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"As if." She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "He won't marry me."
Layla was sitting on the edge of the roof, her legs dangling from the seventh floor. It was a spot she often found comfort sitting in after a day of excessive anxiety. It had been such a long day at work, Layla felt like taking a vacation from being herself.
"Did he tell you that?" The voice spoke from her phone.
"My dear best friend, we have been at each other's throats since the first day of my job." I reminded her.
"Well, you never know Layla, it might be like the enemies to lovers kind of story." The best friend spoke.
"Yeah, this is real life. It doesn't happen like that." Layla further added. "It's like going hiking for a unicorn. One, you'll get tired. Two, you'll get bruises and cuts. Three, you won't even find a unicorn at the end of it all!"
"You have too little faith in fate." Yasmeen spoke.
"I have too much faith in fate." Layla countered the statement. "I know 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 what NOT to expect."
"Okay, fine." Yasmeen was, Layla felt, probably exhausted by the little belief in love that her best friend had. "But at least forgive him now."
"After today, I am never forgiving him." Layla said stubbornly. "He ruined my presentation by pulling a false fire alarm! It took me almost three hours into midnight to finish that. I hope he's fired."
"Allahu akbar, this girl!" Yasmeen chided. "Stop being so rude, maybe he genuinely thought there was a fire."
"Yeah? And he genuinely thought that right about the time I was giving my presentation?" I squinted in anger at the city lights before me.
"This is not good, Layla." Yasmeen sighed. "You have so much hatred filled in your heart, it's disturbing everything else around you."
"Yeah, spoon-fed it to me." Layla spoke. "Now I'm the scariest Angry Bird."
"This isn't a joke. It's honestly affecting your mental health." Yasmeen said sternly. "Stop being so childish and give people a second chance. And when they fail you again, step back and block them from your life. It's totally okay to do that."
"I can't leave this job, if that's what you mean." Layla said.
"I'm asking you to consider forgiving him." Yasmeen told her gently. "You are suffering from this anxiety for far too long and it's not good. If you can't say something good, just remain silent. It's not worth all the dreadful things you're feeling right now."
"I don't know how to, okay?" Layla said shrilly, on the verge of tears. "He's just so annoying. I get worked up every time I think of him."
"That's the first step, you don't think about them anymore when you forgive them." Yasmeen said. "Listen, Layla, a span of life, a million stories later, all that you are will only be all that is left of your shadows. So free your heart of constraints and forgive — the more seeds of anguish you bury, the wider your forest of restlessness is going to be."
"What you just said sounds just like what I feel." Layla said softly. "Okay, I'll try to do that."
"Don't get mad again, but sometimes, when you look past all the mistakes — you might actually find him agreeable enough to marry." Yasmeen giggled.
Layla actually imagined it. It wasn't like she looked at him every time he passed by her in the office, but he had a natural tendency to create a stir. It was so ironic that he was nice to everyone but her, she once wondered if there was something wrong with her.
She had always been told by others that once when her computer broke down, he had fixed it without her knowing. But she'd gotten mad at him for not asking permission. Layla sometimes wondered if rudeness was one of her most prominent traits, and it worried her. He'd never want to marry her. Would she…?
"Okay, now we're daydreaming again." Layla chuckled in amusement.
"It's not impossible." Yasmeen told her. "Just be a little open-minded. Everyone is struggling in their own battles, kindness and second chances sometimes cost nothing."
