Hearts In Tune (Book One Of The In love Series)

Chapter 16

Hearts In Tune 16

Sameerah turned this way and that in front of the impressive mirror of her bedroom in Abuja while the house was a hubbub of activity. She let the fashion designer tack a few flowers on the sleeve of her Kamu outfit for later embroidery before posing again.

"This looks much better, it was so plain earlier." Sameerah sent her mother a glance but agreed with her and wisely thanked her stars for keeping her mouth shut earlier. Her mother had advocated for more flowers on the sleeves of the dress saying it would help the dress look better and she had vehemently disagreed in her head. The fashion designer however listened and did what her mother asked.

"Thankfully, it's the second outfit of the night, it has to be nice but not so overwhelming. You get?" Sameerah nodded in the direction of the wedding stylist and stepped off the little stool she had been standing on and went to her bathroom where she changed out of the dress to an indoor cotton dress that she belted at the side.

She handed the dress back to the designer and politely asked, "Will this dress return to me before I leave Abuja tomorrow or will it come to Kano straight?" The stylist who was standing right behind the designer, shook her head vehemently, Sameerah caught what she meant and switched gears.

"The dress can be returned today, right?" The fashion designer, a younger woman in her early twenties took a deep breath and agreed to have it sent first thing the next morning.

"I would love to have it handed over to you immediately I'm done today, but those sleeves have to be laundered and the neck area as well where beaders have touched." Sameerah nodded and motioned for them to leave the room with her, as they passed the stairs to the living area, she took a detour to the kitchen and handed them drinks and water from the refrigerator, she found packs of Jollof on the kitchen island waiting to be dispatched to those working and handed two to them.

"Please accept these. The entire house is a mess because we are leaving to Kano soon." They both nodded and left the house using the kitchen door. Sameerah shut the door behind them and took a deep breath to clear her head, it had been a hectic past few days and she had no way to run off as usual or throw herself into her work. There was so much that needed her attention and participation for it not to go wrong.

She moved from the door and took a Chapman from the refrigerator, picked up a pack of rice and started the return to her room. Once she reached the first landing, her phone rang and she swiped right without even looking at the screen.

"Asalam Alaikum, Masoyiyata." She shook her head and stopped climbing the stairs, she knew immediately from the sound of his mischief filled tone that he was among people who needed to believe they'd been together for a while.

"Walaikum Salam, Your Excellency. How's your day going?" She added with a mischievous laugh of her own, putting her food and drink together in one hand and using the other to hold the phone firmly.

"Better now that you've picked up, I called twice earlier." Sameerah looked at her phone in puzzlement and wondered how she missed the calls, she mentally vowed to check if there was something wrong with the device before returning her attention to Aminu.

"I had no idea, I've had the stylist and one of the fashion designers over for my last fitting so I'm sure I didn't hear it ring." Sameerah heard Aminu make a sound of acceptance before he told her he was putting the phone on speakerphone for them to speak to the event planner of their state event.

"Madam, we have a slight issue. There might have to be an overflow as His Excellency's guests have gone over the RSVP window, we now have five hundred from His Excellency alone." Sameerah raised a brow as she entered her room, annoyance bubbling within her as she considered the factors. They had sent out about six hundred invites each, hoping that at least two fifty guests each would turn down the invites, to make a total of seven hundred to their state dinner.

"Can't we cancel this event? It's a waste of time, money and more time." Aminu cleared his throat in warning and she huffed in reply, feeling pushed enough to turn off the phone and drop it into the a bathtub full of water.

"We can't cancel, Masoyiyata, we can only extend the event to accept our guest list. We invited them, we can't take it back now, can we?" Sameerah whispered under her breath that they could take it back but made sure to not let him hear. He was taking this meeting that she was supposed to take and she was grateful.

"We can extend to only eight hundred in total, so I'll try to get some people on my side who have attended the Kamu and dinner to sit the state dinner out." For security reasons as well, because the fear of being kidnapped or harmed was high on her mind after receiving all the security lessons she had received in the past month.

"Did you hear her? Only eight hundred, you people need to make sure that number is not exceeded by even one." The call ended and Sameerah set her phone on her nightstand and plopped on the floor to eat her rice.

"Are you sure of this thing?" She heard her mother's voice ask softly, Sameerah nearly choked on a spoonful of rice because she assumed her mother had left the room, the older woman came out of her closet with a dark green dress in hand. Sameerah chewed in contemplative silence while her mother laid the dress on the bed.

"Mami, the wedding begins in five days, why are you bringing it up now?" She challenged, some of the irritation from her call with Aminu spilling over.

"You can't be too sure, what if all that good boy thing he does is an act? You are going from being just your father's daughter to being the wife of the governor of a state. That's a lot of responsibility that-" Sameerah could not help interrupting her mother's speech.

"You don't think I can handle? Are you letting daddy get into your head? This is the sort of thing Baaba would say for sure. Not you, because all my life you've told me there's nothing I cannot handle and that's the attitude I'm taking into this new world I'm entering, this new role I'm taking on.

You raised me, for once actually take pride in it and stop worrying needlessly. When you feel the pinch of worry, pray that Allah gives me the strength to take on whatever happens and to not make this marriage a test for me." She got up from her position on the floor and set the food aside, knowing she had lost her appetite, she took her laptop and walked to the balcony and sat on the padded chair there to do some work she had been putting off till the flight to Kano.

She looked into the room a few minutes later and saw that her mother had left, she returned into the room from the heat of the outside, turned on the air conditioning and fell right asleep.

*********

The whirr of the helicopter blades as it landed gently on their Bebeji home woke Sameerah from the nap she had taken as soon as they left Abuja. She slowly yawned and looked out the window and saw that the event planning crew had arrived the large field opposite their house where her Kamu would be held.

The chopper stopped and she unbuckled her seatbelt, handed her essential tote to their housekeeper who was waiting before helping her mother off the aircraft. They safely entered the house from the roof and shut the steel door behind them before the sound of the helicopter blades reached them again, signaling that it was leaving immediately. Her father and Sa'ad opted to not take the same flight as they did, making her mother sad.

"Your brother never listens, now he will have to wait till later when your father is coming to be here when he should have arrived with us." Sameerah took back her tote from the housekeeper and walked to her usual room in the house, paying no heed to the conversation her mother was trying to start. Sa'ad was a lost cause in her direction because he refused to just behave like the sibling that he was meant to be. He preferred to behave like an adversary and she would very much like to keep it so.

As soon as her head touched her pillow right after Zuhr prayers, she fell right asleep and only woke to the sound of her phone ringing in her dreams. She slowly woke up again and swiped right only putting the phone to her ear with one more ring to spare.

"Where you keep phone? I've been trying to call you all afternoon!" Sameerah took the phone off her ear and saw that it was already past three pm and the day was getting cloudy very quickly. The events planning crew had planned for rain but not this much rain.

"Sorry, I've been sleeping. I barely sleep at night these days, I'm either working or worrying." Hafsah tutted and asked her to check the bird app.

"What's that? Twitter?" Sameerah asked as she pulled out her iPad from her tote and added it to the house Wi-Fi in no time.

"No oo, something else. Someone posted a photo of you and Aminu dining at a stable house of sorts, but because of the glass, no one can see your face. Saved by the glass again though because this picture is pretty clear." As soon as Sameerah opened twitter, she immediately saw the photo first on her timeline, she first went to check the lock on her account before focusing on the photo. The picture had been taken from an angle that hid her so it was either Aminu's people or someone was targeting them.

"It's Aminu's people setting up for Friday in sha Allah. I cannot wait for the explosion that will Occur." Hafsah's wicked cackle filled her ear and she had no choice but to join in the laughter.

"See you later, I'm packing to come to Bebeji." Sameerah agreed and ended the call. She returned the phone to the nightstand and tried to fall asleep again but so much ran through her mind so she picked up her iPad again and took a good look at the picture. She had the sleeve of her dress covering her face in what must have been her laughing as Aminu was smiling as well.


The sound of her door slamming open made her sit up and pull a scarf over her head, she relaxed once she saw it was Sa'ad who had bludgeoned his way in as usual, so she got up and gently tied her scarf around her forehead.

"You... I don't even have the words to describe the type of shameless idiot you are!" Sameerah stopped moving and looked at her brother quizzically, wondering if he had returned to his snow cocaine addiction.

"Are you okay?" She asked him, her brows raised in question at his unnecessary anger but the question incensed him even further.

"If you wanted to be a First Lady so bad, why not marry Kabir. The man is ten times better than that spineless fool you're marrying in a few days." Everyone in the Bebeji family knew whom she was marrying, it was not news. His reaction was still misplaced.

"What are you waffling on about?" She watched him pace her room in anger, coming to her front and taking hold of her arms to shake her as though he was trying to shake some sense into her.

"You know what I just lost because of you? Two million dollars! I was supposed to get it on my own so that Baaba could be proud of me but as usual, you've stuck your stupid, oversabi nose into it and I've lost it." He stepped back and pointed a finger in her face.

"I will do everything in my power to make sure that fool of yours loses the elections and I'll be here to gloat in your face, you fool." Sameerah said nothing, her arms still smarting from her brother holding her with so much force. She watched him stalk out of the room, still no explanation for his deranged behavior. 

A/N 

You can always trust to find Sa'ad at the scene of violence everytime. But will he win? 

Not Aminu getting so sick at this masoyiyata thing. Does it ever end?

This back to back updates is only because i am free and feeling creative. Please leave comments and vote please. 

see you all in the next chapter, ciao!