papercuts

holy grounds coffee house, san myshuno, 5:45pm

paige: so when are we gonna take that flight down there to go beat this girl’s ass.

???? 1: paige, please. she’s not worth it.

paige: the fuck she isn’t, elle. aicha said this girl is a habitual line stepper and last night was when she crossed it. i’m not above getting my passport stamped to go beat someone’s ass especially on her behalf.

???? 2: it’s actually rehan’s ass you need to beat.

paige: he can get this work too. he’s coming up here right?

aicha: he has to either way for work. conference season is ramping up too so he’ll be travelling a lot. but, flights out of belomisia airport are like once a week. he was trying to get a ride into the city to catch a flight from the main airport but, clearly that didn’t go as planned.

paige: so where is he now?

aicha: still at the field station i guess. probably trying to find a way up here.

elle: wait, you haven’t talked to him about all this yet?

aicha: he tried face-timing me this morning but i wasn’t in the mood.

???? 2: (calmly) you know, this whole thing is a mess. i mean, this is bad but not THAT bad if you make it work to your advantage

elle: beatrice, no…

beatrice: (smiles mischievously) hear me out: aicha acted the way she did on an assumption, right?. she’s assuming rehan did (gestures vaguely) everything with that girl. luckily nothing happened on her end but still, on an assumption. if he gets mad at her, she can use that defense. it doesn’t excuse what you did but, leverage.

elle: (jaw drops in disbelief) no no no leverage? this isn’t a game of risk wtf beatrice .

paige: girl that is fucked up but…you right you right.

aicha: it doesn’t excuse what i did. i mean, what if he didn’t do anything and it was just what i saw. i mean, thank god i didn’t sleep with that guy or this whole thing would have been worse. i mean, we were supposed to just announce my engagement to my parents and it’s all so fucked.

elle: you haven’t told them any of–

aicha: (emphatically) absolutely not.

elle: you need to have that talk with rehan as soon as possible. knowing him he’s going to bury all of it deep and avoid the entire topic altogether. you can’t have that sitting on your soul until the wedding. if it even happens at this point.

aicha: i know i know. i’ll try calling him later.