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Six months after our acquaintance, shall I say, I met his cousin.
I was at a bookstore, walking through the aisles, when I bumped into her and dropped my books. Laughing and murmuring a "sorry", I bent down to pick them up and so did she. Our heads hit, we fell back, groaned, and began to laugh.
She held out her hand. "I'm Shanza."
I shook it. "Sarah."
She gave me a once over with raised brows and wide eyes. "Ah, Sarah."
I threw her a quizzical look. "You know me?"
"I know of you." I must have still looked confused because she laughed and continued, "I'm Zunair's first cousin."
My eyes widened. I had heard of her, of how the two families had been raised in the same house as children. "Oh, my God. I knew you looked familiar." I embraced her and then bit my lip, thinking she may not have liked the sudden contact. So I leaned back awkwardly, but she didn't say anything, just smiled at me.
I cursed my stupid heart.
"You live around here?"
I furrowed my brows. "Yeah, like five minutes away. Zunair didn't tell you?"
She clucked her tongue and laughed. "He has told me very little about you. He has a habit of keeping secrets."
I stopped then, her words sending a strange feeling through my weak heart. A piercing feeling. "I'm a secret?"
She gave me a smile that was almost sympathetic. "It seems that's what he's decided."
I didn't see her much after that, but my heart always dragged me to that bookstore over and over again, hoping I would be able to talk to her and get some more out of her about Zunair. Of the way he talked about me at home (if ever), of the way he felt about me.
I was looking for answers in all the places that would never give them to me.
