A Latte of Love

【☕】17

Salwa Islam's POV

"I'm glad you were able to come today," Rida says, the small grin on her face lightened up as she looked down at Ahmed. Marks of old age show around the corner of her eyes, yet her eyes are filled with youthful light.

She had invited us over after our first meeting at Mariam Auntie's home. It'd been a couple weeks since then, but I never forgot her invitation. After all, she was a lovely woman and seemed to adore Ahmed, albeit never having met him before. I look down at the brown head of hair rested at the side of my leg, and ruffle it with a smile.

I take in how her small house is decorated with warmth. The array of plants lined up by her door was only a fraction of the amount of greenery that was inside of her home. The walls were painted an off-white color and the windows a light brown. I breathed in the aroma from the scented candles flickering in the far right dinner table.

From the corner of my eye, something orange and fuzzy rushes past me, hiding under the table. When I look down, I realize it's a cat from the tail that peeks out from beneath the chairs. Ahmed holds on to my long dress, his grip tightening, panic ensuing in his eyes as he looks up at me.

"What was that?!" He clenches his fists taking in a stance that he is ready to fight this creature. "Where my gun Mama?"

Rida goes behind the table to grab her cat, lifting it up to her face and snuggles its nose. "Oh my poor Butter. Are you afraid? Is Ahmed after you?"

Ahmed is still frantically looking around the floor for his toy gun. When he realizes he's defenseless, he raises his fists again as he rounds the creature.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Ahmed never saw a cat up close." I grab Ahmed and sit him on the sofa, trying to calm him down.

"It's fine, he is just a little kid," she says as she strokes Butter, who purrs in response. She brings the cat closer to Ahmed. "It's a little one just like you. Pet the head like this." She brushes her hand against its head in demonstration.

Ahmed backs away in fear, climbing on top of me and grabbing onto me for his dear life. His scream pierces my ears and small tears begin to trickle down his cheeks. I rub his shoulders and attempt to shush him by turning him around and showing him that I am petting the cat, as well. "Look! It does nothing to you. Such a friendly cat."

Ahmed's eyes widened as he jumped off from my lap. "Don't TOUCH me mama!"

Rida and our eyes met each other and we let out a snort as Ahmed yelled continuously.

In the midst of the commotion, the doorbell rings and Rida stands up.

While she gets the door, I grab a hold of Ahmed and wipe away his tears. At the sound of a male voice, Ahmed's screaming silences and he squirms out from my embrace.

Curious, I stare after Ahmed and almost gasp when he runs into Sufyan turning from the corner. His hands are full with grocery bags as Ahmed startles him, causing one to end up falling to the floor. "Oh!" Rida smiles gently upon seeing Ahmed and ruffles his hair. "Forgot to tell you that we have a little guest over today."

Ahmed slowly backs away from the stranger who had dropped us off home the other day. I watched him as he furrowed his eyebrows, stared up at Sufyan who was still holding onto multiple bags, then down at the one bag that had fallen. He bent a little to grab the shopping bag and tugged it through the hallway and into the kitchen. "Thank you so much, my sweet boys. Take a seat. I invited Salwa over today," Rida says as she points behind Sufyan towards my direction. I could feel nervous sweats and something fluttering in my stomach.

Ahmed runs towards me in the announcement of my presence while Sufyan turns around to meet my eye. "Mama the cat gone!"

I smile sheepishly, petting Ahmed's head as he hugs me. "Assalamu Alaikum." My go-to awkward icebreaker. I didn't realize our first encounter after the wedding event would be this soon.