"This is Zain," Fajr announced to the girl who was staring in bewilderment. "He's been drooling over you for the past hour!"
"That is not true."
"Um...I'm Sura." She reached out her hand and Zain shook it slowly, feeling the softness of her skin and...
Zain sucked in a breath upon entering the bookstore. Occasionally, Sura would help out there since she knew the owner, and also because it was her dream to own a place like this oneday.
She was standing in one of the aisles–with a customer, giving them book recommendations. She looked up and acknowledged Zain with a smile. He knew that Sura had a few more minutes left of her shift but he wanted to check out the place and browse for new reads.
As he stepped on the staircase that led to the second floor, he realized just how long it had been since he had been here. The bookstore was on the other side of town and until recently, Zain had been caught up with wedding planning.
As he looked around in the science fiction section, a memory came flooding back to him.
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"No one could read these if they had a thousand lifetimes," Sura joked, pouting her lips slightly.
Immediately Fajr snorted, choking on the coffee.
Zain watched them from afar, trying to pick his next book. I think some of that coffee went in Fajr's nose, he thought, smiling to himself.
"Yes, they could," Fajr confirmed. "Trust me."
Sura and Zain looked at each other across the aisles, speaking through their eyes: she's having one of her moments, they both said silently.
Fajr realized that her two friends were smiling at each other and she turned pink, feeling as though she was watching something she shouldn't be.
Just then, Fajr's phone buzzed with a notification from Zareen and this time she spilled coffee on her hijab. "She found one! I can't believe it."
"Found what?" Zain perked up, walking over to them.
"That won't wash out," Sura commented, staring at her hyper, jumpy friend. "What did your mother find?" she questioned, holding Fajr down by both her shoulders.
"Err...nothing. Just something I wanted," she said nervously, pocketing her phone as she rushed outside.
"What was that about?" Zain whispered to Sura, putting his hands in his pockets. "What did her mom find?"
"It's probably another watch or clock she was looking for," she replied.
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