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

Chapter 50

“I know. I will be okay. I just need time to get over it.”

To get over him?

Impossible.

It had been her deepest wish for years upon years to be able to call him hers, and now that she had been so close, it would never lessen her affection towards him. Perhaps she would heal, perhaps she would be able to move on. But he would always be the love that she had always known.

“I hope so. It isn’t right for someone to be hurting this much! You worry me.”

“How so?”

“You aren’t acting like you anymore. You’re just acting heartbroken and sad. Do your father and I need to be concerned?”

She shook her head.

“No. I will recover soon enough, you will see. He has only been gone for four days. It is still fresh. Just give me some time.”

Her mother nodded before pulling a small package from the folds of her apron.

“This just came in the mail today for you. I will leave you to open it alone.”

After placing a kiss on her daughter’s head, her mother departed, leaving her to stare anxiously at the unmarked package.

There was no return address nor a sender. Her address was written in a hand that looked like it was in a vast hurry, and as she opened the box, a simple sheet of paper fell out, depicting two words.

Two simple words that cut her to her very core.

 Dearest Heart

She eagerly tore into the wrappings, and as the papers fell away to reveal the gift hidden inside, she put a hand to her mouth with a gasp.

For in the folds of the package, was a state of the art top of the line, telephoto lens.

***

As the pilot announced their arrival time as closing in on fifteen minutes, Houssam put his chair in the upright position, gathered up the trash that had collected over the five hour flight, and after handing it to the passing stewardess, he turned his attention to the window. He could briefly make out New York through the white sea of the clouds that arrested his view, and he felt a small tremble of anxiety in the pit of his stomach. Surprisingly it was not musings and fears of a new home and team that had kept him occupied through the whole flight. But it was the departing look on Hana’s face as he had left her side days before that haunted him. Her eyes, her beautiful brown eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears.

Tears that she had been resisting because of him.

It had taken everything in his power not to delicately take her face in his hands and say farewell in a way where there would be no doubt as to the agony he was feeling in being away from her. So far the distance between them had only served to make him yearn for her. It had not clarified any feelings as his brother had promised.

But now, as John F. Kenney airport was beginning to come into view, the fluttering in his stomach was becoming intensified by the second, and he knew this time it was due to his new surroundings. He was to meet Harold at baggage claim, where they would go to Houssam’s new house, before meeting the managers of the Knicks team to officially sign the paperwork.

He was excited.

He could not deny that.

To begin a new chapter, to be able to meet new teammates, to be coached under new and different direction, it was intriguing.

But at the same time, he was terrified.

Terrified of change. Terrified of different. Terrified of being alone.