Mahdi's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Mahdi called Jessica three days after the wedding hall. She answered on the second ring. Her voice was tired. She wanted to talk, but not where people watched. They agreed to meet somewhere quiet. She told him to walk past the pyramid, keep going, and look for a black and gold building with a sun and moon on its front. He had never noticed it before. He found it near dusk. The hall stood tall and dark, gold trim running down its columns. A carved sun and moon watched from above the doors. He had passed this street a hundred times. Tonight it felt new, like a door he had walked by all his life without seeing. Inside, the walls held framed pictures. One showed a man and a woman watching the sun rise together, their hands almost touching. Mahdi stopped in front of it. He wanted that. He wanted it with Jessica. The thought scared him more than the silence ever had. Jessica waited at a small table. She wore plain clothes, no red dress tonight. A black ankh hung at her neck. She turned it between her fingers as he sat. "You came," she said. "I wasn't sure you would." "I said I would." Mahdi kept his voice steady. "Why here?" "My fiance owns this place." She let the words drop. "He runs the Friday gatherings. The pyramid, this hall, all of it." Mahdi's stomach turned. The man he was trying to beat was the man who built the rooms where he stood. "I brought you here on purpose," Jessica said. "I wanted you to see what I'd be marrying into. The buildings. The money. The whole life waiting for me." She looked at the sunrise picture on the wall. "None of it feels like mine." Mahdi leaned forward. "Then don't marry him." "It's not that simple." She let go of the ankh. "Our families planned this for years. I can't just walk out. If I call it off, I need a reason people will accept." She met his eyes. "I need to know if you're real, Mahdi. Not a rose and one late night. Real." He understood then why she had led him here. She was testing him. She had shown him the other man's world, cold and grand, and waited to see if he would run. He did not run. "I set up chairs for other people's weddings for years," he said. "I never wanted any of them. I want this one. Ours." Jessica went quiet. A slow breath left her. "Two weeks now," she said. "Not three. He moved the date up." The number hit him like a fist. He had lost a week without knowing it. "Then we don't waste time," Mahdi said. She nodded once. For the first time, she looked at him like a way out, not a mistake. But somewhere in this same hall, her fiance kept a wedding on his calendar. And now the clock ran faster.