AFTER DARK

Chapter 5

Some meetings are inevitable -- no matter how many barriers we set up against them, they carry an energy so powerful, that they end up breaking all the barriers life puts in front of them.

I'll be honest -- it was damn hard to resist the urge to look up. But I did - I fought the initial instinct by fixing my gaze at the magazine. And it was not just because Daria told me so -- the fact that I was coming out of a broken marriage was a reason in itself that I shouldn't be looking at other men -- especially not with such stupefied eyes. But then again -- I was only human. And humans must move on from their past experiences to create something new. Of course, we must be wary of the mistakes we made, but we mustn't be afraid of whatever comes our way in life.

With my eyes firmly locked down on the marble floor, I waited for the moment to pass away. It did not. Instead, the gentleman began speaking on the phone to someone.

"...you need not worry about that...inshaAllah everything will be alright, Baba-jan," he said in a profound deep voice.

His voice was so captivating that I couldn't help but lend my ears to him for as long as he spoke.

Call me impatient or whatever, my curiosity had spiked to the point where my heart simply could not hold back. And despite all the instructions Daria had explicitly given me, I raised my head slowly to see the most graceful guy I've ever seen in my life.

Dressed in black attire, he looked nothing less than a model on a magazine cover. Holding his phone to his ear he slowly walked over to the reception desk. His walk was not normal though, it was a bit peculiar. He bent slightly towards his right every step he took.

Curious to know, I stood up to see why he walked so strangely. Turned out, the guy had a slight limp in his left leg. I won't lie but I was taken aback at first. Yet even with the limp and all, the guy carried himself quite gracefully.

Shortly afterwards, the receptionist handed him a document. While taking a pen out of his suit jacket pocket, he dropped the pen on the floor.

Following my impulse, I quickly paced forward and picked it up for him. Slowly getting up, I held the pen in my hand, and placed it in his hand.

We shared a silent moment. Our eyes met for the first time, and in that brief moment, his deep dark eyes told me something that I myself didn't know or maybe I did -- I don't know. All I know is that everything changed after that encounter.