met his eyes and flinched at every accidental touch. Daneen had kept herself withdrawn and secluded, hidden herself away from this world. Tabish wouldn't tarnish that.
Guilt swelled in Tabish' chest. Part of him was mildly fuming over how Daneen, a girl who didn't even work at their house with the lowly status of a servant, had to polish his shoes at his mother's orders. Tabish made a mental note to let his mother have it later. She couldn't just impose such tasks on her when she wasn't even working for them.
Having had enough, Tabish pushed himself off the ottoman and bent down on the ground next to Daneen.
Tabish slipped the shoes and rag away from her. "Don't."
Daneen looked at him. And for some reason, this time, she maintained her gaze, strong and unwavering.
And when she spoke, she lit up the darkened skies in Tabish' mind. Voice smooth and thick as honey. "Why do you always do this?"
Tabish looked at her. His gaze travelled over the white scarf over her hair, the two moles on her left cheek, and back up at her eyes. "You mean, you expect me to sit back and watch you polish shoes, give my mother a head massage, iron my sisters' clothes when they're perfectly capable of doing it all themselves?"
Daneen drew her lips into a thin line. "I'm a servant. It's my job."
Tabish' heart jolted. "You're not."
Daneen let out a bitter laugh. "I'm being paid to sit here."
There were times during their miniscule, highly guarded interactions where Tabish would pray to the One Above to grant Daneen the strength to conceal her anguish not just from him but from everyone else as well, for one reason only—the water in her eyes was a tsunami over his heart.
"Why don't you leave when I've asked you to? When I've brought over countless replacements to fill in your position?"
Daneen tilted her head to the side, breaking their previously locked gazes.
"I wish I knew."
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hey, hi, hello, assalamualaikum warehmatullahi wabarakatuhu! ahlan wasahlan everyone, welcome to this little haven ♥️
as you've already seen, chapters here will be short and within a specific word count. this story will be updated every day since it is already completed.
i'm so excited for everything in store! i would love it if, along with reading, you take out the time to drop a comment or a heartfelt vote, it would mean the world to me! ❤️
