The difference she made!

His unnoticeable smiles

"Love is the bridge between you and everything." Rumi
—————

Khalid parked his car and was walking towards the modern tent, located in the family farm outside the city. He took off his sunglasses and glazed at the great goat-herd; spread throughout all the land, owned by the grandfather.
Grandfather was nowhere to be seen, so he headed to the tent. The center position of the tent was occupied by the grandfather, at his right was the goatherd and the coffee man was pouring Arabian coffee for them.
"Assalam Alikum" Khalid greeted.
They raised their heads to look at him and replied his greeting as he approached to shake hands with each of them and placed a respectful kiss on his grandfather's forehead, then sat at his left inquiring about the wellbeing of each of them.
"Mabrook Mr. Khalid...I have just heard you got married." The goatherd offered his congratulations.
"Thank you Ayoub." He nodded with a slight smile, accepting the cup of coffee the other man offered to him.
"since he got married, haven't you noticed that it's been rare to see him around nowadays?"
Ayoub chuckled, while Khalid sipped his coffee and commented;
"nice shot grandpa...but you didn't score... you forgot I was with you on the second day of my wedding."
"see... you even started counting the minutes you spent with me, the way you never did before..."
Everyone laughed except Khalid who frowned; "what's the matter, old man? you are giving hints about your wish to get married too."
The laughs turned into giggles and the conversation kept going.
After a while, both men left to give privacy to the old man and his grandson.
"More coffee?" Khalid asked as he held the pot, then poured more coffee into his grandfather's cup after the nod the old man gave.
"Have you seen Hussien?"
"uncle Hussien? He came from Riyadh?" Khalid asked putting the coffeepot down beside him after filling his cup.
The grandfather picked up the small cup, shook the coffee around and replied; "yeah with his family."
Khalid brought his cup to his lips; "No, I haven't seen him."
For a while they were silent and in that silence they both were busy with their own thoughts. The grandfather stared at his grandson for a few moments then said; "Hussien talked with me about you and Reem... he told me if there is no way to solve the matter, he will have to accept the marriage offers he receives for his daughter...besides, Reem is ready to accept all your conditions and she's agreed on whatever you want. I think it's time to get over this problem and solve the conflict between your uncle and father as well."
At this, his eyebrows rose in surprise. This was something he didn't expect to hear; "firstly, uncle Hussien cut his relationship with dad for a minor reason. His problem was supposed to be with me not with dad. Secondly, why now? And by the way he doesn't need to ask for a permission to get his own daughter married if he finds her a good man."
Sensing Khalid's disapproval, grandfather lifted his brows in regal indifference; "The important thing is that she has accepted your conditions now. It doesn't matter when or why."
A frown found its way to Khalid's brow again; "of course it does. It had taken her too much to grow up and it's too late now." He looked down at his hand that was perched over the carpet as if it had taken up permanent residency there.
Grandfather was not sure if there was a real reason but he sensed this might be related to Fajr, "tell me the real reason ...it's because of that foreigner, right?"
Khalid surprised his grandfather, and perhaps himself, by saying; "not a foreigner, but my wife and your granddaughter" after a pause he added; "you know she's very much like you."
It was the first time he admitted to himself out loud that Fajr was not a foreigner, not just that he even compared her to the most beloved person to him.
Grandfather turned slowly, not believing his ears; "like me?"
Khalid cleared his throat trying to get rid of the impression he had given; "I mean taking into account her cleverness, confidence and those two dimples she essentially inherited from you."
"if she could change your mind in a couple of days...then the coming days are so promising huh?" it was obvious that the grandfather didn't like what he'd heard. Intentionally, he changed the topic away from Fajr. "Regarding Reem if you change your mind, tell me I'll talk with Hussien."
Khalid smiled at his grandfather's attempt to distract him; "grandpa I'm supposed to be a married man now you know"
"So what? You can be married to two up to four. Just think about it."
"even if I did, Reem wouldn't be an option"
"why? It's true that she made a mistake, but we shouldn't lose the ability of forgiving especially when the other part is ready to mend what they'd broken."
"shall we apply this on everyone?" It was quite clever of Khalid to act quickly and use those words for his benefit.
Not getting what he was referring to, the grandfather asked; "what do you mean?"
"Uncle Muhsen for example" Khalid observed his grandfather's changed expressions closely.
He turned to him, his expression annoyed and impatient, his tone sharp; "Has he already assigned you to defend him?"
"No, I'm just talking from the same point of view you mentioned about forgiveness... particularly, I felt the need to help him since I knew... he had cancer and a few months to live!" he said the last part carefully. This piece of information caught grandfather off guard. He swallowed hard to remove the strange lump forming. It was a complete shock for him that he uttered weakly; "ca...ncer?"
Khalid nodded sorrowfully...
****************
Coming back from the meeting with the grandfather, Khalid headed home. A sense of relief flooded through him, he knew his grandfather would have a turn of the heart if he got to know about Muhsen's disease, after all he was still a father, no matter how much he tried to prove the opposite.
As soon as he walked into his apartment, a huge carton box placed in the hall, got his attention.
He looked at Fajr who came in the meanwhile and asked her confusedly; "What's this?"
With a broad smile, she replied; "A sear, a fitness walk machine!"
Khalid rolled his eyes then focused on the picture displayed on side of the box; "I know I can see the picture very well, how did you get it?"
Fajr placed her elbow on the carton and titled her head, so that tangles of her pale-brown hair curtained the sides of her narrow face; "It's a gift. Dad had brought it to me."
"You asked him to bring this?" He spoke with a shade of botheration crossing his face.
"No, I said a gift. And you know gifts are not given by request!" She told him while she started opening the box and remove the stickers.
He took off his Shemagh and ran his fingers through his hair; "Why do you need such a thing?"
For a moment, Fajr stared at him; "for walking! Back in London I used to go for a walk every morning with dad. Guessing that I can't do the same thing here, he gave me this machine and I can't wait to try it." Fajr grinned as she resumed her work. she seemed so excited.
"it requires assembly...I'll get changed."
"ok."
*********
He'd changed into black cotton pajama pants and a gray long-sleeved shirt that clung to his muscular chest and torso. Once he'd done unpacking the pieces, he looked at her; "where do you want to install it?"
Fajr walked around him, looking everywhere then shrugged; "I don't know...what do you think about the corner over there?"
"ok."
He carried the parts where she'd pointed, while she tucked at her hair, pulling it back into a ponytail to help him but he unexpectedly stopped her; "don't move anything..."
She froze in response, and for a spilt second, he felt her confusion, so he went past her carrying two pieces at once and explained; "those are heavy ..."
She smiled to herself; "ok I'll carry the small ones..."
After moving the components to the selected place...
"give me the manual." He ordered.
she picked it from the ground and handed it to him. While he scanned through it, then opened the page that contained the overview drawing, Fajr was standing next to him, close enough for her bare arm exposed by her sleeveless pink dress to brush his every time she moved to have a better view of the page.
She pointed at the picture; "I think we first need to set down the main frame on the floor...right?" She was still looking at the picture waiting for his confirmation, but he said nothing. She looked at him then and saw that he was observing her, his gaze intent. All at once, a hint of his scent, clean and musky got stronger, and that stirred her, she even forgot what she had just asked when he replied: "yeah right!"
At first, she stepped back watching him as he started to join the assembled parts together. After a while, she sat next to him on the floor, handing him this piece or that. He was about to fasten two metal pieces together, when the bolt dropped from his hand and the sound of the dropped bolt echoed in the hall. He kept his hand on one of the pieces; "hold this!" he said pointing at the other.
With those two pieces of metal separated them, there was only a short distance between them. Even after he'd picked the bolt and started to fasten it into place, Fajr didn't let go. It was kind of interesting to watch him work from a close distance.
"move a little."
She wasn't paying attention... he looked at her uncertainly.
"Fajr! Move..."
He'd shook her thoughts and surprised her by the way he called her...
"oh sorry!" she stepped back out of his way to let him pass.
It took them almost one hour to complete the assembly process.
Finally, he handed her a paper; "Keep this warranty." Then added; "plug the equipment in... I'll check it."
At first, he started walking slowly then increased the speed, when he made sure everything was alright he pressed the stop button.
the machine started to slow down gradually when it finally stopped he got off. Just then Fajr approached him; "thank you... I have troubled you with the installation."
He nodded with a smug; "yes ... and I am so damn hungry."
She smiled at him; "fine...I'll set the table right away."
****************
On Wednesday evening they were in the car ready to go to Safa's house for the women gathering.
After getting into the car and closing the door, he took his mobile from his pocket and dialed number on his phone. Accordingly, the phone in Fajr's purse rang. She realized the sound was coming from her purse and turned to give Khalid a puzzled look before she dug the phone out of her purse, he told her; "this is my number... save it."
Fajr nodded, wondering silently. how did he get her number??
"Call me to pick you up." He added and turned the key to start the engine.
As they reached the highway, he turned on the car stereo and played one of his favorite SHILlAt.
Although, she recognized it was Arabic, but many colloquial words and phrases weren't familiar that she couldn't help but ask; "what kind of song is this?"
Khalid, who was so engrossed in listening, looked at her; "it is not a song... it's called Shilah."
"Shilah? What does that mean?" she repeated confusedly.
"a kind of sung poetry...words are much closer to the Bedouin accent."
"that's why I find it hard to fathom...by the way, you are into poetry?"
"yeah."
"do you compose poems?"
"very rarely."
'interesting... I never took you for a poet ..." he narrowed his eyes at her, before looking back at the road and took a right turn towards another road, saying; "For I lack the sensation, the depth or the talent?" He asked.
Although, his facial expression was serious as always, but she could feel he wasn't really annoyed. She smiled gently; "no, I don't mean to be rude... it just never crossed my mind!"
A barely noticeable smile curved his lips; "any way, I am not a poet."
He stopped at a sweet shop and about ten minutes later he came out with a big tray of chocolates wrapped in a see-through paper with a pink ribbon.
**************
When they reached Safa's house, Fajr got out of the car first and Khalid followed her to the door, gave her the tray and waited until he heard someone was coming to open the door. At the exact moment he turned to leave, he came face to face with Reem who had just arrived with her mother.
Although Reem's face was veiled but her eyes were visual and she could stare openly at Khalid who gave her a long glance before leaving without any of them uttering a word.