Al Qulub Haris

Eleven

Murtala rested his back on the chair he was seated on as he absent mindedly played with the pen in his hand. He was brought back by the continuous tapping on his table, he shook his head and his eyes caught that of the person calling his name.

"Oh, hey" he faked a smile. She smiled back before turning to walk to her own table and falling on her chair, exhaustion written all over her. She rested her head so she was looking up "I hate going to site Wallahi" she sighed "My back is about to snap"

"You should have known that when you chose to become an engineer" Murtala pointed out to his coworker. She shot him an unappreciative glare and went back to staring at the P.O.P that decorated the top.

"Why didn't they make you site manager?" she whimpered "why me?" she groaned to herself. The room was unusually silent and Murtala chose to break the silence.

"Why are you being all grumpy?" he asked and got a sad smile from her as she shook her head at him. It wasn't as if she was grumpy, she just stopped trying. She stopped trying to get his attention.

Flashback

Nadine fumbled with the contents of her hands as she shuffled into the office. A confused look formed on her face when she saw her coworkers desk empty and from the looks of it she had not even come in yet.

'What could've happened' she thought to herself as she settled down. She turned on her computer and began checking her mails, it was then she read the terrifying email from her boss notifying her of her coworkers involvement in a horrible accident. It wasn't as if they got along or that they liked each other, she always did everything on time which often got Nadine in trouble but Nadine still felt bad for her. She dialed her number a few times but it was switched off, she said a prayer for the poor lady and continued her day. Nadine had asked for her coworkers address during work hours and visited her after work only to be informed that she had packed from the house and moved back to her hometown with no contact information left behind.

A week had gone by and Nadine's work had been doubled due to the absence of her coworker. As usual she shuffled into the office her hands filled with unnecessary items and was greeted by a wonderful sight, a calm looking Murtala working on his laptop. She quickly dropped what she was holding and made her way to his table "You are?"

"Murtala" he gave a tight lip smile and went back to his work, not bothering to ask about her. She huffed in annoyance and went back to her table mumbling harsh words to herself. A month went by with their conversations revolving around 'Good morning', 'hi' and 'hello'. It only went above that when they had to work together at site.

"Excuse me miss" Murtala called her attention. She turned around and caught sight of his glorious straight face, his eyes hidden beneath the sunglasses he so beautifully wore as the sun glazed his light brown skin which glowed. She was pissed at him for being so formal with her and putting no effort at all into knowing her, even if he wanted to keep their relationship strictly professional he should at least know her name.

"Nadine!" she snapped "My name is Nadine" she threw her helmet away and quickly made her way to her car, her chest heaving as she tried to let go of the anger that was making her burn within. Everyone turned their attention to Murtala whose face showed no emotion whatsoever. He picked up the flung helmet and walked outside the site to Nadine's car where he found her mumbling harshly to herself. He tapped on the window to get her attention, she looked up at him hissed and went back to her silent vexing. He rolled his eyes at her and again tapped on the window, he had dropped the helmet on top of the car and placed his palms together pleading for her to whine down the window.

With a straight face on, Nadine opened the door and stepped out not sparing Murtala a glance, she crossed her arms "What?" she asked still looking away.

"Your helmet" he said. Her mouth hung low, she could not believe what a jerk he was being. "Okay! Okay! I'm sorry" he surrendered. She huffed in annoyance and turned to look at him "Why do have to be so mean?"

"I didn't mean to be, its just that I have a lot on my mind" he sighed as he pushed up his glasses to his head and ran his palm down his face.

"Care to share" she was back to normal.

"No thank you, I'll pass" they both went silent for a while with Murtala tugging his glasses back on "Nadine hmmm, You have a beautiful name"

Nadine and Murtala kept their relationship strictly professional much to her dismay but at least she got his attention. She made numerous attempts to break that barrier between them but with Murtala still grieving he had no intentions of letting her out the friend zone.

"I'm going to get something to eat, coming?" Nadine asked while holding on tightly to the door handle hoping he would say yes even if not the first gazillion times she asked in the past four years, maybe today.

"No thank you, I have some work to do" He replied. And that was it, that was how that particular conversation went all the time. She sighed and turned to leave, it was then she started detaching herself from him trying as much as possible to mind her own business and keeping their relationship strictly professional. Just like he wanted.

End of flashback

Nadine shoved in her earpiece and turned the music low enough so she could hear if anyone -well Murtala- was talking to her as she again went through the designs sent in by the architect. Murtala checked his watch if it was time for Zuhr prayer, as it was he quietly left for the mosque, prayed and returned to find Nadine in the same position he left her while staring deeply at the screen of her laptop. He huffed in confusion as it was normal for her to be out for lunch whenever he returned from the mosque.

'What's really wrong with her'

He picked his car key from the tabletop and made for the door. With his hand holding onto the handle he turned swiftly to face her

"Hey Nadine"

"huh" she raised both eyebrows at him and quickly pulled out the earpiece.

"Wanna go get something to eat?"

xoxo hairanumar