“Aaaww…” Noora stuffed Adil’s puff into his mouth. “A hot tea with this would be perfect.”
“For the last time Noora, you do not steal food from people’s plates!” Adil yelled. “Especially not when it’s their last bite.”
“You think too much Adil,” Noora pranced out of the room. Amaal chuckled, smothering a yawn.
“Had a rough night?” Adil stalked towards her, looking in high spirits.
“Didn’t get kidnapped by teenagers, if that’s what you are asking,” she gave him a teasing smile. She had only gotten highlights, and been horrified. Later, the joke had been repeated so many times in so many ways that it had lost its terror. And, as was evident, Adil Hussain was doing perfectly fine.
“You sly fox. Making jokes with your boss now?”
“You are not my boss. Nobody is my boss.”
“Hail the woman!”
“Will you walk out on your own chubby legs or should I give you a kickstart?”
“Stop it you,” Adil giggled, making her laugh. He was the man she needed to kick off a day like this. She could talk to Atharva about anything, but she could be with Adil at any time of the day and recharge instantly.
“Anyway, I’ll be out of your hair now. You must have met Iram,” he opened his arm out to her. Amaal nodded at her. She still looked nervous and out of place. “She is the new writer Atharva hired. Iram needs to be initiated into our history and geography. She will be in charge of writing all press releases for starters, but not…”
“Before being approved by Atharva,” Amaal completed. “I know the drill.”
“That.” Adil snapped a finger, took three steps back, bowed and left.
“So, Iram,” Amaal tipped her chin. “We met yesterday. I am Amaal Durrani, head of KDP’s media. You’ve met my team here, I assume?”
“Yes. Hi… umm… Ma’am?”
“Amaal.” She chuckled. “Do I look that old to you?”
That loosened her up. Amaal got her to sit down and started her on the basics of their party. She would have usually handed her off to Fahad for the initiation, but Amaal found a strange sense of kindredness with her. It was like looking at herself in the past. Making sense of everything in a world that just didn't stop changing. Now she was used to spinning with the top that was KDP. At the time, when it wasn’t even a party as big as this, it had taken her a whole year to come to terms with the place, the people and her niche in here. It had been a tumultuous year, for more reasons than one.
She snapped out of that thought of him. It had been gone now, whatever that was.
“…and finally,” Amaal finished her KDP intro on autopilot, “that is the garden where you can find me working from 4-6 in the evening, and sometimes in the morning too. Because I am multitasking and managing the gardening of this place as well.”
“Oh, of course.” Iram blushed.
“What happened?”
She shook her head.
“Tell me.”
“Nothing… It’s just that I have been seeing you tend to the gardens for the last two days so I thought…”
“That I was the gardener?” Amaal laughed.“Actually, you are partly right. I am a part-time gardener. I mean, look at this estate, it’s such a lovely place to grow flowers and fruits in. It’s the real Kashmir in Chinar and Almond trees that I am trying to recreate here…” she murmured, suddenly feeling Badamwari bloom with a promise inside her chest. They were very close to making that happen.
“Besides,” she snapped out again and looked at Iram. There was something about her that was making her think deeper today, become reflective. Maybe it was Atharva’s odd reaction to her.
“There was a lull with our social media lately. We were struggling with regular tweets, our blog updates have been weak because of the lack of a good writer. And our Party President, who used to write, is too busy…” Amaal rolled her eyes.“But now you are here, let’s see how good you are.”
“Yes. Tell me where to start. I’m assuming English is the language of preference for social media?”
“It is, for now. Along with Urdu for our bilingual pages. Kaeshir will only be needed for speeches and such later on.”
“Oh, good. So, what do you want me to start with and where?”
