part2

It was 1:43 AM
He stared at the poster as he coolly lit up a cigarette.

Happiness= Life-Stress

He thought about what was said to him earlier.
"You're too selfish, and too self obsessed. You think of what others should do for you, you never see that we might need something as well. And you know what? Sometimes….you can be the meanest bastard around"

Have I become the man I hate?

Many months before…

Yousef was smiling. He was walking with Sara to her first meeting with the team.

The team

Salim: He was the perfectionist. He was a man devoted to his family and children. Righteous, and had a lets-do-it-by-the-book attitude. He often thought that seniority alone prevented him from becoming team leader. He had just cause to think so. He was the smartest of the group, and he worked harder than any other member, even harder than Yousef.

Dana: She was a successful married woman who earned the respect of everyone she worked with. She defied the stereotypical image put upon women in her society. She would challenge the best of men and would often beat them on any issue. She was going to be somebody. Those who knew her well though thought that there was something holding her back. An unsuccessful, overly jealous husband, it would seem, was her ball and chain.

Yousef: Team leader. Everybody knew he was destined for greatness. He was as charismatic as he was smart. His tall figure complimented his confidence in himself. His innovative ideas put him in the spotlight, his ambition got him this job. Professionally he was a walking image of what a successful man should be. Emotionally, he was a wreck.

Mohammed: People sometimes wondered how he became a part of the team. There was nothing special about him. He wasn’t as smart as the others. He often would sit through a whole meeting without saying a single word. It wasn’t ambition that got him to accept this challenge. It was loyalty. Loyalty to an old friend who asked him to join this team. His job was simple. He was to support Yousef all the way, to be there for him when he needed him. After all, like brothers, they were.

Sara: She was the new member. A young, enthusiastic, and extremely talented woman. She had the ability to motivate people to do more than what was expected. She had a strong personality and was very unique. She brought life to the team, as both Yousef and Mohammed would later agree.

The first meeting…

Yousef and Sara hit it off immediately. They have worked together only briefly in the past. There seemed to be chemistry between the two. Yousef was looking forward to working with her as much as getting to know her on a personal level. Sara was excited that she was going to work with Yousef. She never really noticed him before they briefly spoke about a seminar they both attended six months earlier. But since then she started to notice him more. They exchanged a smile once in a while. Only recently they began to talk, one polite word for another.

They both entered the room. Yousef started to introduce everybody.

"Hello everyone, this is Sara our new member, Sara you already know Dana" they were somewhat friends "this is Salim" he had some reservations about her joining the team, Not my first choice, Salim thought "and this is Mohammed"
Everybody sat down and talked socially for a minute or two, and then they began to work. Sara immediately let her presence be known. She was full with ideas and wasn’t too shy to make her voice heard and to give her opinion. Yousef felt good after the meeting. He was confident that now after Sara joined, things would finally start to pull together. He was proud. There was something though, something that had bothered him a bit from the start of the meeting. He saw it when Sara and Mohammed first greeted each other. There was…..something.

to be continued....