An Echoing Race.

Chapter Ten.

#Chapter Ten#

My hand flew to my mouth in embarrassment. 

Oh my God, Sameena. You did not just call him Mystery Man in front of both your family and his.

Yes. Yes, you did.

Dammit!

It had been two minutes! Two minutes and I had already made a fool of myself.

“Well if you prefer that to be my name, then so be it,” Tariq smoothly replied, making everyone in the room chuckle. I could feel that my cheeks were a flaming red at this point and I tried to laugh along with them. In reality, I felt like crawling into a hole and hiding for the rest of my miserable, humiliating life.

“Sorry, I don’t know where that came from.” 

Well I do, but let’s not dwell on that for now.

“It’s not a problem,” he ensured, although I could see he was still trying not to laugh. His lips were twitching, causing the slightest of dimples to appear at the corners of his mouth.

“Please, take a seat,” baba said, waiting for everyone to sit before he did himself. I planted myself next to Ziad and I didn’t miss the odd glances my siblings were throwing my way, probably wondering what that comment was all about.

I gave Sarah the ‘I’ll tell you later’ look, before turning back around to face the front. I didn’t fail to realise how the empty seat they had left for me was conveniently placed right next to Tariq. We were sitting diagonally from each other, both sitting on the corner of our separate couches. I was still hot with embarrassment so I tried my hardest not to look at him from my peripheral vision. 

“I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere,” Sarah started, directing her comment to Tariq.

“It might’ve been at the High Tea.” 

“Ah yes! You were the one bravely defending Sameena,” she practically sang.

I tried not to smile when his cheeks began to tinge red. “Yes, that was me. Although I can’t say I regret it; that man had no idea what he was saying.” 

I glanced at him to find that he was already staring at me; gauging for my reaction probably. I cleared my throat awkwardly and blanked on how to respond. 

“Well that was very nice of you,” baba spoke up, saving me from saying anything. “But I must say, other than that lad, the evening went quite well, wouldn’t you agree Tariq?” 

“Yes it did. I met some very nice and outspoken people that night and each one of them were telling me how happy they were that they had a platform to speak their views.” Tariq shifted in his seat to get more comfortable, stretching his legs out just a tad.