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As Dahlia Ahmad sprinted down the last couple of steps, she found the Fayyads sitting around their dining table.
It was a Friday morning. The smell of her mother's Mughlai parathas were wafting from the kitchen. The regular quietness of their house was replaced by chatter.
As Dahlia rounded the corner of their hallway, she saw the ladies of her family with the Fayyad's ones, all surrounding baby Aisha - the seemingly host of the hour. Her eyes drifted in the direction of the seating arrangement in their patio, and assumed that's where the men must be. She was jerked out of her sleep by Lily's text warning her of non-mahram men, after all.
Weekend breakfasts were always a special occasion at the Ahmad household. But as the table was set, Dahlia realized it was being kicked ten notches for the guests. Soon, the men found their places around the dining table and the women carried their plate of food inside. In the process, Dahlia caught sight of Kaveh.
She was simply loading parathas and aloo bhaji on her plate when Kaveh's piercing eyes found her and he said to her, "you look nice."
Dahlia's jaw almost touched the floor. Her panicked-gaze briskly skimmed the table. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized no one had heard him. But that did little to calm her racing heart. Her eyes landed on him again. Kaveh looked completely unabashed.
Death wish, the man had a death wish.
Her first instinct was to tell him to stay within his limits. But she couldn't bring herself to do that. So Dahlia tried to hold the reins of her palpitating heart, gave him a look and said, "Really, thought I was a cow?"
Kaveh quickly looked up from his plate of food and widened his eyes in surprise. Mortification colored his face when realization hit him that Dahlia had overheard the conversation between him and his friends nearly a year ago. She quickly exited the scene after, fighting to hold back her laughter.
The rest of the event was fairly uneventful. It was around evening when Kaveh reached out to her again. Not through words, but Dahlia found those soft pink roses on her dressing table again.
The personal touches of last time were absent, no doubt due to shortage in time as he chose swiftness over preparation. The stems of the flowers were held together by silver foil, and nestled amongst the petals was a card with his name written in his handwriting - Kaveh Fayyad.
But the flowers were the same, and the message was received loud and clear - he was sorry, again.
Lily was disappointed once more.
"Roses this time too?" she sighed. "For a man as smart as Kaveh, he sure makes a lot of stupid moves."
Dahlia's heart started doing that thing again. Part of her was outraged by his audacity, part of her was flattered. Conflicted by her own emotions, an overwhelming feeling choked her.
