Iram narrowed her eyes — “Do you feel lonely in Jammu?”
“Uh,” Amaal pointed to the food between them, “yes.”
“Come on,” Iram pushed. “I am the introvert among us and it is you who never talks about you. Especially when it comes to things like these.”
“Being lonely?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you say that?!”
“Because you went from being at the centre of people in KDP to working almost alone… You have your staff at the Secretariat, but it’s not the same people you helped raise from the ground up. I came to KDP and saw how that was your family.”
“They are still my family.”
“And here you are, alone in Jammu.”
“You are there, Atharva is there, Sarah, Qureshi, Adil…”
“But he is not there.”
Amaal laughed, picking an olive off her pizza and popping it into her mouth — “Now you have set your mind on romanticising us for your next book.Again.”
“You mean there is nothing?” Iram cocked her brow.
“No.”
“Liar. There was something. Something is different in you now.”
“Nothing is different.”
“You yourself told me last year that he is a fortress but lets you peep into his life from time to time.”
“And that means nothing,” Amaal cut her off. “Also, stop remembering all this stuff from what I say after midnight. It’s usually a byproduct of sleeplessness and face masks.”
Iram reached for a slice of pizza. “Just saying.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes. Amaal couldn’t keep it in longer than those few minutes.
“How do you think there is something going on between us?”
Iram began to open her mouth but Amaal held up a hand — “Not that there is. Let me make it very clear. I told you before also, there cannot be anything. Heisa closed off fortress and he used to open the occasional window to me to peep in. That was because we worked in closed quarters and sometimes when you spend so much time together you can’t help but get attached to each other. I have experienced that twice with him, first here in Jammu years ago and then again in the thick of the election last year. When we are in close quarters, it may seem like something is happening, but then I get to know a little more of him, and I don’t want to go forward…”
“Jammu, years ago?”
Amaal’s mouth dropped open. “That’s what you took from this?”
Iram smirked — “Now it explains it all.”
“Explains what all?”
“Nothing.”
Amaal’s temper swelled — ‘Why is this amusing?”
“It’s not amusing.”
“Then why are you smiling? He is the one who gave you to…”
