[Kind request: Blast my notifications to get me motivated lol]

"Excuse me?" He knocked lightly on the clear window, knowing fully well how he looked suspicious. A bearded man with sweat-soaked clothes knocking on your window in the middle of the night wasn't exactly the definition of normal.

Twinkling, teary eyes snapped towards him suddenly, startling him. "Is everything alright?" He asked, taking a few steps back as the door cracked open.

A loud shriek echoed through the night, filling the skies as the woman violently swung open the door. "Leave me for the love of God!" She screamed, yielding her bag as a weapon, her face masked with worry and distress.

"Sorry?" Abdur Rehman exclaimed, stumbling backward with surprise.

With the woman fully out of the car, her skirt brushing against the road, and arm sleeves bunched up, she swung her bag his way, missing his form by inches before swinging again.

"Ma'am! Ma'am!" He exclaimed, dodging her attempts to assault him. His water bottle slipped his grip, the metal clanging against the ground as it fell.

"Leave me alone!" She screamed, her voice laced with fear as she somehow managed to hit him.

The bag wasn't heavy or particularly a good weapon, but the vigor she swung with made the attack overwhelming. He wanted her to stop, to listen, but she kept on hitting and screaming. He wasn't sure if anyone could hear her, but if he didn't put an end to it, he would be spending the night in jail.

"Stay away from me! I recite ayat ul kursi three times twice a day, you can't harm me!" She shrieked. Tears that stained her cheeks glistened under the moonlight.

"I was just trying to help!" Abdur-Rehman yelled back, tripping on loose gravel, he landed on the ground. His bottom burned with the impact, his hands not fast enough to break his fall.

From his spot on the road, when he looked up at the woman who had frozen as soon as she heard his revelation, he recognized the hijab-clad face in the glow of the streetlight.

"Dr. Miller?" He uttered, staring at the woman who had run around the hospital finding him grape Gatorade.

"How do you know my name?" She whispered, tilting her head to observe him. She lowered her arms, hugging her choice of weapon to her chest.

Locks of hair had escaped her hijab, flapping against her tear-stained moist face. Her creased clothes were bunched up in an unruly fashion. Her eyes, the ones that had startled him earlier stared back at him in question and fear.

"I'm...I'm, uh," he tried to find his words. She wouldn't remember his name, would she?

He ran a hand through his short hair, taming them before he combed his fingers through his moist beard, trying to make himself presentable enough for her to recognize at least something.

"My name is Abdur Rehman, you helped me at the hos-"

"Abdur Rehman? So you...you aren't some thug?" Her shoulders sagged as worry left her body. She sighed heavily.

"Excuse me? Do I look like a thug?" Half offended and half understanding how he must be looking in the dark of the night, he stood up, brushing his bottom in the process. "These jogger pants cost a hundred twenty, no thug would wear something that expensive."

She took a few steps back, leaning on her car as he straightened his clothes and looked at her intently.

"I am most definitely not a thug, so you don't have to worry about anything," he assured, standing a few feet away.

The warm streetlight shone above them, hiding their faces in the shadows yet illuminating their surroundings. The breeze that had dried his sweat earlier had stopped, now replaced by a heavy and humid air that hung densely between them.

"What are you doing here?" She finally asked, hugging herself. Her face was far sadder than he had seen before, a complete contrast from the day at the hospital when despite being panicked, her grin had been full of life.

His appearance must have really scared her, he thought, unconsciously running his fingers through his thick beard. He didn't know how long she had been parked on the side of the road, troubled, alone.

"I live around here."

"You live here? Where, near the hospital?"

"Uh, yeah, right behind...hey do you need help, is everything okay?"

His words snapped the woman before him out of her thoughts, making him wonder if she had heard him at all. She shook her head as if freeing her head with thoughts, before gesturing to the car.

"It stopped unexpectedly...and my brother isn't picking up the damn phone," she whispered the last part, her face burning with a mixture of emotions.

Abdur Rehman could only imagine how frightened she must be feeling. Defending one's self was something not many could do, and she had gone full force in fighting back even when he wasn't exactly a threat.

"Would you mind if I take a look?" He wondered, nodding towards the car.

When the doctor nodded in affirmative and walked away from the door, he slid into the driver's seat and tried to start the car. His eyes rested on the dashboard, reading the lights that illuminated with the spark of the ignition. A familiar sign lightened up, making him smile.

He bit back his grin and got out of the car to announce, "Is this your car, Dr. Miller?"

"Yes?" She squinted her eyes. "I mean yes, this is my car. Why, what happened?"

"When...when was the last time you filled up the tank?"

"What tank?"

Abdur Rehman lowered his head and covered his mouth to stop a chuckle from escaping his lips.

"The gas tank," he whispered. The woman before him face palmed herself.

"Of course! Sorry," she said, her voice blushed.

He shrugged. He doubted he would be in his right mind if he had been through something as traumatic as she had been a few minutes ago.

"There's a gas station here a few minutes away. If you have a bottle or something, I can get the gas for you," he offered. If his sister had been in the same place, he would have done the same. Besides, she had helped him in his time of need, he had to return the favor.

"How far is it?" She hesitantly asked, her tone more normal than before. Her eyes surveyed the deserted area around them. No cars had passed by them in the past thirty minutes.

"Half a mile?" He hesitantly guessed.

"Can-can I come with you?"

"Sorry?" He scratched the back of his neck, feeling blood rush to his face. "Sure?"

He felt hyper-aware of Dr. Miller's presence as she walked nearly six feet parallel to him, hugging herself, her steps hesitant and awkward. They had managed to find an empty jug in the trunk of the car, which Abdur Rehman held in his hand. The jug was probably her brother's doing, he thought, casting a look at her.

Dr. Miller was surely an expert in the anatomy of the human body, but clueless when it came to cars—which reminded him of Manahil, his older sister. Manahil had crashed her car twice before swearing off driving forever. He could recall the half dozen times when he had rescued her around the city before and after she got married. Oftentimes her troubles were not having enough gas to reach home, tire punctures, and once even cracking her windshield while driving on the freeway.

His sister was a hot mess, but she was still his sister. Which was why when he glanced at Dr. Miller's distressed and fatigued face, he knew he had to help her. She was someone's sister, his sister in Islam, and the one who had helped him when he had been at his weakest. The only conflict however was that he avoided being alone with the opposite gender, and the current situation was one he needed to either get out of as soon as possible or diffuse in the best way he knew how.

He started to recite the verses of the Holy Book.

His recitation was hesitant and only a little louder than a whisper, but he knew the wind was carrying it to Dr. Miller because she whipped her head to look at him.

"Faati ras samaawaati wal ardi Anta waliyyee fid dunyaa wal Aakhirati tawaffanee muslimanw wa alhiqnee bissaaliheen.*"

It was a du'a he held close to his heart and recited on a regular basis. Due to his love for it, and lack of other memorized verses of the Quran, he lowered his gaze to the ground and recited the same verse until the gas station appeared in view.

The station stood alone in a corner of a usually busy marketplace, which was now dark and empty. The blinding lights of the station cast an eerie glow on the empty parking spaces. Abdur Rehman frequented the shopping square often because it was the only place in a ten mile radius which had his favorite smoothie and juice bar.

"We're almost there," he loudly announced, turning to the direction Dr. Miller had been walking the entire time.

The walk uphill had been strenuous and time consuming, so he had given her privacy to climb the steep hill without fearing his gaze on her—just because he was a regular runner and had stamina to combat a variety of terrains necessarily meant that others wouldn't struggle with the climb. But as he turned, he found the spot she had been in earlier empty.

Where did she go?

He turned on his heel, his heart picking up pace. The reason she had asked to accompany him was so she wouldn't be alone, she wouldn't be subject to danger, but he had lost her!

"Dr. Miller?" He called out, surveying the area. The marketplace wasn't too far, but the woods were parallel to it, and woods meant wild animals.

Fear tingled in his fingers. He wasn't sure if he could enter the forest and battle a bear to save Dr. Miller.

"Dr. Miller?" He called out again, cautiously stepping towards the entrance of the forest.

"Right here," a voice behind him said.

An ear pitching scream left his throat when Dr. Miller appeared from his other side, smiling widely, from behind his back as if she was playing peek-a-boo.

"When? How?" He yelled, holding a hand over his racing heart. She had appeared out of nowhere like a jinn.

"The walkway ended on that side," she whispered, perplexed and worried about his reaction.

"A little-" he took deep breaths to calm himself down, "-a little warning would have been good."

"Sorry?" She offered, giving him an apologetic grin.

"Dr. Miller...you almost gave me a heart attack." He shook his head, he was too young and busy to die.

"Ah, actually I doubt you would have had a heart attack." She rested a hand on her hip. "Considering your age and physique, especially your taunt abdomen, it's very likely your heart is healthy so...you know, nevermind. Forget I said that." Her cheeks burned as she straightened her posture.

"Thank you?" He said it like it was a question.

"Let's-let's get gas, uh, disregard what I just said."

Abdur Rehman nodded at her slowly before starting again. Her immature words tugged at his heart and he tried his best to be indifferent.

"You can call me Rafa, by the way," he heard the doctor say. "We've met enough times to be on a first-name basis, don't you think?"

Hain?

Unruly, long beard glistening with sweat, dark hair messed up in all directions, chocolate brown irises staring at her as a hand knocked on her windshield was enough to creep her out.

She wasn't usually like that but given the sudden stopping of her car in the middle of an abandoned road with only one street light turned on, the back of her car facing the hiking trail-where most of the absurd things happen in the darkness of the night, and also the network failing to connect her phone certainly made her feel helpless. It all seemed like the happenings of a horror movie. So when someone knocked on her window, she didn't expect them to actually help her. And most definitely, she wasn't hoping him to help her out.

Thinking about her brave acts which she felt proud of herself for committing, the thought that they were put to action on someone innocent, made her skin color rise.

Rafa rubbed her hands together to evacuate the heat that raised her temperature and looked at Abdur-Rehman who was walking towards her with a container of gas. His soft whispering of the Qur'an as they walked still remained intact in her ears.

"Got it, Doctor—" He bit his bottom lip as he approached her again with the surname.

Rafa raised her eyebrow, slightly amused when he stopped mid-sentence.

Am I making him nervous?

Encouraging him with a quick nod to ensure it's no trouble, they fell in pace as they strolled downwards.

Rafa peeked through her long eyelashes at Abdur-Rehman who held the sloshing container in one hand and his other hand pushed into his pant pocket, his gaze cast to the front and she could clearly see the side of his beard—the hair intricately fell far below his chin and was cut office-like. He sure has more shadows to his demeanor and with each encounter, she unfazed one by one.

Both times at the masjid, he had looked like he came fresh out of the womb of business, his sweater, and slacks attracted attention, and a fatigued shadow lurked on his back.

That day when he rushed through the hospital doors with a slit wrist, he looked almost like today. Jogger pants, loose t-shirt, and profuse amounts of sweat-soaked into his clothing like a second skin.

Keeping tall and slim to the side, in looks, he looked more like Mufti Menk in track pants.

Cool.

He sure seemed uncomfortable with her, as if he didn't want to be around the opposite sex.

For Rafa, she met hundreds of men in her workspace and was forced to converse with them so much that she couldn't see them any differently. Even in her friends, the gender line blurred due to their shared experiences, take Ahmed for an example, he was like her brother from another mother.

So, meeting Abdur Rehman and engaging in a conversation with him was no trouble for her, it was as easy as icing the cake with an added cherry on top.

"Thank you so much, it must have been very inconvenient for you to encounter such situations.." Rafa tried to ward off the awkwardness she had created around them, he seemed like a good guy to be friends with after all, if not more.

Abdur-Rehman slightly turned her way, surprised at her compliment, making her wonder all the more that from which world he came from but before the thought spread through her brain cells, he broke the silence. "That's no trouble." They rounded a corner, the streets deserted and shops shut over, reminding them what time of the night it was. "My sister ends up in similar situations too, so I am used to it," he said with a short laugh.

"So you're used to being a knight in...sweaty armor?" Rafa teased, her casual self kicking in, and with the way his eyes rounded, she shut her mouth. Way to create more awkwardness, Rafa.

Gritting her teeth, she started to play with the small bow on her bell sleeves, her other hand toying her skirt like a kid.

Abdur-Rehman on the other hand, leaned towards his arm and sniffed.

"Really?" He wondered, shocked. His facial features clearly gave away that he was offended but at the same time, they didn't reveal anger rather, they seemed surprised.

Rafa burst out into full-fledged laughter. Not at all controlling herself anymore, she whispered, "I was just joking."

As they walked under white lights illuminated by high-efficiency lamps on the highway that ended up over the alley over where her car stood, marking the end of their small adventure, Rafa giddily continued to tread while Abdur-Rehman's steps faltered a tad bit. He seemed hesitant and embarrassed, making Rafa stop in the middle of her tracks and she whirled to face him.

"Blimey! My mouth has no filter and I am sorry if my tone offended you."

She could see the pink in his ears and preferred to lower her gaze to not make him more uncomfortable.

"It's not that—" he paused to find the right words, "—I'm surprised, that's all. You have...it hasn't been an easy night, has it? And you've been laughing all this while."

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?" She grinned. "There's only a few things we can control in our life, Abdur Rehman, and one of them is how we react to situations. I choose to be positive, because being positive has always been the best policy for me."

His eyes fell to the gravel at their feet, his words a murmur as he said, "It's my first time meeting..."

"...someone like me?" She laughed, completing his sentence.

"Yeah." He finally grinned.

"Well thank God you noticed!"

A small smile formed on his lips as he kept his eyes on the ground and nodded his head. As if thinking, You sure are, something.

Silence started to rain over them and a truck went past their way, having the foot for distraction.

"Did the stain on your shirt go?" Abdur-Rehman wondered when they spotted Rafa's car a few yards away.

"No! You have left a forever imprint," Rafa chimed, yawning as she tried to cover her mouth with the back of her left hand, her gaze traveled to the one-two twinkling stars that aligned the night sky but when she looked towards his side with a casual twitch on her lips, their eyes met. His brown pupils made her to suck in her breathing and the mirth of her words caused her to bite her bottom lip.

Rafa looked away the moment her heart started to tug in its heartstrings.

Next time you open your mouth, please put a filter.

Rounding the car, Rafa waited for him to fill the tank and at last as he did, she gracefully took the outstretched empty can.

"Thank you," she whispered, poised and keeping her words short.

"It's okay."

"Uh.." she searched for words. "May Allah reward you."

He raised his eyes one last time, his surprise over her every word irked her.

As if, an electrocardiogram, she changed her pace of words. One time she was at the peak and the next, she was dying low. Somewhere, in the middle of it all, she surely was attached to his heart. He didn't wanted her to depart with awkwardness, not knowing why, he chose to make a fool of himself one last time just to hear her laugh,

"Aameen, next time you meet me, I will be clean out of the shower."

Rafa laughed, her voice coercing his heart, echoing in all four chambers making it full. "No jogger pants?"

"Deal." He grinned like a kid who was given a candy, perhaps, it was the grin of accomplishment.

With that being said, Abdur-Rehman stood limp at his spot, watching the car ignite to life and Rafa waved her hand one last time before pulling on the curb and marching away.

From the rearview, the silhouette of him grew distant and distant until there was no image of him reflecting on it at all.

Saroosh: New standard of romance, girl hits boy and he falls so hard that he falls in love

Sumaiya: I cant-

Sumaiya: This is so😂.

this book is being beta'ed by however this chapter is yet to be edited. Thanks so much, Tanisha for all the help so far ❤️