Hi. My apologies for not introducing myself to you. I'm Faye Doneza, born and brought up in the middle-east, precisely in Sharjah, UAE. I and Liz have my both parents living in the state, and I've distinctively moved here to Dubai- for my diploma course for about a year. One elder sister and my little brother, who I'll eventually introduce to you, for sure. You've already met my maniac lil friend, Liza Swan. She can be a pain in the ass sometimes but I promise you- you'll love her throughout ;)

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"Come quick, Faye. Uber's here!" Liz yelled from the curb.

"Incoming." I ran out, locking my door and double-checking it.

"You gotta be generous for the robber, hun. What he even gonna steal from your house?" She laughed. "That poor guy gotta leave some extra bills for you instead." She continued to laugh, while the uber driver giggled a little.

"My Miso's in there. He's precious to me." Miso is my sister's cat she brought me a few months ago, which was technically hers- after the said boy broke my heart and I needed some distraction.

Luke Osman, you were everything I wanted in a man. But unfortunately, I liked only the version of you that I had drawn in my head- which was nothing like you. You liked me only for being entitled as 'in a relationship' for your status. But here we are, after 2 years of nothing I'm finally free from you and so are you.

"Oh boy! how long has it been since I last visited? Damn this place only gets more beautiful over time." Liz inspected the city roads keenly and enjoyed her comeback to hometown while I sat there texting my sister- informing her that I'll be out tonight so she wont worry about me.

"So where are we going?" I ask her, flipping my phone back into my purse.

"I saw this beautiful place, near the corniche- there's some shopping festival going on and its decorated so royal. And there's gonna be food from different cuisines. And a lot other that I have in mind, let's see if we can do all of it." She said excitedly.

"Sounds fun!" Liz's energy makes me feel insecure about myself sometimes and also the fear that she might get bored of me soon. But over the past few years we created a bond that was beyond materiality. She loves me for who I am and I obviously love her the way she is, well who wont?

While she was gone for her degree, I had issues adjusting to life since I always had her by my side I was used to being carefree. I had to go do my chores alone, go to parks alone, and later move to a new city with my sister for my diploma. I made friends in and around my neighborhood but I'd always find ways to push them away from me, I couldn't figure out why I do that. Liz apparently believes its because of Luke, but I disagree to that- maybe to an extent. He messed up my life pretty bad which gave me precious life lessons but also made me insecure of my own self. She wasn't physically present,  around the time I broke up with him, but now that she is here- I cant stop pondering about what she said earlier. About me losing myself ever since Luke left.

"Yo! Where you lost? Come on." Liz nudges my arm.

We arrived at the corniche around the evening time so the crowd was pretty intense so we walked by the corniche for a while until the crowd eased a bit. Its mid-winters but in the east, winters aren't that cold though the breeze at night is extremely chill. Liz was right, the place was beautifully lit with fairy lights and slow music played in the background. It felt so good to be out after so long and also not being alone this time.

"Have you been here before? I mean you've been in Dubai for a month or so right?" Liz asks as we hunt for a coffeeshop around.

"Twice."

"What? Why didn't you tell me. We could've gone somewhere else." She said sounding offended.

"Because you were excited to see this. Besides, I haven't seen it decorated so well before." I replied. "Look, Dunkin donuts!"

"Yeaaaah, now we talking." She pulled me ecstatically towards the shop.

There weren't many people in there so we made our orders and decided to sit outside instead of inside despite of it being completely empty. I ordered a sugar glazed donut and a medium sized cold coffee. And Liz went for the same donut and a choco frappe. We casually chatted and since I was off my classes for a week or two probably, we decided to travel and explore places for a break.

After a while our orders arrived and before we could even devour it, a random friend group pushed one of them towards our table which jerked the table and dropped our drinks. Liz and I immediately jumped off the table and the said person fell off along with the table.

"What the heck, duuuude!" shouted Liz.

"Oh bloody!" I whispered.

The friend group booed the fallen guy and one of them decided to step forward and help him.

"We're so sorry, you guys." said the girl, amidst helping the guy on his foot. "We were just messing around, didn't mean no harm."

The guy got up on his feet and it took him a while to process the situation as he stood staring at the destruction, and our disappointed faces. He threw his hands up and apologized sincerely, "I'm extremely sorry, ladies." He was surely embarrassed and looked at his friend with an awkward look that I cant find words to explain.

"You fucking blind." Liz intended to whisper that, but it didn't come out so.

Upon seeing that both of them whispered among themselves while I tried to calm the 'now-so-hyper Liz'. "We'll get ourselves new drinks, chill." I said grabbing her hand.

"I paid for those!" she whispered angrily.

"We got this." The guy spoke up. "It was clearly our fault to mess around your table and ruin your drinks."

"Sure it was." I whispered, but they heard it anyway.

The guy gave me a squinted look making me instantly regret my words. "That's why I would love to buy you new drinks if you don't mind." he offered.

"Look, you did enough damage for tonight so it'll be really nice if you don't piss me off and vanish from my eyesight." Liz said with a sarcastic smile.

"I know, but we really mean to do this for you." the girl requested with a pleading smile. "We insist. You may take it as our apology."

"If that's what you want." I nodded.

"Dude?" said Liz shocked.

"Lemme go grab it for you real quick." the girl sprinted off inside, to the counter.

"What else would I have done? They wont even go or stop apologizing." I explained Liz, who got madder by every minute.

"They owed it to us anyway." Liz rolled her eyes, agreeing evermore.

The 'trippy guy' limped his way back to his friends where they made fun of him for a while before they funnily waved him and went off. He quickly jogged back to us, fixing his clothes and smiling foolishly.

"I'll go see what that girl is getting us." Liz went past me, before I could even stop her.

The guy looked keenly at me, making me uncomfortable. But before I could even blow him with a mean remark (which I know I couldn't anyway), he gasped.

"Aren't you Faye?" He gave the squinted look again, tilting his head a little this time as if he were concentrating.

This took me off guard and I was quite surprised at how he could recognize me when I haven't seen him ever. "How do you know me?" I grew suspicious, while his- vanished from his eyes and a smile taped across his face, as I confirmed my identity by that.

"Your drinks will take a few minutes probably. But thank you for letting us buy it for you." the girl came back smiling spiritedly.

"No problem." Liz waved them off while they walked past us, while I stood there confused and frozen to my spot. "She wasn't that bad though." She said walking to another table nearby. "What happened?" She turned back realising I wasn't following her.

"He knows me."

"What?"

"He recognized me. He knows my name. That's weird." I said walking towards the table.

"But how?" She said, taking the seat. "I don't remember introducing ourselves."

"I know."

"Forget it. That guy's a jerk anyway." She said, as our new orders arrived with some extra chocolates. "Look that girl brought us chocolates as apologies." She giggled.

"Yeah we could use that." I cheered along.

The rest of the night we spent by buying some cardigans, socks and candies. We also visited the museum of illusions that was open after evening hours. We had dinner in an Indian restaurant nearby, also carried takeaway for later. I spared some time to get my essentials from a store and we headed home. We casually went through all the million pictures we clicked today in the uber while contemplating which one shall we post on social media.

While I paid for the uber, Liz helped get all our stuff out of the trunk. After the uber passed by, we giggled our way back to the house since Liz had tried flirting with the uber driver.

"He kinda enjoyed that, admit it." she laughed.

"Sure he did. You could see it in his nail-biting nervous gaze to the cab cam." I joked.

"Those cameras don't even work. I mean what's even the use? Who got so free time to surveil random people." she shrugged.

We were so engaged picking up our bags and laughing that we didn't notice a black car at the curb that stood for awhile and now started honking repeatedly to get our attention.

"What?" Liz yelled annoyed, dropping the bags to the ground.

"Let's go in. Must be some drunk idiot." I said, grabbing her forearm.

"You could use some help." said the man in the car, slightly opening his dark window. "If you don't mind."

"Who do you think you are?" I shouted mildly frustrated.

"Dude its that cafe guy." Liz confirmed, as he stepped out of his car.

"Is that what you named me, the 'cafe guy'." He chuckled.

"No." I said. "You're the trippy guy." I corrected.

"Yeah." Chuckled Liz.

"Ooooh. I've been called worse." He said, pulling out his hands from his pocket. "May I?"

"Were you following us all this time?" Liz spoke, after her very long and careful inspection of his luxurious car.

"Maybe or maybe not." He shrugged.

"What does that even mean?" I said arrogantly.

"I just meant to help. If you don't need it you can simply tell."

"Isn't it obvious?" I replied.

He squinted his eyes again, "Also yes, I saw you guys leaving the corniche so I thought I'd follow you."

"And how is that not creepy and offensive to you?" Liz asked stepping forward.

"Because I wanted to see you." He said looking confidently into her eyes. "Miss?" he asked.

"Cool. You know my name but not hers. Impressive." I gave him a weird hand gesture.

He instantly looked at me and rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry I just happened to have seen you before your friend."

huh, what?

"Its Liza. And you cant call me Liz." she said, taking a step back.

He looked at her so intendedly that it made her uncomfortable and I could see that. And not for once did he lower his gaze from her eyes.

"I'm gonna head inside. Liz don't take long- its getting cold." I turned around, carrying almost all of the bags along with me and proceeded to walk in before giving a reassuring look to Liz and she nodded back.

"Hey!" called me the 'trippy guy'. "I don't mean to be rude. I'm just tryna be friends." He shrugged casually.

"Well, what a nice start, trippy cafe boy." I imitated his shrug and rolled my eyes before going back in.

Liz being the assertive, bold girl that she is, doesn't seem to be comfortable about intimacy and romance. She has been so accustomed to be a power girl her entire life that having to face an intimate situation in front of any of her close relation makes her feel sick. And she had always told me that, hence it was my cue to leave them alone.

But rather than feeling good after tonight and all the fun we had, I felt the creeps of Liz's question returning to me as I step inside, and I try my best to hold them in and not ruin tonight.

Have I really lost myself in search of Luke's love?

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guys, don't let in your exes back to your life, those shitheads don't deserve you.

<3