Khudgarzi

27

Iss dard-e-dil ki sifarish
Ab kar de koi yahaan
Ki mill jaaye isey woh baarish
Jo bhigaa de poori tarah

Salaar POV

Today is the big day, we're sitting in the waiting room of Ms. Sheikh's office, she had agreed to take time out for Ayla. I could see Ayla was nervous, as she kept fidgeting with her fingers. Hell, even I was nervous, right now it was up to Ms. Sheikh if she would take the case or not. After about 10 minutes, her assistant came and asked us to go into the conference room and Ms. Sheikh would join us shortly.

Soon after settling in, walked in a hijabi woman in her early thirties. She introduced herself as Mrs. Fasiha Sheikh. She gave an introduction of how she had graduated the top of her class from Yale and she specialized in Family Law. She then, looked right into my eyes and asked me to leave Ayla and her alone. I was a bit reluctant but she wanted Ayla to be completely transparent about everything that had happened.

After about an hour, the door to the conference room opened and Ms. Sheikh walked out with Ayla following behind her. She then, turned around bid goodbye to Ayla and nodded towards me and went to what I'm assuming her office. I asked Ayla what had happrned and she said that she'd tell me in the car.

As soon as we settled in the car, I couldn't wait and popped the question,

"Soooo how'd it go? What did she say?", I asked

"She listened to everything that had happened and was really moved by everything and has decided to take my case, PRO BONO", she said

"I'm not really good with legal terms, what's pro bono again?", I asked sheepishly

"Well, she won't take a single penny from me", she beamed out

"Wait what? Ayla that's amazing!", I said

"Mhmmm and she called up the lawyer you were corresponding with for the domestic violence case and she's taking that up too", she said

"See, Ayla, I told you things would be looking up for you", I said now starting the car I started driving back home.

"Yesss Alhamdulillah! This by far has been the best birthday ever", she said whilst giving a gigantic ear to ear smile

Hold on, did she say birthday? I immediately stepped on the brakes causing them to screech and I turned my head towards her sitting in the passenger seat,

"ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY TODAY?", I asked her

"Mhm yeah, I'm twenty today lol", she said whilst smiling

"Why didn't you tell me, oh my God", I said

"Oh I don't really celebrate my birthday, now drive back home quickly, I'm hungry, I didn't eat anything cause I was nervous to meet Ms. Sheikh", she said

"Okay boss", I said

But instead of driving home, I drove to the fanciest halal restaurant in town. To say Ayla was surprised was an understatement. She was pleasantly surprised.

We ordered food and started talking about the exhibition, we were running late on it, so we had to finish it asap as well. The exhibition was in 6 months from now, so we had to finalize the designs, as well as finding a vendor who'd bring our designs to life. We had a busy schedule coming up.

Whilst, winding up dinner, Ayla held me by the hand and said,

"I have to talk to you, its important", she said

"Uh-oh, it doesn't sound too good, what's up?", I said

"So as you know, aunty's trial is in six months and she can't get out till then?", she said