Friends

Miraj and I had finalized our targets and dates of attacks by the time it was 8 P.M. It was the time for the meeting with our men. Our mansion had a conference room for such meetings. When we entered the room, there were eight men inside. We were still missing four so we decided to wait a while. Ten minutes later, two of the missing had come in but other two still hadn't arrived.

I decided to start without Siara and Sira. I turned to Miraj and he nodded at me. I made my way to the front and looked the others in the eye one by one as I said, "Welcome, gentlemen. We have news for you today. You all are no strangers to our long-term enemy Alonzo Moretti--"

There was a knock at the door.

One of the men opened it and I was expecting my friends to come in but there was only a maid at the door. She looked at me and said, "Madam, I am sorry for the disturbance but there's an urgent call for you."

I asked Miraj to take over and left the room. All our cellphones were switched off so it would make sense for urgent calls to come on the house phone but I couldn't think of what urgent situation it could be. I took the phone from the maid and spoke into it, "Hello?"

After I cut the call, I went back into the meeting room. Miraj had finished briefing them about the meeting and was letting them know what the attack plan was. We both had decided the locations and time but we let our people brainstorm how we were going to do it. In between one such brainstorm session, Miraj, who was sitting in the chair beside mine, tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "What was the phone call about?"

"Sira's wife is in labor."

"Isn't it early? I thought there was another month left."

I knew the baby was early because Sira was my friend. And Miraj didn't have enough interactions with Sira to be good friends with him. How the heck did he know the baby was early?

"Yes, it's early. But how do you know?"

He was silent for a minute like he didn't know what to say and then he said, "Sira told me when I met him on the day of the kidnapping."

"You talk to Sira? You guys are close enough to talk about his pregnant wife?"

It was weird imagining the two of them talking about pregnancy. When I was pregnant, Miraj was absent for most of it so I had never known if he would be embarrassed about such things. But I just kind of liked the idea of him becoming friends with my friends. He had no one other than Luke. I was good friends with Luke and I knew he loved Miraj like a brother. But Miraj needed more than one friend.

"He is your friend. I have known him for five years now. Obviously, I speak to him. That's such an absurd thing to ask. And he offered the information about his wife when he told me he might have to leave urgently if she calls, when we were still waiting for you to come out of the shower."

There was a moment of silence. We were both staring at each other while remembering the silly flirtation in our bathroom that day. My body was feeling hot all of a sudden. I broke the eye contact and turned my attention back to the meeting.

***

There wasn't much that got done that day. But we had started planning and things were being put in motion. This was the calm before the storm and everyone could feel it. There was something about the bloodshed that made me excited. The idea of seeing my enemy bleed soon gave me a sense of satisfaction. The more my enemy bleeds the safer my son will be. I couldn't wait for war.