How it used to be

After hours of travel, Laila had finally returned to the place she had been just a few days before and an entire lifetime ago. She paid for the taxi and thanked the man as he got her luggage out of the trunk and carried it up the three stone steps leading to Maria's front door. Laila waved the man goodbye and just as she turned around to ring the doorbell to Maria's house, the door was opened before she could even place her finger on the button.

Maria, who was otherwise never emotional, didn't say a word when she saw Laila but instead looked at her with tears in her eyes. She pulled her in for a hug and when she let go, Maria had a big smile on her face as she wiped away her tears. Though it was strange for Laila to see her friend like this, she did understand where her reaction was coming from. Because although it had only been a few days since she had seen Maria, even though it was the Maria of her timeline and not this Maria, for Maria it had been close to a year since she had seen Laila. So, it was understandable that she was a bit emotional. Despite that not being in her nature.

After that hug Maria's words returned and she hurried Laila inside. "Come in, come in, my fair princess." As Maria gently pushed Laila inside, she grabbed the handle of her suitcase and pulled it along behind her. "You have no idea how excited I am to see you. To have you here again in our home town. I made enough food to feed a village but let us see how much will remain after you fill your appetite." Laila chuckled at Maria's excitement and it was beginning to work contagious. Laila didn't know if it was the house, if it was Maria or their combined effect, but she had completely forgotten all her bad feelings from her encounter with Jake and her tension from her talk with Noah had disappeared completely as well.

When Laila finally entered the living room and saw the dining table filled with food, her mouth started watering and her tummy got close to grumbling. Even in this life Maria did not disappoint and everything she saw looked great and she was sure the taste would match. "I am surprised that Noah was okay with you leaving. For how long are you staying?" Laila chuckled. "Yes, I sweetened the deal by giving him an amazing date before I asked him and added a bit of logic he couldn't refute. I am staying for a full week. During those seven days I am all yours except for a daily call which I promised my sweet, adoring husband."

Maria looked up at the ceiling as she placed her thumb and index finger on her chin in a V shape. "Hmmm, I guess I can live with that. I accept that deal." Then she looked back at Laila and added with a stern voice and her index finger raised to eye-level, "But one call is all I shall give him!" Both friends started to laugh at that remark and they both sat down at the table. As they started putting the food on their plates, Maria said in a voice that had a slight hint of sadness to it, "I am really glad you reached out to me Laila. I missed this. I am glad to see that even after so long apart, we can go right back to how it used to be."

Laila put her hand over Maria's hand and squeezed it slightly as she said, "Of course. A friendship like ours can't be broken so easily. I am sorry that I let it get this far. I am happy that you could see that I wasn't being myself and that you were able to accept me back into your life that easily. I know it must have been hard on you to see me like that and to be pushed away like I did but I promise I won't ever do something like that again." After saying the few serious words that needed to be said, which would most likely be the last serious words about their friendship for the remainder of this week, they both started digging in. Especially the hungry Laila was happy to finally be able to take a bite of food, and more so food that tasted as great as this.

"You've outdone yourself Maria. This food is absolutely amazing." Laila said in a cheerful voice as soon as she had taken her first bite. She was certain that her baby was happy as well that they had waited for Maria's cooking instead of settling for the airplane food, even though she knew very well that her son had no way of knowing how the food tasted and only cared about the nutrients at this stage of his life. But as she thought of her baby, another thought entered her mind. Did Maria even know that she was pregnant? They had been out of touch by the time she had gotten pregnant and she didn't think that the Laila from this time line had been very inclined to start a conversation just to share this piece of news with Maria. Now that their contact had been restored, Laila wanted to give Maria the news in the fun way she deserved and most definitely before she would tell her anything about Jake, her talk with Noah or their Wicked Witch of the West!