A Muslim's Romantic Journey

Chapter 46.

Safia’s POV

Yusuf’s breakdown worried me a lot. I’d never seen him actually cry. I didn’t understand why though. Things weren’t great but they weren’t that bad that it would drive him to tears. There was something he wasn’t telling me, he even admitted it himself.

He became sick after a few days too. He woke up with a fever and was refusing to eat anything. I force fed him some soup and he puked it out an hour later. He’d taken some days off work but was finding it hard to stay in bed. He kept getting up and I kept telling him to rest. In the end, he settled with lying down on the sofa with a blanket around him. I sat on the edge of the sofa with my head laying on Yusuf’s chest.

“You’re going to get sick.” He warned. I didn’t respond and I was too comfortable to get up. My mistake because as soon as he started feeling better, I started getting sick.

I had a day off from university because of a strike. Amy coincidentally had a day off work too so I called her around. Yusuf was off too for sickness but he said he had to be somewhere. I asked him where but he replied saying he’d tell me when he got home.

Amy suggested we spend the day baking brownies and I told her I didn’t have the ingredients so she kindly bought the ingredients on the way to my flat. She didn’t completely know about this whole money situation. She knew we weren’t doing well but she didn’t know that it was affecting so many aspects of mine and Yusuf’s lives. I was only eating two small meals a day with no snacks or other food in between. Now that it was winter, I was fasting most days too. There was no particular reason but I thought to myself, if I was going to eat so little, I may as well get reward for it.

Today wasn’t a day I was fasting because of the fever I felt coming on. By the time Amy came, I could feel myself getting worse. I was cold and sweaty. I put an extra layer of clothing on. Amy and I greeted each other before she came and dumped all the ingredients on the table.

“It’s a little small.” She commented looking around the flat. It was the first time she’d come around.

“I find it cosy.” I replied and started taking out the ingredients from the bags. Then we both began making the brownies mix. “What’s going on with your parents now?” I asked.

“Mum approves of Hamza completely and since you came, dad’s been a little better about me being a Muslim. I’m planning to tell him about Hamza soon.”

“Do you realize that I wasn’t even asking about Hamza?” Amy stopped to think for a moment and then blushed. “He’s on your mind all the time isn’t he?”

“No… Not all the time.”

“Aww, Amy’s in love!” I said fluttering my eyelashes.

“This is getting old now. Get back to… Doing something.” She said, her lips twitching as she attempted to stop herself from smiling.

“There’s nothing left to do except wait for the brownies. That’s going to take long by the way. This oven is extra slow.”

“Then clean up!” Amy ordered me.

“But I’m feeling drowsy.” I complained. It was true though, I was feeling a little drowsy.

“Go sit down then.” Amy sighed. I did so, wrapping my cardigan tighter around me. I put my head down on the armrest and continued talking to Amy.

“Get married already! Please!” I said and Amy just looked at me disapprovingly. She always acted so much older and more mature than me. Well, she was older and more mature.

“Not everyone gets married to someone who they’ve only known about for three months!” She said referring to me and Yusuf. I mimicked her before closing my eyes. Then I must have fallen asleep.