Him & His Muslimah

8

Zaib

"Are you sure you don't need anything else, at all?"

He didn't even glance her way. Honestly, he was repulsed by Aliya's indecent behavior. Firstly, she stared at him a little too much and also never missed the chance to pass him a file, so their fingers could 'accidentally' graze together. Zaib was surely innocent but he was no fool. He was very well aware about her intentions, and he didn't like them. Period.

"I'm fine. You can leave. I've got it covered," he muttered without sparing her a glimpse. Desperately, he wanted to avoid anything that caused fitnah to arise. Surely, the eager girl had other plans.

"But I want to stay with you."

Huh?

Confusion dawned upon him. Normally, he would be tempted to at least look back, but this time he didn't even feel a little tug towards it. He was simply extremely uncomfortable and irritated by her sick trials.

Zaib continued inspecting the time-honored designs created by primeval architects. He never liked changing everything about architecture. Every piece of Zaib's work held an ancient touch to it. It was his little speciality.

"Are you married?"

What in hell-?

Zaib's gaze flicked from the numerous blueprints placed before him to her. The girl who kept interrupting his peace had short brown hair with pounds of makeup blanketing her entire face. Cautiously, he reminded himself that he was no one to judge. Allah was the only judge, in this world and the hereafter.

"Er, could you please call Ehsan for me?" Zaib, as kindly as he could, avoided her silly questions. He didn't want to act disrespectfully.

He noticed Aliya rolling her eyes at him before she stomped away to call Ehsan. A while passed when Zaib finally heard a knock and Ehsan stepped in with a sly smirk on his face.

"As Salamu Alaykum Zaib, what's up?" He walked inside the chill room.

"Wa Alaykumu Salam. Don't act too innocent, idiot. You know exactly what's up. Why am I supposed to work and bear with her?" He complained while groaning.

He remembered working with her two years back and she still remained clueless. That girl just couldn't take a hint!

"Because Mr. Jenson is as stubborn as the Pharaoh. He will initially fire you and then pass the assignment to me which, by the way, will result into me getting fired as well since I wouldn't be able to handle Aliya either. So at the end of the day, you need to do this for the both of us, man. Save us." And that was Ehsan's highly exaggerated speech.

Seeing Zaib's scowl, he merrily chuckled. "Don't worry, you won't have to go through it for long. Just this once and you'll never have to see her ever again."

"That's what you said the last time," Zaib couldn't resist from muttering. How long could he take the obvious make-believe laughs, the continuous batting of eyelashes and biting lips?

He'd had enough already!

"What's happening to you? You're acting sorta weird these days. And I'm actually concerned. Wanna see a psychologist, therapist? You name it," So, Ehsan had noticed. Yeah, Zaib was acting pretty strange nowadays, but he was oblivious to why he was. He constantly felt irritant and uneasy.

"Don't know. Maybe the work load's just getting too much," Zaib didn't look at him as he so bravely lied. It wasn't work. It was something else.

"Fine. But I know you're lying."