Being friends

As both of them got up from the table they were sitting at, Jake angry and Laila regretful, Laila called out to Jake. She reached out her hand to him as she said, "Jake, wait!". But Jake was clearly hurt and his lonely back showed it all. Although he did turn around, it wasn't to wait in the way Laila had intended. It was only to say, "So was it all a lie?? The crying, the talking with me the wanting to thank me by baking my favourite dessert for me? All of it??"

This is when Laila, with a saddened look said, "Jake, it wasn't like that. Please just wait a minute and listen to what I have to say." Though Jake was still hurt and angry, he couldn't make his body move from the spot he was standing in. Frozen in both the moment as well as the place. Though he was afraid to hear what Laila had to say, not knowing if what she had to say would hurt him more than the story he had built up in his head. But right now he also knew that the chances of the real story being worse than what he had come up with, was small. If there was a version of events that could release him from the pain and betrayal he was currently feeling, he was willing to hear and believe anything because the current explanation just hurt too much.

Aside from this, he had a hard time saying no and walking away like that from Laila. Despite saying that he was done, it wasn't like he could turn his feelings off like a switch. If that was possible, he would have done so a long time ago. Not for Laila but for the girl he had hurt her with and caused himself to end up in his current position in the first place. The mere fact that Laila stopped him and wanted to explain, showed to him that she still cared for him in her own way as well, even if it wasn't the way he wanted it to be.

Seeing that Jake was giving her an opportunity to tell her side of the story, she took a step closer to him and pulled him back to the table to sit with her. By now the people from the restaurant called out again to let them know their order was ready, something which they had managed to forget in that short moment when all of this went down. Laila stopped Jake from getting up as she said, "I'll get it. Just wait here and I'll be right back to tell you about how things went. Okay?" Jake nodded as he tried to maintain an angry expression on his face. Only after this confirmation, did Laila make her way over to the counter to pick up their order.

After she paid the man, she returned to the table with their meals and sat down in her seat across from Jake. Now that she was seated and Jake was no longer trying to get away, Laila began to explain her side of things. She told Jake that while she didn't feel any positive feelings towards him in the beginning, back when she thought all three of them were trying to hurt her and Noah, she no longer felt that way by the time of his second visit. At the beginning she had every intention to trick him and didn't care about any betrayal he might feel but when she noticed how genuine his concern for her was and his intention to help, her feelings changed.

"I was feeling so bad and I was in such doubt whether I should continue tricking you or confess but there was too much at stake and it wasn't just my decision to make. So, I had to go through with what we had planned. We were simply too far in to turn back. We couldn't just stop in the middle., especially when we didn't know how Harold would react to what Noah and Steve had put in place for him. But I can tell you this with all honesty that while we were talking during your second visit and when we were in the kitchen, I was genuinely considering to build a friendship with you after this. I was thinking about how I would bring the matter up with Noah and I was imagining how our relationship, as friends, could be."

Jake was quite surprised to hear Laila say this. He had envisioned many outcomes to this scenario but the two of them becoming friends by the end of this wasn't one of them. He blinked a few times as he tried to take it all in, before he answered in a bit of a confusion, "Us? Being friends?". Laila nodded and responded with, "Yes. I really think we could make that work. Just because we can no longer have a romantic relationship, should not mean we can't have any relationship at all. If you are open to it and willing to try, so am I."

Jake could not believe what he was hearing. This would indeed make up for playing him like a fool as up till this point it seemed there was no room for him in Laila's life. But could it be real? Could she actually mean this? With a stammering voice he said, "Uhm. Yes... I am willing to try. But are you sure Noah will be okay with this? Could he accept us being friends?"

Laila thought for a moment before she said, "Yes. I think so. If he won't, I will certainly do my best to convince him."

With that promise Jake let the matter go for the time being and they made their way back to the hospital.