They silently sat there for almost an hour without anyone of them saying a single word. The silence was strong enough to emote everything that was being concealed in the confines of their hearts. Ihsan squirmed in her position and looked up at him, she smiled. A fleeting smile that melted away the remaining worry or denial about her being his wife in his heart.
"Can I have my phone? I have something important to check there." Not now please, not now please Ihsan. Even before she said it, Sadeeq knew that something important was surely Dr. Aashif. Should he show her that he knew what the important something is? Or he should go on with the game and not show her anything about him knowing her lunch date had said she should try not to miss him. He squeezed his eyes closed.
"A minute then, I'll go get it." He had dumped the phones on the fridge when he walked there to get her some water, and it irked him now that he was walking back to the bed so she could be able to read Dr. Aashif's heart soothing message. His heart squeezed.
He passed her the phone and sat back on the chair, pretending to be chatting with his phone while every fibre of his being was being focused on her to see her reaction. And behold, a wide therapeutic smile stretched her lips and she looked like an angel. A part of him loosen.
"Oh! Sadeeq what's the time? I think I should be in school." She casually asked without peeling her eyes off from her phone, where she was hitting up her phone's keyboard, it was palpable she was replying Dr. Aashif's message.
"I hope you know that you're crazy right? How can someone in this condition, with an IV attached to your hand and weak limbs that couldn't walk think of something close to school? What do you want to do over there that couldn't come and meet you here? What if I've granted your wish of going home? You're insane." It was back, the hatred between them, the disrespect, the disgust and annoyance was back. The old Sadeeq was back. He grunted and yawed his gaze away from her.
"Sadeeq you just said you're my home, this shows you were lying huh? How can you insult a very sick patient like me?" She made an innocent face and flashed him a puppy face that swayed Sadeeq's heart, but he was far away from himself to let those eyes beguile him.
"I know what you want to do over there, Ihsan. It's about some stupid Aashif right? I'll arrange for your lunch here, just so you won't stress yourself by going to school for a lunch date. If he really cares, he'll come." He snatched away her phone from her hand and tried calling Dr. Aashif when she screamed and his attention turned to her.
"That's not what I want to do, Qamar texted me that she was pregnant, I want to go and see for myself, even though it's just two months old." She didn't lie often, even if she did, Sadeeq knew with just a single glance. And here, she was telling the utmost truth.
He heaved a sigh of relief and she nodded her head to show him that she was indeed telling the truth. "Arrange the lunch for us, I missed eating with you." Her smile was wide and inviting, it swept Sadeeq off his feet and he smiled back at her, long forgetting what he was holding her phone for.
He ordered for their food and they sat silently in the room with Ihsan roaming through an online shopping app. She gushed and awed before she called for Sadeeq's attention to help her choose what to buy. She shifted for him on the bed and he sat down, putting the phone between them on his thigh.
"I want to buy between these abayas for the cultural festival we're having in school this Friday. Which one do you think I should choose?" She was excited, so excited that it forced Sadeeq to believe her when she said she didn't love her own cultural attires.
"You said cultural festival right? Then you are expected to ear ankara, lace or anything related to Nigerian culture, not abayas since you're not an Arab." He hoped she would understand his point without throwing tantrums or even insulting him.
"But I don't love them, Sadeeq! I believe that for one to look cute in ankara, one needs to wear makeup on. Me that don't even know how to draw a brow," she whined and pouted her lips, hungrily looking at the abayas smiling at her through her phone's screen.
"Let's make it this way then, we will order one of these, but you won't wear it for the event. One of those ankaras Maama put into your clothes, we will choose one and I'll take you to a makeup artist so she will paint your face and we shall see if you'll look beautiful or not." She nudged him with her elbow and rolled her eyes at him.
"I'm sure I'll look peng, more than that brown haired ogle you have as a girlfriend." She rolled her eyes again and kept looking through the abayas. He was silent, and that made her look up to him and she was him intently staring at her.
"What?" She inquired, rolling her eyes out of irritation. She hated being looked at, that too as intensely as Sadeeq did.
"You rolled your eyes, Ihsan. And you know what that meant, if not because you have a bad breath now, I would've kissed you." He waited for the tantrum she would throw because he said she had a bad breath, and it came, as crazier as he ever thought Ihsan could be.
"Nurse!!!!" She cried, with all the strength she had stored in her, banging the ringer beside her bed.
A nurse rushed into the room and stood in front of us, looking at how Ihsan had made a whole mess of the bed with her legs and how she was sincerely crying because I said she had a bad breath. "I want to brush my teeth!" What was her age again? Is this girl alright?
"I'm sorry ma, you can't walk to the toilet due to your condition. I'm sorry." She turned to leave when Ihsan increased the intensity of her wails, and it caught the attention of the doctor.
He came in and she repeated what she said to the doctor, he laughed and asked the nurse to bring the brush and a bowl she could be spitting on. It was brought to her and the nurse helped her brushed her teeth before she went back to her post, chuckling at how childish Ihsan was.
She turned to Sadeeq and gave him the perfect eye roll she had never done in her life before she turned her attention back to her phone with a grim expression on her face.
"You threw all this tantrum so I could kiss you? Are you that desperate, Ihsan?" He was taming down his chuckle but it bursted through his chest and erupted out, calling the world war three.
She didn't replied him, rather; she dialed Ummu's number and put the phone on speaker. Ihsan burst into tears the moment she heard Ummu's voice boosting through her phone's speaker. "I hate Sadeeq, Ummu. I so much hate him." She was seriously crying, and that got Sadeeq staring at her in utmost bewilderment.
"Subhanallah, why are you saying this, Ihsan? What has he done? And how are you feeling?" Ummu asked, and before Ihsan answered Sadeeq had already started talking in a high pitched tone.
"Whatever she's going to tell you is a lie, Ummu. This girl is crazy. Could you believe she cried like a child and made a mess of her bed just because I said she has a bad breath and I couldn't kiss her because of that. She made the nurse brought her a brush and helped her brushed her teeth, and she's crying now because I asked her if she did all that for my kiss."
"Innalillahi, Sadeeq gidanku! Wallahi I'll stop taking your calls, I'm tired of your childishness, and how does that concerns me?"
"He's lying Ummu. This boy called me names, he insulted me and said I'm so weak that I'm always sick. He..." Sadeeq bursting to a thunderstorm of laughter was what brought Ihsan back from her world, even from how she was stuttering; Ummu knew she was lying but she kept listening.
"Wallahi Ummu she's lying, and I'll kiss her for a minute, let her repeat what she just said." Before Ihsan or even Ummu could say a word, Sadeeq had already merged their lips in a passionate sync, how she missed his lips! It took a minute, before Ihsan's eyes fell on her phone, it was still reading. She stretched her hand and ended the call, savoring in the taste of his lips on her taste buds.