Soha's point of view:

Nothing could describe the amount of pain I was feeling at that moment. I pondered whether I should take a u turn and go back to him or not. For a moment, I wanted to go back and ask him to be with me, to stay with me right here.

But it wouldn't have changed anything, would it? He said he doesn't feel anything for me. I was just a friend. As much as I wanted to cling onto him, I feared of being hated by him. Having him as a friend seemed much better option than making him hating on me.

Mahi somehow understood that I wanted her to leave me alone for a while, so she didn't ask anything as I gave her a ride. She never asked whether I'd join the arranged date or not and I also didn't bother telling her that I'd rather die than going to meet that guy.

*********************

It was half past eight. And as I imagined, dadima had called several times. I left my phone on silent mode and went back to the file I was working on.

All of a sudden, a petite figure emerged from the door. I was so engrossed in the file that I might not have heard her knock.

"You were supposed to meet Mrs. Haq's grandson two hours ago." My grandma said, gritting her teeth.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" I faked reading the papers. But obviously it wasn't fooling her.

"You don't care that your grandma has promised someone. I promised your mother I'd take care of you. . . My words don't mean anything to you, is that it?" She sighed before turning around. She knew how to push that button. It always got me and she could see through it.

"I'll go. . ." She stopped on her tracks as she heard me. "But I'm not going to marry that guy. And you can't force me once again."

"We'll see." I heard dadima muttering under her breath.

***********************

It had been four days since grandma and I came to an agreement. She left me alone that night cause that guy was going out of country for a few days. I thanked God for giving me this opportunity to find a way to get out of this mess.

But it wasn't as easy as I thought. This morning grandma received the news of that guy coming back from wherever he was. And he wanted us to meet as early as possible. So, here I was on my way to meet that guy.

I arrived at the restaurant ten minutes late intentionally. I heard that guy had tight schedule as he had to catch a flight just after our arranged blind date. So I hoped he'd get annoyed at me.

I had full proof plan to make him reject me in ten minutes. Grandma told me that even though the guy went to study abroad, their family members were quite conservative. This gave me the idea on how to kill two birds with one stone.

I wore a mustard colour half sleeved tee shirt with torn blue jeans with fishnet underneath. I also had a few fake tattooes on the right side my neck and arms. I wore half sleeved tee and put my hair up into a messy bun so that those tattoos could be seen easily.

I entered into the restaurant and looked around for a moment. There were quite a few blokes hanging around here and there. I was having hard time figuring out which one was him. So I went to the desk.

"Excuse me, I'm here to meet a Mr. Haq." I told the guy who was standing behind the desk.

"Mr. Haq has been waiting for you. I'll guide you there."

He took me to an area separated from the rest of the hall by folding walls. This part of the restaurant seemed totally different from the rest of the restaurant.

"There's Mr. Haq." He pointed at someone. I followed his finger and saw a guy sitting afar, sipping on something like iced americano. The guy looked a lot younger than I imagined him to be. He was in his mid twenties. Black hair suited his brown complexion.

I walked towards him slowly as if I had all the time in the world. I stood in front of him for moment, observing him. In a moment I could only make out was his eyes were brown with a v shaped face. His sharp jawline could be seen as he had clean shaven face. The guy got up from his seat to greet me.

"Hi, I'm Tahsan Haq. Nice to meet you."

"Soha, nice to meet you too." It really wasn't. I was just trying not to come off as a rude person in ten seconds.

"I apologize for wanting to meet in such a short notice." He gave me a nervous smile.

I just shrugged in response. I looked around us, wondering how would these people react if I purposely got this guy angry. I didn't know what they would think but grandma surely won't like it.

"Are you ready to order, sir?" The waitress asked him, ignoring me as if I was invisible.

"Should we order now?" He asked me. He handed me a menu card when I nodded at him while smirking at the waitress. She looked a little embarrassed because he ignored her just the way she ignored me.

I glanced at him as he was placing his order. He seemed a well built guy with enough body muscles. He was wearing a nevy blue blazer and black shirt underneath. I couldn't see the rest of his outfit as we were seated.

"So, I heard you won the youth entrepreneur of the year?"

I nodded.

"I'm sorry, I'm not good at starting a conversation." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I shouldn't talk about business, right?"

"To be honest it's my first time being on a blind date." This explained a little why he was being nervous. He seemed like a nice guy but I wasn't interested.

I needed to place my cards infront him carefully in order to get him to reject me on his own. That was the only way to stop dadima nagging 24/7.

I tilted my head to the left so that he could see my tattoo. It took only a second to notice the tattoo. But his reaction wasn't what I expected.

"Woah! You have a tattoo!" He looked Amazed.

I pretended that the exposal of my tattoo was completely unintentional and tried to cover it as I faked a few shy smile at him.

"What does it mean?" He pointed at my arm.

"Unalome. In Buddhism, it's an image of reaching enlightenment." I explained.

"That's so cool! What does that one mean?" He pointed at my other arm.

"I don't know." I answered truthfully. I just took some tattoo sticker and stuck it on my skin. I didn't think of learning each one's meaning.

"Want to see something interesting?" He asked with an amused smile.

Before I could say anything, he folded the calf of his shirt and placed his hand next to mine. He had a similar tattoo.

"Interesting." That was all I could say.

"Yes, it is. If you don't mind, can I
touch your hand?" I had no idea what was going to happen or else I wouldn't have agreed.

He took hand sanitizer out of his blazer and pour some of that on the tissue provided by the restaurant. I now knew what he was doing, so I tried to snatch my hand away. But he grabbed my hand and cautiously rubbed on the tattoo. Within ten seconds, my fake tattoo came off.

Then he took a new tissue with hands sanitizer on it and rubbed on his tattoo. But unlike mine, it never came off.

"Those are not real, I guess." He looked amused by the sudden turn of events.

"Why'd you try to pull off something like that?" He looked into my eyes. I looked everywhere but his eyes.

"Look mister-"

"You haven't changed at all." He said, putting the hand sanitizer away.

This guy is weird. How did he know about my fake tattoo? Who carries a hand sanitizer anyways? A germaphobe, that's who.

"What do you even mean by that?"

"I said you're still the same person I knew all those years ago." He replied.

"Excuse me, do I know you?"

Why was this guy so confusing? I never thought I'd still be talking to him after he embarrassed me like that. But there was something that made me want to get to the bottom of this.

"I don't know whether you know me or not. But I know you, that's for sure." He said as he looked at his watch.

I remembered grandma telling me he was going to somewhere just after our arranged meeting. It felt weird to call it a blind date.

"Who are you? Or should I ask how do you know me exactly?"

"If we talk about everything today, then there won't be anything left for next time, right?"

He suddenly got up from his seat, making me automatically stand up as well.

"See you soon, babe." With that said, he took his blazer jacket and started to walk, leaving me gaped mouth.

               *************

A/n: Hi loves, how you doing?

I'm really grateful to you all who are still here with us, wanting an update. I wouldn't blame those who left after waiting for such a long time.

Life is hard now a days trying to make a living out there. Hope you guys understand and forgive me.

This chapter is not edited. Please point out the mistakes if possible. And please please please do share the book if you think it's worth it.

♥️