Faiza was growing impatient. Alice had been in the toilet for 20 minutes now, with no sign that she would be leaving her cubicle, anytime soon.
Faiza had already got changed and was trying to avoid dragging the skirt of her lovely, thrift store dress through that suspicious looking puddle in the middle of the floor. To make matters worse, the cleaner had just arrived. She could hear her hoovering away, just outside the door. Gossip can spread quickly in a law office. Everyone is extremely bored with their work you see. You have the wrong "private" phone call, near the wrong desk and before you know it, everyone thinks that you are having an affair with the bosses son to get ahead.
Faiza had already begun to hear whispers about her and Alice, as they spent so much time with each other and they had yet to have seen Alice with a man. Faiza was not looking to add fuel to the fire. She became ever more frustrated and started to bang furiously on the cubicle door.
"Alice!" She hissed. "How much longer are you going to be in there? Everyone else has gone home."
"That's impossible!"
"Well, they have! You've been in there, that long!"
"What? Even Bob's gone home?"
"Yes Alice, even Bob's gone home."
"Damn!"
And with that, Faiza heard the toilet flush and the door unlock.
Alice emerged wearing a long, brown, heavily sequinned dress with her blonde hair tied back in a French twist.
"Can we get a move on now please Alice?"
"Yeah, sure. I've just got to do my makeup."
"And how much longer is that going to take?"
Faiza was at her wits end. It is difficult to leave the office before six thirty, when you work in Mergers & Acquisitions. This was the first time she had managed to finish work at a reasonable hour, since she started working at the firm, eighteen months ago. But this was a special occasion. Her cousin Rabina, had just got married and Faiza had invited Alice along as her guest. The wedding reception was being held in the parents' house in Wolverhampton. The two women had yet to have left there office at Snow Hill.
At last, Alice applied the final stroke of crimson to her lips and smacked them.
"Ok. I'm done, let's go".
"Finally!"
The two women picked up there belongings and departed from the company toilets. They were greeted by the cleaning lady, who gave them an unwelcome, wry smile as they walked past. Faiza grew red, while Alice seemed unfazed and even appeared to be enjoying it.
Alice and Faiza, would strike anyone who saw them, as something of an odd couple. Faiza was a tall, willowy, Pakistani lady. With long legs and silky dark hair. Not a woman of many words, but when she did have something to say, it would always be insightful. Alice was around four inches shorter and presented as a compact and wiry figure. With a tongue like a stinging nettle. Alice had been at the firm, two years longer than Faiza and had three years, post qualification experience over her as well. Although, this was in Criminal Defence, rather than Corporate Law. They were not natural friends. When they first crossed paths by the water cooler, on Faiza's first day, Alice had mistook her for one of the paralegals and decided to unceremoniously dump one of her case files on Faiza, whilst she was trying to enjoy a cup of coffee on her break. Faiza spent the remainder of that break, tracking her down, so that she could personally thank Alice for giving her the opportunity to become more acquainted with the filing system. Rather than angering Alice, which is what Faiza secretly hoped to achieve by approaching her in this manner, Alice actually gained respect for her. This respect soon turned to friendship.
They made their way down in the lift, to the front desk, where they bid "Jeeves, the security guard, goodnight. His real name was actually Bill. They just liked to call him Jeeves because he looked a little bit like the butler figure from that old, defunct, search engine. It was a cold February evening and both women immediately regretted the decision, not to include a cardigan in their ensemble. Thankfully, it was only a quick hop over to the car park, where they got into Faiza's brand new Mini Cooper and headed off.
It turned out that Alice taking an age to get ready in the toilets, had actually worked in their favour. There had been a pile up on the M6, which had only just been cleared. And it was long past rush hour, which meant that it was plain sailing from there on out and they still made it in good time. Faiza had some issues parking the car, as there was a seemingly endless, line of cars, which had mounted the pavement, outside of Rabina's house. But it was still only a quarter past seven when Faiza rang the door bell.
To their surprise, the bride herself answered the door. Rabina looked like a vision, her dress was a light champagne colour, with a flowing vale to match. The only piece of jewellery that she wore, was a gold, Kundan choker, around her neck. A little minimalistic for an Asian bride, but still beautiful none the less.
"You took your time, didn't you?". Rabina asked.
"Well, it took a while for us to get out of the office. Someone, insisted on taking an extra twenty minutes to do her business. Seeing as she was in the toilet anyway."
Rabina shot a look at Alice. And Alice's mortified expression, turned to one of astonishment as she looked at her.
"You'd better come in then." Rabina said, without breaking eye contact with her cousin's companion. She stood to one side, slowly and let the two women pass her by.
"You're dad's upstairs, in my room."
"Thanks Rabina. You look gorgeous, by the way."
"Why thank you. Now quickly go upstairs. He has something important, that he needs to say to you." This made Faiza feel a little nervous, but she abided and made her way up the stairs, leaving Alice alone with the bride.
"Drinks and food are just through there". Rabina said curtly, while pointing towards the living room. Alice was sure that she heard her mutter the words "bloody Gori", under her breath. Which, thanks to Faiza, she understood the significance of.
The living room was packed. She had to snake her way through the aunts and uncles, who had congregated near the settee, to get to the buffet table. There, she found all manner of delights. Including a platter of chops with pilau rice, samosas, vegetable pakora, fish pakora, mixed pakora, as well as the usual suspects, as far as sweets were concerned. More Jalebi than she could eat. Although she was not to keen on them herself. She much preferred the Gulab Jamun. There was also a large, punch bowl in the middle of the table. Filled with a delightfully fruity looking, pink liquid. Alice felt that it was a forgone conclusion, that she would be raiding that later.
But as she contentedly stacked food onto a paper plate in the living room, her companion was upstairs.
Faiza opened the door to find her father, Mr Yusuf, sat on the bed waiting for her.
"My darling, look at you! Anyone would have thought that you were the bride!" He exclaimed, as he got up to greet his only daughter.
"Hi dad." She said before kissing him gently on the cheek. "How have you been keeping?"
"Good, good." He said. "But you never come to see me anymore!"
"It's not that I don't want to dad. I'm just extremely busy. You don't know what it's like. One of the guys in our department, missed his own aunt's funeral, because he needed to pull an all nighter on a case!"
"That job is going to kill you! It already destroyed your marriage!"
"Let's not go on about that now dad."
"I'm afraid I'll have to. He's here! That's why I needed to talk to you first. I didn't want you getting a nasty shock, when you saw him."
Faiza didn't answer at first. She just glared at him.
"Why didn't anyone tell me that this was happening, before I arrived?"
"We didn't know that he was going to turn up until, maybe half an hour ago. He's still a friend of the family and Rabina and Ibrahim did grow up together. It seemed natural that he would show his face at some point."
Faiza turned around without a word and stormed out of the room.
"Faiza!" Her dad feebly called after her.
She made her way downstairs and found Alice with a mouth full of pakora by the buffet. She grabbed her arm and jerked her to one side.
"What the fuck's gotten into you?" Said Alice, as she spluttered food down her front.
"He's here." Was all that Faiza could say in response.
"Who's here? You look pale and you're sweating like crazy".
"Him". Faiza said again.
The penny finally dropped.
"Oh!" Alice said, as she put her plate down on the table.
"But why should that mean that you have to leave? It's your cousin's wedding. It just doesn't seem all that fair to me."
"What do you suggest that I do?"
"Carry on. Enjoy yourself. Show him that you've moved on and don't give a crap about him anymore."
"But I do give a crap about him" Faiza grew faint and found herself gradually sinking towards the floor. Her friend followed her down, not minding the looks that they were getting from the other guests.
"In that case, I think that it's time that you confronted him . After all, he might feel the same way."
"Do you think?" Faiza beamed up at her.
"I don't know, but it's gotta be worth a shot, right?"
Faiza sat in silence, staring into space for a few seconds, as she contemplated this proposition. She suddenly sprang to her feet. "You're right, I'm going to go for it. What's the worst that could happen?"
"He admits that the whole thing was a mistake and that he never, ever loved you?"
"Do me a favour and shut up Alice!"
"Ata girl!"