Operation: Dard and Devotion

2 | Crushes & Caution

Having nothing productive to do since I was stuck in Paris' Charles De Gaulle International Airport, I rested my laptop on my lap and decided to video call my roommate and best friend, Natalia Yakov, considering she was online on Skype.

Nat and I had been friends ever since I first joined the local public school in the fifth grade, despite us being a pair of somewhat polar opposites. She was unusually perky most of the time and highly optimistic about everything, whereas I consider myself to be more practical and pessimistic to an extent, and only if necessary.

She was pretty, weird and dorky then, and a blend of all three even more so now. In addition to her quirkiness, she is extremely loyal and a very caring friend. From just one glance, she can tell when I'm faking a smile or when I am upset about something; her inner psychologist would often burst forth on duty.

We survived each other's antics all throughout grade school and eventually decided that we could put up with each other enough to be college roommates at Columbia University. She knew of the uneasy divide between my parents and I, but that certainly didn't stop her from indulging in cultural knowledge. I introduced her to Bollywood and Arab films and music, and taught her some Urdu and Arabic. She even bought her own copies of Bollywood DVDs and listened to ghazals while reading their translations. Basically, she was a Caucasian-Desi/Arab herself.

Nat accepted the call immediately. "Hey Hayat! Where in the world are you now?"

"I'm in Paris for a two-hour layover, well, actually there's half an hour left. It's really humid over here, but the Wi-Fi is excellent so I'm dealing with the cons. How's Indonesia so far?"

"Probably even more humid than where you are," she said. "Just wait until you get to Jordan; you're going to melt! Oh, wait, its winter there now, isn't it?" I nodded, and she continued. "Today was kinda nice; it is strange only because I haven't stepped foot out of mainland USA until now, but it's not so bad here. It was pouring outside this morning and the kids taught me how to use a giant banana leaf as an umbrella."

I chuckled. "Been there, done that," I told her as I remembered trekking through my father's ancestral property in Pakistan. He inherited acres of farmland, but since he doesn't plan on permanently residing there until after some years, the land had become heavily forested over time.

"Yeah, yeah. Oh, by the way, your boyfriend messaged me the other day asking where you were going for this spring semester internship." Her brown ringlets bounced up and down as she wriggled her eyebrows at me.

I gave the screen a blank stare. "What boyfriend?" I asked slowly.

"Mr. Marcello DiLuca." She rolled her eyes at me as I groaned.

"Tell him I'm in China," I muttered. Marc is my friend, however, he fancies me a little too much for my liking.

"If you want to lie, make sure it's at least believable," she told me. "He's not stupid; he's doing his masters in International Affairs with a concentration in International Security Policies and minoring in Middle Eastern Studies like you. Obviously he knows you're not going to China out of all places."

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "So what did you tell him?"

"Jordan," she replied guiltily, trying very hard to avoid my glare.

"Great job, Nat." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"But, he's thinking of accepting the offer to intern at the UN," she piped up. "He said he wasn't so sure about going to the Middle East for an internship for himself."

"Oh, that makes things better," I told her sarcastically. "Knowing him, he'll follow my scent all the way to the village schoolhouse."

"Come on, he's not all that bad." Nat's green eyes widened as she attempted to reason with me. "He's cute, smart, funny, and he actually likes you. Not many guys can put up with your sass, you know. Just marry him, okay?" She concluded mockingly.