HIS FAMILIAR STRANGER

That girl with a book

Ok so here's the deal. I have been on a continuous schedule since last saturday and I have been on a diet of caffeine and bread and cheese combined products. I got back from London. I am so sleepy that I have zero chill right now. I have been at the phone interacting with everyone back home posting pictures of my younger brother and all the pre-celebratory events because he is getting engaged this sunday and I am flying back to attend it after having been through every member of the family scold rile and blackmail me on call text and email to be exaggrative. No. Don't get me wrong. They don't hate me. On the contrary they love me just a bit too much. But I'm so twined up with work I just cant make time. Yes. I'm a workaholic who likes vacations but is too busy to go on a vacation. Yeah. It's complicated.

I'm right now sitting at one of the busiest airports in the world DIA aka Dubai International Airport. My cell phone is close to losing its calm and giving up on me so to be on the safe side I keep it away for the night so I can call my chauffer once I land in doha. oops. I almost forgot to tell you that, yes, I am from Doha, Qatar. I mean im not a native qatari. I'm an all out desi. Indian to the core. but my dad set up business in Doha and we lived here ever since. Our business is in the real estate department so you know why I'm so busy all the time. It's one of the most lucrative industries and falls under the most wanted category. I mean Middle East thrives on beautiful architectures and construction works everywhere because it's one of the most rapidly developing countries in the world. Anyway, I have two siblings, the younger brother I talked about and and an even younger sister. No brownie points for guessing how much of a pain my sister is to me and yet just how much I love her. And my brother is actually my partner in crime. Being younger to me he adores me and I dote on him but we did lots of crazy shit back when we were in school and growing up. Now that I have kind of gotten detached from the family we hardly catch up. Skype is where I see my family instead of at home.

I wouldn't say I don't have regrets. I have lots of them. But it's life we are talking about here. The most twisted thing on this planet. I have missed out on a lot in life due to work. I was 19 when I had to join my dad's business. It wasn't a decision rather a duty. My dad was rushed to the hospital with a sudden dip in BP and critical levels of blood sugar. Obviously he too was a workaholic. He rarely made time for himself let alone us. It proved nearly fatal for him. He was advised complete rest and no going back to work temporarily. He was adamant about joining work after a week. Mom stepped up seeing him being so stubborn and scolded him blue and black for acting like an irresponsible whatever. And lo and behold the next CEO of the company- Tanveer Muhammad. That's me. At the time this decision was made everyone was happy and proud. But I'm sure they regret it now, now that they don't get to see me in weeks or even months together. Tahir my younger brother was never interested in real estate as a business although he has a degree in architecture. He works as the designer for our company. I sometimes envy him. In a good way. He could choose his career and live his life the way he wanted. And now he has found a great woman to share that life with too. It doesn't get better than this. Although I wish he gets more happinesss in every way. And my sister. Tabseer, she's 17. High school goer. Fashion is her life. Her birthday gifts are a real something to look forward to (sarcasm?#) because she is going to demand stuff I have never heard about and by some designer I couldn't care less about. But she's a sweetheart. The only one in the family who knows how I truly feel about me and my life. She's my go to adviser. She'd make a great lawyer.

While I have been thinking of all this I may or may not have been distractedly or not been staring at a girl seated at the opposite row of seats in front of me. She had this book in her hand and she was answering calls now and then. Typical English Literature major I'm guessing. I have become quite a master at judging people by their whereabouts. She was a hijabi. While I was judging she happened to look up to see the time on huge Rolex hanging above just near her and then got back to her reading and for a split second I thought she looked at me. Or maybe not.

It's been around half an hour or so and I already feel like I should just walk up to this girl and snatch that book away. She has been reading it like it has the secret codes to some nuclear weapon launch or better the riddle to some ancient temple filled with omnipotent powers like she was Lara Croft. How do people read so much. Or maybe I'm just too bored and everything is annoying me.

I had to do it. I need to talk to this girl. I hope she doesn't think I'm a weirdo. I mean I am a weirdo but it's not the sort of thing girls like as a first impression. Haven't been too familiar with the dating rules these days. Although I have too many women lurking around for an opportunity. Astaghfirullah. But I'm not about that stuff. What can I say? I'm a busy guy who is a one woman's man. I don't know why I am doing this. I am already walking towards her. Well shit. This better be worth it.

''hi''

i smile down at her and ask if i can take the seat next to her. i figured sitting right next to her would be a bit too much. without looking at me she played out trying to act cool. she obviously didnt realize how tensed up she looked. i sat a seat away from her and kept my bag in the middle. in case she gets ideas about me being some creepy pervert the bag should be liability enough. hope she notices though because she was totally trying to ignore the hell out of me.

''íts the kings property''

ooh. sassy. that made me laugh. i sat down to that warm welcome. i had to explain myself which i did, how my boredom made me come up to her so we could have a conversation, to which she just turned her head to let me know she heard me. she was about to say something but her phone rang. she let out a series of positives and im guessing that was her mom. i mean what are the odds of only your mom being able to not let you speak anything other than monosyllables.

after disconnecting, she turned to me and took a second as if in a thought and then showed me some more of her sass. was i even expecting a calmer answer.

i had to introduce myself. i dont know why i was taking the pain to do this stuff anyway. i mean i never give two straws to women who throw too much shade. no time for attention seekers.

She laughed at my introduction. I hope she isn't laughing at my introduction. The sound of her laughing. It was beautiful. a soft genuine laugh.

We kept talking about everything that made sense and also those that did not. She wanted me to guess her name! Like names can be guessed.

She gave me this really lengthy explanation of how deers and gazelles are not alike. Woah! She really does read a lot of books. And that's dangerous. But I obviously couldn't let her know I was impressed. I let her know I was exasperated with her deer talk and that she needs to calm down. And she had to do that again. Let out that laugh. She laughs and I feel like I'm walking on pink cotton candies. And that's not good. What's wrong with me. And all this while I was probably staring. Because she looked self conscious.

After talking nineteen to the dozen she feels self conscious. And then she goes ahead and acts like we've known each other for years. And yet again she doesn't think twice before giving me a piece of her mind when she thinks I'm being "shameless". You don't meet such a girl everyday, do you? Or maybe I have stopped hanging out with the women folk for far too long.

Nevertheless when the barista thought we were a couple because of the way we kept bickering, it didn't seem too bad. Odd, yes but not bad.

This girl is into witchcraft.

Note: I thought of trying out Tanveer's POV. I hope you guys like it. Tell me if I'm not being able to see things from a guy's point of view because I already think I can't😆 your votes and comments mean a lot as always 😘