He shut the door close and locked it before she could reach there. He plop in his bed with a long sigh as he listened to her bang on the door while she rained curses on him.
He hissed slightly and stood up before he undressed and headed into his bathroom to take his bath. By the time he was out, she had left the door. He heaved a sigh of relief and sat down on the vanity stool.
He was almost done dressing up to sleep when his phone started ringing. He picked it up before his lips curved upwards. “I was about to call you, but you beat me to it.” He settled down by the edge of the bed as he held the phone to his ear. “I was worried something happened. It’s been almost an hour and you said you’d call when you get home but you didn’t,” she lamented. He smiled and tried to suppress his laughter. “I'm so sorry I didn't call when I was supposed to. I got caught with something. I arrived home safely and aren't you supposed to be studying?” He asked her and she slightly whined.
“I was worried.... I...” Her words trailed off. “You what?” He asked her but she never answered. “You should study now, okay? Don’t let anything bother you. Everything is going to be fine.” She smiled and nodded her head as if he was in front of her. “Sleep well. I will call you during Subh.” She ended the call before he got the chance to respond to her.
***
She sauntered down the stairs and found her way to the dining room to have her breakfast. Rayhana raised her head up from her plate and looked at Dalia. Dalia ducked her head and greeted her. “Good morning, all this fancy dressing for my nephew? Lucky him,” she spoke teasingly. Dalia smiled sheepishly as she fiddled with her fingers.
“Now come sit and have your breakfast before he arrives.” As on cue, she was about to sit when he appeared in the dining room. Her heart throbbed hard the moment she heard the baritone of his voice. She turned away, restraining herself from running out of the room. His cologne getting stronger which meant he was immensely inches away from her.
“I will leave you two, I have some things to do now.” Rayhana sluggishly stood to her feet and left the two in an uncomfortable silence.
“Dalia,” he called her. She hesitated before looking at him. “Good morning,” she uttered almost impossible for him to hear. He smirked and started her pale face. “Thought I did something wrong.” She ignored him.
As muhsin scanned her face for response, the silence hung in the air like the suspended moment before she sighed uncomfortably and ducked her head more. “You should eat your breakfast now before we get late.” He stood up from the chair he was seated and adjusted his blazer. “I’ll be in the car waiting.” She looked up at him as he turned to leave. The sight of him causes a hot ball of admiration in her stomach to funnel down her legs and up to her chest.
She shook the thoughts away and sighed; he wasn't her husband, not just yet. She couldn't be dwelling over someone’s husband with the reason that they were engaged.
She quickly had her breakfast and bid rayhana goodbye before she joined him in the car and he dropped her off at school.
“Dalia?” Hamida enfolded her in a warm embrace before she broke the hug and held dalia’s cheeks in her palms. “Where have you been all this while? You don't pick our calls or call back or even return any of our messages.”
Asiya hugged her. “You owe us an explanation.” Dalia chuckled softly as she broke the hug. She looked at her friends. “I know, I know and I'm so sorry for pushing you guys away without any explanations. A lot happened but everything is fine now, I promise you guys. And I won’t let such happen again.”
“But are you sure everything’s fine?” Amina asked worriedly. Dalia smiled and nodded. “Come, lets go revise before the exams.”
Hamida parted ways with them to her department same as Asiya, while Amina and Dalia hang around their department and to have a discussion about what they've studied.
**
Days later.....
Amira unwarily marched into her mother’s room and slumped on the her bed, concurrently let the tears free. “He refuses to call of the wedding. I tried everything you told me but.... He refused to. What should I do now mommy? I can’t stand this, I can’t stand having that revolting little runt as my co wife, mommy.”
Her mother disappointedly glared at her and looked away as she hissed. “You didn’t try harder, amira. You’re too weak and not violent enough. If you've done exactly what I've told you, he would've called off the wedding days ago.”
Amira looked up to her mother. “The last thing he told me this morning was he was going to divorce me if I don't cut all my foolish acts, and I cannot risk losing him, you know that!” Amira retorted furiously.
Her mother chuckled softly and looked at her. “You came together, right?” She asked amira. She slightly nodded as she thought of what her mother’s vile smirk meant. “Come with me, right now.” Mommy rise up and walked towards the door.
Amira hurriedly followed her out of the room to where she was heading which was daddy’s living room. She met her mother standing very closely by the door, eavesdropping. She scoffed and turned to the stairs. Amira followed her again, jumbled and afraid of what her mother was up to.
Before she reached the last step upstairs, mommy had already sauntered out of daddy’s study holding two golf sticks. “Mommy, what are you doing with daddy’s golf sticks?” Her stomach swirled with fear. “Are we going to kill him?” She gasped as she followed her down the stairs again. “You must be insane.” Her mother glared and handed one golf stick to her. “Follow me.”
Amira like the moronic person she was, she took the stick and followed her mother out of the house. Before she approached her, mommy had already broken one of the car windows. “What are you doing, mommy? This is my husband’s car if you’ve forgotten.” Amira yelled infuriately. “Your husband is about to go see that vile little cockroach and you don't see any reason why to stop him?”
Without having a second thought, she furious smashed the front windscreen. “I can kill that girl because of him,” she spat. The boiling anger rising in her. She couldn't hold the anger, the jealousy. She smacked fenders and headlights till she was sure it was damaged.
“Hajiya? Amira? Innalillahi Wa’inna Ilaihir Raji’un, what in the living day light are you people doing?” Alhaji asked dumbfounded as he scanned the car they have disfigured. “Alhaji if you don’t stay out of this I will smack this stick....” His hand cracked across mommy’s face, snapping it back with another slap much more harder than the first one.
Amira gasped as she dropped the stick and moved backwards. “I am done with your insanity, both of you. Your foolishness has reach to the extent of destroying your own son in law’s car. Look, the next time you will try any outrageous act about this wedding consider yourself a divorcee.” By the time he had finished yelling, mommy had already dropped the stick and gave up all her weapons to fight for her daughter.
“Muhsin, take my car keys and go pick her up. I will get your car fixed and I don’t want any arguments.” Daddy shoved the key in his hand. Muhsin nodded and thanked him before he walked passed a shaky amira to the car while daddy went back into the house without a back glance.
“Mommy you see what you’ve caused, now muhsin is really angry with me. Have you seen the look on his face?” Her mother glared at her and hissed before she stormed away. Amira turned and looked at him but he never spared her a glance as he drove out of the house.
He parked the car and waited for her to approach him before she opened the door and entered. “At first I thought it was daddy’s driver.” She gave him a smile. “Good Evening,” she greeted afterwards. “How was the exams?” He asked and she retorted. “You look pale.” She observed. He glanced at her wondering how she always managed to spot his sadness.
“Me? I'm okay. Just tired.” He replied. She shook her head, “you always say that.”
“So now I'm lying?”
“No, it’s just that, that’s not what’s bothering you.”
“Then what’s bothering me?” He asked and she raised her shoulders. “How would I know? You refuse to tell me what’s wrong. Is it about the wedding?” She asked him. He focused his eyes on her for minute before he took his eyes away. “I'm fine, really. It’s just that....” He paused and sighed. It wouldn’t be a smart idea to tell her what was going on as he knew she was already agitated about marrying him. “It’s just stress. Don’t worry, okay? Now let me take you home, you need to rest.” She nodded her head not that she was convinced but she knew he wouldn't tell her.
He dropped her at his aunt’s house before driving to his cousin’s house. He needed to confront him and ask why he was pushing him away without any explanation.
He dropped down from the car and headed inside with the spare key he had. He met Yusuf on the sofa while he was answering a call. He settled down on the one seater, waiting for him to finish with the phone call.
Minutes later after muhsin had gone to the fridge to find something to drink, he finally ended the call. He tapped on his phone without sparing a glance at muhsin. “What’s up with you?” Muhsin asked as he dropped the bottle on the tiled floor. “What’s up with me? What’s up with you?” He returned the question as he raised his head to look at muhsin.
“Why weren't you picking any of my calls or replying my text messages? You just disappeared without any explanations.” Yusuf smirked and returned his gaze to his phone. “Heard the wedding date has been fixed, congratulations.” He said instead like he was genuinely happy inside. “That’s not what I'm here for, Yusuf. What’s wrong with you? Did I do anything wrong to you? Why are you acting this way lately?” Muhsin was starting to get frustrated and irked.
“I've been waiting for you to ask me this question and I will give the answer. You took away the one thing that would’ve changed my life and made me happy. You took away something that I was happy that I've found, but all because of you, I lost everything in just a blink of an eye. How do you even sleep at night knowing what you have done and you have hurt a lot of people.”
Muhsin looked at him bewildered. Yusuf had gone insane perhaps? He wasn't making any sense. What did he mean by he took something away from him? “Why are you talking this way? What did I take away from you? Who did I hurt? Look, just be straight forward and let’s figure things out.”
“You should go ask the girl you're about to marry what I mean.” He rise to his feet same time muhsin did. “I don't need to ask anyone anything about this but you. Stop acting childish and tell me what you mean by this!” He held the collar of Yusuf’s shirt. “Don’t ever call me that again and Kindly leave my house.” He slapped his hands away from his shirt.
“I never thought there will be a day we would actually fight because we never did. We were always open to each other, no secrets, no matter what. Look.... Just tell me what I did, this alone is torturing. What have I done? Who did I hurt? Just tell me? why did you push me away? Because I know I did nothing to you....”
“How could you say you did nothing when you took her away from me? You took the girl I wanted to have as mine away from me. You took Dalia away.....” Yusuf stopped talking when he realized he had spoken too much. He scanned muhsin’s face for reaction, as the silence hung in the air like the suspended moment before Yusuf broke the silence. “Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that and I shouldn't have accused you that way...”
“You love her?” Muhsin cuts him off with the question. “I did before but now I promise you, she’s all yours...”
“Why didn’t you tell me you loved her?” Muhsin questioned. “Because I couldn't gather the courage to. I couldn't even man up and go ask for her and in marriage and all you could talk about this passed weeks was her, what was I supposed to do?”
The silence folded the living room again as they stared at each other. “I'm so sorry, I never knew you felt that way about her.” Yusuf smiled and shook his head. “You did nothing wrong. A girl should never come between us and beside, she doesn't even like me.” He shrugged off his shoulder. “And I know we weren't meant to be so stop bothering yourself. You have my full support on this and I know I will find my own soulmate.... one day.... hopefully.” Muhsin returned a smile that never reached his tired eyes or his heart. He felt guilty inside him. How could he not notice that Yusuf liked Dalia? Why was he being so selfish. “No more secrets, please.” He stretched his hand out. Yusuf stared down at muhsin’s hand. “Fine, I promise.”