Twice Upon Qadr - A Shot At Love **EDITING**

Chapter 28

“Oh my God I am so sorry I am late but I have amazing news!” Hana exclaimed as she dashed into the library, Dawud and Layla behind her, and Houssam looked up from the Autobiography of Malcolm X and gave her a smile.

“No worries. I was just doing some reading.” He placed the bookmark in the book and leaned forward. “What’s the great news?”

She paused, to settle her niece and nephew at a nearby table, plugging in Dawud’s Gameboy controller, and setting out Layla’s coloring things.

“Okay,” she said sitting in the seat across from him and putting her purse next to her. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were sparkling and it made for a very pretty picture. “I got an interview!”

Houssam’s face broke into a huge smile.

“You did!? Ya Allah! Hana that’s amazing MashaAllah! Where?!”

“With The Santa Barbara Times! And get this, they called me! I didn’t even apply!”

“Hana! That’s incredible!”

“I know!” she exclaimed with an excited laugh. “Apparently they saw some of my works from UCSB, and were impressed!”

“Of course they were! You’re brilliant!” He exclaimed.

“I am so excited!”

“And you should be! When do you have it?”

“Next Thursday!”

Houssam sat back in his seat, and crossed his arms over his chest, a large smile on his face.

“This is amazing. I’m so proud of you!”

She flushed deeper, and looked down at her purse, pulling on a loose thread.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Aw come on Hana. You’re going after your dream! That’s something I can understand.”

She smiled, and pulled out a notebook from her bag.

“Well I think that’s the perfect way to lead into our interview. Okay, so my first question, how do you handle the paparazzi always after you?”

He groaned, and buried his face in his arms before looking back up at her.

“You don’t know how bad I feel still. Honestly tell me what I can do to make it up to you.”

“Houssam please stop, I told you that I was fine!”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better.” He said with a shrug, and she watched him for a few seconds before smiling slightly.

“You don’t have to answer the question if you don’t want to.”

“No, no it’s fine. Um, well in the beginning it was completely overwhelming. I didn’t leave my apartment for an entire month when I first got drafted. I even had groceries delivered, because I was too scared to leave. I can’t exactly blend in with crowds with my height.”

She was quiet for a few seconds as she scribbled on her notebook, before she turned her face to look at him.

“What’s the weirdest thing the press has ever printed about you?”

He hesitated for a second before motioning with his hand.

“Can this be just between us?”

“Of course. Anything you don’t want printed, let me know.”

He glanced uneasily at the children who didn’t seem to be paying any attention to them, before leaning forward.

“Okay, one time Freddy, that’s one of my teammates, was going out of town, and needed a sitter for his cat, Magic. He lived just down the street from me, and my car was in the shop so I decided just to walk over to feed it. He had given me a key to his place, but I had forgotten the code for his security gate. So there I was, trying different combinations of what I thought it was until eventually I hit upon the right one, and went inside. When I tried to leave after feeding him, he wouldn’t let me, it kept weaving himself in and out of my legs and meowing like crazy and trying to run out the door, so I called Freddy and told him I was just going to take Magic with me. So I gathered up his things and we went home. The next day it was all over the headlines that I had broken into Freddy’s house to steal his cat! They then went on to say how I was jealous because Freddy’s cat was a direct descendant of a cat Elvis once had, and to get revenge I tried to steal it. I don’t even like cats!”