Our Space

Chapter 37

Sami had finished work early and decided to surprise Radia by turning up at her workplace. He was quite excited as he stood at the corner of the road near the bus stop, waiting for her. She walked out with a couple of people, talking and laughing with them.

"I told Hussain about him too, the guy's crazy."

"Don't know how he managed to become a manager," Radia said.

"Yeah, the guy writes worse than Radia," a young man behind them said.

"One spelling error in an email, just one tiny little spelling error and you're comparing me to him? Have you seen his emails? They're atrocious."

"You're just saying that because you want to be manager," the man replied.

"No, I'm saying that because it's the truth. I can do a way better job than him."

"I'm sure you can. Anyways, I'm heading towards the station. See you tomorrow, guys. Bye!" The man said, walking away from Radia and the other girl. They noticed Sami when they got to the end of the road.

"Sami, Asalamu'alaykum. What are you doing here?" Radia asked, surprised to see him.

"Wa'alaykumusalaam. Thought I'd come and pick you up from work. The car's in the carpark, let's go," Sami replied, avoiding eye contact. He began to walk away, the feeling of jealousy bubbling inside of him. The guy she was talking to could pass as a good looking guy. Sami felt he was being overly friendly with Radia and it annoyed him.

Radia said goodbye to her friend and silently followed Sami. When they got into the car, Radia remained quiet as she began tapping away at her phone. Sami realise that Radia had caught on to how he was feeling.

"Do you want to go out?" Sami asked, starting the car. Radia shook her head. Sighing, Sami began to drive home. If Radia didn't want to speak, then he wouldn't try to keep up a conversation. He was getting tired of this.

Of course, when they reached home, Radia headed straight to Squeaky, her beloved. Sami changed his clothes and sat down with a book. If Radia didn't want to talk to him then fine, he wouldn't talk to her either. He usually tried his absolute best to keep a conversation going between them but no matter what he did, it was never enough. For once, he was going to give up.

The house was silent until dinner time. It was Sami's turn to cook and he made spaghetti while Radia sat with her laptop in the living room. Once he was done cooking, he gave Radia her plate of spaghetti and sat to eat. All that could be heard was the sound of forks scraping plates and occasional chewing. Then, Radia cleared the table and washed the dishes. When she finally returned, she spoke up.

"What's your problem, Sami?"

"My problem? What did I do?"

"You know what you did. Stomping away from us like that for no reason. Zayna was feeling so awkward and she's been texting me since asking about what's wrong."

"Tell her nothing's wrong. She's just reading into things too much."

"Yeah, that's why you've been quiet for the past three hours."

"When I speak, you say I talk too much and now that I'm quiet, there's something wrong with that too," Sami complained.

"Yeah well if you're going to be quiet in anger, of course there's something wrong with that."

"What is it that you want from me?"

"Answer me honestly. For clarification's sake, did you get upset over Alan speaking to me?"

"I don't like it when guys joke around with you. You're my wife and that's only my right."

"Here we go again. Fine, my sisters aren't your mahrams, right? I don't want you to joke around with them anymore. You're not allowed to talk to Sadia or Madia anymore."