An Ace Of Hearts (Book #1) (Completed)

Chapter 04: The Four Musketeers

JACE HYDE

I sighed as I dropped on one of the couches in the lounge of the office building. Ren and Warren were already there, the former lying down on another couch on the other end of the room and the latter sitting by the snack bar across from the door.

"Where's Tariq?" I asked as I tucked my arms behind my head. I scanned the room for our friend but found no sign of him.

"Praying Isha," Ren replied, throwing a stress ball up in the air before catching it. I nodded, glancing toward the direction of the prayer room which was connected to the lounge. It was for our Muslim employees so that they could pray on time every day. It was Tariq's idea, of course. The discipline and dedication with which that man followed his religion made me respect him and that was a lot coming from me.

"The others are gone?" I asked and Warren looked up from his phone, leveling me with a look. This couldn't be good.

"Yes, they are gone. You would have known if you were here, asshole." He replied, his voice clipped. I knew he was mad at me for slacking today but it wasn't my fault. Ren had put me in charge of Ahvi and I hadn't had the time.

"I was babysitting, baby Takeda. You can't blame me." I retorted.

"You were supposed to take her to Eman's at five and then you were supposed to be here. You weren't," He pointed out.

"Mr. Hashim asked me to help with the decorations. I couldn't say no to him." I defended myself. I had planned to come back to the office and help Warren with the coding he wanted me to but Eman's father stopped me, asking me if I could help him. I wasn't going to say no to him. He had become a father figure to all of us in the past few years, since Ahvi made friends with Eman.

"You were at the Hashims?" Tariq's deep voice gained my attention. The mastermind of our group walked out of the prayer room, straightening the lapel of his dress coat. He looked every bit the business man that he was. He was a year older than all of us but still our friend since he had started kindergarten at a later age than us.

"Yes. Eman asked me to drop Ahvi off." I replied as he walked up to me. Slapping my legs away from the coffee table, he made himself comfortable beside me, crossing his legs.

"How are the wedding preparations going?" He asked and I shrugged.

"I don't understand how someone can deal with so many preparations at once. There are supposed to be a series of events before the actual wedding. I don't know how they are dealing with it. But everything looks beautiful. The house looks more fancy than any bride I have ever seen," I said, thinking back to the extreme decorations that the Hashims were investing in. It was a cultural thing apparently and even though they had moved to London from India almost six decades ago, they didn't want to compromise on the traditions.

"Your sister's wedding wasn't so fancy, Tariq. So how come Nikhat's is so extravagant?" Ren asked, sitting up. He pushed his black hair, similar to Ahvi's, out of his face as he waited for our friend to respond.

"Alina's wedding was done according to the traditions of the west." Tariq explained. "The Hashims are desi people. And I have been to enough desi Muslim weddings to know that they go all out." He removed invisible lint from his dress pants and I slapped his hand away, earning a scowl from him.

"What is it with everyone scowling at me today?" I asked, ignoring his murderous glare. Warren smiled and I flipped him off. My friends were assholes. Sometimes I wondered if they had a hidden agenda against me.

"Who else scowled at you?" Ren raised his eyebrows at me, humor glinting in his eyes.

"Your sister. Does she ever smile?" I was genuinely curious because since I had known Ren and Ahvi, I could count on one hand the number of times I had seen the latter crack a smile.