Zara hadn't slept well since the dinner.
She kept replaying Tolu's voice in her head—light, teasing, but laced with something sharper. Suspicion. Curiosity.
At work, she avoided lingering near Malik. No shared lunches. No inside jokes. She answered his texts with emojis and silence.
Malik noticed.
On Thursday, he cornered her in the stairwell, where the echo swallowed their voices.
"Are we okay?" he asked.
Zara looked away. "We're fine."
"You haven't looked at me all week."
"I'm just being careful."
He sighed. "You're being distant."
She didn't answer.
Malik leaned against the wall. "I get it. I do. But this—us—it's starting to feel like something we're ashamed of."
Zara's eyes snapped to his. "I'm not ashamed."
"Then why are we hiding like we are?"
She opened her mouth