I laughed, rushed to the empty box, and picked up the small terror that had dug its claws into the cardboard to show Zainab.
“Salem! You naughty boy!” She scolded him as if he understood, and I handed her the culprit so she could return him to the store floor.
Cats were strictly forbidden from the storage room given their tendencies to scratch any box and cause chaos around them.They were much more agreeable when books were shelved and there wasn’t anything for them to break or scratch.
“Are you almost done here?” she asked, closing the door to prevent another cat from running in. After a cursory look, I told her I’d be back out in a few, Although, given my terrible timekeeping, a few could mean hours in my case.
Thankfully, it wasn’t on this occasion. After I carried everything that was needed back to the store, I took a short break to pray before I took over from Zainab. She went to the back to do the same.
Alina jumped up on the counter and stared at me while her girlfriend was busy in the back, and after I finished with a customer, I raised an eyebrow toward her.
“Can I help you? Is there something on my face?”
She shook her head.
“Then stop staring,” I told her and waved her off, but she just chuckled and kept staring.
“You know, you’re an attractive man,” she said, finally.
I sat back and glared at my friend.
“Are you… making a move on me or…?”
Alina laughed as if I’d said the funniest joke. Which it was. Alina was a self-described gold-star lesbian and took quite a bit of pride in that.
“No. I’m just saying. Zay and I were talking last night?—”
“Please don’t. I don’t need to know what you and your girlfriend say about me when you’re alone at nighttime.”
“Will you shut up?” She snorted. “I was trying to say we were talking about your love life woes, and we had some ideas.”
I sighed.
“I will repeat my previous statement. Please don’t.”
“You haven’t even heard them,” she said, pushing her long chestnut hair back and rolling her eyes.
“Think critically here. Am I going to like it?”
“Maybe. Why don’t we give it a try? You won’t know if you like it unless you try it.”
I blew raspberries.
“Is that what you say to all the straight girls to get them in your bed?”
“Oh, honey.” She smiled. “If they get in my bed, they were never really straight to begin with.”
I slapped my forehead and took a deep breath before I looked back at my friend.
“Fine. What is it?”
“Well, I know you’ve been scared to put yourself out there since… you know. So what if we set you up?”
“Set me up?”
She nodded.
“Alina, need I remind you what happened last time I was set up?”
