"Karishma."
Haseena whispers with a smile on her face as she looks at Karishma who is lying on her stomach next to her. Her eyes are closed but with a finger drawing invisible lines on her back and a call of her name, she hums. Eventually, she opens her eyes when the caller doesn't go on with her words. She opens her eyes to the most beautiful view she has ever witnessed. Haseena is lying on her side with her hand supporting her head. Although the sunlight shines through the gap between the curtains, it still doesn't stand a chance of claiming victory over the sparkle from Haseena's eyes. They are shining the ray of warmth and love towards her; only her.
"Haseena." Karishma mumbles. Although she loves the view, her energy is too low to keep her eyes open.
Haseena moves her finger up from Karishma's back to tuck her hair behind her ear before pressing a gentle kiss on her cheek. She now makes her own arm her personal pillow as she closes the tiny space between them. They are an inch away; close enough for their beating hearts to confirm that this is not just a dream. "We haven't gone on any dates."
"We haven't." Karishma smirks.
"Do you know what that makes us?" Haseena lingers her finger on Karishma's face; tracing every line and wrinkle to remember every detail of her.
"What?"
"We are Benjamin Buttoning."
"We're what?" Karishma chuckles and opens her eyes again; this time, she keeps them open to appreciate the scene in front of her. After a few seconds, Karishma can't help herself but poke in for a kiss. "Let's go on a date then."
Haseena crinkles her nose and smiles when Karishma finally says something that sounds so pleasant to her ears. She pulls the blanket a little further up to bury both of them in comfort and secrecy. Then, she moves a little closer to Karishma who opens her arm to make sure that Haseena can be as close as she possibly can. "We'll have to wait until later so no one can see us."
"Okay." Karishma whispers and caresses Haseena's back gently.
"I'll have James make a reservation at this nice restaurant. They have a private dining room. Their food is amazing." Haseena shares her plan quietly but somehow, her excitement is so loud and clear. Then, her excitement turns low and her smile plays hide and seek.
"What is it?" Karishma notices the shift right away and she is instantly worried.
"Are you okay with all this?" Haseena asks and looks deep in Karishma's eyes until Karishma feels the frustration that is forming within her. Haseena pushes herself up on the bed with the blanket wrapping around her and forces Karishma to grab a t-shirt from the floor to put on. They manage to sit across from one another as if they are about to brainstorm something big. "Waiting after hours. Private dining rooms. Sneaking around. With Will and everything, I--"
"It's fine." Karishma rests her chin on her hand as she listens so attentively.
"Those pictures are still going around and people willHaseena, it's fine." Karishma repeats with a smile that soothes Haseena's soul better than anything else in the world. "It's okay."
"Are you sure?" Haseena asks again as she sighs and makes herself so small in the blanket wrapping.
"I'm pretty good at sneaking around."
Karishma fixes Haseena's hair. "The only thing that I think I'm not going to be such a big fan of is you kissing other people and things like that but... I'm sure it's pretty much the same with you not being such a big fan of me jumping in the middle of bullets. But. That is what you do and that is what I do. If I have to sneak around just to be with you, I'll sneak around just to be with you. Period."
"Well. Well." Haseena tries not to smile but her cheeks have already felt like they are about to burst. "You can actually say the sweetest things."
"I'm trying." As soon as the sweetest words that come along with the sweetest smile end, Haseena jumps on Karishma who doesn't really prepare for it. Haseena uses the blanket around her to cover them entirely; to send them into their own little world.
They are now in some sort of a fort where no one else is welcomed. Their lips meet in the dark and their embraces turn the warmth under the blanket into the heat. Karishma eventually gets on top of Haseena; to take control and to make sure that there isn't a part of Haseena that she hasn't touched. She pulls the blanket off and takes off the t-shirt she has put on a moment ago before landing her kiss on Haseena's neck and her touch on Haseena's thigh. As Haseena's hands find their ways in Karishma's hair, someone's hand makes a loud knock on the door.
"Haseena." The voice comes after the sound of knocking. "It's Aanya and James."
Haseena knows that she has a few hours to spare before having to go to the set and she knows she doesn't want to waste those hours with nothing. What she is doing is not nothing so she doesn't exactly appreciate the interruption. Neither does Karishma. However, the magnetic field refuses to fail this time and it is doing its job.
"Haseena." Aanya repeats with a couple more knocks.
"Karishma." Haseena says between her heavy breaths and grabs Karishma's face up to face her. "Hold on, Aanya's here."
Karishma looks into those steel blue eyes and those rosy cheeks before breaking into a smile. "Alright."
Haseena lifts her head up to meet Karishma's lips.
Karishma steals another kiss before rolling off from on top of Haseena. "Do I need to hide?"
Haseena scoffs as she puts on a robe and pushes her long hair back. "Are you 15?"
Haseena finally opens the door and tries to act as normal as she possibly can. At the door, Aanya and James are waiting so patiently with cups of coffee that still as warm as Haseena's cheeks.
"Good morning." Haseena greets with a smile and gets a cup of coffee from James before letting them in.
"Hi." Karishma says casually while buttoning her jeans.
"Coffee, detective?" James awkwardly hands Karishma one of the cups in his hand.
"Thank you." Karishma takes the cup from James and sips it right away to avoid all the awkwardness that is about to cover the air. She pulls out her new phone from her jeans and waves it around. "I'll... I'll have to check in with Captain Lanna. I'm sure she misses me."
"Okay." Haseena responds whispery and clears her throat as she can't really shake off the heat that is still burning between them.
As soon as Karishma leaves, James lets out the big sigh and sits down on the edge of the bed. "What a tension."
"What tension?" Haseena sits next to James and slaps his thigh harshly for the remark he has made. There is nothing wrong with what he said but she just needs to release her embarrassment of getting caught during the moment she wants to keep private.
"Sexual." James answers the question that earns him another slap.
"Hmm." Aanya crosses her arms and closes her eyes trying to remember the true purpose she had to interrupt Haseena's morning. "Your... lawyer wanted to talk to you. He couldn't reach your new number."
Haseena immediately looks around at the floor.
She is sure that her phone is somewhere on the floor as she didn't get a chance to remove it from her pocket or perhaps her bag. It takes her a bit while to find it facing down under the bed.
"Here we go." James smirks sneakily between his sips of coffee.
Haseena chuckles. "Don't say a word, James."
"I'm not saying anything."
"What does he want?" Haseena waves her phone around before really dialing her lawyer. She wants to be prepared. She doesn't want to walk into anything blindly. "He can't be working this fast, can he? It's been a couple of days?"
"Do you know what else is fast?" James asks while facing Haseena with his pretend serious face.
"Don't say a word, James." Haseena fights that with her own version of pretend serious face and it is even more convincing.
"You'd better talk to him yourself. He didn't explain much to us." Aanya pulls the chair at the desk to join them by the bed.
Haseena dials the phone and puts the tune on speaker as she sips her morning coffee. "Hi. It's Haseena."
"Oh, hi. Miss Haseena." Her lawyer greets back from the end of the line along with the sound of flipping papers that feels like the theme of his presence. "There are a couple things I need to inform you."
"Are they good or bad? I'm having a very great morning right now."
"They won't ruin your morning." Her lawyer says with his indifferent tone that cannot be interpreted into anything. "First, I would like Detective Singh's contact if that's possible. I don't want to go through her station or her captain about this matter."
"What happened?" Haseena instantly becomes worried as if another nightmare is about to start when the last one has yet to fade.
"It's just Mr. Hughes demands some sort of compensation from Detective Singh. He probably thinks that I am her lawyer or something."
"I'll... I'll have Aanya take care of that. I can pay on Detective Singh's behalf." Haseena makes a decision on the spot that sounds so reckless that Aanya's eyes go wide. "Is that all he wants?"
"I believe so and please know that that is not my advice for you to do so, Miss Haseena." Her lawyer responds. "Speaking of Detective Singh, I think it might be best if you keep your distance from her for now."
"Too late for that." James whispers.
Haseena covers James' mouth and furrows her eyebrows to the statement that feels out of the blue and sends her into another fright. "Why is that?"
"When officers and detectives start their shifts, they will get this one-time password for the day to access files, evidences and so on. It happened to be that the log shows Detective Singh's password was accessing to some details regarding you, Miss Haseena, and Mr. Hughes prior the time she was assigned to shadow you. The log also shows that she accessed to the kidnapping case file some time a few days ago... which was the day we went in to see Captain Lanna."
The room quickly goes into silence. James, who was making fun of Haseena, is now not saying a word. Aanya looks at the phone in Haseena's hand and at Haseena herself to read the expression that seems to be none. Haseena is using every cell of her brain to process the information; to find anything at all to vouch for Karishma. "That doesn't... It could be anyone."
"It could be." Her lawyer confirms her random hypothesis. "But it could also be her. The station's CCTVs are impossible to access without the certain permission so that information couldn't either be confirmed or denied. My advice to you, Miss Haseena, is to keep distance from Detective Singh for now. It seems like all suspicions have come full-cycle to her now...again."
"Hmm." Haseena puts her hand to her forehead as the headache randomly starts to develop and the promise to not ruin her morning starts to be compromised. "Thank you for letting me know."
"Alright." The lawyer responds. "I'll call you if I've got anything more."
"Thanks." Haseena hangs up the phone and throws herself back onto the bed. She no longer wants the coffee she has passed to James. She no longer wants anything at all. "Karishma and I are cursed."
"What?" Aanya chuckles lightly when she hears the absurd comment to the new situation they are facing. "Do you even believe in such thing?"
"Then..." Haseena pushes herself up again to face Aanya who hasn't moved away from the chair that she tiredly dragged from a few inches away. "... tell me why it seems impossible for me to spend some peaceful time with her."
"Because you both are in the middle of an on-going investigation which has you as the main subject and Detective Singh as the main... former main suspect." Aanya explains something that Haseena can only find defeat if she decides to argue. They are all truths and they are all inevitabilities.
"But we all now know that it's Brian." Haseena whispers with frustration as if she is trying to hold in her irritation that finds its way to peek through her what-used-to-be-delightful morning.
"We know." James breaks his silence with something that feels promising. "But the evidences don't."
Then, a few knocks get the trio's attention. They look at the door that soon shows the appearance of none other than Haseena's personal detective. Karishma pokes into the door and waves awkwardly. She doesn't want to interrupt whatever they were doing but she doesn't have a choice. She has some news to share and she has some things to do. The same cup of coffee that she took from James is still secured in her hand as she steps further into the room with her hesitant posture and expression. Her detective stance is completely gone when she is without a badge and a gun.
She gets smaller.
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Uff, I have finished the initial draft of story today, some final editing & corrections are left, so I'll be uploading the parts in more speed now, may be I'll upload 1 or 2 more parts today.
Take care
Bye'll 👋 👋