"It is a good thing that I have not returned home yet," Liu said cheerfully, pulling her tiles from the bag. "We get to see each other before I go."
"So, you definitely are returning to China at some point." Ziva stated.
She was happy to see Liu as well because she had been convinced that Liu would have moved back to China over the summer. Thankfully, this wasn't the case. There had been too many times she did not get to say goodbye to someone before she moved. It would be nice to be able to do that for a change.
"Oh, yes," she agreed, nodding her head. "I was only here for education."
"And for avoiding marriage," Amelia teased.
"Yes," Liu said unashamedly. "But I now have my education and a job back in China so hopefully that will satisfy my parents."
It would be odd not to see her for these games or hear her complain about her coursework or projects.
"But she got one of those short jobs here," Francisca said proudly, like she was the Chinese woman's proud grandmother.
"An internship," Liu corrected but she was smiling. "It ends in a week and then my job in Shanghai starts two weeks after that."
"It's even a paid internship," Amelia said jealously.
"So, you won't be here for much longer?"
The student shook her head. "No."
"Maybe some of us will get a chance to win now," Pamela teased.
"I wonder who will be the next reigning champion?" Fakhir wondered.
"No one has ever come close to my number of wins," Liu bragged.
"I might!" Amelia said triumphantly, putting down three tiles to form "equalize".
It put her firmly in the lead.
"Amelia, you have the lowest amount of wins out of all of us."
"Shhh, let a girl dream."
"That's all it will be, dreams."
"I am just saying that they could have eaten more!"
"Francisca, when someone says they want a snack, they don't mean a four-course meal."
The older woman looked extremely put out as she crossed her arms. "But they need a good meal in their bellies."
"They probably had just eaten or something. It doesn't sound like they were trying to insult you."
"My children used to always eat my cooking. I am their mother!"
Everyone tried to hide their smiles, not that any of them really succeeded. Food and feeding people was definitely one of Francisca's "love languages", as Amelia had once said. It was how she showed how much she liked you. Therefore, any of her children being too full to eat her food was the highest insult and cause for concern in her mind.
"The Head Chef approved of your recipe to spice up the corn, Francisca," Fakhir told her.
"It won't be anything like proper elote but at least it will have some flavour now," Francisca sniffed.
Fakhir grinned. "No more plain corn on the cob for us. Though there have been a lot more chilli powder related incidents in the kitchen..."
"It is not my fault that the people you work with don't know how to handle spices. Aren't they meant to be chefs?"
"Ha! Told you I would getting a better scoring word than you!" Liu crowed as she put down some tiles.
"No one was doubting you," Pamela grumbled, making a note on their score sheet.
"Ziva, your turn," Liu urged.
"Don't rush people!" Amelia scolded.
"I just want it to be my turn again so I can beat you all!"
"That will happen whether you rush people or not," was Pamela's opinion.
"No, don't say that," Fakhir jumped in. "She might not win!"
Everyone managed to stop their separate conversations to give him an incredulous look.
"What?" he asked defensively. "It's true."
"That is just wishful thinking," Pamela told him.
"You can't shoot him down like that!" Amelia protested.
"It's the truth! How often does Liu lose?"
"Come on, Ziva, make your move," Liu urged.
Ziva was in the middle of doing that when Liu started talking. The word 'Dove' didn't get her many points but at least it kept her away from last place.
Satisfied that Ziva's turn was now over, Liu turned her attention to the next person who went before she could. Fakhir. Poor man.
"You okay there, Ziva?" Pamela asked. "You're looking a bit lost."
Ziva brought herself out of her thoughts and shook her head. She hadn't realised that she had stopped talking, she had just been taking everything in and trying to keep conversations straight. It had been a long time since she had interacted like this and it was a little bit overwhelming. But in a good way, even if it was a bit confusing. Trying to listen for Intel in a very busy market in Morocco was much easier than trying to keep track of all these conversations!
How did they all listen to themselves think never mind actually talk in complete sentences? Ziva was sure that of she tried that at the moment she would start off responding to one conversation and finish off by answering a different one!
Then she noticed that Pamela was still giving her a concerned look.
"I'm am okay," she assured the British woman.
Pamela didn't look too convinced but then Francisca demanded her attention so she couldn't press her for more information.
"What are you thinking?" Amelia asked, also realising that Ziva wasn't really getting involved with the multitude of conversations that were currently happening.
How there could be more conversations happening than people present was something Ziva could never understand.
"I missed this," Ziva admitted, surprising herself.
Because she had. She had missed playing, learning, laughing. Yes, that made it sound like one of those movies that Tony liked to watch but it was the truth. And above all, she had missed all the people. It was strange being around people who just spoke Hebrew or Arabic and not hearing multiple languages at once.
Amelia raised an eyebrow, "You missed the chaos?"
Ziva looked around at the already bickering group and nodded. "Yes."