On Lynda's birthday, Ahmed was invited to a surprise party that one of her friends from London decided to organise secretly in a Coffee. When Lynda used to live in Tunisia, they never celebrated birthdays. It wasn't really their type. He went with Samir that evening and Karim, the guy who was organising the whole thing, asked them to sit in the no-smoking area. Lynda thought she was supposed to meet Karim alone so when she went in and found all of her friends waiting for her, she got really surprised and excited.
When he saw how much attention Lynda gave to Karim, Ahmed felt really uncomfortable. He wished her happy birthday and all he got was a smile. That made him even more confused and he couldn't find Samir anywhere around to see if he can make him feel better so he just left the place unnoticed.
He walked for a while until he found a small bank in a totally empty street. He sat there and the "why" and "what if" questions kept messing with his head. In reality they were not questions they were answers he just didn't want to admit.
Lynda was having one of her best days ever, all her friends are around and she's having their full attention. When Samir came to her to wish her happy birthday, she remembered that she didn't see Ahmed around except for those few seconds when she was too involved with Karim's story to give him the attention he deserves. She asked Samir about him but he said he didn't see him in the last thirty minutes and that he was going to ask her about him. Lynda told Karim that she'll be back and went with Samir to took for Ahmed.
At that moment, the last “what if” questions were torturing Ahmed and driving him crazy: What if I lose her again? I lost her once when I decided not to tell her about my feelings that day in the park. I denied two years of happiness with Lynda. But then I had some moments with her that gave me hope. I lost her again when she went to london. But then again we kept in touch. I lost her another time when she met that Palestinian guy and they got engaged. Everytime I lose her I feel like this time is permanent but she always finds her way back to me. What if this time is when I lose her forever? What if, this time, there is no next time? What if things get serious between her and Karim? What if they are already getting serious?
That was more than he could ever support, so he had to do something about it. He had no plan, he just rushed into action like a predator attacking a prey three times bigger than him and starting the fight knowing that there are big chances that they switch roles in the process but he just had no choice, he would die of starvation if he doesn’t attack.
By entering the cafe and calling Lynda outloud, Ahmed just threw himself in a situation that he was not even close to being prepared for. He had everyone’s attention that moment. "Maybe my voice was louder than I intended" he thought. But there was no way to take that back so he decided to take advantage of that situation. It took him less than one second to scan the room looking for Lynda and finally have his eyes on her. It was alway easy for him to find her no matter how crowded the place was. Something about her alway attracted him.
Having her looking at him in the eyes from across the room gave him an overdose of every single hormone that would circle in your veins and make you feel you're some kind of a character in a fantasy story. Now he can't see any of the background caracters, it's just him and Lynda. He kept that loud tone of voice when he shouted: "Enough of this best friends nonsence! I love you, I have always loved you and I always will! You know that, right?"
The room went suddenly silent. Now that he consumed whatever was turning him on, he can see what's surrounding him. "Did I just say that? that loud? and in front of all these people?" He thought, wishing the answer was no. Everyone now is looking at Lynda to see her reaction. During that silent three seconds she remembered how happy she was when Samir told her about Ahmed's feelings and even more happy when her friends confirmed it. Something inside her was desperately seeking such declaration ever since, even if she never knew about it. Something so deep that it never made its way to the surface, so true and obvious that it never tried to declare or argue about its own existence. Her first reflexion was to go to him and take him out for a private talk but then, as soon as she realised that this something was love, she just screamed: "I love you too, silly boy!".
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