It was currently 2:15 pm. Maher came with Umair back to his office and sent and replied to some emails from his office back home. He had never taken a leave this long so things were a mess over there. A client wanted to urgently speak to him regarding her case. As her attorney, he had to oblige.
"Umair, can I use your meeting room? I need to make an important work call," Maher asked Umair.
"Haan, sure. Left and the straight ahead, first room on the right," Umair replied.
The meeting took longer than Maher had anticipated due to some incredibly important information being discovered about the case the call was about. By the time he was done with his call, it was ten minutes to three and Maher jumped up from his seat when he realized the time. He jogged down the corridor, quickly stopping to say bye to Umair. He rushed down to the parking lot and got in his car. Saman's workplace was only a few buildings away from Umair's; about a couple of minutes of drive. He drove way over the speed limit, not that anyone cared about speed limits in Karachi. He was parked right outside Saman's office at 2:58 pm. About five minutes later, Saman walked out of the building. She smiled when she saw him and he smiled back. He got out of the car and held the passenger side door open for her. He closed the door after she got inside and jogged to his side of the car before getting in.
"Assalam o Alaikum," she greeted and Maher was almost taken aback by the sound of it. It sounded almost foreign to Maher. He didn't use Islamic greetings anymore. His mother was the one person in his life who put emphasis on the importance of using Islamic greetings in day-to-day life and most of her teachings went with her. Saman gave him a puzzled look.
"W-walaikum assalam," he replied, noticing her perplexed expressions.
"You didn't have to come," she told him, "abhi bhi time hai, my coworker hasn't left yet," she added and Maher chuckled as he pushed the start button to ignite the engine.
Saman directed Maher to her house. With public transportation on strike, they reached home fifteen minutes faster than usual. It had been a cloudy day and by the time they reached home, it had started drizzling. Maher parked the car right at the entrance of the building. It took him a minute to take in the area Saman lived in. The last time he saw this place was at night but looking at this place in the daylight broke his heart even more than it already was and Maher didn't even think that was possible. The area where her old apartment building stood was surrounded by puddles of murky rainwater, indicating broken and uneven roads and pavements. He remembered how her lifestyle was until two years ago when he knew her as Chanda. She used to talk about driving to the university and getting coffee at Gloria Jeans with her friends. She once wrote about her mother getting her a Persian cat--Maher suddenly wondered whatever happened to it. He remembered the time she talked about her father gifting her and her friends a trip to Europe. She had insisted her family go with her because they were that close.
It must have been a long journey down memory lane because Maher heard Saman call his name.
"Hmm?" He looked at her. He looked like a deer in headlights.
"Kya hua? Are you okay?" She asked, genuinely concerned. A grown man just zoned out completely right in front of her, she had every right to be concerned.
Maher wasn't okay. His mouth and throat were dry as if he had swallowed the entirety of the Sahara Desert. Thorns pricked down his esophagus all the way to his thoracic cavity, piercing his heart.
"C—" he paused to clear his throat, "can I have a glass of water?" He asked her and her expressions suddenly changed from concerned to embarrassed. Her house wasn't exactly the kind of place you'd invite someone to. They had minimal furniture, most of which came from their old home.
