Mary starts humming a song and she glances up at Edna. Edna is just sitting there with a sad expression on her face.
" Won't you like to help me?" Mary asks.
Edna is startled that she jumps up from her seat and takes the knife that Mary is handing to her.
She adjusts her arms and looks down at the half-chopped spring onions, she has never been more clueless. Maybe it's just anxiety.
"Um, how would you like me to chop them?" She asks.
" However you want to do them. " Mary is by the cooker. She is lighting it and placing a pan over the blue flames.
Edna flexes her fingers a bit and picks back the knife. She arranges the onions again and slowly starts to chop them.
It takes her back home to when she cooked with her mum while her father was working in his shop.
Her brother was away in his mechanic workshop and so it used to be only them. Her mother would tell her romantic stories of how she met her husband and Edna would listen with a smile on her face.
She used to think that she would find someone as sweet as her father who would love her to death, the way her father loved her mother, but she was wrong.
She pauses for a second as she feels an itch, a tear is trickling down her face. She quickly reaches out and wipes it with her wrist. She doesn't know if that was an onion tear or an emotional one.
From that on, she helps Mary to prepare a tasty dish of spaghetti and some vegetable salads with the best meatballs in the world.
They had just finished and she is cleaning off the bowls and all they have used when she feels a pair of hands sneak up around her waist.
She turns around sharply and almost lets out a scream in fright. Oh God, it's just Malik, he is almost laughing.
"Oh no, I sacred you. " He snickers as he walks to the refrigerator.
"No, you didn't. " She tries to compose herself.
He laughs as he drinks some water and Edna looks around. Mary has disappeared into the thin air.
"How was the meeting?"
" Great. It was super stressful, but it was successful. "
"Thank God, then. " She says.
They don't say anything else to each other, they are staring into each other eyes, totally lost, and they would have continued if not for Mary who walks in right on time.
They both look away in different directions and Malik clears his throat. Mary minds her business and checks on what's cooking.
" So how was your day, Mister Malik?" Mary asks.
Her voice is different, louder and relaxed, more at home with this person. It's different from the way she spoke with Edna.
" It was good. " Malik nods. " Mister khalifa was being an ass like always. "
Mary is facing him with her hands folded. She shakes her head and clicks her tongue.
" It's it time that you drop that man from that deal, I mean..." She waves her hand.
Edna has never been more taken back. Her eyes move very quickly; from Malik to Mary and then back.
She thought she is the coolest of all bosses because she treated Dimore and Kim so well, but Malik is beating her score right now.
" I'm seriously considering that right now, Mary. " He sighs.
Before Edna knows what is happening, Malik grabs her hand.
" Mary, if you don't mind, I am stealing her away. " He smiles.
"That's okay, Mister Malik." Mary nods. " Thank you so much for your help, Mrs. Edna. "
Edna doesn't even get the chance to reply to her before she is dragged away by Malik up the stairs.
"Malik, wait. " She tries to protest, but he doesn't stop. He takes her all way up the stairs and to his room, only then does he lets go of her.
She has been in his room a few times before but she is still always like this when she comes in.
He has this huge canvas on his wall, a painting of what seems to be the galaxy, and she is always lost looking at it, she can't get enough of it.
She walks straight to it as soon as they get into the room and she uses her finger to trace the tiny stars and planets with her fingers.
She is so lost in what she is doing that she doesn't notice that Malik is now behind her, looking at it too.
" It glows in the dark. " He says and she turns around.
"What?" She is lost.
" The painting. " He points. " I'm just letting you know that it glows in the dark too. "
He told her this because he knows that she is going to switch off the lights and that's exactly what she does.
She finds the switch and turns it off, and the thing surely glows. It's more beautiful in the dark. The purple, blue, and green paints magically show off from the painting and now it looks like it's an extension of the universe, it's as if Edna is standing from a window and looking at the entirety of the universe.
" It's beautiful," she confesses.
"Yeah. " He agrees.
His hand goes to her shoulder, she holds her breath, thinking it's going to get beyond that, but it doesn't.
" Um, about Kim, I looked into that. " He faces her.
Through the faint lighting coming from the painting, she can vaguely see his face. It might just be her, but he looks more handsome with his face lighted up by a mixture of hue lights.
She pushes her hair back as she cautions herself. He is trying to tell her something important, she has to pay attention.
"Kim?" She asks. " You can help her?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't. " He sighs.
Her heart comes crashing down in her chest, she didn't expect him to come back with a negative answer, no.
" You can't?" She stammers.
" Turns out that Kim signed a contract when she applied to work in the company. " He explains. " She has to work for a certain period before she can leave either to work somewhere else or quit. "
Edna doesn't have the words to say what she feels in her heart. She really wanted to help her out, but Keith will hurt her someday.
" Keith tried to rape her. " His name brings back bad memories to her. " He is going to hurt her, I'm scared. "
Malik seeing that she is panicking so much reaches out and places a hand on her shoulder to stop her from further breaking down.
"I know that you are worried, but she is going to be fine. " He tells her. " I'm still working on something, maybe a transfer, but I can't guarantee that it's going to go well, my father doesn't trust me much these days. "
Edna understands. He has broken so many rules laid out by his father all in the bid to save her, Edna.
Edna heaves loudly. If Malik said he can't do anything right now, he can't. If he says that he is going to see what he can do, then she has to trust him.
"Okay." She pushes back her hair and nods. " Thanks for trying anyway. "
" You aren't, mad are you?"
"God, no. " She sighs. " Not after everything you've done for me. "
"Yeah, things that we promised not to speak of again. "
She laughs and he does so too. They are back to looking at each other again.
There is something intimate about Edna and Malik staring at each other, it's something dangerous.
It's like if they are left to stare at each other just long enough, they might end up doing something that both of them would come to regret.
Edna suddenly breaks eye contact and stares at the floor. Malik sighs too and excuses himself. He goes off to the closet to change his clothes.
Edna doesn't leave the room or turn the lights back on. She walks to the bed and sits on the edge of it.
In five minutes he returns. He is in joggers and a green shirt that has ' army' written on it.
Yes, Malik served in the military for two years briefly. That's why he is all tough like a bone.
" Nice shirt. " She compliments. " You still kept your army things?"
He looks at the shirt as if he is just noticing it for the first time.
" Well, yes. Some of them. " He answers. " You like the shirt?"
"Yeah, it's quite pretty. "
He does something surprising, he starts to take it off.
"Oh, Malik, no. You don't have to- "
He throws it on her lap. She looks down at the shirt as she grabs a handful of it, purposely not looking at Malik because he is not putting a shirt on.
" You really didn't have to. " She says.
" You like it. "
She wants to say something, but Malik's phone buzzes and he picks it up, temporarily distracted.
He looks at his screen with a frown on his face and Edna wonders if there is an issue with work.
" Is everything okay?" She can't help but ask.
" Yeah, it's just my Dad. " He wipes his jaw. " He just wanted to let me know that Keith is not settling for a divorce. "