His Little Neighbour

five

"This is going to be the last chips I promise, mama." Malaika raised her brows at those lines. She smacked her daughter with the same chips packets but added that one in her cart anyway. Mashal grinned ear to ear and went on to search for another snack to purchase.

"Ohmigod, this flavour was just released recently, I heard that it's so yummy. Can we buy this one as well, please? Mama..." She pouted cutely, hoping for her mother to fall for those tricks, "don't forget that I have passed on those looks to you, darling. It won't work on me. You have enough snacks for a week. Get going now. I have to do grocery shopping as well." Her mother retorted exasperatedly and walked away with the cart. With a sheepish smile, she still slipped the biscuits into the cart and followed her mother behind like an innocent child.

"I saw that," a new voice which came from behind, startled her in surprise. She gave a confused look to the stranger who was smiling at her with a knowing look on her face. The lady looked like someone of her mother's age, she had an elegant aura around her.

"I saw you slipping the biscuits in your mother's cart when she asked you not to," the stranger whispered to her with a mischievous smile.

"Mama pretends to be strict, but she doesn't mind, as long as we don't waste what we buy it's fine by her," Mashal whispered back with a chuckle. The stranger chuckled along making Malaika stop and turn around. She now had a surprised look on her face.

"Amina, what a sweet surprise." Her mother exclaimed in amazement before engulfing the lady in a brief hug.

"Assalamualaikum." Both the ladies greeted together and laughed at the coincidence before replying to the salaam in chorus again. Another laughter followed suit.

Mashal looked at both of them in amazement as she smiled at the sight. Looks like the lady was her mother's long lost friend or something.

"Is she your daughter?" Amina now turned to look at her with a wide grin on her face, Mashal felt a good and positive vibe from this stranger. She nodded with a smile, as she admired her Kurti. It was from her favourite designer.

"Masha Allah. She's so pretty. Looks so much like you," Amina muttered cheerfully, "Hania appi said that you guys visited last week. I was planning to invite you all to my house this week actually."

"Yes. It's been so long. We should definitely meet up. How're your daughters?" Malaika asked her as they walked to select vegetable side by side.

Mashal felt left out in the conversation and took it as a chance to run to the corner of the chocolate section. Without thinking much, she grabbed almost every flavour with the exception of everything that included nuts. She hated nuts and chocolates mixed together. Whoever invented that was surely very crazy.

She took out her own cart and placed all those Chocolates inside and walked aimlessly towards the snacks corner again, hoping to find something else to eat. Her eyes twinkled brightly as she spotted ice-cream boxes. Just as she opened the fridge's door, another hand held the handle at the same time as her.

Their hands brushed for a brief second before that guy pulled away. She felt her breath hitch as that familiar cologne invaded her nostrils. How could she just identify him so easily like this?

He stood behind her, waiting for her to take one ice cream and move away. But she couldn't get herself to move her legs nor was her mind working properly.

"Can you please hurry up?" Came his familiar yet annoyed voice.

Why is he always so annoyed?

Feeling stupid, she walked away from there whilst leaving her cart full of chocolates behind and not taking the ice cream which she was so excited about. A huff left escaped her lips as she stood farther away from him and gawked at him angrily. She was angry at herself the most, for giving a stranger this much power over her feelings.