Entwined by Destiny

Chapter Nine

    The weather was cool and refreshing after a heavy rain subsided one Thursday evening in the holy month of Ramadan. Just the perfect atmosphere for seclusion in one's room to recite the Holy Quran, do tasbeeh or perform any other reward-gaining activity in the sacred month.

     While most of the women her age were either in their kitchens preparing food for iftar or seeking reward from Allah in another way, Fateema was busy fighting down the urge to strangle the man seated across her working table, watching her with keen interest.

     As she struggled with latex which kept sticking to everything and causing her a lot of stress, she inwardly groaned in frustration. Oh why did they have to send them to this useless Football Making Unit? For God's sake she's a botanist in the making; she deals with plants not the horrible, sticky mess inside their bark!

    For crying out loud, what valuable knowledge will she and her colleagues gain in this particular unit?.They should have been restricted to the Bio-Resources Unit, Bio-Fertilizer Production Unit and the others, at least they have relevance to Botany but this? (she looked disdainfully at the offending latex).What does a botanist got to do with making a ball?

   Anyway, it's not the fault of the coordinators, they were only doing their jobs and they didn't actually ask them to make it, they just demonstrated it for them to see.The one at fault here is....She looked towards his direction and saw him watching her like a predator targetting its prey---with the keenest of interest as if to assess her mood.
Oh well, this is Fateema Naseer you're looking at, you'll never see any reaction whatsoever in her expressionless eyes!

   She was the only one remaining as all her colleagues have left an hour ago, leaving her to be the one to demonstrate the lesson learnt earlier on.To her, it had been a very boring and tiring day and she was almost dead on her feet.The only break she got was at Zuhr and Asr times when she excused herself.She wasn't even in the state of praying and fasting but he doesn't have to know that, right?

   Dr Ezeawata reclined back to make himself more comfortable on the chair, crossed both his arms and legs as he kept on watching the captivating scene before him.Really, the girl never failed to amaze him.Day in day out all her fascinating qualities keep revealing themselves and he can't help but be impressed. Her eyes showed nothing akin to tiredness even though she had been on her feet since morning.

He was also aware that she's fasting since it's the fasting period for the Muslims. Infact, one of her colleagues had given that as an excuse, saying he's feeling dizzy while two others said they had to go and prepare food for breaking the fast.But this die-hard girl just kept working. The only break being the two times she had to go and pray which she had asked him with levelled eyes, as if challenging him to try and stop her from performing her religious duties.

    She reminded him so much of the most important person in his life---his own self! Oh yes that fire in her eyes, that zeal, that determination, that mindset----he had all being there, done that. For uncountable times, he had tried to extinguish that fire, to intimidate her like he had intimidated many others in the past but to no avail. It was as if he was just rekindling the fire in her, feeding it with fuel.To him, she appeared to be getting bolder, more confident, more intelligent and more determined every blessed day.

    It all began that fateful day she defied his order of removing her niqab.Instead of being angry and offended for being defied for the very first time ever, deep down he felt amazed.Her action proved the girl had her morals, self-confidence and was determined no matter the circumstance, nothing can change her or her opinion. Despite knowing his notorious attitude, she didn't let that stop her.Not that, not the fear of losing the ten marks of the test.