Twice His Age

7: Midnight Pancake

Anas quickly snatched his arm away from her hold and she couldn't keep the fascination away from her eyes, she was chuckling softly. "Come, tell me what you've been doing to get such biceps!" She joked, moving towards him while he moved back a little, she was laughing.

"Beeha, what are you trying to do? Who talks about a man's biceps at almost eleven at night? Alone on the street?" He managed to utter and she punched him lightly on the arm, chuckling when she got in contact with his muscle.

"Oh, my amazing Allah! Anas, I'm just noticing your beard. I mean, I've seen it, but it has never occurred to me that a man has to be a bit grown up to have it." Maybe coming out of the house at this time of the day when the wind was a bit chilly and the weather not as harsh as the usual Adamawa weather had done so much to her mental well-being. Because she couldn't imagine where all this playfulness came from.

"Beeha, what do you think you're doing?" He asked, taking some steps back when she kept nudging his arm and trying to pinch his beard. "Don't you know it's a sign of disrespect to touch a man's beard in that playful manner?"

"And who's the man?" She asked, grinning while she moved toward him. She didn't even know how the years had passed and now Anas was even funnily thinking of himself as a man. "I don't see a man here, all I see is my grown-up cousin or is it even a nephew, having a beard and muscles as though he wasn't that little boy in his diaper that cries while he follows me around the..."

"Beeha..." He called out sternly and stood rigid when she moved towards him to pull at his beard, making her nearly lose her balance until he took a hold of her shoulders and they stood facing each other, both with different emotions glinting from their eyes.

She stared up into his eyes and saw something she had never done before. And the way he had called her name? That was the first time she had Anas sounding that way, if she could be a bit truthful, he sounded like a man. The eye contact was unnerving her soul in a way she had never expected and she wondered what the meaning of that was. He slightly squeezed her shoulder and that reminded her of where they were and how close they were.

So, she squeezed her shoulder out of his hold and took a few steps back. "Look at you, all serious and whatnot. We both know you won't frighten me, right?" She softly rolled her eyes at him, in a quest for her to push away the kind of thoughts that were trying to suffocate her lungs.

She sat back on the slap she was currently sitting on before he asked her to get into his car. Because now, she had decided that she wasn't getting into his car and to her surprise, he didn't even argue or talk about his car again when he sat down beside her, this time, the space he had left between them was prominent enough.

She chuckled softly, staring at the space between them. "What? Do you think you're now man enough to be leaving such space between us? Ah lallai, truly, the boy has grown."

"Would you have wanted it better if I do this?" He asked, and in a swift, moved closer to her so that their hips were aligned with each other and he wrapped his arm around her back, holding her shoulder from behind.

She abruptly looked up at him and found him staring deeply into her eyes. She shrugged to get him off her, because what the hell was this? But he tightened his hold on her and grinned mischievously.

"What? Does it make you uncomfortable? Or perhaps, I'm now man enough to make you feel..." Sabeeha couldn't even imagine what will come out of his lips, so, she punched his chest with her elbow he involuntarily released his hold on her shoulder and she shifted a bit away from him.

"You've forgotten how I used to bathe you, right? If you dare say a word about whatever it is you're thinking of, I won't hesitate to beat you here, Anas." He must've found her expression and how she had tried so hard to sound serious and so funny because instead of him replying to her threat, he simply broke into a peal of laughter.