Chapter 16: Chapter 16

The scent of lavender-scented bath soap wafted from where Rakia had just come out of, the bathroom. After a few minutes spent soaking with her favorite soap. Before going to bed, she quite often takes a bath first, but because she used to live in a boarding house so she only takes a shower not a bath. Nowadays, her mother’s house provides a bathtub so she can maximize her ritual. It’s been five days now and she hasn’t heard anything about her job application. From various places he had gone, including from Dashtan. He honestly couldn’t wait to get back to his old routine, he felt only lazier if he stayed at home too long and was unemployed.

He approached his laptop which was currently on the bed open and on, displaying a desktop wallpaper of the Eiffel tower. One of the places she wanted to visit. In the past, when she was still with Benjamin, she hoped to go there with him, but everything was just a dream even though until now she still hoped to visit that place even without anyone’s company. Rakia sat on the edge of the bed and leaned towards her laptop screen. She was surprised when a call to talk from Dashtan through her email appeared on her laptop screen, the surprised Rakia immediately pressed the answer button and Dashtan’s face filled her laptop screen. The man smiled and Rakia felt strange about the man’s smile.

“Did you just take a shower?” Dashtan’s question instantly made Rakia aware of her current condition wearing only a towel. She automatically screamed and then unilaterally ended the call which turned out to be a video call. With an embarrassment that was hard to describe, Rakia bit her lower lip with an expression like she was about to cry. The thing that had just happened to her was a fatal mistake, letting a strange man see her half-naked, even though it was unintentional it still made an impression on Rakia’s mind. Rakia’s cell phone rang and startled the woman, when she saw Dashtan’s name there she hesitated to answer it. Shyness and awkwardness still surrounded her at this time. She sighed with a gloomy face.

When she was Benjamin’s girlfriend, she never let him do whatever he wanted to her, including sex. Although she had been dating Ben for years, she had never once slept with any man. She quickly got dressed and decided to answer Dashtan’s phone call after a few times she had left him waiting.

“Hello, sorry about that,” Rakia said awkwardly, she was alone in this room but the awkwardness embraced her.

“Oh, yeah, did you check your email? I sent you something” Dashtan didn’t seem to want to discuss the matter further, and Rakia was grateful. She quickly climbed into bed and checked her email. It was the email she had been waiting for. A bright smile graced her face.

“Thank you for this favor.” Rakia was truly grateful. Dashtan chuckled then said, “I’ll ask for a reply next time.” Rakia smiled then rolled her eyes.

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind,” Rakia said then smiled even though Dahstan didn’t see her.

“Do you want us to celebrate your success?” Dashtan asked. Rakia laughed lightly.

“You’re looking for an excuse to be alone with me, right?” Rakia confidently guessed. Dashtan audibly chuckled.

“If so, why? You know I still want to collect your promise to find me a wife.” Dashtan’s words reminded Rakia of her promise to the man, she nodded.

“Yes... well... What do you want to do to celebrate?” Rakia left the decision to Dashtan.

“How about... proposing to you?”

They were silent for a while, Rakia staring blankly at the tiles of her current room. Somehow Dashtan’s persistence made her remember her tragic relationship with Benjamin.

“Are you still there? Rakia?” Dashtan broke the silence between them. Somehow hearing Dashtan say her name embarrassed her. To her, it sounded intense. Rakia snapped out of her reverie and cleared her dry throat.

“Yes, I’m still here. How about we postpone the celebration until I find someone for you? We can celebrate later as well.” Rakia tried to avoid Dashtan for the time being, after all, the next few days she would be busy with her new job. Dashtan sighed.

“Alright... if that’s what you want. I’ll see you later.” Dashtan ended their conversation first. Staring at her phone in a daze, Rakia decided to prepare herself for tomorrow to come to her first call at Daily Singapore.

**

In the two days since Dashtan told Rakia that she had been hired at Daily Singapore, they had not communicated at all. Rakia was enjoying her new job as a reporter with her team. She was completely occupied with the news that had recently broken about the animal disease that was spreading to southeast Asia. On her first day of work, she had to go home late at night because she was assigned the nightly news.

“Oh, Sweetie?! You just got home at this hour?” asked Adeline who was waiting for her daughter in the living room. Rakia nodded and tried to give her best smile amidst her haggard and tired face. But she was used to that routine back in Jakarta.

“You haven’t slept yet?” Rakia asked back. Adeline sighed.

“No, I’m worried about you,” Adeline answered honestly. Rakia hugged her mom with affection. As long as she lived independently, this kind of attention was very rare.

“I’m used to it, Mom. I’m just tired, go to sleep, I’ll sleep too.” Adeline nodded and locked the front door before entering her room. Rakia watched her until she entered the room, then she immediately went up to the second floor. She placed the shoulder bag she had brought today on the dressing table then took off her Daily Singapore uniform and let herself lie down on the bed wearing only black jeans and a white t-shirt tank top after taking off her sneakers. She ignored the incoming message notifications on her phone. Sleepiness quickly overtook her so she yawned a few times but she couldn’t sleep in this state. So Rakia tried her best to resist her sleepiness to quickly clean her face, brush her teeth and change into sleeping clothes. However, just as she was about to apply her face cream, she noticed a white rectangular envelope lying on her dressing table. But because she was so sleepy, she was unable to open the envelope so she decided to open it in the morning, besides there was no sender’s name and address printed on the front of the envelope which indicated it was something important. Rakia immediately climbed into her bed after applying face cream, turned on the bed lamp and turned off the main light.