Aydin looked away, lips twitching. I felt a thrill run through me, as if I had earned points by making him laugh. Disconcerted by my reaction, I stood up to leave, but I couldn’t resist a parting shot. “I’m truly sorry to hear your business is in trouble. As you know, Three Sisters has been facing its own crisis lately, so I know how it feels to be attacked by bullies.”
Aydin stood up quickly, and I realized I might have gone too far. “Stop spreading rumours about my business online,” he growled.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, taking a few steps back. My face felt hot and flushed. Why was Aydin even more attractive when he was angry? There was something wrong with me.
He kept pace with my steps. “I mean it. All I’ve done is open a restaurant on the same street as Three Sisters. What you’re doing is sabotage. I could press charges for mischief and libel. Take down those posts.”
“Plenty of people are talking about your restaurant online. Are you going to threaten them all with legal action?” I asked.
“If I have to. Take down the posts, Hana.”
I held up my hand and he halted instantly, though he continued to glare. “First, I admit nothing,” I said, ticking off my fingers. “Second”—I pinned him with my sternest expression, channelling Kawkab Khala and the rest of the badass women in my family—“did you honestly think I wouldn’t fight back?”
This time his expression held grudging acknowledgement. “I guess I didn’t.”
“Now you know better.” I picked up my bag from the table and made for the door. He followed, casting quick glances at me as we made our way out of the coffee shop. I waved at Mr. Lewis as Aydin held the door open.
We faced each other on the sidewalk. “Maybe if you had tried to get to know me first—I mean, get to know Three Sisters and the rest of the neighbourhood—you wouldn’t be in this mess,” I said.
“I’m in this mess because of the lies you spread about my business,” he replied.
“Then you should have known better than to piss me off.”
Aydin leaned forward. “Maybe I enjoy pushing your buttons.”
Sandalwood cologne and intense dark eyes made me dizzy. Our conversation was veering wildly off the rails. I didn’t like Aydin, I reminded myself. I wanted him gone, his restaurant a pile of rubble. So what was I doing still talking to him?
He must have realized the same thing, because he pulled back and put his hands in his pockets. “Yusuf picked an unromantic place to propose,” he said casually.
I looked at him in surprise. “What?”
Aydin flushed and ran a hand through his hair. “Nothing. It’s none of my business.”
“Yusuf and I are friends. Like you and Zulfa,” I said.
“But not like you and me.”
We stared at each other again, and my fingertips tingled with that feeling—the one that always seemed to show up when I talked to this man. I willed away the current, but it only travelled up my arms to my neck, warming my face even as his gaze rested once more on my lips. “You and I are lifelong enemies,” I said, my voice raspy.
“To the bitter end,” Aydin agreed. We continued to stand there, both reluctant to leave.
“Do you still listen to the radio?” I asked him on impulse. “When we first met, you said you did.”
“All the time,” he said, surprised. Then, “Have you ever thought about doing a podcast?”
Puzzled at the abrupt change in topic, I instinctively lied. “I’m strictly radio. I know nothing about podcasting. Why?” That came out so naturally my aunt would have been proud.
Aydin shrugged. “I can’t make you out,” he said.
“Likewise,” I said.
His accompanying sigh was resigned. “Take down the posts. Please, Hana,” he said quietly.
There was something about the way he said my name that made me feel...
“No,” I said, and forced my legs to start moving away from him. He might have watched me leave, but I didn’t look back. Even though I wanted to—badly.
Chapter Twenty-One
