The Space Between

Chapter 11; Love is pain

Rana watched her colleague with worried eyes. She had been noticing from the past few weeks how Sarah had changed for the worse. The glow that was on her face had vanished, and she had visible dark circles under her eyes. To make matters worse, she had even stopped talking to anyone. All she would do was work and go home when the office hours would end. So Rana tried to make another attempt as she spoke, "So, it's about to be lunchtime in a few minutes. I'm hungry. Wanna come with me?" Sarah looked at her wide smile. She wanted to say no but didn't have the heart to upset her friend. "Alright," She agreed, giving a genuine smile. Rana excitedly stood up as soon as the time came, and they walked out with Rana guiding them.

Xavier came out of the shower with a towel on his head as he dried his hair. His office was not only pretty big, but it had all the necessities such as a shower for times like these when he would stay here for days and not go home. The couch had become his second best thing to a bed now. If he were to ever accidentally close his eyes. He sat on his chair to go to work and winced as he felt pain in his sore muscles. He didn't give it much thought. His heart and mind were also in a constant battle. After the whole incident three weeks before , he was upsetting the only girl he loved. He didn't have a heart to go home. He started over working and staying at his office. The last bit of smile was wiped off from his face, and he unconsciously was torturing himself for her tears. He felt guilty. He always liked to be in control. Control of his emotions, his behaviour,  but with her, it felt as though the more he exercised it, the more confrontations appeared. Sudden knock came at the door. And Xavier replied with a "come in." His secretary came to stand in front of him and spoke nervously. "Sir, your friends are here to see you." Without looking up from the laptop screen, Xavier replied, "So? Sent them in. You know they don't have to go through the receptionist to enter my office. "Right...um...I just thought maybe you won't want to see them as you seem to be in a different mood today..." Alan gulped as Xavier finally looked up. His hard eyes were not being amused, and Alan knew he had to run if he wanted to save his job.
"Of course I'll send them in, sir," He replied nervously and walked out. A few minutes later came in the two men, and Xavier stood up to greet them. They all sat on the sofa talking when Xavier noticed that one person was missing.
"Where's Javed?" He asked
To which Ahmet replied. "He couldn't come. Got held up in work. "
"Man, it's been so long since I saw him," Xavier said when William decided to discuss a plan.
"We were thinking of going to bowling. Do you want to come?"
"Nah, man. Can't. Got office, " He said, pointed at the table behind him. Filled with scattered papers.
"We knew you would say that." Ahmet said, looking disappointed, and Xavier didn't have the heart to let down his friend completely, so he smiled and spoke.
"But...it can wait...let's go," He said. Since he was in his casual outfit today, he just grabbed his phone, wallet, and keys. Walking out, he told Alan to handle the matters while he was out.

"What? You left? Just like that?!" Sarah said, almost shrieking, but looked around to see people and lowered her voice. The brown haired woman nodded. "Yeah. Only because he said he had enough of me and didn't want anything to do with me. " Sarah sat back as she tried to process the information recently revealed to her. Her short, heighted friend Rana had gone through something so terrible in her life that Sarah couldn't believe how she could act so carefree. She couldn't even begin to imagine how torturous it must have been to live in the same house as the man who openly hurts you and the family who supports him. Sarah was grateful though that this didn't last long and she finally left him. So she came here to Dubai to start a new life.
"A husband like that is not even worth your attention and love anyways. I'm not happy about the fact that you had to endure that, but thank God he is finally out of your life. " "I guess so..." Rana said a bit absent mindedly. It didn't change the fact that she loved him. Rana was about to speak when she noticed a certain someone position themselves to a table behind them, and her eyes shined with mischief. "Well, well, will you look at that. A certain someone seems to have come here.." Rana said, looking at Sarah as she sipped her drink, and Sarah's hand holding the straw stopped, which was on its way to her mouth. Her mind instantly thought of Xavier and her mood dampened. She smiled still and asked her friend. "Who are you talking about?" Rana pointed behind her wordlessly, and she turned to see Alan eat his noodles. He didn't notice them as he passed them by or Sarah turning to see him. She turned back quickly before he could catch her staring. Oh no. She thought. Rana actually thinks that my joke that day was serious. She is teasing me. How do I tell her that I was joking, but if I do tell her, then she'll want to know the truth, and I can't tell her that. Sarah's mind raced. Wanting to get out of this situation. She spoke, making an excuse. Looking down on her phone, she acted surprised. "Rana, we have to go now. Our break ended. We can't be late. "
"But -"
Before Rana could protest. Sarah got up and dragged her with. Relieved to have acted so quickly before she could embarrass her by trying to make her talk to Alan.

Francis called the number with a straight face. After the confrontation with Xavier, Francis was restless than ever to stir some more trouble. He knew that he needed to lay low for now due to the legal hit he just received, but that didn't mean he would stop pursuing the situation from a different angle. "Are you there yet?" Francis asked as soon as the man on the other side picked up the call. The man said that indeed he was and was just waiting for the perfect time to make a scene. Francis smiled, hearing the good news. "Remember to say the exact words to get on his nerves and don't slip up," He instructed finally. The man on the job said he needed to worry, and everything would go as planned. Cutting the call, he sat back, relaxed, and closed his eyes. Now, all he had to do was sit back.