(January 1, 3 AM)

Kabir Ahmed and Claudia Vespucciani had been going out for two months now. In fact it could almost be said they were dating.

This was very much on Ahmed’s mind, as he accompanied her to the front door of her flat after the New Year’s Eve Ball at the Ministry. Decked out in his best...a white uniform with gold braid on the sleeves, his actual medals, not just the ribbons, on his chest, and a gold-braided turban...he had danced until his feet ached in the knee-high riding boots, listened to several hours’ worth of bad jokes from the Ministers, complimented their wives on dresses that were worse, and even allowed himself a glass of wine, to toast in the New Year. 

But now, as new snow began to drift lazily down, he watched Claudia unlocking her door and felt stymied. “Should I kiss her?” he wondered silently. “Or...would that be assuming too much? Yes, I hear the gossip when I’m on Level 2...that she has been around a bit. But that is her business, not mine...”

 “Then again...” he told himself, “we have been going out for two months now. I have always assumed it was just as friends...but perhaps I am too slow. After all it was that very thing which drove Sanjana insane...at least in the beginning.”

Like many big, active men, Ahmed was painfully shy. In fact, had his late wife not been bold as brass they would probably never have married. They would still be arguing over the smugglers he arrested, and she represented in court. It was how they had met, and they had a number of very loud yelling matches which greatly amused the fascinated bystanders; until one day Sanjana demanded that he shut up and kiss her. Which he had...

“So...” he thought, watching snowflakes swirl and settle in Claudia’s dark hair. "Which would she find more insulting? If  I kiss her...or if I do not?"

But wait... shouldn’t we also be wondering if Ahmed wanted to kiss her? Well, of course he did. Why else would he be thinking about it?