Chapter Thirteen – Special place in the heart

It was their break on Monday morning when Zayaan went out of office with his friend Laaiq to buy his wife a gift for their anniversary. Gift her what you like Zayaan had told him, yet Laaiq had pulled him out with him anyway as his bachelor opinion on women’s likes and dislikes mattered to Laaiq.

They ended up at a pawn shop as they were surfing through the malls. Zayaan had suggested going there as he felt the simplest gifts were the best. Or perhaps the girls who liked simple gifts were the best. Either way he smiled at that thought thinking about a particular girl who might like such gifts. And it happened so that something he saw from beneath the glass counter of the pawn shop reminded him of her a bit too much.

“Excuse me! Could you take that one for me?” Zayaan asked, pointing at the silver bracelet with small sapphire stones at the beginning of each of the many short and thin strands hanging from the main strand of the bracelet. It was just like Zayaan remembered it as he looked at the bracelet being taken out and placed in his hand. His heart fluttered as he realized that it felt the same way in his hand too.

“Anything the matter?” asked Laaiq as he came and stood next to him while he was still looking intently at the bracelet in his hand.

“Could you tell me where you got this bracelet from?” Zayaan asked the shopkeeper, not caring much about Laaiq’s questions as he was too eager to know something.

“That? Yeah that was sold to me by a young lady in this neighborhood about a week ago.” the old man said.

“Who was it? Do you know her name?” Zayaan asked with a heightened pulse.

“Yes of course. Her name is Maya. The only child of my friend Thompson.” the man said. The name he heard made Zayaan furrow his eyebrows.

“Maya….does she work at the Perchman’s library?” Zayaan asked, remembering names from 6 months ago.

“Yes….she must be at work even right now.” the man said. In the next few seconds, Zayaan asked the price for the bracelet, left a 50 pound note on the counter, said thanks and dashed out of the shop not caring to get the change and neither hearing Laaiq calling out to him. He went out and hailed a cab, leaving Laaiq’s car for his own driving.

Within 10 minutes, Zayaan’s cab parked in front of the Perchman’s Library in a narrow street. Zayaan got himself out of the cab and in to the library. The girl at the counter had short straight hair and was wearing a typical top and jeans just as he remembered from 6 months ago. Without second thoughts, he stopped at the counter to face the girl.

“How can I help you sir?” she asked and it was then Zayaan noticed the name Maya Thompson on the working card she wore just as he did months ago.

“Do you happen to recognize this bracelet?” Zayaan went straight to the topic, showing the delicate bracelet in his hand. He felt anger as he asked the question since he had the assumption that the girl in front of her may not have returned it to Saba in the first place. But the reaction he got from the girl confused him. Her eyes and mouth grew wide as she saw the bracelet.

“That looks like my friend’s bracelet sir! Did you get it from a pawn shop?” Maya asked, flabbergasted.

“Yes I did in fact. I was told that you left it there….Actually I was the one who gave this to you to return it to your friend a few months ago. But it seems you didn’t.” Zayaan said with an angry look.

“No no no sir you’ve got it all wrong! I returned the bracelet to her that same day. But a week ago she gave it to me to sell it as I was running low on money and my father needed to buy medicine. I refused the offer altogether but took it as she kept insisting. That bracelet is very special to Saba. It was a gift given by her late mom and she gave it up for me.” Maya was teary as she said the last words. Zayaan himself was overwhelmed by what he heard of the sacrifice a girl made for a friend. Even more so, when he heard the name Saba. So it was surely her! The girl who kept her promise and got his camera repaired was not just some side chick Shamweel was dating. He knew it! He knew it had to be a special girl. A girl like her. Saba.

“Sir….if you can could you please give it to me so that I could give it back to her. I will return the money to you as soon as I can. Have been feeling guilty ever since I took that from her.” Maya said in a pleading voice.

“You don’t need to give me anything. If she helped you with this, I am no one to take that money from you. And don’t worry…I can give it to her myself…” Zayaan said the last words looking at the bracelet, lost in his own thoughts.

“Do you happen to know Saba, sir?” Maya asked.

“I sure do….I still feel the need to thank her properly for what she did for me. Will she be here today?” he asked. He wasn’t leaving without seeing her today.

“Yes she will be. Her duty starts this evening from 5:30….she will be here till 10:30.”

“Great! I can take her out to dinner then…but I guess I can’t take her so far if she is on duty. Is the restaurant across the street good?” Zayaan asked while wondering to himself what he was doing. Was he taking a girl on a date? He wasn’t sure. But he knew he wanted to have dinner with Saba that night.

“That restaurant is amazing, sir. It has a good view and also has good food. But Saba doesn’t like that place.”

“Why?”

“She had a bitter experience while she was there one night. She found out her boyfriend was cheating on her on their anniversary when she had planned an expensive surprise dinner for him. She hasn’t been there since…”

“I see….” Zayaan said, once again losing himself in his own thoughts. But before too long, he looked at Maya and spoke again.

“Maya, I need you to do something for me. Get Saba to go to that restaurant at 8:30 tonight. Give her any excuse to make her go there. I’m going to plan a surprise for her tonight.” Zayaan said, with a light smile playing on his lips.

And off he went to the restaurant directly to book the second floor as the first thing of the plan he made in his head. He went back to his office to finish his work for the day and yet kept making phone calls every now and then to buy things he would need in order to make the decorations. He could have hired a décor or could have requested the restaurant owner to do the decorations but for some reason, he wanted to do it himself.

Thus he found himself in the restaurant around 5:15 PM that evening. He’d dropped at the library and reminded Maya to convince Saba as soon as she can and let him know. He didn’t want Saba to miss what he was going to do for her at any cost. Maya was forced to call Saba even before she reached the library because of his insists. He was even more encouraged when Maya came back to the restaurant later to let him know that Saba was going to show up.

Maya offered to help Zayaan with the decorations but he convinced her to go home early as she’d planned to come back to the library in order to completely free Saba for the night’s dinner. Hence the huge bulk of the decorations were done by Zayaan. The decorations included arranging the candles around the floor, rolling the flower vines on the railing, talking to the orphanage across the street to bring the group of girls to hold the cupcakes. He’d heard about all the decorations from his last girlfriend Wendy. While he was immersed in the work, he remembered how Wendy told about what Shamweel’s girlfriend had planned. And the level of sympathy he felt for her even though he didn’t even know her. He even remembered the bouquet and the bookmark he’d sent to her on behalf of Shamweel. He wondered if she still had the bookmark with the quote he’d chosen for her. And if she’d believed in that quote.

Regardless of whether she believed it or not, the quote was absolutely true. She was the most trustworthy and also the most beautiful woman he’d seen. Zayaan thought to himself as he looked at her right in front of him. She looked stunning to him, though she wore a typical black abaya and scarf with a dark blue sweater. He got swept away by the joyous laughter she laughed with when she saw the little girls. And he loved the innocence in her eyes as she looked at him in wonder because of what he’d just told her and because of what she saw around her.

Saba kept wondering about what was going on. What was up with Zayaan? What was with all the decorations? And why was he thanking her and calling her the most trustworthy woman? Zayaan spoke just as she thought of that for the umpteenth time.

“Is this enough as a thank you?” Zayaan said with a heartwarming smile taking a few steps towards her.

“Thank you for what?” Saba found herself asking.

“Well…you’ve done quite a bit for me so far. Saving me from the lake, Giving me dry clothes, serving me dinner at your house, giving an interview on my request. But tonight, most of all, I’m thanking a girl who returned the most valuable thing I had when I needed it the most.” Zayaan said, now standing just a few steps away from her.

“Returned what?” Saba asked, trying her best to keep her voice firm with her heart thudding against her chest for some reason she wasn’t sure.

“My camera, which was broken by a friend of mine just the day before my interview at the MCN studio. I lost all hope of receiving it though my friend said his girlfriend would return it to me. But you did. You kept your promise. And as a result, I too, always kept my promises from then on.” Zayaan said. Saba felt as though her heart would burst because of the realization she came to, as she heard those words. If Zayaan was the man to whom she’d returned the camera, he must be the photographer who worked for Shamweel’s brother. If he was that photographer, he must be the one who sent her the bouquet and the bookmark.

Saba looked at Zayaan, still astonished by the realization. The hunch she had that evening had been right. It was him. And she knew it. Deep in her heart. She kept looking at him thinking about how their fates had been intertwined. Zayaan kept thinking about the same, until a girl’s voice came from below them.

“When are we having dinner? I’m so hungry!” said the girl in the middle and just then, a stomach rumbling sound came from one of the other girls. Everyone ended up laughing together at that and they all headed towards the long dining table arranged in the middle of that floor.

The floor is usually specialized for couples but Zayaan arranged it that way as Maya warned her that Saba may not have dinner if it was only her and a man. That actually gave Zayaan an extra excuse to have that dinner without the guilt of having to call it a date. And it was one of the heartiest dinners he’d had in his life. The laughter and the jokes among the little orphan girls filled the air as they enjoyed the mean. Zayaan and Saba were seated at the ends of the long table while the girls were seated on the sides. Though it wasn’t a date, Zayaan enjoyed every minute of seeing Saba during that dinner. The smiles she showed to the girls, how actively she joined them in conversation, how she helped the girl with weak hands in feeding herself and in building her confidence as she made the other girls clap when the girl put a morsel of food in her mouth by herself.

Without him even realizing, seeing Saba in that environment had left an impact on him too. Though he’d never had a chance to engage with kids as young as those girls, even he found himself laughing at their jokes and trying to tie their pony tails properly when they asked him to. Saba found her self laughing as Zayaan tried his best to do them justice even with difficulty. She found a charisma in him that she’d never seen before as he carried one girl on his back and ran around the floor after the dinner. He did the same with the other girls when they asked him to without any frustration whatsoever and made an entire game from it. Finally the night came to an end, when the girls began to get sleepy and Saba said it was time to take them home.

Zayaan and Saba took the girls to the orphanage across the street. Each of the girls hugged Saba and Zayaan separately. They knew Saba from the beginning as Saba visited them often whenever she had the chance. And that night, they were friends with Zayaan as well and the girls asked both of them to visit them the next day. They promised the girls that they will be meeting during the weekend.

“I’ll go get the car….I’ll take you home.” Zayaan said once they’d lost sight of the girls behind the gate of the orphanage.

“No I could go by the bus. You really don’t need to.” Saba said, as she hesitated to be alone with him and even more so didn’t want to be a burden on him.

“Then I’ll take you to the bus stop in the car then. You must be tired.” Zayaan said.

“No….really. I would like to walk by myself.” Saba said once again wanting to go as far from Zayaan as she can. She’d had this trait even when she was in a relationship with Shamweel and he would often criticize her for it. Saying she had a backward thinking. She thought Zayaan would say something along those lines until he laughed.

“You really don’t want to be alone in a car with a man, do you?” Zayaan said, quite impressed with her modesty. It was not every day to find a girl with both courage and modesty.

“I don’t. Especially at night. And my father won’t like it either.” Saba said honestly.

“Oh! Daddy said stay away from Juliet?” Zayaan said jokingly and Saba looked at him first and then ended up laughing along with him. At that moment, she felt a comfort that she’d never felt with any man before. She felt as though she could be herself with him. And that had never happened before. Her first and final relationship gave her the misconception that she’d need to change herself for the one she loved. But at that moment she began to realize that it may not be so. She smiled at that realization and ended up nodding when Zayaan asked if he could walk her to the bus stop like last time. The next moment, she regretted everything she said as now Zayaan would need to make two rounds to go back to his car.

Zayaan didn’t complain though. And Saba didn’t feel any uneasiness as she walked besides him either. Never did he make her feel that she was burdening him. Instead he was looking at the sky full of stars and the full moon talking about it.

“It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it? I never notice the moon since I don’t get to have walks like this often. But you must have walked it a thousand times, haven’t you?” Zayaan asked.

“I used to….I don’t anymore.” Saba said, in a bittersweet tone. She used to walk this street on full moon nights in the beginning of her relationship with Shamweel. He would come to meet her and they would walk together just as was doing with Zayaan at that moment. She hadn’t gone out like that to this street in the past 6 months. Saba realized that at that moment. It was because it would hurt her too much to remember how the person she loved so much had turned out to be a monster.

Zayaan looked at Saba’s face and saw the sadness winning over the joy in her eyes. His jaws tightened at that sight as he remembered the evilness of Shamweel. And at that moment, he knew he had to talk to her about it.

“You must have walked this street with him before, haven’t you?” Zayaan said with a hint of jealously in his heart which surprised him. Saba winced at his question. She kept looking down as she walked with slower steps. Zayaan sighed with a slight sadness of getting Saba to remember those days but he felt the need to talk about it as he felt she would only heal the more she found support from it.

“I’ve known him for quite some time Saba. In fact I think I knew him from the time he was in a relationship with you. He said such horrible things to you. Why did you stay with him for that long despite it?” Zayaan asked the question that he’d wanted to ask from so long ago.

Saba found herself laughing at the question, as though mocking her own self. She knew her voice would shake if she spoke at that moment but for some reason she knew she could lean on the man talking to her if she needed to.

“To be quite frank even I’m not sure. Perhaps because it was my first love as they say. Perhaps because I never felt strongly for someone before. Perhaps it was the fear that I may not find someone to love again. Maybe that’s why I end up thinking about him anyway though my dearest wish is to not think about him. And quite funnily, he’d told me I would never find someone like him after we broke up.” Saba said and to her surprise, her voice didn’t shake and her heart wasn’t trembling as she talked about her past. It was as though there was an invisible support holding her heart together.

“Sure! You won’t find such a highly stupid and manipulative bastard ever! And you are a decent girl who knows how to be loyal. He is a cry baby with his mouth open for anything his rich father would feed him. You on the other hand are a hard-working top university student who is now even popular after her interview on television AND you earn your own money. Its about time you realized your worth. You could find a guy like that or even better. But he, is not going to find the kind of loyalty you showed him. I bet on that!” Zayaan said with rage and confidence resonating in his voice.

Hearing those words from Zayaan, Saba found a confidence within her that she never felt before. This was the first time she was hearing such words outside of her counseling sessions. And when she’d heard it from a ‘friend’ outside of the professional, she was more prone to believe it. Zayaan was right! What had made her forget her own worth? If she’d given the attention, she could get any decent man she liked with the character she had and the things she’d accomplished after her break-up.

“You are right!” she ended up saying.

“See? I’d be damned if I see a girl like you crying over a creep like him ever again.” Zayaan said and for the first time, Saba laughed when her ‘past love’ was addressed in such a way without feeling any heaviness on her chest.

Within a few minutes, they’d reached the bus stop. They’d both looked at the bus together as they saw it approaching just like the last time they waited at the bus stop.

“So….I guess this is the time we wish each other good night.” Zayaan turned to her and said.

“Guess so. Good night!” Saba said as she held onto the strap of her backpack.

“Oh wait I have to give you something!” Zayaan said hurriedly as he reached out to the inner pocket of his long light brown jacket. He pulled out a red box and handed to Saba.

“What is this?” she asked as she took it from him and opened it.

“It’s your bracelet. I found it at the pawn shop and bought it for you. Take this as part of my thanks too.” Zayaan said as Saba took the bracelet in her hands and got overwhelmed by Zayaan’s kindness. Just then, the bus stopped right in front of them and the automated door opened.

“Thank you. I’ll remember this night for a long time.” Saba said those words completely out of her control. She regretted saying it at first as she feared having any relationship with any man but ended up smiling as she saw the last smile from Zayaan that melted her heart for the umpteenth time that night.

Saba smiled even after she got on the bus and the words Zayaan said last rung in her head. See you in the weekend. Reach home safe! were simple words but they made her heart flutter. Saba opened the box in her hand once again and took out her bracelet to wear it. It was no longer just a memory of her mother. It was now also a memory of a person who occupied a special place in her heart.