I Want You to Stay

Chapter 22

Hana's POV

I was exhausted when I reached home with Sahil after having gone with the forensic scientist to see Mr Smith's car and to the store to grab surveillance camera in the surrounding areas that might have footage of Mr Andrew when he went to the store at 9 pm on the day that Mr Smith claims to have had his car stolen.

I throw myself onto the sofa thinking how the heck am I gonna cook dinner after today. I do know Sahil is going to help me, but I just don't feel like doing anything. Alhamdulilah I prayed Asr at work. Should I take a nap first or call Sarah to find out how she is doing?

Sarah went to play with Umar in Qasim's house. They are not yet back. Knowing Sarah, she will probably ask to sleepover there. But knowing her dad, he will probably use the fact that she has school the next day as an excuse to refuse letting her stay there overnight.

"What do you say we go eat out?" I hear Sahil ask me right when I was trying to gain the courage to get up and go to the kitchen.

"Are you serious?" I sit up and turn to him with a smile.

I go upstairs to get changed into a more loose and comfortable abaya and I also change my shoes from heels to flats. Sahil also changed into something more comfortable before we left the house.

I look around when we left his car to find myself in a very romantic area. The lights, the quiet streets and the Mexican restaurant right ahead of us all gave it a sentimental feeling. Why does this place seem so familiar?

"Is this..." I pause once we were sat at our table. Only then I remember coming here with my best friend Nadia, every day after school. We literally loved this place, especially because Nadia, at the time, she had a crush on the owner of this restaurant. He was ten years older than her and even though she had no chance with him because she was underage, that did not phase her. Nadia would pull me here every day even if we were broke, just to see the owner of the restaurant.

I give Sahil a smile, knowing he probably knew I used to come here a lot. Little does he know it's not because I loved the food, but because I was forced to. But I guess my passion for Mexican food started here.

I ended up ordering beef enchiladas. While pleasantly eating my food, I fall completely obvious to the fact that Sahil had not touched his food yet.

What is he looking at? - I ask myself when I notice he was distracted. He seemed shocked as he looked at something behind me.

"What is it?" I ask him as I turn back to see, but he places his hand above mine and makes me turn to look at him as he speaks.

"How is the food?" He asks me and I was going to ignore his question to try and look towards the entrance to see who was there, but he speaks again. "I think from now on you should avoid walking on your own." He tells me and that's when it hits me.

"Are you talking about the woman in the hoodie that keeps following me? Did you notice her too? Is she here right now?" I turn back, but I do not see her ad the entrance.

Sahil does not respond and that gives it away.

"If you knew, why didn't you do anything?"

"She is not a bad person." He responds, leaving me confused.

"Do you know her?" I ask, but as expected, I do not get a response. "If she is not a bad person, why doesn't she just come to me? It's obvious that she has something to tell me."

"She won't follow you around anymore. Don't worry." He tells me as if reassuring me that he would handle it.

I knew there was no point asking any more questions. Sahil wouldn't answer to any of them. He didn't even want to tell me who that person was. But now I am becoming paranoid. What if that is his ex or something? What if she is after me to seek revenge? Sahil said she isn't a bad person. Maybe I should trust him and forget about her.