She hated the warmth.

She hated the fluttering.

She hated every single positive feeling she got from making eye contact with him. She shouldn't feel this way, not after so long.

It was wrong.

And yet Nila didn't feel very guilty as she guided her eyes over his built body.

Whatever trace of baby fat and puberty acne he had, was completely vanquised.

What remained was a pretty vision.

"Nila, give me the coffee." Saba called out from her bed.

Nila realised she'd been staring too long at Mikhail, and a slight blush crept over her cheeks. She lowered her face so her hair would cover the embarassment and walked past him towards her cousin.

She handed Saba and Bilal their coffee and greeted the parade that was Mikhail's family.

"So what university do you go to?" Amjad asked.

"Cambridge." Nila said simply.

"That's where I went. Mik was too dumb to get in though." He joked.

"You're just jealous because I got into Oxford." The little brother called back.

Nila's heart sped up when she realised the boy was still behind her. He was still there.

"Ignore him. He's not as smart as us two. So what do you study?"

And so Nila began to answer a long sequence of questions Amjad asked, without noticing Mikhail slipping out nor the expression that hooded his face as his older brother cosied up to her.

♧

Okay i got to give them a scene together, but since that's not possible in the present form i going to do a little...

flashback.