‘Here,’ Salman says, appearing at my side with a mushroom-decorated tea towel. ‘Look, I know you’re worried about things going wrong, but take a breather, OK? They’re going to be fine. You’ve aced planning this date. Everything is going to be OK.’
22
Everything is obviouslynotOK.
‘Where are they?’ I pace back and forth in front of the cabin. ‘It’s been nearly two hours and they’re still not back! The trail was only meant to take an hour!’
I look down at the schedule I printed off, worrying about the ramifications this will have for the rest of the date. The guitarist is due to show up soon, and I’m scrambling to think of ways to rectify this. Maybe we can shift the meal to take place after the guitarist has played.
Ifthey even turn up, that is.
‘What if they’re lost? What if bears got to them?’
‘Poppy, there are no bears in the UK.’ Salman is sitting on the steps, his back against the porch railing.
‘How do you know? Are you suddenly the expert on where bears live?’
Salman rolls his eyes at me. ‘If there were bears, you would have caught it in the risk assessment and we wouldn’t have set the date here, so actuallyyou’rethe expert on bears out of the two of us.’
He’s right. No way would I have sent Akash and Samira here if there were huge wild animals. Hell, I wouldn’t even be here if that was the case. But then what’s taking them so long?
‘Oh my God, what if I gave them the wrong map or something? Did you test out the trail like I asked?’
‘Of course I did and the map was correct, so there’s nothingwrong with it. Seriously, Poppy, you need to chill. It’s not going to do you any good if you keep obsessing about why they’re not back.’
I know I’m being annoying and he’s being rational and making sensible suggestions as to why they’re still not back, but I can’t help letting the gremlins in my mind take over.
‘When do we call Sadia? We need to call her, right?’
‘Poppy .?.?.’
‘What if one of them got injured? And the other one can’t leave because if they don’t apply enough pressure on their wound, they’ll bleed out?’
Salman fixes me with a look of concentration. ‘Do you want me to go and check on them? Will that make you feel more at ease?’
‘Yes.’ The word blurts out easily but then as soon as I say it I shake my head. ‘No. Maybe?’
What if he goes and ruins their date, which is actually going really well?
Or what if he goes and gets injured just like them? Or, worse, he gets abducted by the same people who have abducted Akash and Samira?
My mind twists with all the possibilities, the scenarios playing out at warp speed, none with a happy ending.
‘More likely than not, they’ve just sat down somewhere to have a snack or rest,’ Salman reassures me. ‘They’refine. Don’t worry until you actually have to.’
‘Now, why didn’t I think about that? Wow, I’ve magically stopped worrying now, thank you!’ I say sarcastically.
He rolls his eyes at me. ‘They’re probably just enjoying the trail.’
‘You’re only so confident about them because it wasyourmatch. Me? Not so much.’
‘Even if I hadn’t matched them up, there would be no denyingthat they’re perfect for each other – and you know it.’
I want to fire back that I don’t, but that’s a lie, not just because Sadia put them down as a match too but because I initially matched them up myself. Reading their profiles, it was clear that they would make a couple who could not only grow together but also love each other just the way they wanted to be loved. The pros and cons list Salman presented about their compatibility when we showed them to Sadia – Samira as a Neutral Good while Akash as a Chaotic Neutral, how she’d be able to stabilise him and he can help her loosen up – was similar to the one I had initially made.
Honestly, the only reason I didn’t put them together is because I saw myself and Salman in the two of them. It seemed unlikely that they could ever work. In fact, I was living proof that they wouldn’t.
Still, it was impossible not to feel my heart pang as I read about Akash’s love language, showing his affection through thoughtfulness and effort, thinking about Salman and how his has always been acts of service, turning up whenever I called and helping me even if he didn’t know how, like with the birdhouse. Or that Akash described his best quality as his self-deprecating humour because he, like Salman, uses humour to fill the silence and make amends. But mostly it was when I saw his profile next to Samira’s. Samira, who keeps her cards close to her chest, who describes herself as a perpetual people-pleaser, who is just looking for a partner who feels like her best friend. Samira, who is solid and grounded in routine, needing to know what comes next. I wonder if Salman had similar thoughts, but asking him that feels like crossing some sort of line – and I’m not brave enough for that.
