In Hibaaq's favour the day had ended as swiftly as it began. Even after a whole week had come and gone, she didn't hear a squeak from the eldest of the Muse family.
Gladly.
Layla came by the very next day, this time Hibaaq let her in, treasuring her warm solace. Her father had surprised her with the tightest embrace the same night, picking her feet from off the ground and spinning her around till she shook with laughter. Where she thought he would be livid for the way she behaved, he causally joked about it, telling her he was absolutely fine with whatever she decided on. He obviously had his own preconceptions about Abdihakeem. Hibaaq found it hilarious as he tried to discreetly hide his joy from her choice. Ayeeyo Warsam had also stopped berating her for awhile. Hibaaq wasn't sure if it was because of her health declining, and that she was much too pained to carry on with her browbeating. Either way, she gulilty enjoyed the bit of freedom from the daily verbal abuse.
Today was a dismal day, though. The day she had been dreading eventually came, it was time for Ercole to leave. He would be departing that sunny afternoon, and Hibaaq had no idea when she would ever get to see him again, especially after his remaining week had been so futile. He didn't come talk to her after the ordeal, not that day, or the next day after that, and for the whole week onwards. In fact, Hibaaq hadn't laid her eyes on him ever since. She was deeply confused, and hurt beyond anything she could've ever imagined. She rather have him speak stabbing words that not speak to her at all, and yet he never did. He quietly ate his meals in his bedroom, feigning unwell, maybe he was, though Hibaaq bitterly believed it was an effort to avoid her. He did so very well. She was beginning to think he never existed at all, that he was just a made up thing in her mind, a simple concoction of her strange imagination. Until he wasn't.
He was very much real, and she was now watching him tending to the brew like some mornings ago. She suspected a bout of deja vu, but that wasn't it either. He was real, and he was standing right before her. It felt like reality had suddenly crash landed into her. She repelled a silly smile from forming on her face for it was no smiling matter.
"I made this for you," Ercole pushed a cup of spiced tea across the counter.
"Hmph." Hibaaq scoffed. She didn't take the cup, she simply stared at him for a couple of seconds before pivoting to carry on about her morning. Treating it as if he truly was made up. She was turning the corner when his deep sigh reached her ear, and it irked something within her, so much so she had to retrace her steps and glare him down once more. "What really is the matter with you?" She enquired, irritated.
"I didn't realise there was a problem?" He stated, breathing in as he set his cup down on the countertop. He peered out the window for a moment, trying to savour every bit of the country's opulence as the gleaming sun warmed his face through the glass. Hibaaq hadn't the time to admire his charm, not while she was so vexed with him. The air felt saturated in such a vast space, it suffocated her.
"Then why are you acting strange with me?" The saturation of the air slowly turned into a phantom grip on her throat. It was getting harder to speak, to breathe and to stand, but Hibaaq needed answers and she had every intention to receive them.
"I don't know, maybe your betrothed can answer that." He said, his face stoic, his voice cold.
"Unbelievable." Hibaaq huffed, exasperated. "My betrothed as in Abdihakeem, seriously?! The man I vehemently refused?!" She didn't know what to expect with the cause of his sudden frigidness, but it certainly wasn't this. She didn't know whether to feel flattered that he felt some type of way about Abdihakeem's proposal, or infuriated that he couldn't understand why exactly she refused him. "Unbelievable." She repeated, clutching the material at her thighs the way she always did to stop her fingers from shaking. Her nostrils stung with oncoming tears, her eyes gradually watered, but she couldn't allow him to see her cry. She wouldn't give him that luxury again.
Hibaaq excused herself from the house, she could not spend another second in there with the imposter that had taken over the warm - hearted Ercole she once knew. She also didn't want to be late for her morning class. In the wearing midst of studying for her finals, a broken heart was the last thing she needed. Her graduation was a mere month away, she expected to feel better thinking of the day she'd finally be accomplishing one of her major life goals, and pursing a profession she had always dreamt of pursing. Though, Hibaaq felt anything but excited on her ride there.
Seeing Layla by the entrance of their university, chatting it up with their timid friend, Amira, a small grin perked the corners of her mouth for she would not only be accomplishing a major life goal and pursing her dream; she would be doing it all alongside her sworn sister. Hibaaq rushed over to the girls as soon as she parked her beetle, hurrying so she could take her mind off him. It sure wasn't an easy feat, though. Only a few minutes later, Hibaaq walked into her lecture room with her mind full of him. Professor Ulusow beamed at her, nodding approvingly as she took her selected seat at the back of the lecture room.
...
Alas...
Ercole was the same when she returned home from class. Hibaaq arrived a little before noon in hopes of seeing him once last time sooner he left, potentially apologising — for what? She hadn't a clue herself, she only knew that she had upset him in some way. Watching him come down the marble stairs, carrying his two suitcases and a document bag strapped across his body made her heart tremble. She didn't want him to leave before and she didn't want him to leave now, especially in the way they had left off in the morning.
He appeared exhausted as he made the last step, not only from all that he was carrying, but from the apparent loss of sleep darkening the skin under his eyes. Ercole set his suitcases down on the floor by the front door and stood with them, waiting quietly for Warsame as he dealt with a last minute business call in his study. Hibaaq couldn't walk away, even when her inner voice screamed at her, her feet stayed rooted as if they had been glued to the spot.
He was straight faced as his eyes skimmed over her soft features. Hibaaq stared back, expectedly. Why wouldn't he say anything? She thought. Every second that passed the more dire the situation got. She could hear her father's voice, finishing up his call and the palm of her hands became sweaty from nerves.
"Please say something," She urged, her voice sounding amplified in the wide foyer. Except for the occasional hum of nature outside and the faint voice of her conversing father, the house was as good as silent. She couldn't believe a childlike crush could cause so much pain and confusion. A hand she so blatantly rejected, why couldn't he understand?! "I'm not betrothed to anyone."
Ercole swallowed uncomfortably, creasing his eyebrows. "I know." He replied, meekly.
"Does that not mean anything to you, Ercole?" Hibaaq enquired, crossing her arms for comfort.
Ercole wanted to dissipate the moment the sound of his name left her mouth. He fought everything within him to keep himself from covering the space between them and taking her into his arms. She threw him off his steady balance in the best way, though he had to leave before he would not be able to. With every minute that went by the more his resolve chipped away. He felt himself going insane when she anxiously gnawed on the ample flesh of her bottom lip. Ercole ripped his eyes to look at anywhere, but at her.
'Yes, it means everything to me.' Is what he wanted to say, though the words stayed fastened on his tongue in cowardice. "No." He rasped instead. It shot out like a double edged arrow and pierced not only his own heart, but the heart of the woman he adored.
Warsame finally came out of his study, smiling at his two favourite persons. Although, the heavy tension in the air was hard to brush off. The hushed despondency, and their false grins. Warsame stopped by his daughter, putting an arm around her sunken shoulders and pulling her into his side.
"How was class, gabaday?" He asked out of his parental duties and to hopefully loosen the stiffness in her form.
"It was alright," Hibaaq grinned up at her father. "Go on, I don't want to keep you waiting." She remarked, addressing her father, but her eyes were trained on Ercole. His unresponsive expression remained like a mask.
Hibaaq nudged her father's arm as she steered him to the front door. She quietly watched as they carried his luggage into the trunk of Warsame's silver travel car, and as they got inside. She waved as they pulled out of the driveway and into the busy road. Then all of a sudden, all her looming emotions in the pipeline rained down on her tremendously. Hibaaq began to wistfully weep to the drawing clouds above.
Just like that, the love of her life was gone.
...
Tr: Gabaday - my girl.