Episode 6: She likes me

“It’s monsoon now. There are hardly any customers coming to the mall. Is only our sale affected? Zain, could you please check how other stores are doing?”, Imran asked Zain (another colleague of Emaan.)

The youngest in the store, Zain, gladly took up the task. He went to several stores to know if their sales took a bad hit during this monsoon.

For the sake of his purpose, he did not skip going to Tommy. To his delight, he was very welcomed by the girls there. This first meeting led to another and later he began to visit them quite often.

“Zain, you seem to have become quite popular among the Tommy girls”, Imran tried to pull his legs (Informally hinting to better concentrate more on work.)

Emaan had developed an unusual attachment. He always had his ears wide open whenever his colleagues used to talk about Tommy Hilfiger.

Zain looked ‘cute’-something that girls adored the most. Emaan acted neutral to Zain’s acquaintance with Tommy girls, believing that there is nothing one could do to control anyone.

One fine day, two young and pretty girls came to Timberland looking for Zain. Yes, yes, they were from Tommy. Zain was excitedly engaged in the conversation but soon realised that he should introduce them to his colleagues.

After introducing the girls to Imran, Zain uninterestingly came to Emaan, “Meet Ruksaar and Lizelle. They work in Tommy Hilfiger”

Zain continued, “And he is my colleague-Emaan”

Emaan had recognised them vaguely. “Hey, glad to meet you both.”

 “You are a Muslim”, identified Ruksaar from his name.

“Yes, I am”, replied Emaan.

Lacking an interesting topic in the first conversation, Ruksaar continued, “There are many good stuffs at your store.”

“Yes true. Why don’t you have a look at our store? It is much better than Tommy”, teased Emaan.

To this, the girls started laughing and said, “Yes right”

“Since you are agreeing, send all your customers to Timberland”, Emaan displayed his witty humour coupled with competitive nature.

“How smart...Take all our customers! Who is even interested in attending them anyway?”, replied Ruksaar enjoying the conversation with Emaan.

Lizelle murmured something looking at Ruksaar.

“Okay, we need to go. We will catch up with you later”, said Ruksaar and the girls took leave from there.

After this incident, whenever Emaan crossed Tommy, he would peep inside and give, Ruksaar and Lizelle, a bright smile. He often could get a glimpse of the dusky girl but did not find it appropriate to be overfriendly with someone, he had not been introduced to.

He never let the surge of excitement take control of his rational mind. May be that’s why he 

never went inside Tommy despite being invited several times by Ruksaar and Lizelle.

Destiny has a time and place for people to meet. In Emaan’s case, it seems to be while going to the washroom.

Ladies washroom was on the left corner of a short corridor. On the right corner was the gent’s washroom. A passage from the mall would lead to the corridor where the washroom is located.

Emaan was unknowingly walking towards the corridor from the passage. Just before turning right from the passage, his eyes accidentally went towards the ladies’ washroom from where the dusky girl just came out. Emaan’s eyes met hers in such an awkward way that they both instinctively turned their gaze.

Emaan proceeded to the washroom but took lesser time than usual out of excitement to see her again. God knows why she was still standing on the left side of the corridor facing right towards the gent’s washroom.

How many praises Emaan must have given to the long stretch of the corridor that day! This was the first time he could take a good glance of her face. He wanted to give her a slight smile as a gesture of familiarity. But to his dismay, till the very end she looked immersed at her phone not tilting her head upwards even for a second.

Emaan could do nothing with the surge in his excitement but go back to his store.

When he entered Timberland, Emaan sensed his colleagues to be looking at him strangely. It was just after some time that Zain spoke softly, “Do you remember girls from Tommy?”

“Yes, I do”, the surprised Emaan, answered.

Without beating about the bush, Zain continued, “I have a good news for you.”

Emaan related Tommy girls and good news and expressed curiosity,” Okay, what is it?”

 Zain continued, “I was talking to Tommy girls, the other day. They told me that...That one of the three girls like you.”

Emaan was surprised and at the same time delighted and wished with all his heart for it to be that dusky girl.

In exhilaration, Emaan bombarded Zain with questions, “What? Who likes me? Are you sure?”

Zain answered, “I guess these girls were playing smart. They did not tell me the name of the girl who does. But I am sure whoever the girl is-she likes you.”

Zain continued, “When I asked them about the name of the guy, they said Himraan.”

“But there is no one named Himraan”, Emaan pointed out.

“I guess, they did not recollect the name and mispronounced the name of the guy as 

‘Himraan or Himaan’. But the way they described -It seemed they were talking about you”, Zain explained.

Emaan, being doubtful about who, the girls were referring to, said,” In that case they could even be referring to Imran”

Imran, the store manager, who was married and much elder to these guys started blushing and tried to reconfirm, “Are you sure, Zain? Were they really talking about me?”

To this Emaan finally suggested, “Zain, why don’t you confirm with them? Also, you should ask for name of the girl who is interested?”

Zain wanted to so much confirm that. He asked for Imran’s permission to go to Tommy. Imran kept his ‘being professional’ aside this time. (It’s True-Men change their mind when pretty women are involved)

Zain returned after sometime. Imran gave up on his patience and asked,” So did you get a clarity? Who were they referring to?”

To clear the confusion, Zain replied,” They confirmed that they were talking about Emaan”

Emaan wanted to reconfirm,” How can you be so sure about that? Imran’s name is similar. They could mean him as well”

Zain expressed his surety, “I asked them if they were talking about our store manager. They said that the store manager is nice. Nothing against him but it’s the fair and tall guy- ‘Emaan’ that they were referring to.”

Zain continued with affirmation, “Out of Imran and you, I believe you are the fair and tall”.

The dark complexioned Imran, responded sportingly, “Emaan, you seem to be very much in demand these days”

Emaan answered to please his manager, “Nothing like that. It seems that the girl does not have a taste for the dark and handsome.”

Imran laughed and replied, “Yes, I am much better than you. But anyways, it’s your time now.”

But Emaan wanted to know the most important thing,” I am pleasantly surprised to know that someone likes me. But which girl out of the three?”

There were many questions running in Emaan’s mind, “The dusky girl waited for me outside the washroom. She seemed to be feeling shy to even lift up her face and make an eye contact. Was it because she told Zain that she likes me. Yes, that must be true”

Shattering his thoughts, Zain gave him the most awaited answer,” Ruksaar. The girl who likes you is-Ruksaar”