Nasally Voices and Pretty Faces

Daniya's POV

"Would you like anything to drink ma'am?" an annoyingly raspy nasal voice that dripped with professionalism asked me. ignoring it i continued to contemplate the wisdom of buying myself one of the premium zirconia bracelets that the planes duty free had to offer, and if the amount in my bank would be able to shoulder the loss.

"Excuse me ma'am can I please have a second of your time?" The nasally voice persisted, forcing me to look up from the magazine I was reading. As I looked up at his face, all the annoyance I felt at being disturbed during the rare moments I had started to feel interested in something printed on a page quickly evaporated when I saw the smile decked with white teeth and striking grey eyes that greeted me, instantly disarming me.

Gosh, he was attractive. I was someone who believed in keeping men at an entire arms length away, but admiring their appearance? That was entirely risk free and I could definitely admire how attractive he was. It was amazing how different his voice was from his appearance.

I looked at the sleeping figure beside me, debating if I should wake her up. I looked back at the man decked in his flight attendants uniform looking good enough to be a model for the clothes he was wearing, waiting expectantly for my answer. Taking a deep breath I made my decision, steeling myself I mustered all my strength and I twisted the skin above her elbow making her yelp loudly as she high enough to nearly fall off her seat

Her sleep filled eyes glared at me as she rubbed the place I had pinched her. I silently pointed my eyes towards the man waiting patiently behind me. As soon as her dark eyes fell on him, her mouth opened slightly.

"Ma'am would you like anything to drink?" he asked again, his smile more forced than before. And I could see the shock in the way Gauhar's eyes bulged out when she heard his voice.

I was sure she understood why I HAD to wake her up for this.

Quickly closing her mouth Gauhar cleared her throat "I would like a can of coke please."

"And I'd like a cup of coffee, thank you." I smiled at him.

As soon as he handed us our drinks, and walked away Gauhar turned towards me with a thunderous expression. I watched her face incredulously, she should be thankful to me, but here she was practically fuming at me.

"What the heck is wrong with you, you idiot?" she screeched, making a few people look at us in irritation.

Giving them an apologetic smile I turned towards the woman whose face had turned red with anger, if looks could kill I would already be a pile of ash "there's absolutely nothing wrong with me Gauhar, thank you very much for asking."

She looked as if she was barely able to restrain herself as she narrowed her eyes at me "Haha, look how smart you've gotten Dani." Smacking angrily at the armrest between us she gritted her teeth "What I want to know is why the darn hell did you wake me up like that."

I sighed, giving her a smile that I usually gave those who failed to understand how important responsibly filing taxes was "did you see that man who brought us our drinks? Did you HEAR him?"

She nodded silently, still glaring at me "of course I did genius, I have perfectly hearing ears and fully functioning eyes."

Continuing in a voice that was reserved for explaining basic mathematical equations to dense idiots "I woke you up so that you could have a look at him of course. Instead of being angry with me, you should be grateful. I wanted you to have an image of him in your head when I rave about how good looking he was, since I know how difficult it is for you to understand when I talk about a man's handsomeness."

Looking at me as if I had lost my sanity she growled "I could see that he was attractive, and far from being grateful, I'm furious at you" she pinched the bridge of her nose "You made me look like an idiot in front of him. Why pray would you do that Daniya?"

I furrowed my brows at her "I just wanted you to see him, did you have any plans to impress him?"

Swearing under her breath she looked up at the ceiling as if praying for patience before fixing her gaze on me "No I don't have plans for impressing any man whatsoever Daniya. I'm sure you'd be aware of that by this time." After knowing her for nearly a decade, I was well aware of the fact Gauhar barely cared about men. She never seemed to understand why I found someone attractive, and barely ever thought of anything except the absurd laws that she spouted off out of the blue.

I gave her a look that said 'so what's the problem then?' making her groan "Daniya, love" She began, barely able to hide the anger in her tone "I despise looking like an idiot in front of anyone, regardless of the fact that they're attractive or not. And I looked like a complete idiot when you dragged me out of sleep, not to mention that I was a hair's breadth away from falling on my face in front of him."

As realisation dawned on me, I gave her a sheepish smile, "Well, I also thought that the disparity between his voice and his face would amuse you a bit."

She mumbled something that sounded a lot like 'it did' I couldn't allow myself to get too hopeful.

I tried to take her hand in mine but she angrily pulled it away, looking straight ahead- which in this case was the back of the seat in front of her "I'm sorry Haru, I didn't think of it that way."

She didn't give any indication that she'd heard me as she opened her can of cola and took a long sip. The silence between us physically bothered me, and I couldn't stand it for even a second, especially because it was Gauhar who was as angry with me.

However, dealing with her for all these years had made me an expert at dealing with her outbursts, which only went to show how many times I'd managed to piss her off. But that meant that I knew that she wouldn't be able to stay angry for long.

"Why'd you order coke instead of coffee like you always do?" I asked conversationally, attempting to distract her attention away from her current bad mood.

I made sure to keep my smile to myself as I knew that this was bound to make her talk to me, Gauhar hated to be kept hanging and she'd not let me wallow in curiosity if she could help it.

She looked at me as if she understood exactly what I was trying to do, her dark brow lifting slightly but she answered me nonetheless no matter how tersely "I can't stand subpar coffee, Mrs. Abercrombie has spoiled me by feeding me the good stuff. But I need caffeine to survive this stuffy plane ride." She shuddered looking around at the seats packed with people "So I had to make do with coke, it is sweet enough to desensitize me towards the quality of coffee in it."

I nodded my head at her answer, taking a sip of my coffee and instantly regretting "Gah! Why does this taste so nasty." I winced, earning myself a smug smile from Gauhar that screamed 'told you so'.

A downside to her know it all tendencies was that even if she made sure you're never ignorant about the important stuff, she'd sometimes let you make mistakes and then shove her smugness all over you just to remind you of your bad decisions.

"Maybe I should thank you for waking me up after all, I don't know what I would have done if you'd ordered that crap for me as well." She scrunched up her nose at the prospect before sliding a packet of sugar towards me "Add this to it. You need the caffeine and this will make it a bit bearable."

Looking away, she pulled out a book from her grey backpack, which upon closer inspection I found was 'A brief History of Time'. I watched her straighten her dark green hijab and flip a page of her book that lacked any interesting pictures and looked incredibly boring to me as I stirred the sugar in my coffee.

"I have no idea why you are here with me right now." She said softly, not looking up from her book. I knew why she didn't look up at me, she hated when anyone saw her vulnerable, and I respected that even if hiding her emotions was something I didn't like.

"You know why." I replied equally softly, taking a sip of my coffee and finding that it was indeed a bit more bearable than before.