Latte Or Mocha

15|Feef and Dan

A week had passed to the meet and greet event, and the unsettling feeling hadn't left Feef. It felt like a calm before the storm; everything was eerily quiet and back to normal. They had come back to their home, and nothing was particularly out of the ordinary in their routine except that Feef felt like someone was watching her, call it intuition or paranoia. She felt like something wasn't right, esp. today when she was coming back home from her work. After being retrieved from the kidnapping, her parents decided to cart her off to Australia, where there was no family, just so that no one would suspect her to be there.

It took months of persuasion before her father allowed her to contact Dan and inform him about her being alive.  She still hadn't informed everything to Dan not because of lack of trust but because at first she didn't recall much and later she didn't think it would do him any good to know what happened to her. If only, it could lead him to danger, something she didn't want. Settling in Australia was a choice that they both made because none of their relatives lived there, it was far away from Pakistan and more importantly, even if someone visited from Pakistan to Australia, they wouldn't visit a rural area in Bendigo. The city's Victorian architecture made Feef fall in love with it all the more and was also her reason for pursuing interior designing and working close by; however, Dan had to commute a longer distance for his work. In all these years he never once complained about how they should relocate to bigger cities for better work and growth opportunities. He just stayed where she felt safe and comfortable and made the most out of the limited opportunities he got.

Feef remembered asking him once, why he resorted to staying in Bendigo. He was a smart man, always been smart since school and very ambitious. He always wanted to achieve greater success but he wasn't able to do so because she stopped his growth. She was a liability, a heavy load he had to carry with himself that slowed his progress. However he never once complained. In all these years, she had thought about how lucky she was to get someone like him in her life, to call him hers, but since meeting Mustafa again she was acutely reminded of the danger that loomed around Dan just because he loved her and was married to her.

It's been 10 in the night yet, Dan hadn't come back from work and her calls weren't getting through. Usually he would be home by around 7 or max 9, and this was scaring the living daylights out of her. She was scared. Scared of the unknown or rather scared of her nightmares coming true.

Pacing around the house she dialled his number but again it went straight to voicemail. Another hour passed by and she had no idea of Dan's whereabouts. She was so close to reporting to the police of his absence. He had never come home this late, she had called his colleagues who informed her that he had left for home at his usual time. She even put the news channel on to hear about any traffic jam or anything that could potentially cause this delay in her husband's arrival but there was nothing that could hint at it. Dread filled her up as she paced around the house, constantly checking her phone and the door for him to come through. She was going to go crazy thinking of various possibilities. She was so close to calling her mum to inform her about the situation but then she heard the creak of the house door opening and saw Dan coming through. Before he even had a chance to drop his things on the table, Feef rushed towards him and hugged him tightly like her life depended on it.

"Dan, why are you so late? Why weren't you picking up my calls! Do you know how worried I was about you? It's 11:40 pm right now!"  Lifting her head up from his chest she bombared him with questions.

"Hey! I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer back your calls. I know you must be very worried..." before Dan could answer he felt wetness on his shirt where Feef's face was buried and he immediately lifted her face from his chest to check upclose.

"Feef what happened? Why are you crying?  Did something happen to you while I was gone?" She bawled her eyes and buried her face again in his chest feeling slight ashamed of crying in front of him due to the onslaught of overwhelming emotions she felt as she waited for him. The dread that was bubbling inside of her thinking of the gruesome possibilities made it's way out of her system in the form of tears and she didn't kmow how to inform him about the paranoia she had felt since meeting Mustafa.