"What Haseena was trying to say was... Detective Singh is fine with everyone knowing that they are dating but she will fuck everyone who meddles with their relationship up." Aanya elaborates with the same tone she thinks Karishma and Haseena would use.
Haseena gestures towards Aanya and nods in agreement of how she could portrait Karishma quite precisely. She is about to add something to that when her eyes catch the sight of the familiar face walking into the restaurant. She is late and she seems to know it well.
"Hey." Karishma holds up her hand and the movement of a wave is about to occur when Haseena breathes fire. Karishma decides to put her wave away and greets everyone else at the table with words before sitting down next to Haseena. "Sorry I'm late."
"Are you really?" Haseena whispers and faces Karishma. She now notices how Karishma has ponds of sweats on her forehead and the back of her blouse is soaked. It seems to her that Karishma has gone through a marathon; not a session of counselling, "Where have you been?"
"Thanks." Karishma takes the glass of water that has been passed to her from Garry. Karishma chugs the whole glass as if she has just returned from a desert. She strokes her hair back and can feel all the sweat that makes a permanent settlement in her hair. "What were we talking about?"
"Since you're here, detective -"
"I'm not a detective. Well, at least, not at the moment. Karishma will do." Karishma can feel that Haseena hasn't taken her eyes off of her and she can feel the heat that is hotter and ready to burn her alive. She places her hand on Haseena's thigh under the table; hoping her gesture will work like fresh cool water that calms her baby down.
"Right. Karishma, we were talking that maybe you two should be out on a date." "Like publicly."
"Like publicly."
"Oh. Haseena is going to JP Saxe's show tonight, isn't she? You should go with her. I'm sure we can manage one more ticket." Aanya suggests but her suggestion doesn't get a response right away although Garry seems to be 1000 percent on it.
Karishma's hand that is on Haseena's thigh now has a company. Haseena holds that hand in hers as Karishma looks at her with her eyebrows raised. "Do you want to do that?"
"Did you do something dumb, Karishma?" Haseena asks as if she hasn't listened to anything else but the thoughts in her head that has been processing what her eyes examined.
Karishma chuckles and doesn't leave her sight from Haseena; not for a second. If Haseena is going to try and read right through her, she will let her and hope she finds failure. "No."
"Why didn't you pick up your phone or... or... or reply to my text?" Haseena tries to make sense of what is happening right in front of her without really care what is happening around her. She needs some answers.
"Haseena. Haseena." Karishma smiles gently and says her name underneath her breath. Her hand takes a short journey from Haseena's thigh to Haseena's lower back. There, she caresses her to make sure she knows that she is here now. "I'm sorry."
Haseena wants to keep her suspicion and her irritation but with Karishma drawing her finger on her back into the shape of something too sweet, she can't help herself but smile. "Fine."
Garry watches the pair and decides to clear his throat to get someone's attention. Anyone's. "So. We're going with that?"
"I'm sorry, Garry." Haseena turns back to her colleague across the table and puts on her business face. She tries to act serious but they all know by now that she can't really achieve that with Karishma around. "Can you repeat the whole thing? I... I wasn't listening."
Chapter 27
Start from the beginning
