Page 34 of Poinsettia Lane

“Nice to meet you.” Everly smiles at Asim’s sister, and she grins back.

“So you’re the one he won’t shut up about.”

Everly blinks at Farah, then turns to Asim, who has a scowl on his face. Everly bursts into a laugh at the peeved expression and Asim starts to pull the phone away, clearly trying to avoid the conversation.

“No, wait!” Everly grabs his wrist, keeping the camera where it is, and leans forward. “What has he been saying?”

Farah throws her head back and laughs. “Oh, my dear, the way hepinesover you, asking me—”

“Okay, that’s enough.” Asim narrows his eyes at Farah and yanks his wrist from Everly’s hold.

She bites her lip to keep in a laugh.

“We have a lot to get done today,” Asim says to his sister, “did you need something?”

“No, no, I won’t keep you.” Farah is still grinning.

“I’ll call you later," Asim grumbles.

“Sure, sure, I see how it is. Bye, akhi!”

Farah winks as she ends the call and Asim swipes a hand down his face. Everly decides not to give him a hard time about it, instead asking what ‘akhi’ means.

“It means brother, or my brother," Asim explains, a note of fondness in his voice.

“Oh, that’s sweet.” Everly tries to keep the wistfulness out of hers, but she knows it comes through anyways. She misses having a close-knit family.

“Ready to get back to it?” he asks. She glances back at him as he stands and grabs the trash.

“Let’s do it.” Everly stands up too, stretching her arms over her head with a sigh. He snags his empty glass and takes it inside as well while she wiggles her fingers back into her gloves, and all too soon they are getting down and dirty again.

Sadly, not the type of down and dirty she’s been quite literally dreaming of.

Every night.

It’s unlikely tonight will be any different.

Everly feels hyper-aware of him today. Each time Asim glances at her, she gets goosebumps and her heart flutters in what would be a concerning manner in any other situation. She can’t stop peeking at him too, and is caught more than once. He continues to smile at her every time, and he shot her another wink once when he caught her not even working, just blatantly staring. They talk easily with comfortable silences interspersed, and that’s one thing Everly hasn’t had a lot of experience with when it comes to other people. She has adequate social skills and does well in a professional setting, but when it comes to extended conversation, she’s typically not the best.

It’s different with him, though. They delve into more personal things today, topics outside of those right infront of them. Everly reflects on how she doesn’t think she likes living alone anymore and has thought about getting a pet, which he validates, sharing what a huge difference having Moose in his life has been. Asim talks more about his business, how he started it and what it’s like living above the main shopping area. They converse about the challenges and rewards of being business owners, and how isolating that lifestyle can be at times. Although their areas of work are vastly different, there are many aspects that are comparable, and Everly marvels at the feeling of understanding she gets from him.

She isn’t used to being seen.

“So what was that party for? The holiday one, it seemed like a pretty big deal," Asim says, snapping Everly out of her latest daydream.

“Oh, that.” Everly sighs, wondering how to explain and if she really wants to get into it. He looks up at her when she pauses, and his eyebrows draw together.

“It’s not good?”

She waves a hand in the air, pushing away his concern.

“It’s just a whole thing. The party, orgala,” she draws out the vowels and rolls her eyes as she says gala, “as I’m supposed to call it. My parents used to host it every year, and it sort of fell to me after they died. I’ve been hosting for their friends ever since.”

“Fortheirfriends? What about your friends?”

Everly shrugs, pulling her lips to the side and wrinkling her nose. She doesn’t really have any friends apart from Frankie, but she doesn’t want to tell him that.

“Why did that become your responsibility? It seems you don’t enjoy it.”

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