Naina (Al-Ameen Family #4)

Contact

Namrata gave me an earful about needing to move apartments again, but agreed it would be a good idea to be closer to Nazeeha Afzal, especially now that we know she's definitely involved somehow.

She somehow paid the landlord off and was able to get me an apartment one floor up from Nazeeha. I just hired movers this time because I really couldn't be bothered to pack and unpack everything once again, especially when I was so much busier with work.

We started looking more in to Liam, the student that was running this project. He hadn't visited as much as Nazeeha but we didn't want to leave any bases uncovered.

Namrata encouraged to get to know Nazeeha more, see if there was any information I could pull out of her. So I "coincidentally" bumped into her in the apartment building lobby one Monday afternoon and chatted her up about how tiring the moving process was and what not. She invited me over for dinner for that Friday. Apparently some of her in-laws were in town so she'd been busy with them, but they were leaving Thursday.

I went over Friday night, wearing my lavender coloured salwar kameez and with a bottle of non-alcoholic wine.

"My sister loves this stuff," Ali laughed, popping the bottle open and pouring three glasses. I sat in the kitchen while Nazeeha finished up cooking dinner.

They revealed that Ali was actually her husband, and was working in India right now so he just visited every so often. Nazeeha actually shared this apartment with her second cousin, who was saying with friends this week. Ali and Nazeeha only had their nikah done so far, so they weren't living together officially yet.

"So what do you do Laila?"

"I'm a researcher on campus. I work in biology," I told them. Namrata and I worked out "Laila's" whole life before tonight's dinner so I wouldn't go ahead and lie about something else we'd have to deal with after.

"Oh what do you study?"

"I'm studying the genetic basis of adaptive behavior," stole that little gem off of some Harvard professor's website. "Super boring stuff actually, I'm just in a lab all day," I shrugged casually.

"That sounds pretty cool though," Nazeeha laughed. She started talking about Ali's family, and all the insanely talented people he was related to.

It was like they were manufacturing perfect sons and daughters. I was listening and nodding along to what she was saying, but my attention was really on the couple.

There seemed to some sort of unease between the two. I could tell they just got into a big fight. But they still loved each other, because Ali's eyes never left Nazeeha for longer than a minute.

"Where did you go to school?" Nazeeha asked as she served some rice into my plate.

"Harvard," I smiled sheepishly. I had never even seen Harvard.

"That's insane. My cousin got into Cambridge for rocket science," I laughed with Ali when he said that. "But he decided to pursue something he's wanted to do since he was a kid so he didn't go. We all used to tell him he should've gone to school so at least he could brag about it."

"I totally agree. But getting in to that program gives him bragging rights too," I chuckled.

"What he's doing now is pretty brag-worthy too," Nazeeha pointed out to Ali.

"What does he do?" I asked.

Ali was about to answer, but his phone rang. He went into the living room for it.