I was laughing, I was cringing until
Until I saw me with you standing still.

"Hello, Selena beta (child)? How are you? Are you both on the way?", Mrs. Hafeez asks.
"Y-yes. I guess. Sheerin Aunty..."
"What is it? If Aariz is giving you a hard time tell me.", her voice tense with concern.

She huffs as she tries to keep up with Aariz's pace. The orange evening sun makes sweat drops on Aariz's neck glisten. She stares at Aariz who has snatched tissue papers from her and is wiping sweat beads from his forehead.

"We are okay. We just got tricked by someone who handcuffed us. Now we are going to the locksmith.", there is radio silence on both ends broken only by Selena's heavy breathing. There was no right way to break this to them.

"God! I am so unfit.", Selena winces.
"It's hot!", Aariz complains, tapping tissues on his forehead.
"Please! It is still spring in here.", she rolls her eyes at him, "You know better than me what hot is in terms of Dubai."

"Selena?", her mom says. They both fall silent.
"Yes mom?", she places her phone on the bonnet, "Don't worry I am alright. And yes I ate. I'll talk to you later.", she cuts the call.

"GOD! WHY DO YOU HAVE SUCH FRIENDS!", she shoves her phone into her pocket. She stares at her coat and mumbles. The stain is not going anytime soon. She whines, stomping her feet on the asphalt road in the parking lot. An old man standing nearby putting his coins in the RTA's machine glances at them. Aariz's eyes meet the man's eyes. His eyes demand the answers he doesn't have so he waves at him with an uncomfortable smile and a nod.

Aariz stares at her but then silently moves towards the driver's seat. She trips again but this time catches hold of the car door handle, "A little warning would have been nice."

"Sit." he opens the door.

"What? Here?", she closes the door and leans against the car. He opens the door and opens the compartment below the armrest and gets the entire tissue box out. From the car door holder, he gets his one-liter water bottle out and closes the door. He places the tissue box on the car roof and uncaps the water bottle.

His mouth kisses the opening of the water bottle chugging down the water with a few drops escaping trickling down his neck. The glistening of water mixed with sweet beads makes Selena look down. Thunk! He places the uncapped bottle on the metallic roof. The metallic thunk makes Selena looks up. Her eyes meet his. The sun rays illuminate the honey brown specks in the pools of coffee brown pools. He huffs. His eyes still fixated on her wiping his puffy rose wet lips into his sleeves.

She wants to fold her arms and pretend she never saw what she has seen. He soaks tissues with water and places them in her restraint hand. She turns around to look at him.

"Brilliant idea!", she mocks him, "if I smudge this chocolate it will look like a late period stain."

"except it's in the front.", he adds. His sleeve is still wet.

"Gosh!", she straightens up and takes two steps away from him, "I can't even remove it! It's so embarrassing!"

"It's embarrassing but not as much as you when you open your mouth. See...", he damps the tissues again and walks in front of her, "Can I?"

"No." she snatches the tissue paper ball dripping with water from him and rubs it against the cloth of the coat around the first button. The shirt beneath is brown that has masked the stain but she still could smell it all over her chest, "Look away I am cleaning my shirt."

"Not like you're taking it off.", he turns away making a monotonous remark.

After a few minutes of vigorous rubbing, the tissue starts to crumble away, "I need more tissues."

"It's there on the roof.", he still does not turn around.

She stares up at the roof. Her short hands barely touching the Land Cruiser's door's upper part, "I cannot... Reach...", she moves towards the car, yanking him backward. She opens the door and steps up to get stuff down. As she steps down, she notices his hand raised in the air. He leans against the car. She hands him the bottle and the tissue and leans against the car beside him.

Aariz can feel the heat surging within him because of the proximity. The deja vu throws him back into the April of 2013 when they first met in Abu Dhabi. Her family was a new addition to his parents' friends' circle.

The very first late-night they had been out leaning against some stranger's car parked in the parking lot as the parents said their final goodbyes as his family had to travel to Dubai. She had been wearing a white polka dots T-shirt with a brown shrug over it. Her black shiny hair was cut in layers held back by a headband with white fake jasmine flowers on one end.

Aariz, Selena and Nooran her cousin. She, being the tallest, stood between the two of them making fun of their heights with her hand wrapped around Nooran. And the cascade of jealousy he has felt ever since is insurmountable.

"You talked to the locksmith?", she breaks the chains of his thoughts.
"Yeah."
"Is he coming here?"
"No."
"So we have to meet him somewhere?"
"Yes.", he hands her the soaked tissue she throws it in the direction of a dustbin nearby and caps the bottle after snatching it from him.
"Let's go.", she answers and opens the driver's door and gets in first, crawling into the passenger seat.

---

How's the chapter?

So how are you guys doing?