BECOMING MRS BUGAJE (COMPLETED, 2019)

CHAPTER 7: THE TOUR

"Well, why don't you try talking to him today? He is almost home, you know?"

Maryam's eyes grew larger, her hands went to her chest immediately "And risk getting those murdering glares from him? I swear they make my guts churn, I'm just feigning braveness. No way. He's so arrogant for his own good. And sometimes I feel like setting his jaw right to remove that permanent scowl and set jaws off his face. He used to be so nice before... I don't know how he ended up..."

Wafiyya stood up abruptly ready to take a flight "What is wrong with you? Why are you acting as you've seen a ghost?" Maryam asked, turning to Wafiyya's new subject of discomfort.

When Maryam turned to see him she almost passed out. She jumped behind Wafiyya's back. Ya Allah, what was she saying before he showed up? It must be the part of her rearranging his face, right now he looked like he was going to make minced meat out of her. She gulped. He had his murderer avatar on.

Wafiyya slid out of the living room, leaving Maryam with her eyes clenched and a pair of shaky legs. She found the will to turn, but before she took more than two steps Mubarak called out to her. "Come back, here,"

Now she was certain she was getting killed, or beaten to a pulp, or the latter, then the former. She took her shaky legs to the couch, and when she was finally seated she felt her confidence coming back bit by bit. She raised her head high, in mock bravado. If she let him see that she was scared of him, she knew there would be nothing that would stop him from feeding on that, so she would act tough.

"Who has an angry face?" Mubarak asked, his stormy eyes on her. 

She looked wearily at him. "You, obviously. I know you heard us." She said with little hesitation even though her liver was shaking like a leaf in the winter wind within her. And she watched his eyes grow bigger when she spoke. 

"And you're not even denying that?"

She rolled her eyes briefly at him and pushed her mouth into a pout. "It's the truth, why should I deny it? Of course, I'm scared to my bones, but that also doesn't mean that I'm lying."

"You have no idea what you're putting yourself in right? What do you want from me? I want you to stay away because at the end of this all you'll be the one that will get hurt."

Maryam looked up at him and for the first time she saw the man behind the charade, she saw him shattered. He looked broken.

"I don't know what I'm putting myself in, and I don't care as long as I know I am doing the right thing only by following my father's advice. If you don't like me deal with it."

Mubarak clicked his tongue at the back of his mouth, "Then you should care."

She gave him another glare before moving to the end of the sofa when she saw that he was seething, he could do unthinkable things to her for all she knew but right that moment she was being honest when she told him she didn't care. 

"Are you still in love with her?" she asked, even though she knew it was daring for her to go there. Very daring.

Mubarak's head snapped up, he gave her a hard look. "That's none of your business."

Maryam smiled shakily, "Of course it's my business if it's standing between you and me. We're getting married for Allah's sake, I need to know what I'm getting into. What I'm standing up against. And you also need to let go and move on. She's now Ya Bilaal's wife. You're not hoping for him to drop dead and leave his wife for you, are you? Because the way I see it, he's truly and madly in love with his wife and so is she. You can't come between them unless if you're planning on..."

"Shut up." He said, his teeth clenched, Mubarak closed his eyes briefly. She was driving him crazy, and this was just their tenth minute in the day, what would happen if he took her for a lifetime? He wouldn't have a life to tell the story. "Don't say a word more." he gritted.