Salaam, with Love by Sara Sharaf Beg

Author:Sara Sharaf Beg [Sharaf Beg, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2022-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

The engagement was officially over. No more ring, no more dress shopping, nada. Everyone walked on eggshells around the house. Rabia whipped through her summer reading like there was nothing better than having your nose stuck in a book all day, and Adam spent most of his time outdoors with a soccer ball or inside playing video games. He’d asked me once if I wanted to play Mario Kart, but I hadn’t been feeling up to it.

On the plus side, Mahnoor wasn’t staying up all night crying into her ice cream. On the negative side, it’d been three days since that catastrophic dinner, and no one had heard from the Mousawis. It was weird, expecting Haya to drop by any second, only to realize that that wasn’t going to happen. Even weirder was the realization that I’d gotten used to having her around.

Mahdi missed his Hassan bhai and kept asking Ibrahim to call him, but Ibrahim just ruffled his hair and gently explained that everyone was a little confused right now, and it was best to give them some time and personal space. Mahdi’s lower lip trembled every time he heard this, but he bravely held in his tears. I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t dare admit it to anyone, but I missed Hassan too. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach whenever I thought of his eyes meeting mine, the gentility of his voice. If he felt just a little bit of what I did, how could he possibly be comfortable with this silence and distance?

No one else may have noticed my aimless shuffling at home, but my parents certainly did. They were doing all they could to avoid the subject of the engagement altogether—at least in front of Uncle Yusuf and Aunt Sadia. In front of me, not so much.

“Dua!” Mom called me from her room.

“Coming!” I called. I was in the kitchen with Rabia, frosting cupcakes. Even though it made me super hungry, it was better than sitting around thinking about how hungry I was, and there was only so much of that I could do before my legs got restless and I had to move. If I didn’t, I’d go berserk.

“Dua!”

“I don’t think she heard you,” Rabia pointed out. “It’s hard to hear from the kitchen all the way at the end of the hall unless you’re using a bullhorn.”

I stopped frosting the cupcakes on my side of the counter—chocolate, it’s always chocolate with me—and went to my mom’s room as fast as I could, calling, “Yes, Moooooom?” the entire way.

“Come in, beta.”

Before I could answer, Mom grabbed me by the arm and pulled me inside, closing the door behind me.

“Mom, are you okay?” I asked, noting the somber expression on her face. It wasn’t often that I saw her looking so serious, without a hint of a smile.

“Of course, sweetie,” she said, cupping my cheek in her palm. “But my hair’s gotten so dry, and so has yours. Let’s fix that.”

She sat on the bed and pulled

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