CHAPTER 11: THE JOURNEY BEGINS

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Assalamu alaikum, here is a short breaky

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Assalamu alaikum, here is a short breaky.

***

LONDON, ENGLAND.

JUNE 2007

Mubarak kept his blackberry to his ear as he paced his office, waiting for the line to connect him with his brother. But then who was he kidding? He wasn't doing this over the phone. Five minutes later, he stood in Bilaal's office. 

"Going down to Nicole's in an hour, you up for lunch?"

Bilaal looked up from his screen and a stretch of silence filled the room. Peace-filled silence.

After his visit to Bilaal and Sa'ima, Mubarak had communicated sparingly with his brother but they hadn't met up for any deep conversation as they used to before the wedding. There was a moment's pause before Bilaal responded. "Yeah, sure."

Mubarak gave a short nod before he left. He was glad his brother had not sounded baffled by his request. It was their thing before all of this mess had happened. So he was finally relieved to see that they had not lost the important parts of their lives in the events of the past few months. 

Mubarak was about to step out to meet Bilaal at the café across the street when someone knocked on his door. He opened it to tell whoever it was he was on his lunch break. Only to come face to face with Kamaal.

Kamaal Rafique was his British-Pakistani friend who they simply called K.R. They'd been friends for almost a decade. Kamaal's father Mr Rafique Hasan was the president of Rahat Solutions, a telecommunication outfit where Tyler Meyers his university mate worked. Tyler introduced Mubarak to Kamaal at a social event. Since then, the three had been inseparable, then came Garba, Mubarak's long-lost but found Nigerian friend, filling the missing block in the clique. 

Kamaal had a burly appearance and stood a couple of inches taller than Mubarak. With his short-spiky dark hair and rugged good looks he was the most notorious of the group, a reason Bilaal questioned the integrity of their friendship. Bilaal believed Mubarak's group had an influence on him as if someone would make him do what he had no intention of doing. Mubarak always argued otherwise.

On the other hand, Garba was their anchor, most of the time he said things Mubarak agreed with, even though he had spent more time with Kamaal and Tyler, Mubarak paid heed to Garba's advice most when the need arose. 

"You've not been picking my calls," Kamaal said, turning to follow his friend's lead, Mubarak pulled his office door behind them, giving Gordon a short nod on their way out.

"I missed your calls, there is a difference." He buttoned up his charcoal black jacket suit, "I was heading to Nicole's. You want to grab something?"

"No, I'm good. Let's meet up at Ty's tonight. We need to do something about this dry spell of yours. You are losing your touch Bugaje."

Mubarak paused a bit, and Kamaal turned around to see why he had stopped moving,  "Sure." He had never hesitated to any of their outings, he had no idea why this felt different.

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