The Protest Passion
"Activist Zainab has never met anyone as annoyingly righteous as fellow protestor Imran—until she realizes their passionate arguments about tactics hide something deeper."
The Protest Passion
"Your approach is too aggressive."
Zainab whirled on the man who'd been criticizing her organizing all day. "And yours is too passive. At least my way gets attention."
"Attention isn't change."
"Neither is polite letter-writing." She stepped closer. "Who are you to lecture me?"
"Imran Malik. Community organizer for fifteen years." He didn't back down. "And you're brilliant but burning out everyone around you."
"At least I'm burning for something."
They kept clashing—at planning meetings, at rallies, in heated texts that went on all night.
"You're infuriating," Zainab typed at 2am.
"And you're magnificent. Also exhausting."
"Is that a compliment?"
"It's honest. Go to sleep."
"Make me."
The tension broke at a late-night strategy session.
Everyone else had gone home. They were alone, arguing about direct action, when suddenly they were arguing with their mouths pressed together.
"This changes nothing," Zainab gasped.
"It changes everything." Imran pulled her closer. "I've wanted this since you yelled at me in the first meeting."
"You yelled first."
"Because you were beautiful and passionate and I didn't know how to handle it."
They made love on the community center floor—revolutionary in its own way.
Imran matched her intensity, giving as good as he got. When he finally entered her, Zainab felt like she was winning and losing simultaneously.
"Meri jaan," he breathed. "Fight with me forever."
"For the cause?"
"For everything." He thrust deeper. "Be my partner. In revolution and in life."
"Our styles are incompatible," Zainab said afterward.
"Our styles are complementary." He held her close. "You push, I pull. We cover all the ground."
"That sounds like a tactical analysis."
"It's a proposal." He kissed her forehead. "Fight alongside me, Zainab. Build something that lasts."
They married at a protest—because of course they did.
The joint organization they built changed policies for a generation.
Best argument either of them ever had.