Other people

It takes five seconds to fall in love...
At least that's what fifteen-year-old Alya believed-brimming with the kind of romance only a young girl knows, naive and wholehearted.

Not everyone is lucky enough to find that kind of love...
That's what thirty-year-old Alya understood, as she looked down at the man kneeling before her, a brilliant ring in his hand, waiting-breath held-for her answer.

Maybe I'm not that unlucky after all...
That's what Alya might have believed the moment she felt that lightning-strike of love for the first time in thirty five- heart pounding so loud she could hear it in her ears, the world blurring at the edges, breath shallow, mouth dry.

She would have believed it... If only the man awaking that storm inside her wasn't the brother of her husband-the very husband whose hand now rested, obliviously, on her waist.

But then again,
timing had never been her strong point.