❝ 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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That morning, by the time Daneen made her way to the kitchen for preparing Bee Jaan's breakfast, the sun was already well up amongst the clouds.
Daneen looked up from the pot of soup she was stirring a spoon in just as she heard a pair of Jimmy Choos slap across the kitchen floor. She immediately regretted the action, for she had looked Fareeda right in the eye.
Stomach twisting into tight and uncomfortable knots, Daneen turned her focus back to the soup.
He has his mother's eyes, Daneen's mind spoke to her. And I always end up looking right in them.
Daneen pursed her lips as she heard the refrigerator open, and a water bottle and glass placed on the counter in the silence that followed. Daneen, out of the corner of her eye, watched as Fareeda pushed herself on a chair by the kitchen table. She didn't appear to be much older than Tabish, and if Daneen hadn't known as much, she could easily mistake the two to be siblings.
Fareeda tied her hair into a loose braid, sleep lines evident across her wrinkle-free face. Still blinking from lost slumber, Fareeda drank down a glass of water.
An eerie silence lurked between the master and servant, with Daneen gripping the spoon tighter around her fingers and Fareeda staring out the floor-to-ceiling kitchen window, a solemn expression taking home amongst her features. Daneen mentally counted down three minutes and 36 seconds before she gave up. Just as she moved to her right to pick out a bottle of soy sauce from the cabinet, Fareeda's morning drabble cut through the silence.
"I presume Tabish left."
"An hour ago," Daneen affirmed, her voice almost robotic.
"Did he have breakfast?"
"I'm not his mother," Daneen snapped, immediately putting a hand over her mouth. Daneen lowered her head. "I'm—"
"Speaking of nothing but the truth," Fareeda sighed. "As if you've got every right in the world to speak of it."
"I didn't mean to say that."
"But it still came out of your mouth."
Daneen lowered the flame under the soup and said nothing.
"I wouldn't want you meddling in affairs you know nothing about." Fareeda stared at her fingers, the woman who seemed to have aged a few years older.
All Daneen gave the older woman in reply was a meek nod, considering the conversation to have ended from the older woman's side. But Fareeda wasn't ready to put a full stop to it just yet.
"Have your exams begun?"
"They will. By the 25th."
"I'll ask Tabish to lend you his notes."
"I'll do fine without."
"I hope you do." Fareeda stared at Daneen. "I heard you two this morning."
Daneen bit her lip, but Fareeda continued.
"Make sure it doesn't happen again."
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Looks like Daneen has got herself a villain already 🤭
