Ahhhhhhhhhh number 9 in Spiritual Alhamdulillah! Barak Allahu Feekum for all your support!!
Amir dabbed his paintbrush onto his palette, mixing the red he had on there with some white to make it a shade lighter. He then began to paint on the canvas in front of him, leaning forward to get the intricate details of the sun setting over the beach he was painting. He was so engrossed in his work that he didn’t notice Yusra come into the room until she was standing by his elbow.
“Oh. Hello love.” He said looking up at her with a smile, and she smiled back, bending to kiss his head.
“That looks beautiful habibi! When will you be done?” she asked, and he shrugged.
“I am not sure honestly. I am taking my time with it so InshaAllah whenever it gets done.”
“MashaAllah I cant wait to see the finished production.”
Amir smiled, and wiped his hands on his rag before turning to face her.
“What’s up love?”
Yusra leaned against the cabinet that held his art supplies, and gave him a sheepish smile.
“I was just on the phone with Ilham, and she wants to know if you talked to Houssam yet.”
Amir’s smile slid from his face, and he turned back around, fiddling with his brushes. Ilham and Yusra had been after him for a while now about if he had talked to Houssam, and he had tried to put them off for as long as possible.
“About what?”
“You know,” she said sliding her arms around his neck, “about Hana?”
Amir tensed slightly under her hold, before dabbing his brush on his rag. He had decided he wasn’t going to tell Hisham what Houssam had said. The last thing he wanted was to cause bad blood between two best friends
“Love, maybe it is best to leave it be.”
Yusra leaned over to look into her husband’s face.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe they aren’t such a good match.”
Yusra waved her hand dismissively.
“Oh habibi they are perfect for each other! We just have to figure out the right setting to push them together! I mean babysitting Kareem and working on the newspaper is a good start, but maybe we should hold a weekly dinner or something! Oh I cant even tell you how excited I am! Ilham and I are planning on talking to Hana soon.” she exclaimed, and Amir shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Yusra I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
She froze slightly, before dropping her arms.
“Why not!?”
“Because.”
She folded her arms across her chest, and glared at him. “Because why?” she pressed, and he sighed impatiently, running a hand through his hair.
“Habibti just stay out of it.”
Her eyes widened slightly.
“Just stay out of it!? That’s all you’re going to say?!”
He turned back to his canvas.
“Yes.”
“What are you keeping from me?”
There was a beat of silence in the room. Amir didn’t keep secrets from his wife, and she didn’t keep any from him. It was one of the unspoken rules in their marriage, and he knew it was one of the reasons that they had such a good relationship MashaAllah. But this was so complicated. It was much more than trying to find Houssam a wife, Hana being Hisham’s sister. If he told Yusra, she would tell Ilham who would be stuck in the awkward position between her cousin and her sister in law. Not to mention Hisham’s reaction. It was a mess, and he wished he hadn’t even agreed to talk to Houssam. At the time he hadn’t thought that the girls were in earnest in bringing the two of them together. But when both Ilham and Yusra had been badgering him for the past week, he realized his dilemma. There was no way to get out of this without feelings getting hurt, and he wasn’t willing to risk friendships being ruined because Ilham and Yusra wanted to play matchmakers.
But at the same time he didn’t keep secrets from his wife.
He just didn’t.
“He said no.”
Yusra’s mouth fell open, and after a moment she put a hand to her head.
“Oh no.” she said quietly, and he quickly stood so she could take his seat. “Oh Amir. What are we going to do!?”
“I am not sure. I think we just have to tell Ilham and Hisham and hope he doesn’t get too upset, and let the whole thing blow over.” He put his arms around her. “This is why we should be careful in getting involved in things like this. Sometimes we can do more harm than good.” He bent to give her a kiss, and she put a hand out to stop him, her face a mask of displeasure.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What?”
“’Sometimes we can do more harm than good’? What are you implying Amir?” she said angrily, and he looked at her in surprise.
“Why are you upset with me?”
“What did you mean?”
“I just meant that you two should have left things alone!”
“Why?”
“Why? Well look at the situation we are in now!”
“It isn’t as bad as you are making it out to be.”
“It still wouldn’t have happened if you two hadn’t gotten involved.”
“There was no harm in getting involved! I seem to recall you had some help when you wanted to marry me!”
His mouth fell open slightly.
“Why are you picking this fight!?”
“You insulted me!”
“Yusra!” he exclaimed “I didn’t insult you! I was just stating a fact!”
As she stood up angrily from her seat and brushed past him, he caught her hand and pulled her back towards him.
“Let go of me.” She said, her voice dangerously low, and though he did slacken his hold, he stepped in front of her, blocking the doorway.
“I don’t understand why you are angry. All I said was that you shouldn’t have gotten involved. Nowhere did I insult you.”
“And I am saying there was no harm in us getting involved, and you are just overreacting!”
“I’m overreacting?! You’re getting mad about something I didn’t even say! No you shouldn’t have gotten involved, because these are real people with real feelings! What if Hana found out about your plan!? Then you would have had to tell her he didn’t want to marry her after getting her hopes up! What if Houssam had said yes and Hana wasn’t interested!? Your brother would have gotten hurt! For all you know, Hana could be in love with the guy in charge of the youth groups! You don’t know!”
“And that’s why we had you ask! So we could find out!”
Amir shook his head, before sighing.
“Love, I understand where you are coming from. I really do. But you know the personalities of both of them, Houssam would be outright and open about who he liked, and Hana would only mention something if she really thought there was a chance, and you still pressed things because you and Ilham wanted to play matchmakers.”
She crossed her arms and glared at him.
“Are you done?” she asked, her voice affronted and he sighed again.
“Don’t do this Yusra.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She said stiffly, and as he reached out for her, she stepped away from him, her eyes flashing.
“Yusra come on. This whole thing is stupid.”
“Oh so now I am stupid!?”
“Oh my god! What is wrong with you!? Why are you intent on misunderstanding everything I say!?” he asked, and to his astonishment, her eyes began to well up with tears, and he put an arm around her.
“Get off of me.” She said with a sniffle, and before he could say anything, she had pushed his arm away, and started to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” he asked with a resigned sigh, and she halted in her tracks.
“We are having dinner at Mustafa and Sarah’s.” she said in a clipped tone before she resumed her steps.
“What happened to our rule of never leaving the other person while angry!?” he called after her, and when her response was the sound of a door slamming, he sighed and raked a hand through his hair in agitation, not even really sure what had happened.