If It's You Then...

Charming Hosts and Reluctant Guests

SUMMER 2022

Ahmad Shahid was dropping his first work in over two years and as expected, the hype was huge, and very real.  And Ahmad wanted to satisfy all their hopes and expectations for his work.

To top it all off, no one knew what he was dropping. The speculations were that he was dropping anthology, but a lot of his readers hoped for a novel.

He had given a date. Midnight, August 21st, on the banks of the Thames. It was one of the most hyped events of the summer, and it coincided with the climax of rappers Nick and Rick’s tour of Europe, so yeah, shit was pretty hyped up.

He had made a point to invite the most important people to his work and life first, before the guests for the media were drafted.

He made it a point to sign every card, and when he decided to sign the one that was going to Faiza; he penned an impromptu note to her.

Oh, Faiza was so important to him over these past few months and the facts that she and he had not spoken evem once was shocking. Also that she didn’t even know it was the mind boggling thing.

His brief run in with her at Henry’s office has been the defining moment of his year and the main inspiration for everything he accomplished in the past 6 months.

In spite of all the satisfaction that he got from the work, the past few months were some of the most stressful of his life, but for Ahmad, it was not the work that stressed him out, it was the fact that he was constantly thinking about Faiza and the deadpan expression she had when he saw her in Henry’s office.

He wasn’t sure what he felt, but Khaled had told him he was experiencing all the emotions that his friends experienced when they were teenagers a now that he was 43.

Iman had even teased him about it and how he was the arbitrator for all things relationship when they were kids, and he never had an actual relationship. She was currently seven months heavy with a fifth child with Khalid. It always amazed him how they maintained this level of love for over twenty years.

Today was the day of his party, and he lay on his monstrously sized bed, anxious about his party, and Faiza.

Whether she was going to grace it or not. It was weird for him, waiting for answers like that, and his mind flew back to the time Khalid stayed up all night the day he asked Iman out.

He smiled at the thought a he slid on his grey jacket over his light blue shirt, his signature look.

He looked at his notepad, and saw everybody that had replied to his invitations. His eyes narrowed as he thought about the rudeness of the others' lack of response. He shrugged at the thought and smoothed his hair.

Oh well, I have a party to host, he thought to himself.

Faiza was on her bed, scrolling through her phone, contemplating whether she should go to a party she was invited to, though she was more inclined to stay curled up in her bed for the rest of the weekend.

She picked an old fountain pen and notepad from the floor of the room she messed up the day before when she was sorting through her old stuff, trying to offload old baggage.

She wanted to check out the pros and cons of attending this party. 

The pros were that by going to the party, her career will definitely go further and it will expand her reach. She could connect with new people, meet industry stalwarts, get new ideas, the list was endless.

The cons, or more like the CON, was the fact that the host if the party, Ahmad Shahid, the great author had taken an interest her when she met him. It was subtle, but she saw it, and she wasn’t comfortable with the fact, and she didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.

She didn’t entertain men in her life anymore. No. Not after everything they had done to her. Her head told her to go, but her heart was adamant that she didn’t.

She thought about it a great deal, and decided after much persuasion from her, that it was in the best interest of her career to attend the party.

She knew she would be late, as she lived a good a hour and half from the venue at the Thames, and preparing for the event would take at least an hour if the twins were in the right mood, but she didn’t mind, because as far as she knew men, they would never take offence with a girl they were interested in.

Now that she had won the battle with herself, it was time for another battle, this time with her roommates, twins Farida and Fadila. They had been trying to convince her to go to the event, even trying to convince her to take one of them.

Today, they had an event they had to go, and they had spent the all time they had to spare trying to force her to go, and now that she had finally decided, she knew she had a great teasing battle to face with them. She didn’t care though, they would come around eventually.

She got up from bed, and looked at the mirror. Even this messy, she still looked cute and attractive. She smiled at the thought. She untied the scarf that held her dark hair in place, and put the hair in a messy bun. She Peeled off her baggy shirt and sweatpants and hit the shower.
She had a crowd to impress.

Thames River
21st August
6:55 and the show was about to begin. The red carpet was swarming with his celebrity guests. It was a pretty hotspot, and the press were having a field day. Ahmad always let fans get in touch with the celebrities he mingled with, and they had their fill of their favourite celebrities.

The red carpet had been on since five on the evening, and he had never as nervous to host a party as he was today.

Since when the first guests arrived he had been scanning the place for his special invited guest. He hoped he didn’t go to far with his note to her. At this point he had given up her showing and just went on with his event, not showing any signs of any disruption.

It was past eight when he was told to prepare for the big announcement. In a very unusual way, he started stuttering unnecessarily and lost his words more than a few times. But he was still mesmerising his guests with his charm and politeness. He stared at the satisfied looks on the faces of his guests and wondered why it had to be Faiza that would not be able to make it here tonight. Oh well.

He was called backstage to rehearse the announcement, and all of a sudden he felt really nervous. His insecurities started creeping in. He suddenly felt like he wasn’t good enough for this world. He took off his jacket and sat in a corner in a way that was similar to that night in 1996. He pushed away the bad memory and went back to his activity.

He went through his speech one more time, and wore his jacket. He walked back into the room and was called onto the stage by Henry. He was cheered by all in the room and he suddenly felt all emotional.

He started his speech, saying “It has been a wild few years for me, and for all of us. Over that time, I had a lot of reflection and self healing. I know I have got a lot of you anxious. Don’t worry. I got you covered. This time, I got inspiration from a very unlikely place, a place of hope, rather than a place of pain and hurt. And that place is...” And the doors flew open and the cameras were shuttering like crazy.

The crowd was buzzing, and they had Ahmad stop mid speech. It was a frantic fifteen minutes as the ushers tried to calm the audience. The audience was finally calm, and Ahmad saw what the commotion was about.

Faiza was here.

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