text: “Can you keep a secret?”, whispered the lady in his ears. She was dressed in a shimmering little backless black dress with high boot heels and wore rosy pink lipstick and let her short hair loose dangling over the back of her neck and pinned on the left. He had his eyes on her from the moment he saw her at the bar counter early that night. At first, it seemed to him that she was with a group of friends, but he later realized that she was by herself and just hanging around with some young boys and girls. It was Friday night and the crowd could not have been more than this. Sly Bar is his go-to over the weekends with colleagues but today was just not the day he wanted to hang out with his usual buddies. In fact, he ditched them and his usual hangout spot just so that he could spend some time on his own. He made his way to The Secret Alehouse for sheer reasons of not having to encounter known faces; after the video of his infamous tussle with his boss over the overdue promotion went viral in the entire office, he was sceptical of his friends and foe! After all, it was his most trusted friend at work who shot and circulated the video. He was in an unsettled state of mind and tried avoiding anyone and everyone. The lady’s words startled him, his thoughts started to go haywire, “perhaps she has seen the video too”, “is she here to mock me too?”, “Oh Gosh No. I should not have come here tonight.”, he thought to himself and before he could gather his thoughts right, the lady sat on the stool next to her and apologized, “I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you - This is Zoe and you?” He was still cautious, but Zoe’s pretty smile started to make him feel a bit comfortable. “Daya,” he answered. Although the music was excruciatingly loud yet there was this awkward silence between them until Zoe tried breaking some more ice when she uttered, “Haven’t seen you before here”. “Yeah, I live on the other side of town and there are quite many pubs on that side of town so I barely hang out here. In fact, it is my first time to the Alehouse. You seem to be a regular, aren’t you? “asked Daya. “Absolutely, The Secret Ale is my favourite Friday nightspot, and I live nearby so I can just walk down without having to bother about a ride. But what brings you all alone here tonight. Are you waiting for someone?”, enquired Zoe again! “Oh no, not waiting for anyone, just wanted to spend some time alone, “explained Daya. “Alone? Huh, break up?” curiously questioned Zoe. “No, nothing like that,” Daya tried to brush off. “Okk! Looks like you aren’t comfortable talking about it, so I leave it up to you. If you would like you may buy me a drink”, smirked Zoe! “Oh yeah, sure! I am so sorry I didn’t even ask, “apologized Daya. Daya turned to the guy across the counter and said, “Excuse me! Could you suggest and get us the drink for the day?” “For you sir or the lady?” inquired the bartender. “One of each for us?”, answered Daya. “Sure Sir, let me get you our special”, replied the bartender. “Thank you “, acknowledged Daya. “Impressed!” Exclaimed Zoe, “So what do you do?” “I am an architect with a construction company, what about you?” “Oh, I am a freelance writer currently working on a story for one of the popular monthly magazines and looking for some inspirations around for an interesting story! answered Zoe, “you never know, maybe you gonna be the inspiration for my next protagonist! “chuckled Zoe. They soon got quite comfortable with each other and Daya no longer felt that he was meeting Zoe for the first time. After a couple of rounds of drinks, they moved to the more formal dining section of the resto-pub with an outer sitting arrangement away from the loud music inside. They were both drunk and Daya could not help but try his best to keep the night as long as possible. It wasn’t long before he started talking about his family whom he hadn’t seen in about 2 years since he moved to the city, about his not so lively life in the city, his well-paying job but his horrible boss who choose to give his girlfriend a promotion instead of him although him being the most deserving one and how it got him into a scuffle with his boss over the same which left his boss with a broken nose and arm, eventually getting Daya arrested and stay behind the bars for 2 whole nights until the police found a phone recording from the boss’ office, “Of course darling! You are the one getting the promotion to the senior architect! and business partner” telling his girlfriend, over the phone. Daya was planning to use this evidence to file a lawsuit against discrimination and abuse of power & conflict of interest in promoting his girlfriend but he had to cut a deal with the boss who in turn dropped all charges against Daya for the scuffle and Daya chose to let go the lawsuit, but only this time. It was a win-win for both. “That turned out not so bad after all! I can imagine you breaking his nose in front of the whole office”, exclaimed Zoe. “Ah, It was a satisfying moment but ah, I don’t want to talk about it anymore, I got into enough trouble for it already!”, Daya continued after a pause, “looks like I am doing all the talking,“ concluded Daya. He was all too excited and overjoyed on the turn of events and seemed to have already fallen for Zoe. “I am just too famished right now, shall we order something to eat,” replied Zoe. Daya addressed the waiter and placed an order for some quick bites. The meal was hearty over-filling and before they knew it was already midnight, they realized it when the waiter came to the table to enquire if they would like to order anything as it was the last set of orders to be taken by the kitchen before they call it a day. “No thanks”, called out Zoe. “Cheque Please!” added Daya. “Let’s split,” proposed Zoe. “No Way! I am grateful for this lovely evening, it was my pleasure, let me do the honours”, expressed Daya! Zoe couldn’t help but blush. Daya swiped his card on the payment machine and walked out of the pub with his newfound crush. “Gosh, I need to book in a cab, drinking to the other side of town wouldn’t be a safe thing to do, Do you usually have cabs available in this area at this hour?”, enquired Daya. “Yeah, but my condo is just around the corner, if you don’t mind, we can walk over and you can leave first thing in the morning, “suggested Zoe. “what if I don’t want to leave?”, flirted Daya, “Hahhaha..by the way I got my car parked in the next lane, do you have parking available near your condo? “Oh yes, absolutely, let’s go” While walking down the dark lane right before the car, Zoe suddenly leaned over Daya and started to kiss him, he was baffled but gave in and soon it turned into a passionate moment. “get into the car”, commanded Zoe, taking a break from their passionate canoodling. They hopped on to the backseat and started to caress each other - both were wildly turned on and the effect of alcohol was visible. Zoe brought her lips closer to his ears and whispered in a chilling tone, “Can you keep a secret?” Suddenly a flashback of the evening started to play over Daya’s mind which was a couple of hours but replayed over within just over a couple of seconds and he recalled that was the first thing she asked him at the pub. “yes, what’s the secret?”, urged Daya curiously. “I am a serial killer!” declared Zoe, before bursting into a peal of hysterical laughter. Before Daya could collect his thoughts, Zoe pulled out a sharp bend pin from the back of her hair and slashed his left carotid artery and before he knew what had just happened to him, he lay there dead. “Now it’s a little secret between us,” whispered Zoe in the ears of dead Daya, She straightened her dress and strode away into the dark lanes.