Occhiolism (#2 in the Hajar Series) [ON HOLD]

four

chapter four -  

song of the chapter ; frustrated - R.LUM.R

--

FARAH FELT SOMETHING was off the moment Israfil came home. He was tenser and quieter than usual when he returned, he said his hellos, kissed her and pet the dogs, before carrying himself to his office where he went and sat down on his chair, immediately pulling out paperwork and starting his work. He was silent for the most part ever since he had arrived, and truthfully, it was unnerving. Maybe she was reading too far into it, right? Maybe nothing was wrong at all. Either way though, she wanted to talk to him.

She sighed and raised her fists to the office door to knock, biting her lip as she waited to enter.

"Come in."

Her feet shuffled against the floor as she walked inward, shutting the door behind her. Farah stood at the entryway for a minute, taking in how stressed he looked. One hand was tangled in his unruly, curly hair, while the other was gripping a pen as he jotted down notes and signed things off, reading glasses sat on the tip of his nose as he peered through the at the small text that he was skimming through. He seemed tense, but she didn't know why quite yet.

"Hey," Farah said softly, catching his attention.

Israfil's eyes were a cool opalescent blue when he looked up. "Hey," He responded, straightening his posture. "What's up?"

Farah took a seat at the couch across from it, comfortably sinking into the cold black leather. She crossed her legs over and placed her hands on her lap, fiddling with her fingers. She didn't like how formal it felt between them, the air in the room felt thick with awkward tension, and the problem was, she didn't know where it came from. Her and Israfil had been pretty comfortable and casual around each other, and that felt as if it changed, something had shifted.

"I want to get a job." While this was one of the things she wanted to discuss with him, she was also stalling. Farah was never confrontational type; she preferred to beat around the bush or rephrase in a way that didn't come off as contentious to avoid future conflict.

So when Israfil said "No," Farah was taken by surprise.

Farah raised a dark eyebrow, "Excuse me? You know I'm not asking for permission, right? I'm a grown woman. If I want to, I can. Why are you saying no?"

Why was he saying no?

Well, Israfil's main concern was that without him there, Noah would use the opportunity to formulate some plan to ambush her, and then, everything would crumble. He wasn't saying no for no reason, but there was no way of explaining it to her without exposing the truth: Noah was back, and he was unpredictable. He could show up at any time, anywhere. He was a sneaky, conniving fucker. He had to be a type of evil genius in order to somehow fake his own death and sneak past the tight borders of Israfil's territory. But he couldn't tell her any of that, not yet. He had to figure some things out first.