WINTER IN HELL (English version)

CHAPTER 3

I get home around ten o'clock at night, I've been in the office all day gathering ideas and trying to sort them out, I have a lot of work ahead of me and the worst thing is that I have four days left.

I forget about work and take off my heels, and then I get rid of my jacket, my pants, until I stay in my panties and with my white shirt on. God this is the glory, I sigh arriving until the kitchen and taking a glass of wine, I needed to relax and this more adding a mint cigarette, it was the paradise, I am not addicted to the tobacco, but sometimes it is the only solution.

I walk to the terrace I had in the living room, open it and go outside. Time seems to be beginning to cool down. And I love that. I love the rain, the cold, the wool sweaters. Everything. Anyway, with the cigarette in one hand and the glass in the other, I sit on a chair that I had there, white in color, it's worth mentioning. I sit in it and that's where I start to get into my own world. Looking at the stars and from time to time some lightning fell. But it wasn't raining.

  I was in the clouds until the house phone rings, I think twice, is it worth getting up? Faced with my lazy attitude, I decide to pick up the phone, and what a surprise It's my mother!

- Hello? -I answer, leaving the glass of wine on the coffee table in the living room.

I've been calling you these days, why didn't you pick up the phone? -She asks me in her typical repellent voice. I've noticed that I don't like his voice.

-I'm sorry, Mom, I've been a little busy," I answer, rolling my eyes.

- Busy? For God's sake, anyone who listened to you would think you controlled half of the United States.

- What do you want? -Serious and borderline question. I was getting sick of it, and we didn't even get a 30-second call.

- Don't talk to me like that, Noor. Can't I ask for my daughter either? Since you don't do it because I do it - you can see she's getting angry, but she's fucking mad. I know my mother.

-Mother, you always want something for your benefit, don't give me old stories - I answer, I don't swallow a word of what he said. I know her, I repeat.

-Well, since you want to get straight to the point - I knew it - Rayan will come to see you this weekend, I've already given him permission.

- What have you given him permission to do? To stay in my apartment for two days? To be his girlfriend? You don't know my plans, and he doesn't fucking come and talk to me? STOP CONTROLLING EVERYTHING, DAMN IT! -And I hang up the call screaming, leaving it with the word in my mouth. God, I'm out of my mind.

Because Rayan didn't say anything to me, I spoke to him in texts on my way home, but he didn't say anything about it. I hate that he lets himself be controlled by my mother. He's a good kid, we met at university and his mother knows my mother very well, and hence the idea that I marry him, and have two children and happily ate partridges. But NO, I don't like Rayan, he doesn't have a personality, he's a good guy I like, and he's fucking handsome, but he has a damn low self-esteem. I consider him a friend, but my mother can't accept him.

With the anger I have I get into the shower, there I think about everything that happened and analyze it. It's the best place to think. I admit that I have gone a little too far, shouting at my mother like that, but I can not with so much stress, between work and my mother I can not stand.

[...]

I go straight out of the apartment to the taxi I ordered. He is waiting for me at the door of the building. Today I asked for it because I don't want screams from my boss in the middle of the whole office. The bad news is that I won't be able to have my coffee. When the taxi arrives at the building where I work, it stops and I pay it what it tells me. I leave the vehicle calmly, and even with a smile on my lips, today I look very positive. Weird. I keep walking until I hear a voice behind me. I stop to wait for him.

-If I had known that the maiden was coming by taxi, I would have offered to take her with me myself," says Liam with a seductive smile on her lips.

-I wouldn't want to offend you, sir, but I found the taxi driver more handsome than you. -I'm still joking.

-Miss Asad, you offend me -he says, putting his right hand on his heart.

-Yeah, well, you're fucked. -When we said that, we both laughed. He wasn't expecting it.-What a mouth you have," he says in a whisper, but audible. I know it has a double meaning. And instinctively his eyes fall on my lips

-Come on, we're late," I say to cut the tension that had formed. Fuck, I was making it very difficult for myself. At this rate, I will fall at his feet. And I don't want that. He says nothing all the way to our respective offices. Mine goes first so I stop. I open with a key and when I want to enter his hand stops me. I stare him in the eye, and I think I've melted. But he's still serious.

-Today you don't run away from lunch, I come to pick you up and I don't want excuses. 

Is all he says, leaving me with the word in my mouth.

I want to avoid it as much as I can, but it seems that the earth and the universe conspire before me to make everything difficult for me.

I sit in my swivel chair and turn on the computer, pick up a pencil from my desk and hook it to my hair forming a badly made, but comfortable bow. Tomorrow I will have to walk around to get more information, what I have is not enough.

*

*

*

I don't realize lunchtime until Liam arrives and warns me that we have to go eat. I didn't really say anything, because I was starving too.

We entered his black BMW, clarifying that he is the one who opens the door for me. I have no idea where he wants to take me and I hope it's not a fancy restaurant, because I hate them. There you can't eat comfortably, as you should. I know from my mother's experience.Along the way we talk about trivial things about work, but above all we concentrate on the boss, in short, that he's a bastard.

We arrive at a restaurant where they sell tacos, if tacos. And I love them. God loved this man. I honestly came with my mind prepared for a fine restaurant. This is a big surprise. And he realizes it, because he smiles at me too tenderly. I eat it.

- Do you like it? - he asks me getting out of the car, I kept on with that stupid face, like when you give a kid a candy.

-What question is that? -I answer, grabbing his arm, entering the restaurant. He doesn't seem to mind, and I don't mind.

-I knew you'd love it - he replied proudly.

-Are you a fortune teller?

-Something like that - he says, with a smile showing his perfect white teeth.

[...]