Two days later Adina got up to someone rambling beside her. She left her bed to find Tanisha fussing about in the room. She watched for a few moments then said, hesitantly, "Good morning. Is something wrong Tanisha?"
"Oh! You're up.. good! Come with me. I need to talk about something important with the brothers."
"Umm.. sure?" she could hear the urgency in Tanisha's voice so she didn't question when she was dragged out of the room and towards the office doors, she was now very familiar with.
After knocking twice on the large double doors of the office room the answer came,"Come in" in Ian's voice. Entering the room Adina saw both brothers huddled over a stack of papers. They were obviously in some deep discussion before their arrival.
Both of them looked up from the papers, first at Tanisha then at Adina. Ian looked back at Tanisha and asked,"What is it?" but Aiden's eyes never left her's. Adina being her stubborn self, glared back at him with equal intensity and hatred. The tension between Ian and Adina was resolved the next day when she had apologized and promised to try to just ignore Aiden and "try" not to enrage him or herself.
Tanisha replied,"I have something important to talk to you about, sir."
Adina broke her eye contact and looked at Tanisha worriedly.
"Go on then", said Ian.
"Well, I have an emergency at home and soo.. I need to rush back. I don't know for how long. I need to take a leave. Can you please give me some days off?"
Ian asked, a little bit concern showing on his face and in his voice,"What happened Tanisha? if you don't mind me asking!"
"I.. umm.. my... my mom needs me." She was on the verge of tears and Adina was about to interrupt before Ian did.
"Ah! it-its fine. I'll have the car ready to drop you at the airport. If you need anything else don't hesitate in contacting us or David. You should go pack your stuff."
"Thank you sir" she said with a greatful smile and added looking at Adina, "but Adina-"
"We'll figure something out. No need to worry about that. You may go now."
Throughout the discussion Adina and Aiden, both kept quiet. When Ian said those words, Adina looked at him and thought,'Well.. this is bad...' then she looked at Aiden and again thought,'No.. this might just be the worst thing ever...'
She accompanied Tanisha back to her room and helped in packing her stuff. Sometimes being someone's company in a complete silence is the best comfort that you could provide, so that's what Adina did. No questions asked, just a friend being there for a friend.
After packing her stuff, both of them sat on the bed and sighed.
"I'm sorry for leaving you. My mum is .. not well."
Adina turned towards her just to find her teary eyed looking in space. She enveloped her in a bone crushing hug and that was it for Tanisha to let it all out. Adina said sweet nothings to her while rubbing her back and patting her head to calm her down and she was successful in doing so to some extent. When she was confident that her tears has stopped and only sniffles were left, she broke the hug and held Tanisha by her shoulders.
Adina said,"Everything will be alright, ok? Believe me she'll be fine and you have to be fine too. Look at me....Look me in the eyes Tanisha", she said sternly. When Tanisha looked her in the eyes, she continued, "As for me... well.. I'm good. I'll survive. I think I can handle them now."
At the words 'handle them', Tanisha chuckled which made Adina smile. "Thanks" was all Tanisha said.
"There you go. And all this time I thought we were friends", Adina said throwing her hands in the air in exasperation.
"I.. ok, I won't ever say that again but promise me, you'll take care of yourself and don't meddle in things you shouldn't. "
"I.. promise?" she shrugged.
"You-"
"I think you should get going now. I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too, Adina."
When she sat in the car and all the goodbyes were done Adina turned back to look at both the brothers. She tried," Wellll... now-" but was cut off by Ian.
"We need to talk ... now."
She gulped nervously and followed them inside. What was going to happen now? What will happen to HER?