Entwined by Destiny

Chapter Thirteen

Fateema was hurrying down the now partially dark staircase of the department as it was already 8pm in the night when she felt her feet step on something with a jingling sound. Looking down, she saw a necklace and after uttering 'bismillahil ladhi la yadurru ma'a ismuhu shay'un fil ardi wala fis sama'i wa huwal sami'ul aleem'(to ward off any harmful effect of whatsoever it is), she bent down and picked it up.

Upon closer inspection, she recognised it as Dr Ezeawata's cross pendant necklace.Her first instinct was to hurry to the first available toilet and flush it in the W.C to payback at him for all he has done to her. But another dominant, more Fateema-like part of her insisted she safekeep it and return it to the owner later since he had already left earlier, leaving her to finish up the first chapter of her project. Afterall, Islam teaches repaying evil with kindness.

The following day was a Saturday and
so they met as 'C.J & Fateema' not as 'Sir and Project student'.As always, he was being his usual obnoxious self, trying to dominate everything and prove to Fateema and Alhassan that he was much better than they are in various ways. Likewise, Fateema drew aside, watching him exert his prowess before taking over and outshining him as always.

Over time, all the other trainees not just Alhassan had began to notice the obvious competition going on between the two polar opposites--a fully-covered niqabi and a hunk always clad in slim fit figure-hugging shirts and a cross necklace. But today in particular, their tug-of-war seemed even more interesting cos C.J was more obnoxious than usual. Infact, he was outrightly rude and even yelled at one unlucky colleague of his.

That prompted the other trainees to mind their own business cos mehn!, the man was intimidating and was blessed with a wealth of charisma that even his mates are in awe of him.And since he has adopted this rude attitude today, they had to tread cautiously to avoid stepping into the lion's den.

Fateema herself was puzzled. She knew he was as obnoxious, bossy, arrogant and cocky as they come but he was never outrightly rude.What got his hackles up, she wondered.Maybe his wife jilted him....no his girlfriend (she changed her mind as she looked at his ring finger and saw nothing).Or maybe he caught her cheating on him....Yeah, that would serve him right, Cruel Jerk kawai.

After closing for the day, Fateema got to the parking area, opened her bag to retrieve her car keys only for her eyes to fall on the long-forgotten necklace. Turning to where she knew his car was parked, she saw him just getting into the sleek black beauty.

Hurrying towards him, she called out "C.J!".

He looked up at her just as he was about to shut the car door, frowned murderously as if he has just seen the devil himself before saying, "What again now? Aren't you done making a fool outta me yet? Go fuck someone else, I'm not in the mood for you today."

'Take a deep breath, calm down Fatee.You can do this. Show him you're the better person. You're not like him.Prove to him!' Her inner self encouraged.

Extending her gloved hand towards him,she said,"I think this belongs to someone you know."

And as she opened the fisted hand for him to see what's inside, what happened next was so fast that Fateema didn't get a chance to register it.One minute he was sitting in the car, frowning at her extended hand and the next, he was towering over her, right in front of her, his hand clasping hers as he picked up the necklace, raised it to his eyelevel and dangled it before his eyes as if to make sure it was really the one and his eyes were not deceiving him.

And then it happened. His eyes shifted from the necklace and fell on Fateema's curious ones, immediately causing her heart to skip a beat.That look in his eyes.....It was out-of -this world..it was one-of-a-kind..it was bizarre..weird...oh so many lots of other things she couldn't put a finger on.What she knew was that that moment was epic; it was memorable. She wished she could have captured it on camera--just a click of her finger on her phone would have done it.Thinking of her finger, he was still holding her hand!