"Daniel," Yusuf called out as he poked his head around the office door.

Yusuf pushed the door wider and stepped onto the floor.

The paralegal he had bumped into while exiting the lift had been right. The private client department was empty except for the small trainee Yusuf was after.

Daniel's body was partially hidden by desk dividers. Still, by the way his feet were positioned, lifeless but upright against the floor like a ballet dancer on pointe, and the way the beginning of his torso was slumped over the desk like a deep breath, Yusuf could tell he was sleeping.

Yusuf stood next to Daniel's body and called his name out louder.

Daniel lifted his head, and once his snoozing brain registered the face of the junior associate beside him, he chaotically pushed his chair backwards and stumbled onto flat feet.

Yusuf watched the trainee messily tuck parts of his creased shirt into his trousers.

Daniel pulled his black socks that had fallen and gathered around his ankles until the logos at the top disappeared and reached his knees. He smoothed his hands over the front of his blazer until Yusuf told him to stop, fearing the kid would give himself a fabric burn.

"Hi–I mean–g–good evening," Daniel greeted Yusuf. His face turned into his signature red as he pulled his mouth apart, brace rubbers tightening in protest. "I wasn't sleeping! I swear, I was just...," Daniel's voice quietened as he thought of an excuse.

"Resting your eyes?" Yusuf quirked up a brow and gave Daniel a relaxed smile. "It's no big deal. Besides, it's not a proper workday if you haven't napped at your desk...or hid in the toilets for the last hour or two so no one disturbs you."

As they widened, tiny specks of glitter seemed to appear in Daniel's eyes. "You've really done that?"

Yusuf nodded, noticing Daniel's shoulders were scrunched up at his neck. "Of course. If you haven't, you're not doing your training contract right."

"Although," Yusuf pointed at a reflective dark cube in the corner of the office, "it's not trainee exclusive."

"The partners?" Daniel gasped.

"They're humans, not machines," Yusuf chuckled. "Plus, no one has that many meetings in one day."

"Wanna know a secret?"

Daniel nodded eagerly.

Yusuf stepped closer to Daniel, and although no one else was on the floor, he still lifted the file in his hand and used it to cover their faces.

"It's all in the blinds."

"The blinds?"

"The blinds."

Yusuf swivelled his head around and purposely eyed the doors, even though he wasn't expecting anyone to surprise them. It was past seven, and according to the paralegal rushing out, nothing was deemed urgent because the clients were already dead.

The dead could wait another day.

"When a partner is having a meeting, they'll just close the door. Soundproofing. That's all they need," Yusuf explained.

He then dropped his voice to a whisper as though the walls would swallow their secrets and later reveal them in echoes onto a busy floor. "When they're having a nap, they also close the blinds."

"Ahh," Daniel sang understandingly.

Yusuf dropped the file to his side. "Anyway, I'm not sure whether I should be glad I caught you." He switched his gaze onto the clock. "What are you still doing here?"

Yusuf understood the inner desire for trainees to impress, but nothing was more impressive than fitting in.

If a department was busy and overworked, trainees also acted busy and overworked. But the private client department was dead. The solicitors started on time and dashed off the floor early as though it was haunted by something more than old files.

Daniel wouldn't earn any brownie points by staying later. In this department, they would think he was trying too hard.

"We're having a trainee dinner tonight. We've changed seats," Daniel explained.

"Oh, okay...so shouldn't you be with the other trainees?"

Daniel smiled, but this one was closed, smaller, nothing like his cheek-biting grins. "They're not here. I–I–I don't know where they are. I think some of them went for pres or something. I'm not sure...,"

Yusuf watched everything of Daniel drift away as he struggled to explain why he had been left on an isolated floor in an empty department.

Some of his mannerisms reminded him of Asiya.

They both seemed unable to control their inner emotions no matter how hard they tried.

Yusuf could tell by the way Daniel was fidgeting. Slipping his hand in and out of his pocket, like his secrets were a key stored in it, and he had to keep checking it was there. Inside, safe and secure.

Asiya couldn't keep things inside of her either.

Yusuf knew she could pretend to. She had tried to at the beginning of their marriage, but every secret of hers had involuntarily slipped out of her, like blood seeping out of a wound.

Her feelings would steal parts of her speech, there would be subtle changes in her tone, or she would swap words between her known languages.

Every feature on Asiya's face seemed to shift out of place when she was upset, and in the process, they would lose their roundness. Her face would become harder, her expressions more brutal and thought out. Structured, like the lines of an artist sketching out a draft of their work.

Both made keeping secrets seem like one of the worst things in the world. They acted like secrets were parasites that sucked everything out of a person before cracking and blistering through their skin.

"Uh huh," Yusuf sounded, unconvinced.

"I have a lot of work to do anyway. Bunch of stuff to catch up on. I said I would meet them at the restaurant in Soho."

"Speaking about work. Thanks for listening through all the calls between the client and pension provider, making the attendance notes and creating a timeline. Everything was really helpful. Everything was great, actually," Yusuf complimented.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I wanted to give you a copy of the case file. I've emailed a digital version over, too. We still need more evidence to establish whether Mr and Mrs Sousa were truly married or separated at the time of Mr Sousa's death. His pension provider and wife are arguing they weren't because he didn't express interest in changing his nominated beneficiary from his wife to his girlfriend. He didn't even tell the providers he had a girlfriend during his revie–"

"But his girlfriend is arguing that it was his intention to," Daniel interrupted.

"Exactly. Which is why everything you did was so helpful! It would be great if we could resolve this amicably without going to court. The Sousa family are a long-time client of the firm. They bring tons of business, but so are the pension providers. You've been great, so this is for you. If you want it." Yusuf placed the file on Daniel's desk and tapped it for good measure. "I want to work with you on this. Think we'd make a great team."

"Really?" Daniel smiled. There it is.

"Yup, but that's only if you're not too busy–"

"No! No! Not at all! I can do it! I'd love to help!"

"Great." Yusuf glanced around the office. The darkness from the evening sky was slowly unrolling onto the floor."Shouldn't you be going? When I was a trainee, the dinners started at eight. We could leave together. My wife's meeting me here tonight."

"Yeah, sure. I mean, the dinner starts at nine this year, and they've given us tomorrow morning off, you know, so people can sleep off their hangovers."

"I don't know much about that. I'm a Muslim, so I don't drink, but a lie-in is never bad."

"I just need to wear my tie. The place is quite fancy," Daniel informed.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from KLP," Yusuf grinned.

Daniel opened his desk drawer and pulled out a multi-coloured, paisley-patterned tie that Yusuf wouldn't have chosen for himself.

Yusuf watched him expectantly, one hand awkwardly in his pocket while Daniel strangled the body of the slim cut of fabric, as his fingers curled and uncurled around it.

He moved towards the back of the room where there was a full-length mirror, and he began to uncoordinatedly loop the fabric around his neck. His cheeks burned brighter with every unsuccessful movement.

"Daniel, do you need help tying your tie?" Yusuf asked.

It wouldn't be weird for the young boy to not know how to tie one.

The dress code at Kin, Lesso & Partners was smart casual. The word casual watered down the word smart so much that ties weren't a requirement or worn by most men in the office.

"It's embarrassing," Daniel mumbled, his shirt collar hiding his rapidly growing blush.

"It isn't."

Yusuf moved to where Daniel was and stood in front of him. Without asking permission, he adjusted the limp material around Daniel's shoulders and quickly crossed, looped, and pulled the mosaic-splattered tie into the perfect knot.

"There."

"How'd you do it so quickly?"

"Practice. Oxford gave me loads of practice. We were required to wear suits with ties for matriculation, dinners, and every exam."

"I've had loads of practice, and I still can't get it right," Daniel complained as they walked over to his desk and picked up their bags.

"That's okay. It's a lot harder to learn if you haven't had someone to show you."

"Oh no," Daniel shook his head as they left the office. "I've been taught how to tie one. Multiple times."

"Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have assumed."

"It's okay. My dad bought and gifted my brothers and I personalised ties when we got our first jobs. He's tried to teach me how to tie one loads of times. It just doesn't stick for some reason."

Daniel cruelly tapped the side of his head as they stepped into the elevator. "It's this. Something is missing up there. People have always said it, but now I believe them. Nothing ever sticks. I would blame my mam, say she dropped me as a kid, but she's basically perfect, like everyone in my family. Whereas me? I can't get even the simple things right."

Yusuf cleared his throat. "I don't think that's true, Daniel."

Daniel pressed the button for the ground floor and faced the closing doors. "It is. I would've been dropped from this training contract if it wasn't for Matthew. Do you know that? My performance in the commercial litigation department was horrible. I made bad mistakes, and I didn't pass my practical assessment. I feel bad. Matthew had to speak to Liz and ask them to let me retake it, so that's my switch over holiday gone. Just sucks, Matthew's such a good solicitor and he's been lumped with me as a buddy. I'm embarrassing him, but I guess that's nothing new."

Yusuf's lips slumped to the side as he digested the boy's words.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to talk so much," Daniel apologised.

"No, it's okay," Yusuf soothed.

Daniel didn't look sorry though.

Yusuf could tell his verbal explosion was unapologetic, and it seemed to have helped settle whatever had been pacing through him because his shoulders were no longer kissing the bottom of his ears. His hands weren't searching for something to hold onto.

Yusuf opened his mouth, and although he didn't know whether his words would give Daniel the right response or reassurance he needed, he wanted to say something to show him that his words hadn't been wasted.

He wasn't an embarrassment. Sometimes, he felt like that, too, and that he didn't need to be sorry. It didn't matter whether he was sorry or not.

He had to say something.

That was the right thing to do.

It was the normal thing to do when someone had emptied half of themselves into your cup, but Yusuf's letters were too slow, and hesitation was too quick. It ran against his tongue and left his mouth first in a strangled sigh.

Daniel said goodbye and stepped out of the lift before Yusuf could say anything.

Yusuf had to press and hold the lift buttons before the doors closed again because Asiya was waiting.

-

Author's Note: Y'all. Hello. Salam. I owe you all an apology because this is the second or third update after two weeks. 😭.

I never intended for the last updates to come this late (I actually thought I'd have finished writing and uploading this book a month ago 😩). For some reason, I've really struggled writing the latest and incoming chapters, but inshAllah, I think I'm done with alla that, so inshAllah, I'll go back to my weekly (sometimes twice a week 😉 ) updates.

Anyway, I appreciate you all for sticking around. I really do. ❤️ I never expected it, and I hope you've enjoyed the ride so far cause you've all made it so enjoyable for me. Mwah.❤️

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Chapter Glossary

Pres: The party (that primarily consists of drinking) that happens before the actual event lol.