Chapter 11: I Regret…

His head was feeling as though it would split in two. He rubbed his temples but the headache persisted. A long sigh came out of his lips. How could he not see that coming? How didn't he figure out it was Bushra all along?
He should've known by the way she was pretending as though she wasn't interested in him. It was all part of her game, he affirmed. 'Why didn't you just point it out earlier, Mansur? This couldn't have happened. Now she thinks I'm into her or something – all because she… helped me!"
Mansur laughed, a shocking and amusing one. 'How not telling you that Bushra is the one that saved you my fault? And if I knew she was the one you were saying those rubbish about before going on a date with her, I would've stopped her." Earlier before Mahir and Bushra had gone to dinner, Mahir called Mansur and told him about the dinner, and how he was doing a favor to her. As if she was the one that approached him and made the first move.
'What would I do with a girl like her – those words sound familiar to you?" Mansur asked him. Mahir looked away, he remembered saying all that. And he remembered how he demeaned her to his friend, Mansur. He didn't regret his words – Bushra wasn't his type and he doubt if she'll ever be.
'Bushra is a really amazing woman. She comes to this hospital every month to donate blood to the hospital without taking a kobo from us. She doesn't deserve such an a*shole like you, Mahir! I hope she realizes that before she throws herself into a dark, filthy hole of your crap!" Mansur told him wretchedly.
'I am not together with this girl, God damnit! What would I possibly do with that filthy girl? She's not my type and will never be. She's rude and full of herself! Can't be with a person that's ill-mannered." He bellowed angrily. How could he possibly lower his standards and choose her as a life partner?
Mansur threw his head back laughing. 'You just described yourself, my brother. This is exactly how you are – it's like you're staring at a mirror. And you deserve every crap she feeds you!" Mansur stated impenitently. She was treating him same as he treated other people.
'You are not helping, Mansur. Why are you backing her up?" His voice was filled with anger. Mansur shrugged his shoulders. 'Just backing the truth, not her." He resumed working on his laptop. 'Just be careful and do what's right. Don't say I didn't warn you…" Mahir had already reached the door before Mansur could finish his sentence. He opened the door and stormed out. Mansur scoffed and as he shook his head.
Mahir was about to do something ill-advised, he could sense it.
**
'Promise you won't tell Aunty about this, cause if you do…" Bushra told Yasmin, with a little frustrated tone. Yasmin shrugged as she smiled. She had foreseen what Bushra was going to say. It was about a guy – she sensed it.
'Okay, if you're not going to tell her, I will." Madina cuts in. Bushra just sat there undetermined. 'I may have… kind of… went out on a friendly dinner with someone last night," she mouthed, her voice was very low, but Yasmin heard everything.
'Yes, I know. Anything new that I don't know?" Who wouldn't figure out Adda Bushra went out with a guy by the way she dressed up last night?" She shoots her eyebrows to the ceiling. She predicted it – the only thing left was to know who the lucky man was.
She rolled her eyes. 'Okay, it's complicated. I don't even know why I'm telling you this, Yasmin. He's just a client and we went out to celebrate a successful case we worked on together, that's all." Bushra threw her hands in the air as she spoke. She couldn't figure out why Madina was making the matter a big deal. What if she had told her the incident that happened before she left the restaurant.
'Well… since you won't give her in details… I will." Madina got to her feet, as though she was presenting her art project to her classroom teacher and students.
'Bushra met this man through her work when she got promoted months ago. She was assigned to be his father's company's account manager. So, they have this meeting once a month, right? And he does everything to get her attention." Madina stated as she smiled proudly. Bushra rolled her eyes – she didn't know whether to get annoyed by Madina's last statement or laugh it off.
'So recently, they had an issue with his father's account… really big issue, like huge amount of money theft! But they resolved it and…"
'Let me get to the point," Bushra cuts in and faces Yasmin's direction. She shook her head. 'No, sis. I want to hear every detail. And I don't trust you with that."
'Ha!" Madina burst into peals of laughter. Bushra crossed her arms, shrugged her shoulders and looked the other way.
'As I was saying. Oh, how did I forget to say this. His name Mahir Adam Dan-Musa. You know him, right?" Madina asked her enthusiastically. Yasmin tilted her head, as she thought of the familiar name. she wasn't a fan of social media. So, she knew not much about some of the famous people being gossiped about. 'Wait – he's my husband's friend!" Her eyes glittered as she spoke with excitement. 'You're dating Mahir, the only heir of Alhaji Adam Sani?" She squealed piercingly.
'Hey, shh!" Bushra shushed her. 'Keep it down! Aunty might hear us. And we are not dating. He's just a client that I had dinner with, and… he… few months back he had an accident and he was brought in to the hospital I donate blood to every month. And I donated to him not actually knowing he was the one. And then I found out last night, and now I don't know what's happening." She told them breathlessly. Was she even making any sense? It sounded like she wasn't and she was talking gibberish.
Madina looked at her in awe, mouth agape. 'I… this made a really unpredicted turn." Madina's voice had lowered a few octaves.
'The doctor I know at the hospital, Dr. Mansur. He's Mahir's best friend and he had told me that he has been looking for me – that he has been ‘head over heels' about me, and now I'm tangled between what Mahir would think and how I'm feeling right now." She felt upset and annoyed with herself. If she had known that he was the one, by Allah she wouldn't have donated blood that night.
What was he going to think? She helped him and saved his life or she helped him to get attention. Who on earth would do that to get attention? 'Why aren't you guys talking?" She yelled, making them to blink. 'Say something!"
Madina sighed and shrugged her shoulders. 'Why are you getting yourself worked up? I thought you said this wasn't something to go nuts about? So what you helped him or went on a date with him? You did amazing for saving his life, Bushra, and Allah will reward you for that and I am so proud of you." Yasmin nodded in agreement to what Madina had said. 'She's right, Adda Bushra. Just forget about him and everything, and focus on what's more important to you."
Bushra felt bad for actually having a regret about helping him. She did it for the Sake of Allah. Not for his egocentric and big-headed self. She should be proud of herself and he should be reluctant for how he treated her before.
With the discussion being changed – Bushra puts it in her mind that he'd come and apologize to her for the imprudent things he had done before.
He has to come pleading her for forgiveness!
The next day was Monday. Bushra was already seated in her office before the day had gone far. She heard a knock at the door and it wings open. She rubbed her temple as she heaved a sigh before she saw the intruder. It was her boss – who would barge in that way if not him.
'Hey, Bushra, good morning." Mercy walks in and plumps down on the client's chair, and dropped a cup of latte on the table. Bushra looks up and rests her eyes on mercy. What was she doing in her office during work hours? 'Mercy, good morning." Bushra fixes her eyes on her computer to signify she was busy but Mercy adjusted her siting position to get comfier.
'I bought this for you – from Nosta café," Mercy said softly. Bushra smiled as she takes a sip of her hot latte. 'Thanks, mercy, I really needed that." She drops the cup on the table and fixed her attention on Mercy. 'Don't mention. So, I've been wanting to ask you—"
Bushra cleared her throat and nodded. It was something upsetting, she knew. Mercy looks at her carefully, visualizing her face and every bit of it. 'Tell me… how do you do it. How do you attract all these rich, handsome men? Cause it's really astounding how you do it. Fill me in on the secret."
Bushra tilted her head. She didn't know whether to take it as a compliment or insult. But she was taken aback by the statement. 'What do you mean by that exactly?" She had to indorse what Mercy meant first before she responds to her silly question. 'oh, you know. I noticed a man comes into your office really frequently. And also Mr. Adam – Oh God, Mr. Adam. If I were you, I'd choose him… I mean not that the other guy isn't handsome or anything, but, Mr. Adam…"
'I have to stop you right there, Mercy." Bushra cuts in vulgarly. 'Are you even listening to yourself – the kind of thoughtless words you're uttering to me. How can you just come into my office, offering a filthy coffee just to ask me something irrational?" She bellowed angrily.
'Look, I'm sorry if you feel offended but I was just asking a harmless question. I mean, how can a girl like you score all those men…"
'Get out!" Bushra yelled loudly over Mercy's voice.
Mercy stares at Bushra harshly for a moment. She furrowed her brows and scoffed as she got to her feet. The door quietly opens again and Mahir ambled in together with two of his guards. Mercy gave her a revolting glare. 'Just what I thought," she murmured and turned to leave. She greeted Mahir vigorously and hurried out.
Bushra heaved a sigh to calm the fury but nothing changed. She got more furious when Mahir showed up. 'Good morning, Miss. Mansur." He stares at her with a stoic face expression. 'Why are they in my office?" She asked him. That was the first time he came into her office with his guards. She wasn't comfortable with the idea of that.
He glanced back over his shoulders. 'My safeguards? You know what their work is, right? They protect me – from any sorts of danger." He told her as he keenly bore his eyes into hers. What was that supposed to mean? How was that her concern?
'So, I'm now some sort of threat or what?" She questioned; her voice was as serious as her face. 'Well, I am not comfortable with men standing in my office," she spoke crossly as she stood up. She had had enough for the day already.
'Oh, be careful. You might choke on those words." He said, sounding more like a warning. He drops a cheque in front of her. She looked down at it. 'If you want to withdraw money, you do it out in front, not here." She spoke as she returned her irritated eyes back at him.
'The money is for you," he told her. She picked it up and studied it. Her blood slopped to a halt in her veins. She had never in her twenty-five years of living possessed that kind of money. Heck, she doubts if her father had held that kind of money in just one sitting. Her main concern was, why would he give her that amount of money like it was nothing. Was that his way of saying thank you for their date or…
'Why are you acting like you weren't expecting it? Didn't you save me because you wanted money from Dan-Musa's family?" He stated as he quirks his eyes brows up.
Her eye brows shoots up with shock as her entire body jerks to a standstill unexpectedly. The boldness this man has to think she helped him just to get money from him or his father.
After he had found out she was the one that donated blood to him, the first thing that came to his blank mind was she wanted money in return? For several moments she stood unmoving. Her pulse sped up and she was breathing very shallow.
She hissed loudly and march passed him and stormed out of the office, leaving him with his so-called guards standing in her office. In all her life of associating with people – in all her life of being around people, Bushra has never been insulted like Mahir had just did before, and she was sick and tired of it. She was done tolerating his disrespects and insults. She'd get demoted or even resign than to stay here and get insulted by someone who thinks he has power and he could do whatever he wanted.
She barges into the manager's office. Nostrils flaring, she stood from the table, fist clenched at her sides. Mahir casually walks into the office and her boss rose up when he spotted him. 'Change their account manager right now… I am no longer interested to be their account manager!" She spoke loudly at her boss, not caring what the worse might happen.
'And for you!" She faced Mahir, and pointed a finger at him. She had so many things to get off her chest. 'I regret ever helping you in my life. If I knew you'd turn out to be this way, I would've left you to die, to suffer. I shouldn't have wasted my blood, my time, my attention on such an unwise man like you." She tore the cheque into pieces before throwing it to his face.
Bushra brushed passed him and stormed out of the office.
The manager looked at him with pleading eyes. 'Mr. Adam, Sir, I don't know what's between you two or what happened but… I… I just can't get you a new account manager at the moment as they're all occupied and it's going to take a whole lot of time before you can get a replacement. Please, sir, whatever it is between you and Miss. Mansur, try and fix it because she is the best you can get."
Mahir heaved a sigh, massaging his temple. As he stood there to think, his heart raced, like a runaway train going faster and faster. He cursed and stormed out of the office.
She paced back and forth in her office, just as horde of contemplations track around her mind. Just one thing she knew was, she has no regrets about what she had done or what she said to Mahir. She could've smacked him in the face if she had the chance.
'Miss. Mansur," her boss came into view. She paused and looked at him. She embraced herself for the worse. If he was here to fire her, she doesn't care one bit. One thing she knew, she was never going to apologize for what she had done.
'What was the meaning of that please? If you don't care that his father can shot down the whole bank, you should remember that he's a client and he has done so many great things to help this bank."
Her breathing had become light and her mouth gaped. The audacity! 'You didn't even hear my side of the story. Didn't you see what he did to me? I saved his ass when he had an accident and was brought in to the E.R – at the verge of dying, and he has the guts to bring me his stupid money when I didn't even know he was the one I donated blood to at the hospital. Who told him that I am a coward like him? If I knew he was the one that needed blood, I wouldn't have wasted my energy over him." Her voice was so loud, so thunderous, that he couldn't concentrate on what she said. She became a different person. Her eyes had warped into a miserable black.