Wherever You Go

Chapter 34

Yagiz looked at the console of the treadmill and was utterly surprised to see that he had already run 10Km on it , not even 45 minutes have elapsed!. Now that he became aware of it, he felt the burn in his chest and became aware of the pool of sweat on the machine, in the air-conditioned gym. He hit the stop and just sat on the ground once the machine came to a halt, his sweat was making it impossible to go on anyway. He was not prepared for gym, he did not have even a bottle of water and his cloths were not the usual sweat absorbing material, something that never happens. 

He had only consumed an energy bar and gallons of coffee since he landed 6 hours ago. Yagiz had the dreadful feeling that something is wrong when he could not get through to Hazan two days prior to his departure. Of course he realized that he made a big blunder in telling her after deciding to go to Farah, he does not know why he did such a stupid thing. But Hazan had been in touch with him even whilst in Poland.

If Yagiz knew that he made a colossal mistake by deciding on his own to go to Poland, he quickly realized that not only it was a mistake but also it was an utter disaster. Farah had made him to understand that she was badly injured and was in an isolated resort with strange men and she feared for her safety. The concern for her safety among so many strange men and for her welfare was the trigger for him to rush to her. 

Having travelled almost a day into the very depth of rural Poland, he found that she was in a high end holiday resort, with an ankle injury, from attempting to ski in slopes that are not meant to do skiing. The injury had made her ankle swell badly and transportation of her without damaging it was extremely difficult. There was a doctor within the resort who had already arranged for an ambulance to take her to the capital within four days, when Yagiz arrived. And as for the 'strange men' in the resort, they were all high end clientele; no ordinary citizen could afford to stay in the property, with many foreigners who were mostly professionals or business people. In fact there were several women employees of the resort, whom Farah had no doubt dismissed as beneath her to interact with. 

The area was extremely remote and the snowing was unpredictable, making it very difficult to communicate with the outside world. Everything seemed to be going wrong for him since his arrival. There were no available rooms in the resort and he was compelled to stay with Farah in the same room, given that there were no suitable places to stay for several miles. Being friends since they were 14 and having lived together in a boarding school, they have stayed together before, even slept on the same bed on occasions. But there was no way Yagiz was going to sleep on the same bed with Farah after knowing how she felt about him. Fortunately it was a big room, enough to afford him some privacy. 

As if it was waiting to do so, the avalanche, predicted to clear out on the day Farah was supposed to be transported, came back with a vengeance, ending up dragging their stay by another 5 days. He was unable to work and he missed Hazan dreadfully. He could not sleep properly, knowing that she was disappointed in him and he had no way of talking with her at length. As days progressed, he started to see how unreasonable and selfish Farah was and how she had lead him on to believe that she really was in a very dangerous situation, making him dropping everything and come to her. Being the gentleman and true friend he is, he did not utter a word of reproach to her. After all, she was injured and confined to her bed.

Yagiz knew Hazan didn't have any work commitments for a while, so her continued silence was a definite red flag. As he opened the door from his key and entered to the dark apartment, he already kind of knew that she is gone. It took him seconds to find the note and he found it hard to believe that there were such dire problems at home which needed her to fly in such a hurry. His muddled brain tried to fathom her words that she was not successful in discussing the problems with him. What could she mean? Yes communication was difficult, but he has had no missed calls, messages or voice mails from her. Her phone was switched off for several days now, for god's sake. 

He found himself walking to her part of the apartment as in a trance. Ever the gentleman, he blushed a little at the level of intrusion that he is doing, but damn decency, he was too desperate to care. Predictably none of the cupboards were locked, he has never seen a female as open as Hazan, and Yagiz breathed a sigh of relief to note that most of her professional cloths were there. The relief was temporary because with Hazan this could mean anything. She will not blink an eye if she decides to leave these posh cloths. The realization was just too much for Yagiz to bear, the terror of feeling that she will leave him without a second thought coupled with the exhaustion of the past weeks caught up with him, making him fall into a deep sleep hugging her pillow. 

Couple of hours later he found himself sweating on the gym floor, having come up to the gym, because he did not know what else to do. He contemplated calling Gokhan, feeling anxious that there really could be something wrong back in Turkey. On a whim he took the phone that was resting in the pocket of the thread mill and dial Hazan's number again. It rings finally and rings and rings for a long time. Yagiz could almost picture Hazan contemplating whether to answer it or not.

" Hello" She says finally, in a hushed tone. There are various background noises and he could not say where she is.

"Hazan what is wrong?" Yagiz ask, praying that his voice is not betraying all the frustration he feels.

" Yagiz are you back in US?" Hazan asks, talking in an even lower voice and Yagiz shakes his head. This girl never does anything the easy way, he thinks to himself.

"Yes. What is the problem at home?" He asks again, barely hanging on to his patience this time.

" My mother is not well. Even now I am at a doctor with her" She says and it explains why she is whispering.

" Is she in hospital?"

"No.. I am showing her to a specialist in a while" Hazan says and it is difficult to gauge her mood.

" Oh I thought something serious the way you have left" Yagiz said, unable to hide the bitterness he felt. He hears the sound of her breath accelerating, even across oceans.

" How nice if you asked all those questions from your girl before going Yagiz. I didn't know how long I had to wait to talk to you. I didn't want to wait" She says scathingly, her low voice making them sound almost menacing. Tired, disoriented and missing her like hell Yagiz feels the burn of her words in the depth of his soul.

"So this was done in retaliation? To spite me? And don't talk nonsense, she is not my girl. " Yagiz says, his voice echoing in the empty gym.

" I don't have the energy to argue with you Yagiz. This is not the place too. I came because I had to. Unlike you , who told me just before you opened the door to go to the airport, I tried my best to discuss with you. But as usual whenever she is around you your girl does not allow anyone else to approach you. It is not my fault and let's not have a fight about it here" Hazan says, cool and calm and deadly and the line go dead. Yagiz is stunned yet again at the coldness of her voice. They have had many arguments; god knows they have had fights more than conversations, from day 1. But he has not heard such coldness from her voice, not even at that hotel room. His anger almost crushes the phone in his hand, whilst he uses the machine as a support to get up.