Dan is walking home from his job as a graphic designer.

As he walks, he sees one of the people is having a garage sale and he spots something that intrigues him.

 Going over to look, he finds out that it is a beautiful, hooded Abaya; it looks plain black up close, but when you get it in the light it almost shimmers with the various shades and materials, like a magpie or crows plumage.

 For some reason, he can't stop picking it up.

 Fascinated with the garment, he looks it over, already thinking about using the colours in a design.

 He goes to put it back.

"You can’t put it back now, its chosen you", a voice says.

 Dan looks up.

 An elderly Muslim woman is looking at him. Despite her age, she has a presence about her that makes people take notice of her.

 "What do you mean?", Dan says, still going to hang it back up.

 "I will take it as a personal insult if you put it back", the woman says, but she says it with a small smile on her face.

 "I just liked the colours", Dan said. "I'm a designer, and I'm always looking for new colour."

"It's only a black Abaya", the woman says, still with this smile on her face. "I have the niqab that goes with it, as well."

 She goes inside and quickly comes back out with it.

 Dan looks at the niqab.

 He can see its black, but he can also see rainbow colours when it catches the light, like oil on water.

The woman presses the niqab into Dan's hands.

"Here, take it. Please. It's chosen you, you can’t refuse it."

Mystified, Dan stands there, but at the same time something stirs within him, and he puts the clothes in his bag, carefully and reverently.

"How much?", he asks.

"You can’t pay me for happiness", the woman says, "it will come to you. Please, take them with my blessings."

Dan thanked the woman, said goodbye, and carried on home, still a bit mystified as to why he had accepted the clothes. He was never going to wear them...

Back home, Dan made tea and started looking over the latest brief that he was trying to get ready, but he couldn’t order his thoughts.

Trying to concentrate, his thoughts getting increasingly fragmented, he found himself unpacking the Abaya and Niqab from his bag and looking at them.

Next thing he knew, he was putting them on…!

As soon as he did, he felt a great calm descend over him. The brief that had been frustrating him so much suddenly became simplicity itself in his head.

Sitting back down at the laptop, Dan started typing and he had soon completed a whole days work in an hour. Things had never looked so simple to him.

Then he looked at the report he had written and saw the name he had signed it with.

‘Dania Farsool’.

Where the heck had that come from?

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

Completely forgetting what he was wearing, Dan went to the door.

“Dan, I…”, the woman standing in the door started to say, then she stopped and stared. “Who the heck are you, and what are you doing in my fiancées apartment?”

In a voice pitched higher than usual, with a distinctly foreign accent, ‘Dania’ said “My name is Dania Farsool. I’ve been working with Dan for a while, now, and he’s asked me to take over a project for him.”

“Oh, a work colleague”, the woman said. “Hi, I’m Candy.”

“Sort of”, Dania replied. “I help him out from time to time. He’s not here now; he said he had to leave on business urgently and left me to finish the project.”

“But we were supposed to be going to dinner”, Candy said. “We are way behind on planning the wedding and I had a lot to talk to him about…”

“I’m sorry”, Dania replied. “That’s men for you.”

Candy chuckled quietly. “Tell me about it…”

“Do you want to come in?”, asked Dania.

Candy did, and the pair sat on the living room sofa.

The ended up chatting an laughing late into the night. Candy had had to drink some wine, to calm her nerves. She was telling Dania how unreliable Dan was, not realising who she was talking to. Partly drunk, and liking how caring Dania was, she ended up kissing her through her veil…

Dania, in return, put an arm round her and held her tenderly until she fell asleep in her arms…

Carefully arranging Candy so she could sleep on the sofa, ‘Dania’ went into the bedroom.

In there, she took off the niqab and Abaya…

A woman stared back from the mirror. Dusky, Egyptian skin, thick brunette hair, and a gorgeous figure. She looked like she was in her late twenties (Dan had been forty-five, and his hair had just started to turn grey).

“Wow”, came the comment from the door. “No wonder you keep yourself covered. No-one would be able to concentrate, looking at you. I’m getting hot right now and I thought I wasn’t into girls…”

Candy’s arm slipped round Dania’s waist.

“Want to make use of the bed…?”, she asked, wistfully.

“What about your fiancée?”, Dania asked.

“That’s what I was going to talk to him about”, Candy said. “I was going to break it off and see what he had to say about it.”

 “Because you’re into girls?”, asked Dania.

“No, he always took his work too seriously”, Candy replied. “He’d rather work late than be with me. Now I find out he’s taken on a drop-dead gorgeous assistant. Was it you that was taking him away from me?”
“No, I’d be more likely to take you away from him”, Dania said, with a smile.

“You’ve done that, all right”, said Candy. “Anyway, enough talk, it’s bedtime…”

Candy pushed her lips onto Dania’s, and steered her onto the bed…

Next morning, the pair awoke to sunlight streaming in through the window.

Out in the lounge the computer, left on, pinged with an incoming email.

Dania wrapped one of Dan’s robes round herself and went to see what it was, leaving Candy to get washed and dressed.

Candy came hurrying out from the bathroom when she heard the gasp…

“I don’t know how, but this email is from Dan”, Dania said. “He’s quit. He said he’s had enough, of the job, personal problems, everything. He’s left the country to try and clear his head.”

Candy gasped, then went through a range of emotions. Anger, sadness, feeling inadequate, everything.

“He’s dumped me by email!?”, she said, completely forgetting she was going to dump him. “The coward!”

Dania held her as she cried…

She had no idea about how that email had been sent. After all, before yesterday, she had been ‘Dan’.

A follow-up email then came through, leaving the flat to Dania, as well as the contents, for her to deal with as she saw fit.

The next emails were work visa and identification papers for Dania, together with a notification that paper copies would be delivered by courier that day, as well as paperwork stating that Dania Farsool was now the proprietor of the business.

“He seems to be serious about this”, said Dania, looking at the emails. “At least I don’t have to look for somewhere to live, and he’s sorted all my residency problems.”

“I could have done that for you”, said Candy. “All you would have had to do was marry me…”

Dania’s mouth dropped open. For once, she was at a loss for words…