I gulp, trying to do away with the sudden dryness on my tongue.
‘Maya … hey. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.’
‘Right? Me neither!’ Zulaykha says, though, unlike me, she’s clearly delighted by the surprise. ‘I knew she was back, but I figured she was too much of a celebrity these days for the likes of us. You should hear her stories, Dina. You used to be into football, right? I bet you’dlovethem.’
I almost wince, and even Maya seems uncomfortable by the turn in the conversation from the way she ducks her head instead of looking at me again.
‘I have to go find my brother. It was nice seeing you,’ I mumble, knowing it’s barely an excuse, and turn around.That’s enough socialising, I think to myself, as I go in search of Deen. He’s hovering by some of the uncles, awkwardly nodding and smiling as they loudly talk over him about what they think he should do with the restaurant. He catches my eye across the hallway, and it’s almost like he can see the panic in me. He mumbles something to the uncles and sidles over to me.
‘What’s up?’
‘Maya’s here.’
Deen’s eyes widen with the appropriate amount of surprise. ‘You saw her?’
‘Italkedto her,’ I say, though I’m not sure if that brief exchange could really qualify as talking. ‘Honestly, maybe I should leave. I don’t know why I came here anyway. Ishouldbe focusing on the football match coming up and I still don’t know how I’m going to get kit for the Divas, because Jen says there’s no funding for it, and if we don’t have kit then—’
Deen’s hand on my shoulder interrupts me. When I meet his gaze, he gives me a sympathetic smile. ‘Dina, you are spiralling. And you can’t leave, we just got here, and wehaven’t even eaten yet. We all drove together, remember?’
‘Right.’ I glance back to where I can now make out Maya and Zulaykha, still engaged in conversation, Maya’s back turned away from me.
‘There are a lot of people here. You can avoid her.’ Deen sounds confident about that, so I nod, mostly because I don’t really have any other choice but to try to avoid her.
‘Yeah, I’ll just stay away from her. Actually, I’m just going to go to the bathroom.’And stay there for as long as possible, I think but don’t say out loud.
I stumble in my small pencil heels up the stairs and to the small bathroom on the right, closing the door behind me.
I don’t actually have to use the bathroom, of course, but it’s nice to be away from all the noise and hustle and bustle for even a moment. Up here, away from the rest of the dawat, the sound from downstairs is muffled. I close the lid of the toilet and sit down on top of it, trying to calm my heart, which has been beating a little too fast since I spotted Maya.
Maybe I should have expected to see her socially now that she’s back. Of course, she would want to get back to her social life – see her old friends, go to the same dawats that her parents used to drag her to when she was younger. When we were kids, we didn’t really attend the same dawats, but we had the occasional run-ins. In the beginning, it was always strange to see her away from school, though even at dawats she was always the image of perfection. While I always felt like I was on the outside looking in.
And then, for a while, Iwantedto run into her everywhere and anywhere. We would use dawats to sneak off and find our own little corner; sharing secrets and giggling in hushed voices so nobody else would be privy to us. A shiverruns down my spine at those memories, as if that Maya is here right now, like I can still feel the heat of her body beside mine; the prickle of her touch making my skin break out into a fresh bout of goosebumps.
I shake my head, trying to rid myself of those memories, just as a loud knocking sound comes from outside. I guess that’s as much time as I get to myself in the bathroom.
Getting up, I take a deep breath and unlock the door.
As luck would have it, the person on the other side of the door is none other than Maya.
Chapter 15
Maya
Eighteen days to the match
I almost recoil at the sight of Dina in the bathroom doorway. I wasn’t expecting to run into her here at the dawat and I certainly wasn’t expecting to run into herhere. I thought I would be safe here from all the probing questions from everyone, about what I’m up to now, and how will I get a good job without a proper university degree? They weren’t saying it with any form of judgement, but I could still see the sympathy behind their eyes with every word.
I’d had enough of it, and I needed to get away. But it isn’t like there is a place to get away at a dawat. There are people around every corner. Apparently, even in the bath-room.
‘What are you doing here?’ Dina demands.
‘I didn’t know you were the only one allowed to use the bathroom,’ I say.
Dina fixes me with a glare. ‘I should have known it was you, hammering at the door like you’re entitled to the bathroom or something.’
I scoff, because I certainly wasn’t hammering at the door. And if Iwas, it’s only because everything at this dawat has been much more overwhelming than I was expecting. Seeing Dina was just the last straw.
‘I wasn’t hammering, but I would appreciate it if you would move.’ I make a motion with my hand for her to scootch out of the bathroom, but it’s clearly the wrong thing to do.
