The Repair Job
"When Rania's washing machine breaks, she calls the first repair number she finds. She doesn't expect Asad—handsome, skilled, and entirely too distracting—to fix more than her appliances."
The Repair Job
"Your drum bearing's gone."
Rania watched the repairman examine her washing machine. He was young, handsome, with forearms that did distracting things when he worked.
"Can you fix it?"
"I can fix anything." He looked up with a smile. "I'm Asad. Your machine should be good in an hour."
"Want chai while you work?"
"Zaroor."
The hour became three—repairs more extensive than expected.
Asad worked while Rania graded papers (she taught primary school), and somehow they ended up talking about everything: his engineering degree he couldn't afford to finish, her mother's constant rishta pressure, the shared exhaustion of being Pakistani and modern.
"You're not what I expected," she admitted.
"What did you expect?"
"Someone less... interesting."
"Same." His eyes crinkled. "Can I be unprofessional?"
"Depends."
"I want to take you to dinner. Not because I fixed your machine. Because you're the most fascinating woman I've talked to in years."
Dinner became regular. Regular became his flat, small but immaculate, filled with half-finished inventions.
"You're brilliant," Rania said, examining his projects. "Why aren't you working for some tech company?"
"No degree. No connections." He shrugged. "Repairs pay the bills."
"You deserve more."
"I have more now." He pulled her close. "I have you."
They made love surrounded by his innovations—a man who could build anything, devoted to taking her apart.
"Tell me what you need," he murmured.
"You figuring it out."
He grinned and complied.
His hands were clever—engineer's hands—and he applied that problem-solving mind to her pleasure until she was crying his name.
"Meri jaan," he breathed, entering her. "Let me build something with you."
"Less metaphors—"
"A life. I mean a life." He thrust deeper. "Together."
"My mother will faint," Rania said afterward. "Her daughter and the repair man."
"I'll fix her washing machine for free. She'll come around."
"You're ridiculous."
"I'm in love." He kissed her forehead. "Same thing."
He finished his degree online, sponsored by her encouragement.
His startup launched two years later—appliance innovations now used across Britain.
Best repair job he ever did was fixing her belief that she'd never find love.