Endurance

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Mansoor waved by the parking lot and walked towards Layla. Smiling he greeted when she slid out of the commercial car. Giving him a nod, she tried to breathe and decelerate the beating of her heart. They walked side by side into the cozy coffee shop and she got in when he held the door for her. Layla had no idea what he wanted to talk about but she did hope that it was something good because anxiety was consuming her whole. He gently pushed the chair in after she took a seat at the comfortable seats of the shop, the aesthetically appealing combination of colors and furniture catching her eye as she appreciated the warm atmosphere of the room.

"What would you like to order?." Mansoor cracked her attentiveness to their environment, turning her eyes on him. Layla looked away from the intensity of his gaze as they surveyed hers causing her to wonder if he was searching for something that ran in the depths of her soul in hopes of finding it.

Such wicked eyes.

"I'll have some coffee with cream. And a cube of sugar." The meekness of her reply startled her because this was not how she had planned this outing to be. She had practiced how to act in Mansoor's presence ever since he sent her a DM on Instagram. How he managed to find her handle, she had no idea because she wasn't even using 'Layla' on it and now all that rehearsal in an attempt to come off as bold had already went down the drain the moment she had laid eyes on his poised figure leaning on his car. All grace and masculine. She and Mansoor had never had a long conversation than was necessary, and now that he sat opposite her in this beautiful place that was meant for privacy influenced outings or rather a place for a private romantic setting, his domineering presence had only caused her confidence to wither away, where a sense of uncertainty and thirst replaced it that she had no choice but to order a drink that'd quench it. 

"Nothing to go with it?." He enquired with a raised eyebrow and she shook her head, her voice betraying her when she needed it the most. He nodded and gave a wave of his hand for a waiter before relaxing in his chair and settling his gaze on her once again.

"Yesterday. You were at Dell." It took her a moment before she grabbed where he was at and she instantly felt herself squirming, the remaining confidence she had running on zero at his words that sounded more like a question than a statement. When she saw him at the university she was stupefied. As if she had never heard of the fact that he was a lecturer at one of the prestigious universities in the northern part of the country. Layla was in such an anxious whirl, already subconsciously picking on the neat edge of the cloth that dangled from the table as she hoped he wouldn't feel the need to go deeper into a conversation pertaining to the academic field.

"I drove my friend around and we ended up having to pick up her cousin. A fresher." She briefly explained trying to find something that'd distract him from asking about her own educational background. Thankfully, the waiter brought their orders when he nodded. Yesterday's visit to the school had been nothing but a pure coincidence as the only thing that got them out was to allow Ray get some fresh air. When they'd hit the road with the intention of driving to the park, Ray's mother had called and pleaded that they fetch Asiya from school, a cousin to Surayya who stays with them for the time she'd be in school.

Layla had been alone looking for Asiya when she had dropped her friend in a little garden with a guy whom she was introduced to as Ray's old friend who was already on his way to bagging a masters degree. And from all that Layla had surmised, Surayya liked him. When she walked with the aid of a walking stick out of the beautiful garden equipped with concrete chairs, she has been smiling shyly with such radiance Layla had never paid attention to ascertain if she'd ever seen in Ray. But with the thought of seeing Mansoor with that woman she had forgotten entirely to poke in on her friend's feelings as they drove home. Blinking out of her reverie, she focused her attention to the man that sat dashingly opposite her.