Stairway to Heaven

29. Decisions

"Hello?" He questioned, when moments passed and only silence stretched between them. With a frown, he pulled away the phone to check if the call had dropped.

"Hajra?" He had started to wonder if he had got the right number from Aymen.

"--y-ea--" Her voice broke on the other end and Mateen felt his breath hitch in his throat. A sudden feeling of relief mixed in with something akin to bliss, gripped his senses.

"Did I wake you?" Mateen wondered about it, while throwing a glance over his shoulder at the wall clock; which read 8pm. He had already had a talk with Aymen about it, thanks to whose help he could finally muster the right sense to get through it all.

But what followed his inquiry, was another long pause. Mateen felt a sheepish smile breaking across his features, as he lowered his head.

"Hajra? You there?"

A moments' pause later, her uneasy hum resounded on the other end; whereas he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

"And? How are you?"

"--you--called me--to ask this?" Even without meaning to, her words were stumbling over eachother.

"Actually, yeah."

His unexpected response came after a short pause and managed to stun Hajra to silence. She waited for a moment to allow him to elaborate, but when he said no more, she gulped her thoughts with a growing frown.

"I--I am fine--Alhumdulillah--"

Silence once again.

Hajra was now beginning to wonder by now if Mateen was playing a practical joke on her.

"—okay—if--if that's all—" Her voice trailed towards the end; yet, she hung on, waiting for his reply.

"You're still here. I thought the call had dropped—" His voice was laced with surprise and Hajra couldn't help but frown at this bizarre behaviour coming from him.

"That—That's because—you—I was waiting for you to say something—"

"Oh. Right." His unstable reply did nothing to ease her growing anxiety. Instead only managed to add to it.

"I haven't seen you in almost 2 years. And there's been so much I'd wished to say to you in the past 7 years. But—yeah, asking how you were, was definitely the first thing on my checklist." Hajra felt her hear skip a beat unintentionally at his words, but was left at a loss for a coherent comeback.

Mateen raked his fingers through his hair, in attempts to work through the words in his head. Unlike himself, he had thought about this conversation for quite some time now. But nowhere did he think, he would be this jittery—or happy.

"I guess, I didn't anticipate this. I might've miscalculated all of it. Because right now, I am just caught off guard by the realisation—that I've missed you...so terribly."

He ended softly but his words had delivered a hard punch to her chest. Atleast that's what Hajra felt the cause of her thumping heart was. She felt a lump forming in her throat at his upfront admission. But then again, Mateen Abbasi really was never the one to beat around the bush.

'7 years—Has it really been that long?' She couldn't help but wonder.

"Hajra? You still there?"

"y—yes..." She croaked out in surprise.

Mateen couldn't help but feel a whole lot relieved after letting it out. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest. He turned on his heel and slumped down on his bed.