32. Solving The Mystery

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CHAPTER - 32

SOLVING THE MYSTERY

There are some places in life that we wish we could visit again and again; and there are places that we wish we could never visit again even if that place holds some nice memories. As I stared at the yellow illuminated board in front of me, I couldn't decide that in which category did Becker's Burgers fall.

I observed that it was no more 'improperly' named. In fact, it looked a lot better maintained as compared to what it looked like all these years ago. A bigger change was the name of the diner. The new and improved name 'Becker's Food Territory' was proudly displayed in front of us.

"Wow!" Kim breathed beside me. "I never thought Martin would get so better with time. This is so cool." There was an unconcealed surprise in her voice and she sounded genuinely happy.

"Yeah," I murmured back as we started taking steps from the small parking lot towards the place where the word 'Dinfast' was originated.

"Martin! Come out, you old man!" Kim started calling him in a very excited voice the moment we took two steps inside the now improved and with better interiors diner.

A chuckle escaped my lips when I noticed that the place had broad tables now as compared to the narrow tables of years ago. "Nice tables," I murmured under my breath but apparently, I wasn't as slow as I had wanted to be as Kim lightly chuckled at what I had said. Shooting a smile towards her, I sat on one of the nearest tables.

The place was not completely empty as I had expected it to be. There were two more tables that were occupied; one by an elderly couple and one by some buff and gruff looking five guys. Undoubtedly, they all were looking towards Kim and me with slight irritation on their faces as Kim had so nicely managed to disturb them and divert their attentions from their meals to us.

Shooting a small smile towards them, I grabbed Kim's arm to stop her from using her high vocal chords."What?" She frowned as she looked at me.

Before I could reply to her unnecessary question, the owner of the diner came out. "Kim?" The surprise in his voice was evident. Forgetting about my hold on her wrist, she turned around making me lose my grip on her and ran towards Martin. She hugged him and he laughed, hugging her back. I had no clue that they were so close to each other but the happiness on Martin's face gave it away. I couldn't see Kim's face as her back was towards me. Once they were done with their reunion hug, they parted away and came towards me. Martin's eyes landed on me and once again, the surprise was very clear in them. "Keith!" I smiled at him and nodded my head in acknowledgement. He looked between Kim and me for a few times and eventually muttered, "Well, this is... surprising."

Completely oblivious to the slight shock that Martin was going though, Kim in her very excited and chirpy voice asked him, "How have you been? Oh God! I've missed your burgers."

Martin laughed at this and said, "I'm happy that you missed something about this old man." She shrugged sheepishly in reply. "I thought you'd never come back." He looked at her with slight concern in his eyes. He definitely looked older than before.

Gone was the excited and chirpy Kim of two minutes ago, she looked at him with a sad smile and replied, "I thought so too." The questions about the sudden change in their moods were on the tip of my tongue but before I could voice them out, Kim opened her mouth again. "The usual! You remember it. Don't you?"

Martin let out a booming laughter at her teasing voice. "Sure Madame." He mock saluted her and with a last glance towards me, went back towards the kitchen.

Unwillingly, a sigh of relief escaped my lips and I gestured for Kim to sit down opposite me. With a huge smile on her lips, she started looking around the place with a very interested look in her eyes. We let the silence take us over as we waited for the 'usual'. She was lost in observing the interiors of Martin's now improved diner, while I was busy in my own thoughts.

Martin came back with our meal and placed it in front of us. The need to have that delicious chicken burger in my mouth was huge and I shot a grateful smile towards Martin. "Thank you for the dinfast."

Martin laughed at the usage of word I had done and so did Kim. "Now you understand its meaning. Don't you?" he asked between his laughter.

"We were fools back then," I declared, chuckling in process as I remembered about his efforts of explaining the term to us on that night eight years ago.

"Of course, you were," he said slowly, looking solely at me, with a slight smile on his face; a smile that had a huge, deeper meaning in them. I just looked at him with a blank face; the chuckles, the smiles forgotten about for a minute.

"Why do you always like to call me a fool?" Kim pouted, resting her hands on the table in front of her. This made Martin divert his attention from me to the brunette pouting opposite me. I ran my hand through my hair and looked at the meal served in front of me.

"Because you are a fool, Kim. Remember the time when you took some coins from me and dug them in mud, hoping that a money plant would grow out of it?"

A chuckle escaped my lips and I looked back at her. Her face was red and she tried to defend herself. "What else was I supposed to understand by a 'money' plant?"

"I completely second you." I supported her, chuckling slightly at the story.

"Thanks," she said with a relieved smile.

Martin chuckled at us and said, "Enjoy your mea... umm... dinfast!" With that he went towards his other customers.

We were way too keen to have those burgers in our mouths that in the very next second, we both were completely lost in it. It was still heavenly. None of us said even a word between stuffing our mouths with burger and Coke. Our mouths were way too busy, but my mind was not. It was busy planning my next move; the move that I voiced out, "Can you dance and sing right now?" Kim's head snapped up at me and she looked at me with a very confused look. "On the table?" This changed her confused look to that of complete ridiculousness.

She let out a snort and raised an eyebrow at me. "Why in the world would I do that? Do I have 'psycho' written on my forehead?" She rolled her eyes at me and focused her attention back to the burger.

I cleared my throat and rested both my hands on the table in between us. "Okay! Let me reframe that," I offered but she ignored me. Anyhow, I continued, "I challenge you to sing and dance on the top of this table. Right now!"

Hearing the word 'challenge' made her look at me with the speed of light. Her eyes were wide and mouth slightly open.

"Oh no! You didn't just say that," she said with narrowed eyes. An involuntary smile made its way on my face and I quickly concealed it in a smirk. For a fact, I knew that my wish was granted. "You've just ignited fire."

"I'm so ready to play with it." These words left my mouth even before I could stop myself. Before she could react to whatever meaning my words had, I added, "Stage is all yours."

With eyes turned into slits, she got up and moved towards the table beside ours. All I could do was smirk. I watched as she removed her narrowed eyes from me and eyed the table. She took a deep breath and stepped on the chair and eventually on the table. I looked around and noticed that the little audience we had was not looking towards Kim and she was definitely pleased about it.

How could I let that happen?

"Kim!" I shouted in mock horror and looked around discreetly. We had the attention of the few people around us now. "What's wrong with you?"It took everything in me to not laugh at the look of pure rage that she was giving me. Her jaw was tightly clenched and she was giving me the best murderous glare ever.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Martin asked, looking all baffled. He looked from Kim to me and I shrugged my shoulders, showing that I had completely no idea as to what she was planning to do.

Bullsh*t!

"Darling, do you think she is trying to commit suicide?" the voice of the old lady from behind me reached our ears and my head snapped in her direction.

"Oh no! I should call the police." Her husband stood up hastily.

I covered my mouth with the back of my hand to stop the laughter that was sure to erupt from my lips. While the old couple was busy contemplating the possible suicide that the mad brunette standing on the table was about to do; the group of five buff and gruff men started banging their cups, plates and every other piece of crockery on their table and shouted, "Dance! Strip! Dance! Strip!"

The color of Kim's cheeks turned to the darkest red I had ever seen on her face and to add to her humiliation, I joined them in their shouts. Judging by the look on Kim's face, I knew this was going to be my last night in the world and I promised myself to enjoy it to the fullest. That's why, I shouted a lot more. What else could be the best way to live your last day on earth other than watching a strip show?

With a determined look in her eyes and her gaze set on me, she started swaying her hips. She pulled open the bun in which her hair was tied and very slowly pulled out her cotton jacket. She was wearing a singlet underneath it and my hand stopped banging on the table, my throat went dry and my eyes popped out. Was she really going to strip?

Everyone silenced and suddenly, music started playing. Kim winked at me and I realized that she had taken the challenge way too seriously. Well, I didn't expect anything less from her too. Martin had played the Ketch up song and Kim's stance was a complete give away of the fact that she was ready to throw ketch up all over.

The song started and she started dancing. She remembered the steps and she definitely had good practice of this song as she sang along the Spanish lyrics and danced just like the hot dancers in the video. She was not great but she was far better than I had expected her to be. She was never a good dancer but here she was not bad either. At the end, everyone applauded, even the old couple who had eventually came to an understanding that nobody could die from jumping off a few feet high table.

"That was... unexpected," I told her hesitantly with a smile on my face when she reached our table. She looked at me with a wicked glint on her face and I knew it was trouble.

She bent towards me, so that she was all I could focus on. The distance between us was decreasing and all I could do was think about the fact that she was still in her singlet with her cleavage peeking out very slightly and teasing the hell out of me. This was not good. Not good at all.

"I want you..." she whispered, making me widen my eyes in complete surprise at the words she just said, but then she continued, "to..." She paused again, making me look at her lips. "Lick..." I gulped the huge lump that had formed in my throat as I waited for her to complete her sentence. I was ready to lick whatver she wanted. Noticing my anticipation, she continued, "...the cheek of the huge moustached man sitting over there."

I was too lost in watching her lips move that her sentence didn't register in my head for a good one minute, but when it did, my eyes snapped from her lips to her eyes which were now laughing with mischief and humor. "You've got be f*cking kidding me!" I exclaimed, forgetting about everything that was just happening.

'No, I take my words back. I'm not ready to lick anything.'

She gave me a wide eyed, innocent look and pointed towards her face. "Do I look like I'm kidding? I'm damn serous." Though her voice supported her words, her eyes didn't. They betrayed her.

I looked towards the table that was occupied by the gruff men and my eyes landed on the man whom I had to lick. He was, as I had mentioned earlier like all his friends, buff and gruff. His moustache was really huge, covering a good portion of his face. In complete horror, I looked back at Kim who had a smug look on her face and told her in finality, "I'm not doing it." With that I went to back to eat my remaining burger, but it lacked any type of heavenly taste now. The thought of licking the cheek of the mustached man was enough to ruin any kind of meal.

She clicked in tongue in disappointment and said, "I didn't know you were such a coward."

The way she said it made me go back to the night of eight years ago; the way she had said the exact same words when I had refused to sit behind her on her bike. Slowly but surely I was starting to see the glimpses of that Kim in the Kim standing in front of me. There was no doubt that I liked this a lot and I wanted her to be back; and without giving any second thought to everything around me, I stood up from my comfortable seat, not removing my gaze from her and told her, "Watch me!"

In reply, she widened her eyes with shock and slowly her lips stretched into a grin. Shooting her a last smile, I turned around to face the situation that was soon going to get added to the list of 'my most humiliating moments all thanks to Kimberly Jones'. Without any botheration, I walked up to their table and noticed that they had way too much food scattered all over it. It was so much that I couldn't even spot the brown color of the table that was carrying the entire weight.

"What?" A very heavy and loud voice broke my concentration from the table and I looked at the source of the noise who happened to be the guy sitting beside my licking target.

"What are you staring at?" another man asked, looking at me with a pissed off expression. I looked at their faces and found all of them looking at me with slight confusion and very high amount of irritation.

"Are you going to use that tongue of yours? Spit it out you dumba*s," my target spoke with a loud and pissed off voice. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with me? Why wasn't I saying anything? These were just some guys... pissed off, buff and gruff guys.

Who was I kidding? What could I say? 'Yes, I'm going to use my tongue but to lick your cheek.' This could have been the only possible answer to their questions. What was the need of beating around the bush? So, just as I looked at my target properly to voice out my thoughts, his eyes widened and he stood up from his seat abruptly. "Warren! You're Ke... Keith Warren." His voice was the perfect example of surprise and pleasure. I was just glad to know that he was a fan.

Before I could answer him in affirmative, the other guys stood up as well. All of them were looking at me like I was God or something. Well, I wasn't a fool to let them think otherwise. They started telling me which of my games were their favorites and which of the goals I had made they loved. It hardly took them two minutes to make me a part of them and soon, I was sitting amongst them, facing the piles of food.

Of course, I was elated as meeting fans had always been a pleasure but right now, I had a completely other plan in mind and 'a very eager to see me licking a guy's cheek' Kim in front of me. So, to fulfill my challenge, I opened my mouth to tell them my purpose of visiting their table. "I've to lick your cheek," I told the mustached man as fast as I could say. I wasn't even sure if he heard me or not. But the sudden silence on the table and the expressions on the man's face were proof enough to tell that they had heard every word I had just spitted out. To break the uncomfortable and unnerving silence, and also to give a little more effect to my request, I mumbled, "Please."

My plan worked and they all started looking at each other with weird looks but those looks were a lot less weird than the look they were giving me.

The mustached man took a deep breath and looked at me with very serious eyes. "Look, I'm a huge fan of yours." I nodded my head with a polite smile but that polite smile vanished the moment he said his next words, "But, I'm straight and married."

"Hey! I'm straight too," I defended myself with a horrified look on my face. Why was history so keen on repeating itself? I quickly added in a low rushed voice, "This is a dare that my frie - acquaintance over there has given me. That's it." I stopped myself from calling Kim as my friend. We were no longer friends. We were nothing.

"Oh! So this is the matter." The group voiced at in chorus and nodded their heads in understanding. A sigh of great relief escaped my lips and I sat back in my seat in a more relaxed way.

He patted my back a bit forcefully and said, "I'll make sure you win this dare." With that he brought his cheek in front of me and this sudden action made me jump in surprise slightly. I glanced around the table and saw the other four men looking at me with encouraging expressions on their faces and they started chanting, "Do it! Do it!" My eyes landed on Kim and she was looking at the entire scene in front of her with wide eyes. She couldn't believe that I was about to do this. Well, neither could I.

I focused back on his half mustached cheek and leant forward. With all eyes on me or rather my tongue and my eyes tightly shut, I licked his cheek in the fastest motion I could muster. Once it was done, we both jerked backwards and I shook my head in an attempt to get rid of the horrifying and humiliating experience. At the sound of applause, I opened my eyes and met the faces of my little audience. Pride was shining in their eyes. It was like they could empathize with me.

Eventually, Kim joined us at that table and we all talked for hours. These men were good. I promised to give them all the tickets of my next game and they were all very delighted.

As we went out of the diner after bidding adieu to all of them and Martin, I realized that for the umpteenth time in my life, I had just humiliated myself in front of Kim. But did I regret it?

I turned my face to look at Kim who had a smile on her face as she took slightly jumpy steps towards the parked bike and realized that I didn't regret any of the things I had done for her so far. Even if we were not friends and even though we were together here for just two days, I knew that I could never regret meeting her and doing anything for her.

"Isn't it weird?" Kim suddenly spoke, bringing me back from my thoughts.

"What's weird?" I asked, once I had regained my senses.

She stopped and turned towards me. I followed suit. With a smile on her face, she motioned between her and me, and said, "Us. We. We're weird."

Completely clueless as to where she was going with this, I joked, "Not we, Kim. It's only you who is weird."

In response, she playfully hit my arm and grumbled, "Shut up!"

"Nice one!" I clapped my hand in fake appreciation. She huffed and turned away to walk back towards the bike but I grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "Go ahead! How are we weird?" I smiled.

For a moment, she mock glared at me; the glare which couldn't fade away my charming smile. Eventually she rolled her eyes and started saying, "We are weird." I nodded motioning her to continue and she did. "We had our busy lives. We never thought that we'd meet each other ever. I'm not talking about meeting this time but for the first time as well. It's weird how we met for a night, eight years ago and how we met for a week, five years ago, all by coincidence. It's weird that how we so happily go on in our lives separately and then we meet each other and things seem better and more fun. It's weird how we've known each other for hardly ten days of our entire lives and yet we seem to know each other a lot better than anyone else." All I

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