AT two o'clock that day, Mal was standing in front of the house, her purse clutched in her hand tightly. She sighed as she put her face up to the camera that was hung before her, which made the door automatically open.

"I'm home!" she yelled, tossing her purse on a nearby table.

She could then hear one of the doors creaking open, and footsteps getting out of the room and down the stairs.

"Hey, sweetie! How was your day?" the older woman, Ahlam, asked.

"Hey, mum! My day was great, thanks for asking."

Mal smirked and took a glance at her stepmother's appearance. She was a beautiful woman in her early forties, with pale white skin, forest-green eyes, and a slim figure. Now that she thought about it, Mal thought that her stepmother and her biological mother looked a little alike. From the fair skin and the slim figure, with average height.

The only difference was the nationality, however. Mal's mother was Egyptian, while the woman standing before her was Syrian.

"So, what do you want to do now?" her stepmother asked.

"I was going to get back to work," Mal paused for a few seconds, "shouldn't you be working though?"

"I was, yeah, but then I got distracted. You know when you're all alone in this big empty house, you want to do something other than stare at the screen for some time. I was going to clean something, but do you want to go shopping for a bit? I think this house needs more groceries."

Mal thought for a moment. "Are we going to buy Pringles?"

"Sure, whatever you want."

Mal smiled and jumped a little in enthusiast. "Yay!"

☭

"So, I think we should get more juice." the older woman offered.

"Yes! I love juice."

Ahlam chuckled at the answer, then went to grab a few cartons of different types of juice.

"How's Teo, anyway?"

"He's doing okay, I guess. I think he's used to me being around him, so it's a little weird for him to not see me every day. To be honest, it's a little weird for me too."

"I know how that feels, even if my situation was a lot worse than yours. But you're going to get used to it, both of you."

Mal smiled for a few seconds before she turned to Ahlam, a curious expression over her face.

"Can I ask you something? How did you meet my dad anyway?"

Ahlam grinned and turned to her stepdaughter.

"We met at his shop! I was looking for someone to design a curtain for me, and he agreed to design it for less money than I expected!"

Mal chuckled.

A classic story that was being told by everybody.

"And how did you...?"

"Oh! I showed up one time with this bruise on my face, and he started asking me what was wrong. So, being the desperate woman I was, I told him everything. He felt sorry for me, and it all started from there."

She laughed a little.

If it wasn't for her dad, her mothers wouldn't have fallen in love. Or have met for that matter.

She remembered her mother's confused expression as she realized she had feelings for Ahlam, and she remembered their happy faces when both of them confessed their love to each other.

She grinned in enthusiast as her mind wandered off to Teo's expression when he saw her earlier that day.

He was really happy when he saw her. She was happy as well, so the scene made her think for a moment.

She realized she wanted to do a lot of things with him.

She wanted to go out with him and have fun to get his mind off whatever was bothering him.

She slowly watched as her heart raced at the simple idea.

How could a simple thought of him make her heart jump like that?

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