A Pride & Prejudice and Little Women retelling
Farrah Hussain spent a lifetime hating Salman Bashir. At least that's what she liked to believe. When one fateful summer Salman changes his bad boy ways and comes back a new man, Farrah can't stop the l...
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Dahlia Ahmad got up early the next morning... which for her standards were any hour before noon.
She picked up her battered copy of Little Woman and tip-toed out of the room on which her friend and sister were still sound asleep. Dahlia walked out to the Fayyad's backyard. It was a sunny day and the humidity was higher than she had felt in a while. The heat was seeming unbearable since the moment she stepped out of Layla's air-conditioned room, but the slight breeze blowing by slightly soothed her skin.
Her eyes landed on a tall figure across the lawn, in front the garage that was connected to the driveway in the front of the house. Dahlia saw his face as a blur because of not wearing glasses, but she immediately knew who it was. She had come across Kaveh enough times to recognize his physique.
He was washing his car. He was moving with his pants up to his knees and a hose pipe in his hands, the gushing water directed towards the garage, only the hood of his blue car visible to her. There were damp patches in his clothes.
Dahlia neared one of the white couches arranged around the swimming pool and shifted it so that she wouldn't be facing him directly. She sat down under the shade of the trees dotting their garden, relaxing her back.
She opened her book. Within seconds, that skin-tingling sensation returned. She didn't have to look up to know he was staring at her again.
Dahlia turned and shifted her weight to her left shoulder to completely face away from him.
The Ahmad sisters had decided last night that they were going to return home the first thing after waking up, and return to the Fayyad mansion at night again as needed. But Yasmine Aunty insisted they stay the day and eat iftaar with the Fayyads. By now, the woman was already cooking up enough food to feed a family of elephants. So the sisters were stuck in this house.
As she read her book, Kaveh took his time. He got through at least three buckets of water and changed his sponges quite a few time.
It was high afternoon when Dahlia felt like it was getting too hot for her to remain outside. She could feel the heat seeping under her hijab.
She got up and stretched. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Kaveh still lingering near his car. She didn't understand what was taking him so long. This had to be the longest car wash she had ever witnessed.
Dahlia walked back to the house and lingered near the kitchen for a while.
"You didn't have to go through all the trouble, aunty," she said, sighting Layla's mother.
"Don't be silly!" Yasmine cried. "I love having you girls around. Snooping on your gossip is my daily dose of entertainment."
Dahlia chuckled at her words and shuffled near the door for a few minutes longer. She exchanged small talk with the older woman and then started towards Layla's room.
