I couldn’t wait to finish my lectures.
As soon as I got home, I ran up the staircase to our upstairs lounge where we had our family computer, threw my rucksack down, and logged on to Windows Live Messenger. I added Geology Guy to my contact list and he appeared straight away. His name was Aziz.
I felt a rush of excitement. What should I say? Would I seem desperate starting the conversation first? I took a deep breath. Play it cool, Sara.
I opened the BBC News website, barely reading the articles. A minute later, I got a notification telling me that Aziz was saying hello!
I typed back quickly in Arabic.
ME: Hi Aziz!
AZIZ: Is this the pretty lady I met at the open day earlier?
Oh my God, he thinks I’m pretty!
ME: Yes, it is the pretty lady from the open day. Is this the handsome man who was running the geology stall?
AZIZ: Lol I don’t think I’m handsome, but yes, I was running the geology stall.
ME: Well if you don’t think you’re handsome, I suggest you go get your eyes checked at the optician’s
My flirting skills weren’t the smoothest. Neither were his. Flirting wasn’t something I was used to doing.
AZIZ: Beautiful and a sense of humour. A lady like you must be engaged or married already?
ME: No, I’m single.
AZIZ: I don’t get how you’re a convert to Islam yet you speak Arabic so well.
ME: Oh I’m not a convert lol. My mother is English and my father is Arab. I was raised Muslim.
AZIZ: Mashallah. Are you free to go out for a coffee after you’re done with your lectures tomorrow?
Wow, he definitely didn’t waste time. I thought about my schedule for the next day. There were only two university buses running in the afternoon—one at two o’clock and one at five. I finished at three which meant I had two hours to leave campus, have coffee with him and be back on campus before the wheels of the bus started rolling. Scheduling a coffee in the evening wouldn’t work. I’d have to come up with an elaborate story for Baba about why I needed to go out and that’s if he even bought it.
ME: I finish at 3 o’clock tomorrow, but I don’t drive so I need to be back on campus for 5 o’clock so I don’t miss the second bus.
AZIZ: I can give you a ride home, no problem.
ME: Thank you but my father will be home from work by then and he’ll be able to see me getting out of your car from the window.
AZIZ: I can drop you off around the corner?
ME: That still won’t work. We have neighbours who are my dad’s friends and if they see they’ll tell him. Plus, he waits to hear the sound of the bus dropping me off—sorry!
AZIZ: OK, how about I pick you up from the main car park in the men’s campus and I’ll drop you back to the campus before 5?
ME: Deal.
ME: Great! What’s your phone number?
A wave of panic surged over me. Of course he’d ask for a phone number! How else would we communicate away from a computer? It looked like I’d have to take up Heba’s offer after all. I gave him Heba’s second mobile number.
AZIZ: See you tomorrow at 3.
ME: See you then!
I couldn’t believe it. I was going on a date with Aziz. I grabbed the cordless phone and took it to my room, closed the door and called Heba to tell her the exciting news. She sounded even more excited than I was.
“I’m telling you, he’s going to be your boyfriend!” she squealed.
“It’s just a coffee, Heba. He’s not going to be my boyfriend! We’re just going out as friends.”
“Bullshit! He thinks you’re cute, you think he’s hot, and you two are going to end up getting together.”
I laughed. “I’m glad you have higher expectations than I do. I gave him your number for the other phone like you suggested. Can you bring your phone to university tomorrow please? And if he sends a text message, don’t read it!”
“Err, it’s still my phone until 9:45am tomorrow,” she said. “I’m joking! Trust me, if he texts tonight I won’t read the messages.”
“You’re the best. Oh, I was wondering, you’ve had guys pick you up from university loads of times, do security ever stop cars at the main gate and ask for ID? You know, to check if the girl and the guy are related? I heard they do.”
Heba laughed. “Girl, that was before our time at the university. No one checks anymore. Don’t be worried.”
I found it difficult to sleep that night. I was excited, but nervous. What if the security guard decided to stop the car and ask us for our national ID cards? Then he’d figure out we weren’t related and we’d be pulled aside. He’d call the police who would then call my father, and he’d take me home, beat me, and ground me for life. I’d have to say goodbye to being a graduate and my future plans of being an independent woman with my own place.
I wondered whether I should get up, creep into the lounge to the family computer and send Aziz an email saying that I couldn’t do it. After everything that had happened in high school with Faisal, was I going to put myself at risk of getting caught and being in serious trouble again?
Everyone was out there meeting guys, falling in love and having a life… except me. I had to be more careful this time. I have to live a little or my life would be as boring and closed as the salafi amus’ daughters who weren’t even allowed to watch TV. Okay, that was a bit of an extreme comparison.
Heba had gone out with guys and left from the men’s campus plenty of times. But it was because she was uncovered. Everyone keeps an eye on the covered girls, waiting for them to step one toe out of line before coming down on them with full force. According to the Wahabbis that ran the university, uncovered women were already fallen women, so in their view they were hopeless cases who didn’t need saving.
I had made up my mind. I was going live my life on the dangerous side.