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

Chapter 25

“Habibti do you want to go call Houssam and the kids in to come and eat?”

Hana narrowed her eyes at Yusra who gave her an innocent smile in return.

While she wasn’t fooled, unless she wanted to bring it to Ilham’s attention about her feelings, she had to go upstairs and call them.

“Actually I’ll do it Yusra, I know Mohammad will give Houssam a hard time.” Ilham said to Hana’s relief, and as her sister left the room, Yusra smiled at her sheepishly.

“Okay don’t be mad at me!”

***
Houssam sat on the couch, bored out of his mind.

They had just finished eating dinner and praying Maghrib, and were waiting for Amir to finish making the tea so they could eat dessert. While he was grateful to Yusra and Amir for doing this dinner in his honor, and it was nice to have all of his friends around him, he just was feeling restless. He wanted to get up and move.

Right now they were discussing politics, and no offense to them, Houssam had no interest in it whatsoever. He was only half listening as Ahmad began to talk heatedly about some congressman, and when Hisham began to counter argue, waving his arms as if it would help prove his point, Houssam rose from his seat, and slipped out of the room, hurrying to the backyard before Yusra or Amir could see him and scold him for running away from his guests.

As he closed the sliding glass door behind him, and the cool air enveloped him, he let out a deep breath he wasn’t even aware he had been holding. For some reason it had been stifling in the room, which was weird because it’s not like it was strangers he had to sit with. Those were his friends. But lately he had had this sadness in the pit of his stomach and he wished he could figure out why it was there. He had thought his loneliness had gone away ever since he had gotten home, and the first few weeks it had. But lately it was back full force, and he while he had some theories as to why it had returned, he couldn’t pin point a specific cause.

Perhaps it was due to how alone he was most of the time, a one year old baby didn’t make for the most riveting of conversationalists. Perhaps it was because wherever he looked he was surrounded by happy couples. Hisham and Ilham, Amir and Yusra, and now Ahmad and Laila. Maybe he was homesick for LA, or he missed his teammates and being able to play basketball. Maybe his feelings for Kalthoum were deeper than he realized.

Or maybe it was because the person who he had come to see as a close friend was ignoring him.

If Hisham had told Houssam what he did, he couldn’t even imagine what he had told Hana. Perhaps she was staying away because of what her brother had said? Or maybe she didn’t enjoy his company and finally had had enough of him imposing on her? Of course she could just be keeping her distance from an Islamic point of view. Whatever the case may be, the hole that she had filled ever since he had come into her company again, was wider than ever now that she wasn’t there. It was weird how much he cared about her, as a friend and a sister. He had never felt close to a girl who he was not related to before, and it was a bit unsettling.

But he found himself utterly and completely intrigued by her. Everything about her from her opinions to her thoughts, to her writings, to her smile fascinated him, and it made him want to spend forever learning about her. It hadn’t escaped his notice that more than one person had asked him if he had feelings for her, but he didn’t! He honestly didn’t. When he looked at her, he felt his heart swell from happiness, and he honestly enjoyed talking with her, but there was no romance there. Part of him was relieved he didn’t like her like that because if he did, he knew he would fall hard for her. And as he knew for a fact she didn’t have feelings for him, he wouldn’t be able to handle such rejection. He may have a macho manly attitude, but he was a softy inside, and when he loved someone, he loved with all of his heart and soul, with devotion that never wavered.