A Turkish Delight☆

Chapter 31: It's A Paradise

Nadine:

Ah! My beautiful Istanbul! I missed you! As soon as I entered the city, I was hit by the cool winter breeze which, to a person who has lived her whole life in a city which was practically a desert, would feel really unpleasant, but not to me. The winters here were really intense though. It was below the freezing point, rooftops were covered with snow, children were building snowmen, some were throwing snowballs at each other, adults were enjoying the winters, wrapped in their coats and shawls, drinking Kahve or hot cocoa, casually going about their day to day life. Everything felt so peaceful. This place had it own warmth to it, which you could feel provided the intense cold. And I loved every bit of it. Although I was only away for 3 weeks, everything seemed so different to me. I had started feeling home sick back in Pakistan-my actual homeland! Crazy. Right? But I felt like I belonged here. I guess, I found home, away from home.

Nothing had changed, yet everything had changed for me. When I came here, back in October, escaping from whatever happened in Karachi, I never thought that my life would take such a turn, that I'd coincidentally find the good looking Turk, whom I spent so many days, if not months, searching for, after our first encounter, 7 years ago, which deeply influenced me, causing to confess my love for him, after ending my engagement with a person whom I used to call my best friend, because he couldn't be loyal. So much happened in a short span of only 3 and a half months, so it seemed only fitting, to escape back to Istanbul. I needed to clear my head from everything and focus on the more important things, like work.

I didn't want to think about anything that happened in Karachi, neither what happened with Saif, nor what went on with Mehmet for that matter. I wanted to keep myself busy with work. It was my coping mechanism. Whenever I'd face any hardship or trouble, or even if I'd want to decide or be sure of something, I'd keep myself busy. It helped me clear my head and made me a more rational thinker. If I kept my mind idle, it would haunt me by the memories, which would mostly, cause me to go into severe depression. Now normally, I'd count on my mom or Sundus, but I couldn't keep bothering them or over burdening them with my troubles. Besides they were back in Pakistan, while I was here in Turkey, so there's the time zone, although it was only 2 hours. So the safest thing to do was to keep myself busy at work.

I hadn't texted or called Mehmet, nor let him know that I had flown back to Istanbul. I wasn't avoiding him though, I was just trying to be sure of the feelings I felt for him. So this was like a test, for my ownself, to see whether I actually had those strong feelings for him or was it just a rebound, like he said. They say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, now was the time to verify this fact. Although I dreamt of him almost every night, of my future with him. Science says you dream of whatever's on your subconcious mind. I guess subconciously, Mehmet was on my mind.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, whilst appreciating the beauty around me, that I hadn't realized the taxi cab had come to a halt in front of my apartment.

"That'll be 50 Liras madam."

"Huh? Oh. Here you go."

I went up to say hello to my neighbours. They were delighted to see me, and invited me in for tea. They were genuinely nice people, their house was just as warm and cosy as their nature. They must be around the same age as of my grandparents, I called them Dada and Dadi, since I didn't have my paternal grandparents with me anymore, and they'd call me kız torun (grand daughter).

"A young man came to meet you while you were gone with flowers and a big bear." Mr. Yılmaz said.

"Huh? That's strange. How did he look like?"

"Well he was tall, fair, blue eyes. Said he was your friend, but knew nothing about you, except for your name and address? Is he a stalker? Should I report him to the police?" My concerned Turkish Dada said.