Zinbad

Tanya knew what was going on. She took him by his collar and pulled him really close. "You're a PI like me, aren't you? I know that the fucking old hag hired you. But let me tell this to you—that old hag is crazy. The person missing is my sister. This is a family matter! I don't care what she said to you, but I'm adamant about finding my sister. So, I'm sorry—you'd have to go now." Judging by his expression, she knew that she wasn't able to appeal her case yet, so she continued. "Look. I don't know how much she gave you. But double that amount—I'm gonna make sure to give it to you in a year or something." She sighed. "However, I've got to do this by myself. Please!" She had a rather fiery expression as she said all that.

After witnessing such a very emotional moment, the guy finally stopped crunching. He looked towards her. Fearing that he might accidentally spit on her while he's talking, the man chose to keep a safe distance from her. "Miss whatever your name is, what you said was truly emotional and heart wrenching. But emotions are not going to pay my bills due next week; the house rent that's due for next month; the interest of the education loan due in two months. I would have considered that offer you put forth any other time, but I'm a bit tight on cash right now. And moreover…" Suddenly, his phone started ringing. He showed it to Tanya. It was from Alice. "…She wouldn't allow me to step down." He shrugged.

He picked up the phone. "Hello! Oh hey, Alice. So, I'm at the spot now. But there's a person here spouting all sorts of nonsense and saying it's a family matter or something. What am I supposed to do now? Hmm, I see. Okay." He handed the phone over to Tanya. "She wants to talk to you."

"Hello, MOTHER! What's this, huh? Don't you dare play dumb with me! Do you even trust me?" Tanya was pretty furious from the get-go. All the feel-good moments that occurred between them just hours ago seemed like the distant past right then.

"Oh honey, don't say that! It's not like I don't trust you—well, I do kinda doubt you a little bit, but that's not the point. Ha, what can I say? It's part of being a mother, I guess?" Alice tried to make Tanya understand but it just rubbed her the wrong way.

"Being a mother, you say? You do know that being a mother is all about trusting their own child to the end of the world, right? What you're doing is exactly the opposite! And how the hell did you assign another person on the case? You were just there, at my house a couple of hours ago!" She was quite surprised by the magical feat that her mother attained.

"Hey, you can't blame me for that! Also, that's not your house—it's the office I rented for you. Ah, you keep betraying my trust over and over again. And it's come to a point where I can't fully trust you on anything—not even on finding your sister. And by the way, you were not the first one that I met up with about Meghan." Alice's words were more than enough to let Tanya go absolutely bonkers. Yet, she decided not to.

"Okay, I'm not gonna go crazy. I'm not gonna be angry. I'm going to stay calm—as calm as possible." Tanya took a deep breath before she imploded. "Mom, just this once! Put your bets on me this one time. I'm not asking for much; just get this person off the case."

"Baby, it's not like you lost control over the case. Just, think of him as your assistant for the time being. I'll instruct him on that as well. So give him the phone." Reluctantly, Tanya heeded her mother's order and gave him the phone.

"Okay, Alice. I got this. From now on, I'll act as her assistant. Bye!" He got off the phone and extended his arm out. "Anyways, I'm Zinbad. It's a pleasure to be your assistant from now on." The introduction was not met with much enthusiasm as Tanya slapped his hand away.

"Yea, fuck off!" She made another attempt to calm herself down. Then, she glared at Zinbad, as if she had a dagger in her eye which could come out and stab him at any given moment. "Listen, I don't care about what you do or where you go. So, as long as you don't interfere with my process, I'm fine with you staying around." She left him and resumed her duty.

"Another nuisance came by, huh?" Chuck, who remained silent, for the majority of the time, finally opened up. He felt a little sad on her behalf.

"Yea, one hell of a nuisance too!" Tanya seemed to agree with Chuck this time. Nevertheless, she shifted her attention back to where it should be. "Now, what do we have here? Nothing, it seems." After the quality time she spent on finding some sort of evidence, she grew restless. She started scrounging and pouncing upon every other thing that came her way.

"Do you need help? It seems like you're struggling up there. I'm a PI too, you know!" Zinbad tried to indulge himself, which was met with a scoff.

"I know!" Tanya replied sarcastically. "But, do I look like I care? And you know what? You've been so annoying and for God's sake, I don't even want to see you here anymore. So if you could please go, it would really help me a lot!" In a desperate attempt to lead him out of the place and the case itself, she pleaded her case at him. She didn't expect much, but surprisingly, Zinbad actually obliged to her request.

"Huh, okay then. I'll be going." He was about to leave when he turned back to say one last thing. "Ah, by the way, you did check the club that Meghan was in just before the time of disappearance, right?" He asked, giving out a sly smile in the process.

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