...He sounded apologetic. She badly wanted to know who did, he sounded so true. She internally chuckled and walked away.
*
Aisha sat on the stool in front of her vanity table, looking at her reflection through the mirror as she did her night skin care routine. One person on her mind, thinking about if it was right if she leaves him or stays with him, she couldn't think straight and she couldn't talk to anyone about it except Hauwa who would just act as though it was all fine or tell her, ‘everything will be fine’ but that wasn't what she needed to hear, she wanted solutions.
Fatima, her mother, would be good for that but she felt they both needed to be strong enough before they could fight together, right now, she knew everyone would say it wasn't fair if she marries Jasmine's ex with Jasmine being her cousin and sister-in-law at the same time, and since they were not strong enough, everything would crumble. She made up her mind to perform istikhara again later, much later.
Her phone buzzed, jolting her off her trance. Quickly glancing at the phone on her bedside drawer, she bethought herself as to who would call her, she wasn't expecting anyone.
She groaned and stood up from the stool to get her phone. ‘Sadeeq’ was dancing on the screen and she felt her stomach churn, a feeling she couldn't name washed over her from head to toe as she answered and placed the phone to her ear.
"Hello, Aisha?" He said after a few seconds, he called her name so calmly that it made her smile.
Keeping a straight face so he shouldn't hear the smile from her voice, she said, "As-Salaam alaykum."
"Waalaikum As-Salaam." He replied. "I hope I'm not interrupting."
"You're not, I was just about to go to bed." She went back to the vanity to finish up. She put her phone on speaker and kept it on the vanity as she started to open the vessel of the mayonnaise and honey hair mask she made in the morning.
"Oh sorry." He apologised.
"Can I call you later?" She said.
"Yes, sure." She immediately terminated the call.
She was all smiles as she applied her hair mask, wore a nylon bag on her hair and a shower cap.
She went to the kitchen to get any food available.
"Abdulqaadir, you're not asleep yet?" Aisha asked when she saw her brother watching football in the living room.
"Yes. The match will be over in about—" he looked up at the wall clock above the TV set. "—forty minutes." He completed, his attention fully on the television without sparing his sister a glance. He had the remote control by his side and a cup of tea on the side stool.
Aisha looked at the clock without replying him, it was twenty-three minutes past eleven.
"Care for some spring rolls?" She yelled from the kitchen door, having seen frozen once in the freezer.
"Yes please." He yelled back.
"Tea?" She asked again.
"No I have some here."
She came back about ten minutes later with a bowl of spring rolls for the both of them.
"Here." she kept the bowl in front of them on a side stool and held her teacup to herself.
"For me?" Abdulqaadir smiled, his eyes glued to the television.
"For us." She replied, laying emphasis on ‘us’.
"You're so unaware of the chaos around, I like your easy life." Aisha made a comment on how her brother, Abdulqaadir was living his life nonchalantly.
"I'm not even around so I won't know nothing, not even by mistake. There are problems, I know but I don't want to see them at all, it's more peaceful that way. Schooling in a totally different state is good for my mental health, we all have our battles and I think my own battle is more than enough for me already." He looked her way as his voice sounded woebegone and deep.
"Are you okay?" His sister asked out of concern. It dawned on her that Abdulqaadir is so distant and reserved, he never talked about his problems to anyone, as though he had none but it was their fault, they never cared to sit and talk with him, they were to busy fighting for irrelevant stuff—or maybe relevant—forgetting about the youngest of them.
He smiled, a wretched one. "Yes I'm fine."
Aisha didn't say anything, she looked down at her cup and stroked the handle, she breathed deeply.
"So," she looked up at the TV, "are you supporting the ones in red or the ones in white?" She tried starting up an enthusiastic conversation to ease the tension that was building up.
Sniggering, he said, "white. We are at 1-0 now."
"Which team scored the one goal?" She munched on a spring roll.
"The ones in red." He giggled again.
"I'll support them then." She said after sipping from her tea making her little brother laugh.
"It's not healthy taking these late at night you know." Abdulqaadir then took a bite from the spring roll he picked. He was talking with utter calmness. He's grown to be one calm man.
"I know but it's once in a while." She shrugged indifferently.
"Already." A wry smile played on Abdulqaadir's face when the team he was supporting scored one goal. He sat down calm, not overreacting at all.
"It's just draw, don't have too much confidence." Aisha rolled her eyes.
"Your team will not score any goal again and mine will score at least two, just wait and see." He mischievously grinned.
"How sure are you?" She cocked an inquisitive eyebrow.
"A hundred and one percent." He boasted.
"It's less than twenty minutes until the match is over." She squeezed her face at his confidence at that hour of the game. Little did she now, it wasn't live. It took place two days ago and he was just watching it again, out of boredom.
"Another goal." He laughed, looking her way.
"I'm now supporting the white team."
"They are not the white team, they are Real Madrid, the ones in red are Arsenal." He laughed at this point. "And there is no way you would change the team you're supporting, it's not fair." He continued while laughing.
Aisha only glared at him then continued watching.
In the last minute of the game, Real Madrid scored another goal, making Aisha's jaw drop, just when she thought it was over although they still won, they scored another again.
"See. I told ya." Abdulqaadir laughed her way.
"It's a foul." She wiggled her brows at him. "Not even the referee said that, ma'am." He laughed again.
"You're just lucky but white never wins!"
"Or red is very lucky to have scored one goal today." He said as he disappeared into the room, his laugh echoing on the walls of the house.
"Aisha?" Fatima called as she squinted her eyes to adjust to the light of the living room.
"Na'am." Aisha answered.
"You haven't slept? It's so late. Who are you making noise with?"
"Abdulqaadir, he just left for his room." She looked at the TV and Fatima's gaze followed. Aisha turned off the TV, said goodnight to her mum and went to her room after packing the bowl and cups they used to the kitchen and rinsing them.
Picking her phone up from where she left it, she missed some calls and they were 10+ messages, from one person—Sadeeq.
She opened the messages and read them, he was apologising with everything that was in him, promising to make it up to her in all the messages.
She turned on her cellular data and there were a lot of messages from him on WhatsApp. Asking if she had slept already and yet again, apologising. Glancing at the time on the status bar of her phone, she realised it was past midnight and decided to call him the following morning.
Another message popped up as she opened another person's message. It was Sadeeq's message and he said, ‘can we talk now?’
She wasn't sleepy at all, so she replied ‘yes’ and he called her immediately.
"I thought you were asleep." He said through the line as she covered herself with her blanket.
"No I was with Abdulqaadir, watching football." She said and there were seconds of silence. "And I left the phone in my room."
"Football? Is there a match today?" He inquired.
"Yes. Between Arsenal and another team that wears white jersey." She said, not recalling the name of the football team.
"You mean Real Madrid?"
"Yeah that would be it." She dissolved into her blanket more.
"That took place the day before yesterday." There was ease in his voice.
"You also like football." She stated, rather than questioned.
"Yes but I'm not addicted to it. I didn't even watch that one. I just knew it was going to take place and after it did, I know they scored 3-1." He shrugged although she was seeing him.
"That's nice." She chose that, not knowing what to say.
"Have you read my messages?" He questioned, changing the emotion between them as tension slowly built up.
"Yes. All of them. Why did you do what you did?"
"I...um...Aisha..." He was hesitant with his words. "I was drunk." He built up courage finally. The tension got thicker.
"What? Drunk? Why?" Her eyes went wide in surprise. "But you didn't seem drunk."
"I hid it so well, believe me, I really was. I was in pain too." He pursed his lips.
"It was your sister's wedding. Why pain and why drunk?" Was it fury or concern in her voice? One could not point out.
"My sister is not married, it didn't take place." He voiced dejectedly and heard Aisha fall silent, hearing the questions behind her silence. "The husband eloped with her best friend and I knew that was going to happen a day before it happened."
"How and why didn't you take action?"
"I heard Ruwaida, the friend, on call with him that day. I couldn't do anything, I couldn't tell Mina because the happiness on her face didn't show in years, I didn't want to ruin that at the moment although it was already ruined. I could compel him to marry her, but he didn't want her and that would only make things worse and one way or the other, he'd still be with Ruwaida. Watching my home crumble broke me, I watched as my mother lost her husband, as we lost our father and we don't even know where he is, for years. Everything came crashing down to me again when I lost Jasmine, I watched my sister lose the only man that made her see and feel emotions, she trusted him so much to the point that she wasn't tensed at all, she said, he gave her no reason to be nervous but in the end, she got betrayed, right under my watch. I was so broken, I still am. I can't lose you, please stay."
Aisha's world stopped, if there was anything she felt, it was mixed emotions and she didn't know which one to display.
"I promise I'll be good to you. I can't thank you enough for showing up to love me and even going extra mile to see that we work out. I'm sorry if I ever made us feel like a futile attempt, let's make this work, Aisha. I'm so sorry." He added in a despaired voice, hope laced with his words. "Please say something, anything." He urged as her silence was killing him.
"That must be a lot to take in." She finally found her tongue. "I'm sorry that you and your family have to go through all of this but I think being drunk shouldn't be what you do to solve, it obviously didn't change anything but only made things worse for you." She said, intentionally swerving from the other topic.
"I know, I know. I just couldn't help it, I needed something, I was running mad and that was the only thing that could calm me down at that time."
"Reciting the holy Quran would have been much better I promise you. Listening to it would also work, especially if you know the meaning of what you're reading or listening to. Also, praying tahajjud is a very good way out of your problems, if you do pray tahajjud with faith, even if the problems are still there, you'll be at peace with it, knowing that the All Knowing did not forget about you or any other person and He only tests whom he loves. He tests you because he wants you closer to him, there's this serenity you'll feel when you get to be slow to him." She said honestly what she knew from experience. When her father died and the pain was too much for her to take in because she was the only female child and was so close with her father, she cried in her sujoods and told Allah about it—everything, she thought it wasn't going to work because her father thought her about tahajjud so performing it would only make memories hurt bad but Allah is beyond what we all think. The first time she did that, she felt it was totally worth it, crying in front of Allah when everyone was sleeping, she cried real hard because she felt there was no use to fight back tears so she let them flow freely and since then, peace lived in her mind.
"Another reason to marry you. Thank you." He said and she could hear the smile in his voice.
"Always happy to help." She smiled too, feeling mushy at his words.
"Aisha?" He called after a while of silence. She hummed. "Are you sleeping?"
"No." She replied while smiling, if only he knew how happy he made her. She didn't even realise minutes had passed and they didn't say anything.
"Can we meet tomorrow, in the evening?" He hopefully requested.
"I don't think. I'm on duty tomorrow morning and Hajiya and I will go shopping in the evening." She bit her lower lip. "But we can make it the next day."
"It's okay then. I'd like to come and see Hajiya, if you permit."
"Alright then, I'll let her know."
"Who would you tell her?"
"My half boyfriend." She laughed, he also laughed with her.
The laughs faded and they fell silent once again.
"Aisha?"
"Sadeeq?"
"I love you."
The silence that followed wasn't strained at all but a total opposite of that.
"I love you too."
"I swear I feel guilty still." Sadeeq said even as he settled down on the three seater sofa in the living room.
"You've said that a thousand times already. I told you it's okay. Now I'll go call Hajiya for you." There was a big smile on her face as she went inside the house.
"Hajiya, the special guest I told you about is here." She calmly said as she fidgeted with the hem of her veil.
Keeping the magazine she was going through aside, she looked up at Aisha.
"Okay, I'm coming." She stood up to wear her hijab as Aisha went back to the living room.
"Relax, she's easy going, don't worry." She gave him a soothing smile and he smiled back.
Fatima entered with a salam to which both the occupants of the room answered.
Sadeeq's eyes fixed on the centre carpet, he customarily crouched down to greet her.
"Sit, young man." She sat on the couch opposite him.
"Your face rings a bell, do I know you?" Fatima asked as she furrowed her brows at the gentleman that wasn't looking at her.
Sadeeq opened his mouth to speak but Aisha beat him to it, "it's just your pretty old eyes or perhaps you know him somewhere." She said with a little laugh.
"I see." Fatima smiled. "So you can go meet her uncle and speak with him if you're serious enough, I can't say anything but I wish you the best of luck." That ever radiant smile still intact on her face. "If you're a good man, I assure you, you'll get her." She added.
"Thank you, ma." He said, unsure of what to say. He looked Aisha's way and found her looking at him already, he smiled at her.
"Call me Hajiya," she giggled, "like everyone else does.
"Thank you, Hajiya." He corrected.
"You're welcome." She said and went to her room, silently praying that he's the right person for her only daughter.
"Come sit." He gestured to the space at the other end of the chair. Aisha went there and sat.
"She really is easy going." He confirmed and she
They spent a few seconds not saying anything, not even looking at each other before Sadeeq decided to start, "so, my blue..."
The promise they made to each other two days ago, in the middle of the night because 2am doesn't lie.
They started the journey to work on that.
"Will you stay?" He asked in a breathy deep voice, longing in his voice.
"Yes." Her voice was a bit above a whisper.
"How long?" His voice was bleak.
"Forever, Sadeeq, forever, I promise." She said and heard him heave a sigh, she could swear he was smiling.
"Will you stay?" She returned the question.
"I pledge, evermore." He said enthusiastically albeit his voice clearly showed he was drained.
Silence followed and the both slept without ending the call.
"You made me feel something I didn't feel in a long time. Thank you." He was genuinely happy to the point that he wanted to shed tears of joy.
"You're worth it." Aisha voiced as a car honked at the gate while Sadeeq opened the door of his car and sat inside, he didn't close the door.
The car rolled into the vicinity, it was Muslim's car, Aisha recognised it but it didn't matter to her that time.
Just as Muslim stepped out of the car, Sadeeq stood up holding a hamper he took out from the backseat. His attention averted to the car and he saw when Muslim held Jasmine's hand and helped her out of the car, she had a bright smile on her face.
If only he could read behind that smile.
Muslim collected a sleeping Aayan from his mother's hold then held his wife's hand with the other hand after locking the car.
Sadeeq looked away from them and handed Aisha the hamper. Jasmine saw that.
"You like skin care, so I couldn't think of a better gift than this." Aisha took it with a smile as she danced crazily in her head.
"Thank you." She smiled at him as she stared at the hamper.
"You have a very beautiful smile."
Aisha blushed. "Bye." They said their byes and she stayed until his car disappeared before she turned, making her way to the door of the house as what happened finally settled in her brain and she comprehended.
Everyone just met everyone. Wow.
_________________
Thoughts.