B.O.A.T - Brownest of All Time

Chapter 40

After 3 months
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"Aiyo! Why do you all even like this?" asks mom with an irritated face as I mix the cake batter. She absolutely hates chocolate cake. Dad doesn't like it either. Wonder why! Is it just my parents or do all brown parents have a dislike for chocolate cake?

"You will like this. I'm making it mom. It will be awesome" I say with a chuckle. Now, I'm not a professional baker or anything but baking with Zayan a few times at Second Chance over the past few months, has definitely given me the confidence of one. Zayan is a great teacher. I love learning from him. If only I had male teachers with a sharp jawline like his when I was schooling, I would have become a scientist by now.

Mom who didn't even pay attention to what I said, starts scolding dad for something, mentions that the kitchen is too crowded, and then shouts at the kids for running around. She is clearly annoyed. I can see that. But there's nothing that I could do about it. It's a typical brown mom trait to be mad at the entire household on Eid festival morning. She will be fine after sometime.

I continue to mix the batter when my phone vibrates. I unlock it to find a text from Zainab that reads, "I've sent the emails Ilhaam 🙂 Anything else to be done dear?" Well, yes it's my cousin Zainab who I used to despise sometime back. She works for me now and it looks like I don't hate her much anymore.

I know this sounds strange but ever since mom and Salima kept talking about Zainab going through a tough time after her husband lost his job, I kind of started feeling sorry for her. And I really wanted to help her in some way but I didn't know how to. Anyway, two months back when I had assignment submissions, I found it very hard to handle work all by myself and I happened to mention it to Zayan one day. And it was he who suggested that I recruit someone to help me with some of my work.

At first, of course I thought his idea was ridiculous because employing someone and managing them seemed like such a huge task for me. Besides, I'm a perfectionist and I don't like sharing work with anyone else. But then Zayan was so convincing and wise with his words when he spoke. So, I agreed to do it.

Initially when I considered offering this job to Zainab, part of my brain kept flashing bad memories of the nasty comments she has made to me over the years. But the other part reminded me of Amer's words about kindness. So, I decided that I would just give it a try and as of now, I don't regret it a bit. Zainab has been very helpful and her work is pretty neat too.

"Hey thanks so much. But pls don't work today. Just enjoy the festival. Eid Mubarak 🤗♥️" I reply back to Zainab. See, she is nice to me now and I am nice to her too. So, I guess like Amer says, perhaps being kind for no reason, indeed has the power to change the world!

I reply to a few other Eid wishes from people I've never even spoken to before but somehow there's none from Mr. Perfect Jawline. The truth is I've been kind of expecting a message from him since the time I woke up. Well, I can't exactly say "woke up" because I never slept in the first place. I mean, that's what Eid is normally like, right? Everyone stays up all night, being too excited and waiting for the festival to start, isn't it? Or is it just me? I don't know.

Somehow the point is that it's 9:00 am and he still hasn't hit me up, which is making me a little anxious. Not really upset about it but there's this slight expectation. I mean, I know he is just a client and I shouldn't be expecting such gestures from him, but maybe my silly heart does and I don't know how to stop it.

In a way, it's justifiable to expect it because Zayan and I have been pretty close over the past few months, especially after he left to Australia last week. He messaged me quite a lot during the last few days. Nothing personal though. We are still not friends or anything. He is just my client. But then there are times when he suddenly says or does certain things which makes me feel like it could be more than a professional relationship.