Only In Jannah

3: The other woman

It has been five days since my wedding and four days since I saw Khalil. I haven't left my room since the day Umma visited which was three days ago, the days kind of went by in a blur all I did was eat and sleep and thanks to Mufidas endless phone calls asking me for her apple pie I had to find my way down to the kitchen to bake her some before she breaks my phone.

I walked out of my room and all I could see was Khalil, I was staring at two possible ways that could lead me to him. I could find him upstairs or even closer, behind the door I was looking at. I shook the awful thought of intruding off my head and took a deep breath as I headed for the staircase leading downstairs of course. The door to his study was so close to the staircase that I found myself standing in front of it ready to go in. I said Bismillah before slowly turning the door handle and behold! It was locked.

I sighed feeling defeated but at the same time thanked God it was locked. What was I even thinking? What would I have said if I had found him inside? Yo? God I'm stupid. I quickly turned to leave and unfortunately bumped into someone, he shouted out a sorry and ran upstairs before I could see who it was but I was sure it wasn't Khalil. He wouldn't leave me like that, would he?

I entered the kitchen and found a maid stacking up the fridge, I called her attention. She looked back at me "Yes, any problem?" she spat. I furrowed my brows in amusement what's up with this one. I asked her to call me Florence and a thousand minutes later they both came in. I had gotten tired of standing and sat on one of the island stools. I already asked Florence to check the ingredients for my pie earlier when she brought me breakfast. Florence helped slice the apples while I made the dough, I decided to make it an upside down pie instead.

"Could you pass me that spatula please?" I said to the other maid, she turned to look at me hissed and walked out. I turned to look at Florence with corked eyebrows "What's her problem?"

"Sorry Ma" she handed me the spatula "She's the head maid. She has worked here the longest and she's our boss' favourite, the last two maids who objected to her lost their jobs"

Well I'm not a maid.

"So what does she do around here?" I licked some batter that spilled on my finger and rinsed my hand before popping the baking pan into the preheated oven.

"Mostly just orders us around, she cleans on weekends too when Mr. Ibrahim is home" I was about to ask who that was when I recalled something an old friend said to me.

Every Khalil is an Ibrahim.

I held back a smile and replaced his thought with the ongoing conversation.
"And you cook?" she nodded. I took a quick glance at the clock hanging on the wall and it was noon already.
"Does Khalil have lunch at home?"

"He does on Wednesdays and Fridays" she said after a quick calculation in her head.

"So lets make lunch" I beamed.

"You don't have to do that Ma"

"I insist" I managed to persuade her to let me make lunch and asked her to get me some vegetables I'd use in making miyan taushe from the mini market she said was close by. I had just added my groundnut paste to the pot when she returned, we both chopped the veggies, finished the soup and proceeded to make tuwon shinkafa and after that we made zobo.

I helped Florence set the table for two since I had just come to know that Khalils Junior brother lives with us and stays in the BQ before asking her to take mine upstairs to my room. I went back up to pray and eat. When I was done I decided to busy myself with a book on wattpad which I was waiting impatiently for an update.

Salam, lunch was very delicious. Thank you.
Khalil.

I felt a smile creep its way unto my lips as I read the message again.