IT'S JUST A CONTRACT

After what feels like hours of driving we arrive at what seems to be an abandoned ghat road with an absurdly clear view of the sky and she pulls own the roof of the car.

"This is where you wanted to take me?"

"Yeah, You don't like it?" she asks handing her a glass as she cocks a bottle of wine open

"No I do, I just didn't pin you to be one for the semantics"

"Really, how do you see me then?"

"I don't know. I just… thought you'd be less expressive and more serious"

She chuckles and pulls out a small clear container filled with fruits. I give her questioning look

"What is it?" she asks her brows going up a notch

"what is that bag? Is it some type of magic bag?"

"this?" she responds with an amused tone

"I got it from the bar section of the building we just came from"

"is that why you asked me to head to the car first?"

"Yup"

"How come I didn't notice it when you came down?"

"Maybe it's because you were to busy being blushing?"

"hah, who said I was blushing?" I reply urgently almost choking.

"ahhh I see" Zailah says a mocking glint in her eyes.

Why this little, if I were to push her off this cliff it'd probably take ages before they find her body right? I think while glaring at her through the corner of my eye.

"Anyways how did you find this place?" I ask trying to change the subject before I actually commit murder.

"changing the subject now are we?"

"I'm just asking because I'm genuinely curious" I hiss defensively. At this point I've lost count of how many glasses of wine and whisky I've downed and it had definitely started kicking in.

"hmmm, lets just say I happened to come across it while wandering around when I was younger"

I tilt my head side ways looking at her curiously. She smiles lightly and turns my head towards the front of the car,

"The sun is setting" she says her voice barely above a whisper. I don't say anything else and just watch the sunset. My eyes momentarily moves towards Zailah and I swear I've never seen her as relaxed as she is right now. Is it the alcohol? She seems so defenseless almost human even. I wasn't lying when I said I thought she'd be less expressive and more serious, from the moment I made her I've always thought she had this aura about her that made it seem like she'd be arrogant and unapproachable, like she was some God looking down on the rest of the rest of us.

Once the sun set's we make small talk until its almost 9pm by then both the bottle of wine and whisky are almost gone, and that's when it clicks.

"How are we getting home? You dismissed the driver and your assistant" I ask my words probably slurred and my mind a hazy mess.

"The same way we got here?"

"but we drank so much alcohol"

"We? Honey, that's all you"

"What?" I manage to say before my mind completely blacks out

🌺

I wake up the next day at noon with a nerve wrecking headache

"Ugh, what happened?" I mutter trying to recall what happened the previous night. The last thing I can remember though was asking Zailah how we were going to get back.

IAs I'm trying to get out of bed you get myself a glass of water I notice a small flask sitting on the nightstand and on it was a sticky note. I can just tell it's from Zailah so I grab the sticky note;

Sticky Note: I'm sorry I couldn't stay till you woke up so have this when you wake up to soothe your stomach and headache, it's honey lemon warm water.

I'll probably be late today so have dinner without me, also I think you should skip work today.

I don't even need to be hold.

"Ugh, why does my head hurt so much though? It's not this is my first time getting wasted." I say picking up the flask, I open it and take a sip and it actually taste perfect, it isn't too sweet or bland. I down the whole thing and head to the bathroom to wash up. Once I'm done washing up I call Milah and inform her I won't be coming in that day and apologize for not calling earlier to inform her, by now the nerve wrecking pain in my head is almost gone.

I head down to kitchen and grab some fruit, Greek yogurt and granola to make myself a parfait, what's better than a parfait to soothe your hangover. I finish my parfait clean up what I used and head to the living room, I haven't had a day off from work in years so I don't really know what to do with myself. I pick up my phone and start scrolling through #glam, I didn't really keep in touch with my friends from uni so this was a chance to stalk their #glam's and catch up on what's been going on in their lives. While I'm scrolling through one of my friends #glam though I see an ad for a novel so I click on it and right from the start I'm hooked. It's basically the story of an ice fairy falling in love with a summer fairy and having to go through a lot of tribulation and pain just to be able to see her for a few minutes each day, she finally notices him, falls for him and they start dating, taking turns sneaking into one another's territories to see each other, But one day the summer fairy gets caught and killed. The snow fairy being unaware keeps sneaking into her territory but she never shows up at their meet up place so he starts to think that maybe she got fed up with him. One day he decides to wait for her at their meet up place in his territory but instead he finds her body half decayed in the bushes, He goes on a rampage and wipes off half his kind before finally killing himself. Just as I read the last sentence a voice breaks through the silence that was initially only filled with my occasional sniffles

"Why are you crying?"

I look up and find Zailah staring at me head slightly cocked to the side and a brow raised.

I turn away and wipe my tears away then turn towards her again

"what are doing here? Didn't you say you'd be back late today?"

"Yeah and it's almost 1am"

"wait what?"

I was so engrossed in the story that I hadn't noticed that so much had passed

"Wait, don't tell me you've been here all day long"

"No" Zailah visibly relaxes.

"Just since noon" I mutter but she somehow hears it.

"what?"

I look away and say nothing. She let's out an exasperated sigh and asks again

"why were you crying?"

"The novel I was reading was so sad"

At this juncture I can basically see the word stunned written on her forehead.

"By the way how did we get back in one piece yesterday, we were so wasted" I blurt out in an attempt to change the subject

She gives me a meani8look before saying;

"I didn't drink, it was just you" like it was the most natural thing in world and heading towards the stairs.