Twice Upon Qadr - A Shot At Love **EDITING**

Chapter 12

“Amu  Houssam will you come play with me?!” Layla asked, putting her little hand in his, and he smiled at her before handing Kareem to his dad. 

“Of course! Let’s go!” he allowed the little girl to lead him to the playground, and they played hide and seek, and tag for a little while before a group of young men came towards them. Houssam eyed them wearily, wondering what they wanted.

“Excuse me? You’re Hoozam Shayk right!?” one of them asked, and when Houssam nodded, an excited murmur went through the group, before the boy extended a notebook. “Can I have your autograph!?”

For the next twenty minutes, Houssam signed autographs and took pictures, and one little old lady even had him talk on the phone with her grandson who apparently was his biggest fan. Once the crowd of admirers finally let up, Houssam went back to the table with Layla in tow, and a few minutes later they got ready to leave.

“Hey bro do you want to go out for dinner tomorrow?” Amir asked, and Houssam nodded.

“Sounds good! Bros night out just like the old days!”

Amir smiled, wondering if Houssam would be angry when he realized why Amir wanted to go out with him.  

***

“Amtu can I color?”

Hana looked up from her desk with a smile.

“Of course Lulu.”  She said handing her niece a notebook and some crayons. Layla took it with a grin missing a tooth, she had lost it prematurely falling down the stairs, and went back to sit next to her brother who was playing furiously on his Gameboy. It was about an hour before Islamic Studies class, and as Dawud was in Hana’s class and Layla was in Miss Laila’s which was at the same time, she always took them with her. She had had to come in early because she hadn’t prepared for class as she had been too preoccupied with the newspaper. Alhamdulillah it was going well, and within the next week she would be ready to meet with her team. She had filled all the positions, Kalthoum covering youth groups, Hisham the Sahaba, Yusuf layouts, Amir had agreed to do the interfaith events as he was on the Masjid board and helped plan them, another of her friends, Yasmine, was doing guest Khateebs and other lecturers, she was going to split influential Muslims in history and today with Abdullah from Hisham’s Halaqah, and of course, she had Houssam doing current events.

Houssam.

She had tried most faithfully not to think about him for the past week, and she had done awesome! Okay she had done pretty well. FINE! She had done okay!

Okay, okay she had thought about him nonstop!

Sheesh.

But from this moment on, she would think of him in a total professional manner. He wasn’t Houssam Shaykh, the wonderfully amazing man that she was head over heels for, he was Houssam Shaykh, her big brother’s best friend, someone that was on her team for the newspaper, and someone that she would only see as a brother and a friend…

Suddenly Houssam dashed into the room, and hurriedly closed the door behind him, peering anxiously out the window of the door before quickly pushing the piece of paper back into place.

“Hana!” he exclaimed as he spun around and saw her standing there. “Do you have the key to lock this door!?”

She stood staring at him in astonishment, not able to find her voice.

“Amu Houssam!” Layla exclaimed, and as she dashed at him, he swung her up into his arms before walking towards Hana.

“Hana do you have the key!?” he asked again, and she cleared her throat.