Virtuoso

Chapter 2

Four years earlier - HASHIM

I felt hopeless and sad as I stood at the corner, watching my childhood crush get engaged to the man she had fallen in love with. Wanting to look away from them, I scanned the crowded room and it was then I observed a petite, young female looking at me with a knowing look in her eyes and a small smile playing along her luscious lips. I had seen her somewhere before but I couldn't place her. All I could remember was the knowing smile on her lips as if she could understand the emotional turmoil I was going through. Half-heartedly, I gave her a small smile and then looked back towards Alisha, my childhood crush, whose face was lit up with a smile. Before I could react, she walked over to me and held out a glass of soft drink towards me.

"Feeling melancholy watching the newly engaged couple, are you?" She asked, her eyes sparkling with mischief and a matching smile touching her lips. Her voice was soft, like soft honeysuckle or sweet symphony to my ears. I turned around to face her. Her jet-black hair hung in loose curls around her waist, she wore little makeup but what mesmerized me above everything were her eyes, they looked sad and desolate above heavily-fringed eye-lashes.

Although there were signs of cuteness on her face, she had a promise of ravishing beauty.

I quickly looked away, not wanting to scare her into thinking I was some kind of freak and concentrated on what she'd said.

How did she know that my heart was shattering into millions of pieces because my childhood crush and best friend had just got herself engaged?

"What are you talking about?" I feigned ignorance and turned away from the couple who were mingling with Sadaf, another childhood friend, and her husband.

"I know it hurts to see someone you love getting engaged to someone else." She said matter-of-factly. I turned around to look at her and stared. She was observant for sure.

"And how would you know about that?" I asked, raising the glass to my lips.

"I just know. Trust me." She winked at me, placed her empty glass on a nearby table and walked away.

I stood there, watching after her with shock and bewilderment. That was the shortest encounter of my life. What had just happened here? My eyes followed her across the room as she went to Alisha, my childhood crush, and sat next to her, smiling and talking animatedly. She occasionally glanced my way, with the same secretive smile lingering on her lips as before. Her eyes sparkled as our eyes met and I raised my glass to her.

That was my first encounter with her, an encounter which had boggled me. The next time I saw her, I was partaking of some heavenly chicken from the buffet table when she came and stood beside me.

"You are a chicken person." She commented as she stood to the side, munching on some nuts that were placed beside the sweets on the buffet table.

"And you are a nuts person." I countered, sending her the briefest of glances. She laughed and her musical laughter warmed my heart.

"You are entertaining. I wonder why you are all by yourself here." The way she said that with a small laugh made me wonder if she knew.

"Perhaps, I'm persona non grata in this gathering." I said with a smile. "Perhaps we can remedy that by you introducing yourself?" I asked as an afterthought with as little interest as I could muster in my voice.

"Oh, yeah, sure. I'm Maira Saleem Mughal and you are?" she asked with a sunny smile.

I froze when I heard her last name. Mughal. I couldn't have done better now.