Prologue : Page 1
Chapter 1
The divorce came across as though they had been set free from a cage, for both of them. Aalia kept thinking whether to inform her parents or not. She finally decided on the negative, reasoning, that her father's heart will probably stop pumping blood when she will tell him, sarcastically.
With the money, she had in her bank account; she went on, on the crowded streets of Mumbai, looking for a place to live in. Survival wouldn't be an easy task for her, especially when she has no one to fall back on. But the good thing was that, she had a degree. A degree, none of her friends managed to attain, her friends who were forcefully married off by her parents, now suffered their life with no way out and regret their decision.
She had managed to accomplish a joint major in finance and architecture. She was a highly motivated student, even when her parents, especially her mother fended her off the idea of studying so much, according to them, only to be a good wife and a good daughter in law. She was proud of herself, because of the fact that she listened to none and did only what her heart told her to. Mumbai was a crowded city, where she could lose herself. There were so many people, of so many cultures, backgrounds and a very few in the cosmopolitan city that were as narrow minded as the people in Bhopal were. From now, she had to make good choices, although she was from a middle class family, she had never been denied anything, but from now, she had to be extremely frugal while spending money. She had to take fast and steady steps for her survival, and the first one would be finding herself a house and the second - finding herself a job.
She chucked the plan of getting a house first, it seemed too impractical, as she wouldn't be able to afford one at this point of time, and she couldn't possibly be a tenant as, everywhere she went, she only found land lords asking for an advanced payment and an assurance that she will pay the money. Wiping the sweat off her brow, she proceeded to a hotel to take shelter for the night.
The next day she pulled out her resume for various firms, who, undeniably were really impressed by her skill, but couldn't offer her a job due to the dearth of vacancies, and she wouldn't let someone be sacked just because of her.
Meanwhile, she had an encounter with Zain, at the one of the places Usman owned. Oblivious to who the owner was, Aalia entered the building to look for a job, and later realized that it probably wouldn't be the right place for her when she felt an intense glare on her.
"Holy shit! What am I even seeing? Zain can't be in this place...He would probably be partying in Las Vegas by now, for all I care. Nope, I can't be hallucinating. I think it is Zain. And he probably owns this place, or why would he be in some office place that is too boring for his liking?", Aalia pondered.
She didn't wear her standard Salwar Kameez. She had despised it ever since she returned to Bhopal after college, where she, although didn't show off too much, maintained a certain level of modernity by wearing jeans and t-shirts, and sometimes, dresses as well. She wore modern clothing that was appropriate for office wear.
Zain, on the other hand, was flabbergasted. He didn't expect Aalia to be modern, heck, he didn't even expect her to be there.
Hence, they stood, looking at each other, contemplating on whether they should talk or not. So, they nodded curtly acknowledging each other, and walked off, albeit in different directions.
Aalia was ebullient when she found out that she had been hired by one of the most reputed architectural firms. She couldn't contain herself. She went ahead and rented a house. The irony was that people travelled long and far for their workplaces, Aalia had been lucky, she didn't have to move to another city, she got one in the place she was looking for, such were her capabilities.
Atlantis Architectural Firm Pvt. Ltd., the name itself resonated power. She was quite excited but a little skeptical as well. She never really liked the work of this company, she felt, they were a bit too prosaic for her liking and she couldn't understand why this firm was one of the leaders in the field. "Maybe that's what I am here for", she thought.
Prasad, an employee of the HR Department, showed her cubicle to her. "Thanks, Prasad!", she exclaimed, while Prasad reciprocated with a smile. On the very first day itself, Aalia made a great deal of friends, being the cheerful personality she is, it was very hard to not get attracted to her exuberant nature.
Radhika, Shweana, Rhea, Nazim, Raag and Grishma clicked with her instantly. She worked in the design department along with her friends.
And a few months passed by. Aalia had no other thing in mind than work and taking the company to the zenith. She didn't see Zain being in the same city, neither did she think about him. She often spent her time going around the city with her colleagues who were no less than best friends to her. The subject of her personal life though, was a subject that nobody could talk about.
"So, Aalia...I can't believe you majored in 2 courses! I mean getting a perfect 4.0 GPA after this is just amazing! I had to struggle too much to manage just one course man! I really don't think you should be just in the design department, you should definitely be promoted, looking at how you work your a$$ off all the time. I'm telling you that time is not far away." Rhea just started the topic one day.
"Okay Rhea, you can stop your daily dose of promotion talk now. I can't just take it when you guys do this whole thing of getting me promoted. What is it? You guys can't bear me anymore or what?" Aalia retorted, visibly irritated.
Rhea : "Hey, hey calm down! Really! I was just kidding...and we love working with you! But seriously, don't you have any personal things to take care of?"
Aalia : "Really, Rhea? Was it the last thing you could come up with? I don't want to talk about my personal life, I've left it behind, just to make it clear to you again."
Rhea : "I think we should set you up with somebody"
"Don't even bother thinking about it, Rhea. I don't see the need of getting myself involved with any guy at all", Aalia bit back.
"At all? Really? I respect your decision, but I think you will find out someday, through some way that you need a companion, I just hope it's not through the hard one." Replied Rhea who was recently engaged to a person she really liked. Obviously she had to ooze out some of her wind swaying, butterfly erupting feelings of being in a relationship.
Zain, on the other hand was back to his old life. His feelings towards marriage had intensified after his recent stint with one, although it was for a very short period, he still felt that he was a caged bird.
His golden days were back, partying, late night outings, maintaining a couple of girlfriends at the same time...the old Zain was back. He had been shocked out of his wits when he saw Aalia dancing at a party his friends had dragged him over to. He had to repeatedly rub his eyes and pinch himself to believe that it was actually Aalia who was on the dance floor, wearing a cocktail dress and dancing. He let himself go unnoticed, he didn't want another nasty encounter with her, but now that he thought about it, he didn't really mind the mindless bickering that ensued with Aalia, infact he began to like it, and sometimes found himself looking forward to it, during the course of that one week. He stared at her intently and admiring her in the clothes she wore, had he seen her in them, he probably would have fallen for her. She was worlds apart, very different from the Aalia he had seen at home, who was homely and reserved, this was a wild Aalia, who was jumping on the dance floor clinging to some guy friend of hers. New revelations were happening every one of these days.
Chapter 2 : Page 8
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Hey guys! I am back...I was a little doubtful about this SS but I can see that some of you guys are interested. So I posted it. I really hope you guys like it.
Also one more thing...The internet I use has a firewall and sometimes I can't access IF because it comes under the category of entertainment.
Please like if you really did...and comment please! Now I know how it feels to have people reading your work but showing no proof that they liked it. I can understand it if you are not a member of IF, but if you are and you liked it, PLEASE hit the button called 'like' unless you think you're too cool for it...😆😆 And comments are the best! I love replying to everyone because they have taken their time out to write something about my work, so obviously I have to reciprocate!
The next update will take the same time as it did for this one.
See ya!
Edited by Jimson - 11 years ago
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