- Noor's POV -

I take a deep breath and walk out of the elevator.

Rosalie waves at me enthusiastically. "Noor! Hey!"

"Hey! Sorry I can't wave. I'm a little preoccupied." I smile.

"No, that's fine! I see that he's really treating you like a secretary." She giggles.

We chat away for a few minutes until a question that I've had for a while pops up.

"Say, Rosalie... why do all the women who work here look so similar?" This has been a burning question in my mind.

"Oh, you haven't figured it out yet?"  She says if it's really obvious. Or maybe it is.

I shake my head in confusion.

"You'll see when Mrs. Nadira Khan comes into the office in a bun." She smirks.

"Huh?" I'm confused.

"It'll shock you." She smirks. "You might be terrified and slightly creeped out. I'm shocked he didn't apply the same dress code to you."

"He tried. I threatened to sue." I grin.

"You sly fox! You're officially my favourite coworker." She states.

"Who was it before?" I act offended.

"No one. I wanted to set this place on fire." She winks.

"A whole mood." I nod and then, burst into laughter.

I check the time and decide excuse myself and to head to my desk.

The moment I place the food on my desk, Lateef bursts through the door.

"I thought I smelt something delicious and I don't think it was the food!" He winks at me.

"I'll throw you out of here." I manage to say as my cheeks start heating up.

"Watch your words, Noor!" Lateef imitates Yasir, making me burst into a fit of giggles.

I hand him his coffee and sandwich.

"How do you plan on facing Yasir?" He asks as after taking a sip of his coffee.

"How do I plan on facing him? He should be planning on facing me. That was beyond embarrassing for him." I say.

"That's my girl. That's the mindset you should have." He laughs.

"Who are you calling your girl?" I almost gasp.

"You." His voice is suddenly quieter.

My heart is beating so hard that I swear it was going to pop out of my ribcage. All those teenage, childish feelings I had in high school come flooding back to me.

"Sorry, let me be more polite. Would you like to be my girl?" His eyes are so soft and inviting, nothing like Yasir's cold, dark ones.

I'm gripped the ends of my shirt so tightly that I thought my fingers were making a hole through them. "Lateef, I—"

"How many times have I asked you to stop flirting with my secretary while she's working?" Yasir walks by, grabbing his coffee and wrap.

Not even a nod in my direction.

Fine. Two can play this game.

"Well, you stole her away from me on the Saturday when she wasn't working. So, who's fault is that?" Lateef asks.

"She cancelled on you to go with me on her own. Clearly, I'm more interesting." Yasir says causally.

"That's not true." I look at Lateef. "He was holding a gun to my head, I had no choice."

Lateef snorts. "Classic Yasir Khan move."

Yasir rolls his eyes and takes a sip of his drink. He stares at the papers at my desk and says, "I expect those to be completed before lunch."

I don't look at him, neither do I nod.

"I'll see you at lunch, Lateef?" I ignore Yasir and ask Lateef.

"You most definitely will." He grins and leaves the room.

"Completed by 12:30 PM, sharp." Yasir says one more time and I ignore him, yet again.

I can tell it's hurting a nerve with him and I only smile to myself when he leaves to go to his office.

I finish all my tasks by 11:30 AM and drop it off at Yasir's desk.

"Wait," he says before I was about to leave.

"There's a few more emails you need to reply to, make sure those are completed before you leave for lunch." He says.

Without acknowledging him, I go back to my desk.

This is exactly what I did all day: ignore him, not acknowledge his existence, piss him off.

I didn't eat lunch with Lateef because he had to go out for some work-related errands. I did have lunch with Rosalie and enjoyed it. She still won't tell me what the dressing attire situation is and I'm so impatient.

6 o'clock rolls around and I happily begin to pack up my things. Today was so productive. I got more done than I usually do... probably because I spent more time on actual work than his b.s.

Just as I was about to clock out for the day, Yasir pages me to his office.

I knock on the door and peek my head through.

"Come inside and close the door." He says without looking up.

I slowly close the door behind me, lingering nearby the door.

He stands and grabs the coat that was hanging on his chair. "Your attitude today was impeccably unprofessional. You cannot come into work acting the way you did today. Separate work and life when you're here."

My hands automatically form into tight fists but I try to look calm. I can't let it look like his words are affecting me.

"Understood?" He looks at me, searching for some sign of agreement.

I only look at him blankly, turning around to walk away.

Before I could even take a step towards the door, Yasir comes whooshing towards me so fast that I barely blinked.

He roughly pushes me against the wall with clear anger emitting from his expression. "Stop fucking walking away from me!"

"Keep your hands off of me!" I push away his hand that was gripping my arm.

His hold is obviously stronger than mine. He loops his arm over me, grabbing my wrist and twisting it behind my back.

"You're being an absolute bitch today and pissing me off." His face is all up on my personal space. "What's your damn problem?"

"My damn problem? You're asking me what my damn problem is? You! You're the problem!" I raise my voice.

He tilts his head towards me, our noses touching and he whispers in a low tone, "Are you feeling something for me, Ms. Noor Malik?" His lips are so close to mine that I could feel the tingle. "Did our date on Saturday make you think about me in ways you could never dream of?"

There's a smirk playing on his lips.

The fluttery feeling in my stomach start doing their usual thing, driving me weaker than I want to be.

"Y-you wish!" I almost stutter on my words. "It's nothing like that. You didn't give me an ounce of respect on Saturday. And on top of that, you didn't even apologize!"

"That's all? Nadira was right, you are pathetic and too sensitive. It's not like I left you at the alter." He backs away rolling his eyes.

It was almost as if the volcano inside of me had just erupted, spilling all the angry lava out. "That's not the damn point. You made me ditch my lunch with Lateef. You took me to the Festival of Lights. You took me to a restaurant. You made me pay for the bill. You bailed on me for almost an hour without a single warning to have sex with a married woman in the backseat of your car."

"So, it's the bill? I'll pay you back triple for it if it stops your nagging." He says, completely ignoring everything else I just said.

It's like he's deaf! He doesn't even understand.

"That's not the point!" I yell. "Just one text saying you won't come back or you're busy. Just one would've... would've done the job. Just being a decent human being would've done the job."

"You're overreacting." He murmurs.

"I was scared, for God's sake!" I admit to him out of my better judgement. "You brought me somewhere I've never been before and disappeared without saying anything. I was scared, lost and alone. The only thing that was familiar to me was you and you left me all by myself. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't breathe, damn it!" My voice trembles out of my control. Thinking about that night makes me nervous.

Maybe I am overreacting but I can't help it. I felt so uncomfortable and scared when he didn't come back.

To him, it was a simple act of just leaving but I'm sure I was extremely close to having an anxiety attack. I'm beyond uncomfortable in unfamiliar places, it stresses me out. I hate being left alone in an unfamiliar place, it makes me feel like I would rather jump in front of a moving vehicle.

"And on top of that, your so-called girlfriend told me off while I was already in such a bad place. All I wanted was some decency. That's it." My eyesight suddenly gets blurry and I realize that I'm on the verge of tears. "You should've just fired me."

Almost instantaneously, Yasir pulls me by my hand onto his hard chest. He wraps his arms around me, holding me firmly in place.

I freeze. I absolutely freeze to the point where I literally can't move any part of my body. All
I could do was listen to the steady beating of his heart.

"Sir..." my voice is as quiet as a mouse. "Mr. Khan..." When he doesn't react, I call him by his name. All the anger and frustration I had built up has melted away, replacing it with some sort of pitiful feeing. "Yasir, I'm going to need you to let me go, please."

- - -

- A/N -

• oop- Yasir just did that. 🤭😶

• Surprise update! I hope you enjoyed! Of course, tomorrow and Saturday's chapters will be updated as scheduled! 🥰

Next Update: Every Friday and Saturday, Insha'Allah!

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