Part 14: Forthcoming

Present day...

Even the dust sailing down the air, sparkling in the moonlight, seemed to slow down.

"You did seem like the romantic type," Sarfaraz chuckled.

Aabhan didn't know what to say, but he decided to try starting at least.

"It's not what you think-" He began when he was cut off by Sarfaraz, who, after glancing at his phone, said-

"Sorry, but I have to ask you to follow me," He said, holding up an ID similar to the one Mehar had held.

Aabhan had followed Sarfaraz without a word after he had shown him his identification. He knew who he worked for, and government enquiry wasn't outside the realm of possibility with Balthazar. He watched the wine swirl, crash and tumble in the bottle that sarfaraz carried. 

But when they got into a glass elevator, and he was watching each floor pass them on their way up, he was starting to doubt it. It's just an ID. How far did its guarantee go? He knew a thing or two about secrets, he had a couple of his own.

Sarafaraz turned to him, about to say something before turning back away. They stood, singeing the air that surrounded them.

"What is it?" Aabhan finally asked.

What started as a friendly game with a cute bartender, ended with him marching off for a police probe or something along those lines, might as well get some clue as to what this was.

"I cut you off earlier, you were going to say something." Sarfaraz prompted.

Aabhan almost rolled his eyes, how clueless do you have to be to ask this right now?

"I don't remember where we left off," He said instead.

"The pendant, you were starting to say it wasn't what I thought," Sarfaraz replied.

Aabhan didn't know if he was going mad from all the stress he was under, or did Sarafaraz sound hopeful?

He considered what he'd say for a moment. He would've probably would've made something up a couple of minutes ago, but this guy was a representative of the government and Aabhan saw a lot of lies in their joined horizon, might as well say the truth when he could. Besides, his brain cells were occupied with figuring out what was going on, they couldn't take up other assignments right now.

"I was in Paris for work and saw this old lady selling pendants on the sidewalk. She told me to get one for my girlfriend."

Aabhan gulped, here goes.

"I didn't have anyone but she kept going on about it being the city of love and whatnot so I got it. Decided to wear it myself since no one's getting it for me." Aabhan said, his story coloured throughout with pouty frustration.

Silence went in ripples across the elevator, till Sarafaraz started laughing.

Even when he stopped, he couldn't stop grinning. He was surprised he had laughed, he didn't do well with comedy, and he couldn't tell what got him this time. Was it the lingering relief he felt about what could be crowned the most anti-climactic end to a story he had ever heard?

"Go ahead, laugh all you want," said Aabhan, but even as he turned away, his eyes sparkled with good humour.

Sarfaraz knew this was going to be a hard week.

They got off at the 14th floor, Sarafaraz leading the way, making sure Aabhan stayed in his peripheral view.

For all their jokes, he was still on duty, and he wasn't about to make another mistake that night.

It would be the last one he made, Mehar would make sure of it.

They got to room 101 and Sarfaraz rang the bell.

"Can we speak from an official building of sorts? I'm not sure I'm comfo-"

The universe must be conspiring to keep Aabhan's sentences half-formed, as he was cut off, yet again, by the door opening, and a gun was aimed at his nose.