He opened his eyes again to meet Jasmine's eyes. "Please stop being harsh on Ummulkhayr. If you let her be comfortable around you, I'm sure she'll make things clear and you'll understand. Please, stop hurting her, she has more than enough to grieve for, don't make things worse for her by turning her down every time."
I need to work on myself, I can be this weak; Jasmine told herself as she blinked the tears in her eyes.
"Okay." She said faintly. She looked everywhere but his eyes as she withdrew her hands from his, picked up the folded clothes and stuffed them in a coffee backpack.
"Let's go." She said barely above a whisper. Muslim could tell she was fighting back tears.
Jasmine walked out of Aayan's nursery and Muslim closed the door behind her.
"Come, everything will be fine. I promise." He pulled her into a hug. She relaxed in his hold, realising how much she needed that.
"I'm going to hairdressing salon later. Would you mind joining me?" Jasmine smiled at Ummulkhayr who pronto paled at what Jasmine said.
"Hairdressing...um no...I mean I don't do hairdressing...I don't dress my hair.. I...I prefer—"
"Oh come on, it's okay if you don't want to plait your hair. If your hair is velvety and luscious like mine, plaiting it is as good as wasting your time." She chuckled. She had always wanted to plait her hair beautifully like Hafsat did but the silkiness of her hair made it impossible. She paled at the thought of Hafsat.
"You're Arab, that's why."
"No I'm not, my mother is."
"You must have inherited that from her."
"Yeah true. So maybe you should go for a wash and set?"
"No I'm fine, I'm okay. But I can keep you company." Ummulkhayr smiled.
"Um...okay, fine." Jasmine shrugged.
"I would go for henna stain but the one on my palms hasn't faded yet."
"Henna is something I haven't gotten used to. I just do it on my nails alone. The last time I had my hands and feet designed was during my wedding." Jasmine sniggered. "Not gonna lie, it looked really good on me, I don't get why I'm not used to it seriously."
"Don't worry, I'm here now. I do design my henna myself, I'll do it for you when you're ready. I promise you'll love it." Ummulkhayr beamed.
"I do love it, I'm just not able to do it as frequent as I want to, you get me?"
"Yeah I understand. So we won't use original henna powder for that. Maybe the artificial one because it fades easily and we'll get to do different designed before the time."
"Time?" Jasmine was bewildered a bit.
"The time you'll get used to it." She smiled. She was genuinely happy speaking heartily to Jasmine, it wasn't even hidden. An emotion flashed in her eyes, it disappeared before Jasmine could decipher it.
"Go get dressed to we can go and come back early. I'm going to my parents' in the evening. My sister's trousseau will be brought tomorrow morning." Jasmine thought it'd be good to let her into her life.
"Oh masha Allah. Allahumma barik. We have a wedding around the corner."
"We sure do." Jasmine smiled as she packed up the plates, Humayd wasn't done yet, he was eating while watching the TV.
"Should I teach him not to? Or I should just let him?" Jasmine asked herself and sighed. "This is going to be harder than I thought." She mumbled, not as clear as the previous sentence.
Chapter 31
Start from the beginning
