XI: A Step Closer

She stared out into space, a spoon dangling in her mouth. Aslan observed her, wondering what she was thinking and how to get her to open up to him. A thought occurred in his head and he cleared his throat to gain her attention.

"Walk with me?" he queried, extending his arm towards her.

She raised an eyebrow, trying to gauge his expression but it was neutral. She capped the Nutella jar she was holding and set it aside then swung her legs off the bed, placing her hand in his arm.

"Where are we going to?" she questioned, staring up at him.

"The garden," he replied, leading them out of the room.

They walked out of the house in comfortable silence, wrapped up in their own world.

"Let's play a game," Aslan suggested, coming to a complete stop by the swing.

"What sort of game?" she queried, sitting down on the swing.

"20 questions?" he smiled, placing his hands on the swing, pushing it slowly. "Something to get to know each other better."

"Hmm," she closed her eyes, enjoying the sensations that came with being pushed on a swing. "What do you wanna know?"

"Uhm...let's see... I know that you like chocolates, take in a lot of sugar which is harmful by the way," he scrunched up his face, making her giggle. "You love movies and have a mild obsession for books, you love gardening, that's about all that I know about you."

"Oh and you have a thing for jeans," he added, ticking off his fingers.

"Well let's see," she placed her hand under her chin. "I have one sibling; Yaa Umar and one friend; his wife, Yaa Hanifa."

"Wow, only one friend? Your whole life?"

"Yup," she replied proudly. "I have people I hang out with but she's the only friend that I have."

"So what's your first question?" she questioned, rising from the swing.

"If you could travel anywhere around the world, where would it be?" he queried, extending his arm towards her as he began to walk again.

"Disney land," she replied dreamily.

"Seriously?" he chuckled.

"Yeah," she swatted his arm playfully.

"Well I'd like to visit Mauritius," he replied.

"Africa, wow."

"Yeah," he grinned. "Your turn."

"What songs have you completely memorized?"

"None," he replied with a sour expression. "I don't listen to music."

"Your life must be really boring," she stated.

"Ever the blunt talker aren't you?" he cocked his eyebrow not the least offended by her words.

"You can say that," she grinned. "Well as for me, I've memorized a lot of songs especially Disney songs, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Austin Mahone, Ed Sheeran and a host of others."

"Where would you spend all your time if you could?" Aslan queried, coming to a halt by the edge of a hammock.

"The library, you?"

"My art studio. What irrational fear do you have?"

"Someday I might wake up and find out that everything is gone," she admitted softly.

"I know that feeling," he replied, placing his hand on hers in a comforting manner.

"When do you feel truly alive?"

"When I paint," his eyes lit up for the first time since they started walking. "At the first brush on the canvas, it's like my whole being comes to life and every brush makes my heart beat faster and wilder like never before."

"I know what you mean but reading makes me feel most alive. When I read, I feel and experience all sorts of emotions which I don't get to experience in real life. Reading is breathing to me. You're up."

"What would a mirror opposite of yourself be like?"

"An extrovert," she grinned, ticking off her fingers. "A fashionista, emotional, socialite and the list goes on."

"An introvert," he replied with a rakish grin. "Next question."

"Is that all? Wouldn't you have any distinctive features?" she cocked her eyebrow.

"I suppose not," he shrugged.

"If you could live in a book, TV show, or movie, what would it be?"

"I don’t know," he shrugged. ″I don’t watch a lot of movies.″

"Pity. Well as for me, it'd be The vampire diaries," she sighed dreamily.

"What's so special about it?"

"There are many life lessons to learn from it, supernatural creatures set aside. The most important one of all is you deserve to be loved greatly no matter what your past is," she responded, her words hitting him right in the chest. "This series has a huge chunk of my heart, I have no idea how to explain it."

His mind travelled back to the day of the event when he lost himself and swore off love. The day he realised that he could never be loved again.

"Hey," she nudged him a little, breaking him from his line of thoughts. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he shook his head. "Where were we?"

"You're next."

"If you are in a bad mood, do you prefer to be left alone or have someone to cheer you up?"

"A bit of both, sometimes I dunno what I want," she replied earnestly.

"I'd rather be left alone."

"Bummer. Do you believe in second chances?"

"No, I don't."

"Why not?" she queried her eyes widening. "I believe in second chances and third and fourth heck, I believe in a lot of chances."

"You must've been disappointed a lot of times I presume?"

"Yeah," she replied with a sad smile. "I never seem to learn my lesson."

"What was your first impression on me when we first met?" he questioned, drumming a long finger on his chin.

"To be honest, I was too scared to actually think about you. You scared the crap outta me that day, scary and mean I'd say. Mr meanie and scary," she grinned.

"Wow, I've been called a lot of things but never scary or meanie, that's novel."

"Yeah," she bobbed her head. "There's a first time for everything."

"The first time I saw you I was awed by your presence," he admitted, avoiding eye contact with her. "I shouted at you because I was frustrated and felt jealous that you painted something better than what I've done in two months."

"Amazeballs!" she squealed. "A point for me and none for you."

"Since when did we start giving points?"

"Since now. What would be your spirit animal?"

"A lion," he replied proudly. "After all that's the meaning of my name."

"Egoistical much?" she cocked her eyebrow, earning a smirk from him. "Mine would be a cat."

"Cuddly and mushy," he grinned.

"Yeah," she grinned back at him.

"What are the top three qualities that draw you to someone new?"

"Intelligence, generosity and loyalty."

"Poise, elegance and intelligence," he replied, causing a deep scowl to appear on her face. Those were the exact same words that Afet had told her on their last encounter. She quickly replaced it with a smile, hoping he hadn't noticed the gesture.

"Theatre or cinema?"

"That's a hard choice to make," she pouted. "I'll go for the theatre now, I've never been there before."

"Not ever?"

"Not ever," she confirmed.

"Okay, I've been to the theatre before, so I'd say cinema perhaps."

"What do you define as a family?"

"Family is everything, it's life."

"If there's anything I've learnt from watching The Originals is that 'family is always and forever'. Family is life."

"If you were to be on lockdown somewhere with no access to Wi-Fi let's say an island what are the three things you'd take with you?"

"Books, Nutella and my iPod."

"Chocolate addict," he shook his head. "I'd go with my art supplies."

"Only that?"

"Yeah."

"Have you ever been in love?"

"No," he shook his head, his heart beating wildly.

"Me neither," she replied staring at her feet. 

"What about your fiancé? Did you not love him?"

"Maybe and maybe not," she shrugged.

"But if you didn't why did you agree to marry him?"

"I dunno," she shrugged. "It is kinda hard to like someone talk more of loving him. I felt comfortable around him so I agreed to his proposal."

"Interesting," he nodded.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah sure, go on ahead."

"Why'd you agree to the marriage? You could've said no and it would've ended then."

"I honestly don't know. I was too tongue-tied to object when Baba called and Lale was enthusiastic about meeting you, Anne and Hilal too. I suppose that must've been why I didn't object, I didn’t want to disappoint them."

"Okay," she nodded.

"I'm hungry can we go inside now? I'll faint here if we stay any longer," she pouted rising up. "We can continue this question session another time."

"Yeah sure," he replied, standing up to his feet.

They made their way back into the house after Najmah had picked a few fresh flowers.

***

He watched as she tried to separate the meat from the dough of her manti before she gave up and meant to stand up from the chair when he passed over his plate of sadepilav to her.

She mouthed a thank you to him then dug into her food and when she was done, she stood up and went back to their room to pray Asr while Aslan went out to the Masjid.

{••}

Lale tapped her foot on the floor impatiently, staring at the object of her distress who was busy typing away on his laptop.

He groaned inwardly, massaging his temple. The clicking sounds her heels made on the floor made his head hurt. He hated any form of nuisance when he's working.

"Can you stop that?" he groaned again, casting his laptop aside. "Somehow you don't have to open your mouth to make my head hurt."

"You little...," she clamped her mouth shut, unwilling to argue anymore with him. "When are you going to be done with the designing? I need my workroom ASAP."

"I don't know," he replied calmly. "It'd be done when they are done."

"If you are not working on the project why are you here? I hate your presence!" she spat, folding her arms.

"The feeling is mutual," he responded gruffly. "I don't need to explain things to you okay? I was asked to do the designing and my team's working on it. So please for the sake of both our sanity can you stop complaining?"

"Oh so I'm driving you crazy? Is that what you mean? Are you calling me crazy?" she queried, advancing towards him.

"That's not what I meant," he defended, standing up to his feet.

"Then what do you mean by the sake of our sanity hmm?" she cocked her eyebrow.

"You're putting words in my mouth," he frowned. "It was just an expression."

"Well learn how to express your words better," she walked out of the office, leaving him tongue-tied again.

"I've got a lot of work to do," he muttered under his breath, walking out of the office too.

He went to check with his team to see how far they were holding up. At first, he thought working on this new project would offer him a piece of mind but he was wrong, Lale was hellbent on making him miserable. He should've declined Aslan's request and went on vacation instead of accepting, it was by far more relaxing than this, albeit his house with all the tension going on was far better than staying within earshot of the fashion designer. She was a walking breathing migraine that doesn't know when someone has had enough.

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