With trembling hands, Zarine dialled Gareth's number.

"Hey, Zarine, getting ready? James and I will be at Cristiano's in an hour," came Gareth's voice.

"Gareth, do you have any taxi service's number?"

"Uh yeah, why do you need it?"

She gulped, "Just text it to me, okay? It's really urgent."

"O-kay, but what are-"

"Thanks and please don't tell...Cristiano."

She cut the call and waited for the text. The second she got the text, she was calling the number.

***

"Hello, James?" Gareth said in the phone.

"Eww Pineapple Tree!? Why are you calling me?" James' voice flowed through. "I'm not going to be late to Cristiano's place and I have packed Zarine's gift. No need to nag me, okay?"

Gareth sighed, "Zarine just asked me for a taxi service."

"So?"

"She sounded weird and she told me not to tell Cristiano. Now, I know it's possible that she's doing some last minute surprise thing for Cris but..."

James questioned, "Weird how? Do I need to mention you're acting a bit weird too? You're catching Cristiano's paranoia or Zarine's. I don't know they're both paranoid little shits."

Gareth sighed again, "I don't know how to describe it but she sounded strange, unlike her usual happy self."

"So you didn't give her the number?"

"No, I had to give it. She asked me for it. I couldn't have refused."

James tutted, "Should have asked Cristiano first, Garry."

"She asked me not to, James! And don't call me Garry for God's sake."

"Okay, Garry."

Gareth ignored him, "So, I called you to ask whether I should call Cris and ask about this taxi thing?"

"Pineapple tree is asking me for advice!? Wait, let me put the recording on. There, can you just repeat that for me?"

"But then I feel it would be awkward if I meddle in their lives. Zarine would be mad if I let Cristiano know about something she might be planning. I'm so confused. I've been sitting here for more than half an hour wondering what to do and I-"

"Ugh, just call him and get this over with," James rolled his eyes at his friend's anxiety.

"Sure?"

"Just do it!"

"Fine, no need to shout."

Gareth dialled Cristiano's number. He didn't pick up. He dialled it again and again and finally, he picked up on the fourth try.

"Hey, Cris. What's up, mate?"

"Gareth," he said and the weight and emotion in his best friend's voice was enough to tell Gareth that something was terribly wrong. "Gareth, I messed up," and Cristiano's voice broke.

"What do you mean? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where are you?"

Cristiano sounded as if every word he was uttering was taking immense strength to articulate, "I-I...she's gone. I don't know what to do...she's gone and she hates me...she...I don't know what to do...it's useless, she's gone..."

In the short conversation Gareth had with his friend, he was able to make some sense of his Cristiano's fast disappearing love life. He called up James and filled him in on it.

"He said what!?" James asked.

"You heard me," Gareth replied on the phone. He was talking on the speaker as he drove furiously towards the airport. "Zarine's not picking up my calls. I'm going to the airport to talk to her. You-"

"And I'm going to Cristiano's house to talk to him," James said, hurriedly opening his car door and getting inside.

"He sounds awful," Gareth said, softly.

"I can imagine," James took a breath. "Good luck, bro."

"Good luck, mate."

***

Gareth looked across the waiting room. Where is she? She's got to be here. The flight is in half an hour. I need to find her fast.

He found her sitting a little apart from the other people in an empty row of chairs at the back, looking extremely miserable with knees up to her chin and eyes puffy and red.

This is so tough. "Zarine?"

She tilted her head at the sound of his voice and got up at the sight of him. "Gareth," she choked and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her smaller frame and was sad to find her crying, "Hey, shush, it's okay, mate. It's okay."

She stepped back, looking slightly embarrassed, but said stubbornly, "Nothing is okay."

He sat down beside her seat and waited for her to sit down too, "What happened? I know very little from Cristiano. He sounded crazy. Like he was having a breakdown."

"He is crazy. He's totally crazy. He sucks big time," she pouted.

Gareth sighed, "So, you guys had a huge fight?"

"Yeah," she related amid a few uncontrollable tears what had happened.

"He said he's breaking up with you?" Gareth was incredulous.

"And then he asked me to marry him."

"Which you refused," he clarified.

Zarine looked exasperated, "If you'd seen him, you would have realised...he didn't mean it. He was just saying it. I don't even know why. Even if he had meant it, I would have said no. He accused me of cheating on him. He was possessive af and at one point, it seemed he didn't even want me."

"Look, you're my friend and he's my friend so when I'm saying this, please don't think I'm defending him-"

Zarine pursed her lips.

Gareth rubbed her hand, "Seriously, he really loves you and I can't explain why he said all those things except for the fact that he doesn't want to be without you. He's scared that once you go, that'll be the end of this relationship. Last night, he called me up and he was so worried. He said he wants to be with you and he knows you love him too but he can't help but think that like all the important people in his life, you'll leave him too."

"He didn't say that to me," Zarine sniffed. "He said really horrible stuff, okay? And I love him too. You all know that. Hell even Neymar knows about this. How can Cristiano even think that I don't love him enough? Judging by the way he is dealing with my leaving, it's him who doesn't really love me enough. He can't understand that I have a life of my own back home and asking me to leave all that out of the blue a couple of hours before I'm leaving is just so brutal. I want to stay but I've tried to make him understand why I need this, why I need to go home, why I need to undertake this job. He didn't even think how difficult it was for me to not stay behind with him. It would have been so easy for me to say that okay, I'm not going. He didn't even appreciate my taking the difficult part, the harder decision."

"I understand," Gareth said softly.

Zarine asked, eyes shining with emotion, "Then why can't he?"

"Because he's in love with you," he said, simply, honestly. "And when you love somebody so much you tend to say irrational things, you tend to be overly critical of yourself because you can't understand what you did to deserve someone who loves you back unconditionally, you form a bond which you can't live without, which you're scared can be broken by a turn of fate, you believe in little things and sometimes you end up saying and doing stupid things." Something in his voice told Zarine that he was speaking from experience, from having experienced something first hand, from some part of him that was still raw with something he had once done.

She smiled at him, "Thanks, Gareth, really but I need some time to think, to sort this out. I can't stay behind because that would mean disrespecting myself, sacrificing my identity. I can't do that. I want to become someone I'm proud of and being his sugar-babe is not it. So, please don't ask me to stay."

He smiled back, "I'm not going to ask you to stay."

"I'm going to miss you," she placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Me too," he said.

"Maybe Cristale was meant to be and not Zariano, you know," she joked, half-heartedly.

"He's an idiot," he said.

She walked to the boarding gate and looked back just once but not towards Gareth, towards the entrance gates across the hall, as if waiting for someone to show up. Then, she turned, putting on a brave smile, and soon she was aboard Air India, going away from what seemed like a wonderful dream, gone to waste.

As the airplane soared high and away, Gareth made to move towards the exit wondering how the hell he was going to tell Cristiano about this.

The doors swung towards him and in ran Cristiano and James. "Where is she?" Cristiano looked around frantically with red-rimmed eyes and a hoarse voice.

Gareth squeezed his shoulder sympathetically, "She's gone."

James stared aghast, "You had one job and you messed it up, you fucking idiot."

"Shut up," Gareth spat back. "You've never done anything good in life so don't you dare judge me."

Cristiano walked out, tuning out their quarrel and ran a hand over his face. He had been jealous and selfish and he had hurt her. He hated himself and in the void Zarine had left behind, self-loathing and pessimism filled in, suffocating him. He sat in the car and drove home, sick to the heart, spiralling into an old familiar depression that he would hide tomorrow so well under his smiling, strong face but would remain under his skin, clawing away at his bones.

[ Why are our eyes sweating? :( this was so emotional to write. Omg guys #Zariano is messed up like totally fucking messed up but don't give up hope!

Gareth is bae af and we are so proud of Zarine :') We have full faith in #Zariano IT WILL RISE.......someday.

And please do tell us your thoughts and feelings regarding this chapter, we love to hear from you wonderful people xx

ps don't forget to VOTE AND COMMENT ]