The entire week passed with full chaos in my heart. My opinion about neither Ibrahim nor Ibrahim Lite improved. Not even a bit. Not at all.

The way people at home were rejoicing about Ibrahim's visit made me hate him more. My parents were too hopeful about it. Shaheen and Daneen were unnecessarily excited. Aira was constantly trying to explain the monetary benefits of tying the knot with him. And there I was, on one side, struggling to figure out what was so worth about a fat shamer.

The worst part of it all was that my family wanted me to get a brand new dress done for Saturday. Despite me opposing that idea, they bought some expensive fabric and was already in the process of sewing a new Shalwar for me.

I could not understand their pathetic efforts to make this work. I mean, it was okay to get prepared. But why a new dress? Was Ibrahim from Hollywood? Did I have to make such a striking appearance in front of him to get a positive response?

I had so many questions yet received no sensible answers.

And at one point, I gave up talking about it because it only triggered more arguments between mom and me. Besides, there was an overload of unwanted advice too. Either way I was feeling stressed whether I liked it or not.

So, I decided to quietly dance to their tune.

As for Ibrahim Lite aka sullen face Arham, I did try to work alongside him without any prejudice like Zoya suggested, because at the end of the day we were colleagues and it wasn't right for me to hold grudges. But somehow I couldn't. I mean, he did not allow me to.

When the know-it-all episode with system failure happened on Monday, I thought maybe that would be the first and the last incident of that kind between us. But then with each day that followed, he only annoyed me more. And it made me feel perhaps our ego clash would never come to an end. It was here to stay forever.

On Tuesday, when I was training them, out of nowhere he mentioned that there was an easier way of doing a particular task than what I had suggested. The moment he said that, I was annoyed.

Because how dare he?

I was his senior. I had been working at HighGen for seven years and I knew the process inside and out. I was so good with my work that nobody had ever challenged me like that before. Not my peers. Not Paul. Not even Jacob.

So, then why would he do that? Simply because he had a swollen head of course!

However, since it was basic decency to respect co-workers and maintain professional decorum, I did not use any harsh words. I only said, "Sure, we can look into that later, Arham. For now, follow my method guys. This works best. I know it."

Now, a thoughtful and mature person would have kept quite after hearing what I said, right? But he did not. He just wanted to be bumptious.

This is why he went onto manipulate the other trainees into believing that his method was definitely superior to mine. And those blockheads too bought into his words. So, by the time I returned after the lunch break, I found them all following his instructions. That instantly got me to boil with rage.

Perhaps the fact that I was already upset over Ibrahim's visit made me a little more emotional than what I should have been. I almost overreacted when I threatened to abandon the training with my dramatic words, "Guys, I have been assigned to train you and not anyone else. Honestly, if you can't take my word, then what's even the point in me wasting my time with you people? I think you should train each other since you are so good at it already."

I knew I sounded pretty dictatorial. More like old teachers — the kind of people who I used to laugh at when I was at school. In other words, when I was younger. I felt disgusted with my own behavior when I realized that such reaction was perhaps side effects of aging. I was after all, almost thirty!

So, I apologized to them immediately in spite of the smirk that lingered on Arham's face the whole time while I was talking. Nevertheless, my anger was still there. And I ignored him for the rest of the day.

Then came Wednesday morning when Devi decided to make things worse for me. Yes, despite the fact that I avoided going to the department area, she still visited the mini boardroom looking for gossip. I guess, more than wanting to get an update about my proposal, she was eager to meet the new gang and probe into their personal lives.

The moment she walked in, her very first questions for the trainees were about their age and relationship status — two things that not even I inquired after spending two full shifts with them. Devi was simply incorrigible!

Then as soon as she learned that Arham was the only person to be single among them, that too at the age of 30, she said, "Oh! You are also like our Alisha akka then. No luck with marriage, I guess." I ignored her comment with an eye-roll. As for him, his upper lip curled with a derisive smile. I wasn't sure why he did that. But it looked a lot like he was feeling insulted about the comparison. Idiot.

"Oho! We have two weddings to look forward to then," said Yohan, becoming the only person to respond to stupid Devi's stupid comment.

"And who knows? Maybe it will be a wedding between them," added Devi with a loud, silly laugh. I frowned at her but she didn't even notice that. Arham sniggered and replied, "Oh please! I'd rather stay single!" He clearly sounded irritated.

All of them burst into laughter the moment he uttered those words. For them, it was funny. But I did not share the same emotion. I felt mortified.

Even though I also hated him, I managed to limit my response to a frown, right? Why couldn't he do the same? He outright spilled such words probably because he felt that hot under the collar about being matched with me.

Was I that disgusting? Was it all because of my size?

Suddenly, Ibrahim's fat shaming comments too came into my mind. People from both my professional circle and personal circle seemed to be revolted by me. I felt so hurt. Thereafter, my mood for the entire day was occupied with a touch of distress.

By Thursday, my mind was too abstracted at the thought of the nightmare in two days. So, I hardly paid any attention to Arham or his stupid face. He too appeared extra sullen ever since Devi's comment. Perhaps he was afraid of me developing feelings for his unsmiling face and douchebag personality. Ewww!

However, there was a team birthday celebration on that day and we all had to take the tea break at the same time. It was the first time the trainees came face-to-face with the others in the department, besides Devi and the Management.

It was there that I ascertained that Arham was no introvert like Zoya had predicted. He was all smiles with a group of new people. Everyone seemed to enjoy his company and vice versa. So, maybe he had some sort of selective interaction problem only with me.

Nincompoop!

Anyway, his activities — from not smiling to not talking to disrespecting me — was all okay. Because I did not really give a damn. But what he did today was the last straw.

Everything was as usual since morning. I mean, we both perfectly avoided any unnecessary conversation other than work doubt clarifications. I wish we had kept it that way.

At around 4:30 pm, our training was over. The trainees were talking to each other. They seemed to be scribbling something on a piece of paper. I did not pay attention to any of it because I was too busy completing my tasks for the day.

It was at that time that Jacob and Paul walked in. They inquired about the status of the training and said that the trainees could be now moved to the department. Along with that, Jacob also started giving some unsolicited work plus life advice. I wasn't particularly concentrating on what he spoke but I did hear him utter the words, "let's address the elephant in the room guys."

Now, having known Jacob for the past seven years, I knew it was nothing to do with a hint on my size. He was not the kind to fat shame people. He was obviously using it only for its figurative meaning. It looked like he was talking about work pressure and employee performance and this expression was made use of to address mental health. Typical Jacob lines. Nothing harmful.

But then I happened to catch sight of Arham and I realized that he had a half-suppressed snicker on his face, all the while staring at me. What did that reaction even mean? Was he trying to refer to me as the "elephant" in the room? Like in the literal sense of it?

I wasn't sure because I didn't know mind reading.

But I was still furious. And I wanted to question him directly but I couldn't do it in front of the Management. So, I only frowned at him. A real deal death stare.

Then after a while, Paul took the trainees with him to the department. I said I'd follow and just before I walked out, I noticed a crushed piece of paper on the table. I opened it to find a set of nicknames.

The tag written in front of my name was "Ali". At first I thought maybe it was just an abbreviated form of my name and nothing else. But then I found an elephant doodle at one edge of the paper. That was when it struck me. "Aliya" in Sinhala was the word for elephant and often the shortened version of "ali" too was used by Sri Lankans to refer to the animal.

So, I wasn't wrong at all with my previous guess. He had indeed fat shamed me!

I grabbed the paper and stormed out of the mini boardroom in anger. It was time for confrontation.

Maybe I was unable to scold Ibrahim directly because my family expected me to be tolerant with his crap. But I need not have the same patience with Ibrahim Lite. This was my workplace and I had all the rights to stand up for myself if I got bullied.

When I entered the department, I saw the new trainees getting ragged by the seniors with the usual dare of being asked to introduce themselves and sing a song. Under normal circumstances, I would have enjoyed the sight of it. But at that moment I couldn't. I was too vexed to even pretend to smile. So, I waited for the drama to end.

Once it was over, before I could confront Arham, Paul dropped yet another bomb on me. He said that each new trainee will be made to sit next to a senior so that they could get help whenever they need.

Good for Roshan, he got Michelle. He was all smiles. He was probably imagining their wedding song in his mind already. Yikes!

For my bad luck, guess who I got? Ibrahim-Lite-slash-Arrogant-Arham.

Great. Now, I had to spend every single working day with that idiot seated next to me. I had no other option. Ugh!

After a while, when it was almost 5:00 pm and everyone was getting ready to go home, I showed Arham the paper and asked, "What is this? You think this is funny?"

"What?" That was all he asked. A question in response to my question.

"You think calling a coworker an 'elephant' and fat shaming them is cool?"

"No, I think it's very wrong ma'am." Huh! The audacity! First fat shaming me and then pretending to be respectful.

"Then why did you do it?" I asked with knitted brows.

"I didn't," he replied nonchalantly.

"Don't lie. I saw you doing that, sullen face."

"You really hate me, don't you?" he scoffed at me and walked out.

"Of course, I do!" I muttered under my breath but he wasn't around to hear me say that.

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So, I just realized that my last update on C.O.A.T was 5 days back 🥴🤭 The delay was mainly because I got caught up writing a short story (Hello, Last Chance!) Haven't read it yet? Check it out on my 'Short Stories' book and let me know what you think about it 🤗♥️💫

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