LOST II

Chapter 8: "Unexpected Meetings"

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December 25, 20

Salma put the coffee on the table by the window and pulled out a napkin.

“I thought you’d be avoiding me for a while,” Sarah said from her position on the bed, without raising her eyes from the book she was reading.

“I was,” Salma admitted, putting the donut on the napkin and wiping her hands clean, “but I’ve already met the other trigger without ugly-crying so I figured I might as well see you.”

“And you brought me a donut.” Sarah smiled, reaching for the desert.

“I didn’t,” Salma replied. “He did.”

Sarah’s hand paused on her way to her mouth.

“Come again?”

Salma did not reply. She tossed the dirty napkin into the bin and removed her bag. Overcoming her existential crisis of eating the donut or keeping her pride, Sarah chose to opt for the latter and dropped the snack back on the napkin.

“Do I want to know how this happened?” Sarah asked.

Salma huffed, thinking back to what happened. She had just managed to reach the paved pathway leading up to the café when Zayn had called her.

“Bee, wait!”

Her feet halted on impulse. Realizing what she had done, Salma tried to correct her mistake by making a run for it, acting like she’d never heard him, but it was already too late. She heard his hurried footsteps catching up to her. Salma turned around to see three pairs of eyes trained on her.

An uneasy air started settling in.

“I bought coffee,” Zayn said awkwardly.

Salma’s eyes traveled from the coffee and the box of donuts in his hands to the two juniors standing just a few feet away, watching.

“The café was crowded,” Zayn said. “I thought . . .”

He trailed off when Salma turned back to him. Whatever he had thought when he dashed in to buy her a coffee, he was now clearly starting to second-guess.

You thought what? Salma scoffed in her head as her eyes silently trailed back to the box. She peeked at least a dozen donuts.

“I didn’t know what you liked,” Zayn explained, watching her skeptically eyeing the box.

“I don’t --" Salma began but then stopped. She didn’t like sweets, but must he know? She was not about to start taking treats from him anyway. And yet --

Isn’t that what she should be doing? If she refused, it would not only add to the unease that she was supposed to be working against, but also, she would be going against Sunnah. All her life, as a Muslim, she had not only accepted gifts graciously, but also used or ate some of it in front of the person to express her appreciation and gratitude.

Not to mention, she was hungry. She had made her intention to have a coffee break quiet clear when she had joined Louisa and Jason to the cafe. It’s not like she could lie about not being hungry without embarrassing herself, and him.