The Billionaire's Final Victim | ✓

[13] Stranger Danger.

Barqat has a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, "Yes, I need you to come to a restaurant with me on Friday. We will take off of work early."

"But—"

Barqat interrupts her, "But, it's not what you think. We have visit because the company wants to buy out the restaurant and I need you there to take notes."

Dunia, feeling extraordinarily ashamed, begins to speak, "Oh... I—"

"You, what? Thought it was a date? Dating is haram (forbidden), especially for your goody-two-shoes-like nature." Barqat casually brushes it off.

"I never thought it was a date, actually, I was going to say I have important family plans on Friday. But if it is absolutely necessary, I will cancel my personal plans." Every single word in that sentence was a lie. But honestly, Dunia had to save herself from embarrassment because she's been embarrassed to the moon and back today. Ya Allah, please forgive me, I'm just a weak human-being who's pride can hinder her spiritual journey, she thinks to herself.

"Oh..." Barqat clears his throat. "Well, it is very important so make sure you're able to come with me for the restaurant visit."

"Yes, of course, Sir. May I go home now?" Dunia asks.

"Yes." Barqat nods.

As Dunia was about to leave, Barqat stops her, "Bukhari, wait,"

Dunia squeezes her eyes, damn it, almost made it. "Yes, Sir?"

"How are you getting home?" he asks.

"I'm bussing home." She answers.

"Get your stuff and meet me at the entrance downstairs." He orders her. Dunia stands there, frozen, "I said something, Bukhari!" he says.

"Uh, yes, Sir. I'll be right there." Dunia stumbles out of the room, trying to gather her stuff and pack up.

• • •

As she makes her way down the elevator she has her usual Dunia Thoughts going on around her head: Is he going to kill me? Does he know I, kinda, maybe, like him? Is he going to ruin my honour? Is he going to bring shame to my family through me? Jeez, Dunia, this isn't Mulan. Maybe I should sneak away and get on to the bus...

"I don't have all day, Bukhari!" Barqat says impatiently.

Too late to run now, Dunia. "Sorry." she murmurs.

"Get in the car." he says.

"What?" Dunia's eyes widen.

"I won't be any nicer if you always question everything I say." He says with a bit of frustration. "I'm dropping you off at home. It's getting dark anyways, the bus might not be the safest option."

"Oh... I mean, you don't have to, Sir. I can make home on the bus, I've been doing it for a while. You really don—"

"I insist, just get in the car when it comes around."

Sounds like he might be kidnapping me rather than dropping me off at home, Dunia rolls her eyes.

"So, what gem of a car have you brought in today?" Dunia asks, a little teasingly.

A smirk appears on Barqat's face, "You might be into this one. Might be a favourite of yours."

A black car pulls up in front of them and Dunia's jaw drops, "Shut the front door! Is this a Tesla Model X?! Holy shit, doesn't this car drive by itself? Doesn't it have like those falcon wing-looking doors? Doesn't the driver and passengers side doors open and close automatically?"

Dunia's eyes began glistening because this is her dream car. This is what she wanted to buy when she saved enough money, maybe in the next 100 years.

Barqat notices her star struck expression and couldn't quite help but feel almost joyous. Her smile filled him with a jumpy feeling. He almost wanted her to keep smiling so happily forever. Snap out of it! He tells himself. 

She pulls out of her awe-like trance, "Wait... how did you know this car was my favourite?"

"A little birdie told me..." He smiles and steps inside his car. He presses a button and the passenger side door opens automatically.

Dunia happily sits down and the door automatically closes behind her. She clicks in her seat belt and claps her hands together happily like a child getting presents on Eid. She turns to look at him and pouts, "Who's the little birdie? I have the right to know!"

"You know her very well. She is—"

"Eliza! Eliza told you!" She says a little too loudly. "Sorry." She apologizes for being loud.

Barqat laughs softly, "Bingo! Would you like a cookie?"

"Do you have a cookie? I prefer Oreos or soft chocolate chip cookies." Dunia adds in half jokingly, half seriously, smiling almost uncontrollably.

"You're an odd one. You'd be easy to kidnap." He says without looking at her.

Dunia's heart drops, does he have the ability to read minds or am I just that easy to read? Or do talk out loud to myself instead of talking in my head...

Barqat bursts into laughter, "You astonish me on how quickly you can go from laughing to seriously concerned about your safety."

It's that laugh again, the one that makes her stomach fill up with fluttering butterflies. She hates the feeling because of how it makes her react. But it's not her fault she finds his laughter so gosh-darn attractive. It doesn't help that he's extremely attractive himself, along with his laugh. Shut up, Dunia!

"Honestly, it'll be pretty easy to kidnap me. Just mention food and I'll be there. Heck, Pennywise could be like 'I have a free halal buffet set up down here' and I'd slide down there with no questions asked."

Barqat laughed his heart out at that little scene, "My God, I've never met someone so obsessed with food as much as you."

"It's probably because you're way too wealthy and all the restaurants you folks go to give pea-sized amounts of food for $200. You've never felt the joy of a commoner's all-you-can-eat buffet." Dunia says casually. It wasn't really meant as a joke but Barqat found everything she says comedic and she doesn't even mind because the atmosphere is so chill right now.

"Oh, really? Why don't you show me the best halal buffet place some time and I'll be the judge of how life changing that is." Barqat challenges her. 

"You bet, I will! Insh'Allah. Then, I won't be the only one who can be lured by food." Dunia jokes. 

While stopped at a red light, all of a sudden, Barqat's tone turned serious, "Hey... Don't be moron and go around being lured in by stupid things like food by random people. That's really unsafe." 

He turns his head to look directly into Dunia's eyes. His icy-toned blue eyes look almost soft, as if he genuinely means to protect her. Dunia doesn't remember seeing his eyes look so soft. Usually, his eyes look sharp and practically cruel, as if he's ready to kill someone with one quick look. His soft expression really changes his whole look. 

Someone honks at them because the traffic light turned green and they haven't move. Both of them quickly turn away from each other. Dunia can feel the ambience in the car shift to awkward silence. 

To make the atmosphere normal again, Dunia thought she should give her horrible humour one last shot, "I mean, technically, I shouldn't even be in this car with you because you, a stranger, lured me in this car by showing up in my dream car. So, Mr. Barqat Sheikh, are you possibly warning me about you?" 

Barqat gave an almost sly smile, "You have a smartass mouth, Bukhari." 

For the rest of the car ride, Dunia decided music should fill the car so she didn't have to keep up a conversation as often. 

- - - 

A/N: Sorry for being so behind in my updates! I'll try to be better! :(