One evening, after several visitors had left, she sat at the kitchen table and began crying.
Mahmoud hurried toward her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you in pain?”
She shook her head.
“Then tell me.”
She struggled to explain.
“Everyone wants me to be happy.”
Mahmoud sat beside her.
“Of course they do.”
“But I don’t know how.”
He stared at her.
She wiped her eyes.
“I wanted to come home for three years. Now I’m here, and everything feels too loud.”
Mahmoud reached across the table.
“You don’t have to be happy every minute.”
She looked at him.
“You don’t?”
“No.”
“What if I never feel normal again?”
He thought carefully before answering.
“Then we will find a new normal together.”
That conversation became an important moment in their relationship.
Mahmoud stopped trying to fill every silence.
He began asking Layan what she needed instead of assuming he knew.
Sometimes she wanted company.
