Outloved

18.

'I am going to sleep. I am very tired,' I announced some time after dinner when everyone was in the living room watching a movie. I decided to go to the room early to escape Mister Irfan. I thought, like always, he'd go to his room after dinner, but since I got here, he never left my side. No matter what I did to avoid him, to give myself some time to think about everything that he said to me in the basement, it was becoming a challenge to stay away from him.

I was leaving in less than two days, and now he decided to tell me about his feelings. What was I going to do? I thought about calling Ayat to tell everything, but she hardly knew Mister Irfan, for her he was only Hamza Bhai's friend, a distant acquaintance. How would I tell that the person she trusted me with had feelings for me, and I did too? I couldn't take that risk; I had to wait to talk to her in person.

'Are you okay?' Farah glanced in my direction from television since she knew this wasn't my regular sleeping time.

'Yes, just got tired from doing all the packing' I got up from the sofa to go to my room. On my way, I caught Mister Irfan's eyes on me, and there was a sign of humor in his eyes as if he was already expecting it.

'Sleep well,' I heard him say from behind, and I turned to look at him. Farah was watching with him with a smile on her face. Did she know? I lowered my gaze and went to my room to lock myself inside until the morning, or at least that what I hoped for.

I was happy with some snacks and my laptop and wifi to spend the night in comfort when suddenly, in the middle of watching a movie, the wifi went off, and that's when it went downhill. I decided to wait for hoping to reconnect with wifi, but there was no good news. I looked at the time, and it was past midnight. Almost close to 2 am so I decided to risk it to look at the modem myself. I tiptoed my way to the living room where the modem was set up and turned on the flashlight from my phone to restart the modem when suddenly the living room lights went on, and I found Mister Irfan standing near the door watching me. I quickly got up and stepped away from the modem.

'What are you doing here?' I questioned him.

'This is my house,' He answered calmly with his hands in his pockets, slowly approaching me like he was waiting for me.

'How is the movie?' He asked me, and I glared at him. How did he know I was watching a movie when I had my headphones on.

'I saw you were sneaking some snacks to the room and telling Abeer about finishing the movie in your room,' He informed me. I didn't know he was keeping such a close eye on me.

'I should go' I tried to move to the side to walk past him, but he moved with me and blocked my exit.

'Haya' He tried to stop me.

'I don't have an answer for your Mister Irfan; I don't know what you want to hear; I am leaving in two days,' I said to him clearly, staring back in his eyes. 

'Yes, you do have an answer, Haya, please just listen to me.' He requested me as he stepped back, and I relaxed a little.

'Okay,' I agreed to listen to him. Instead of speaking to me, he started walking outside to the backyard. He left the door open and turned to face me, anticipating for me to join him. I grabbed a shawl that was lying around the sofa since it was cold and followed him outside.

'It's so cold,' I said and noticed him smiling when I wrapped the shawl tightly around me.

'I know, we can go back inside,' He suggested.

'No, it's fine' I stopped him, and he came to stand in front of me.

'Aren't you cold?' I watched him as he comfortably remained in the cold without any jacket.