Chapter | 14 | Mahmood | POV
"Mahmood. Wake up!"I hear someone yells at my ear. I grunt at the person, shoving my face on the pillow.
"Uh Mahmood!"I open my eyes to see no other than Aisha. Honestly, it's like 2 in the morning, what does she want?
"What?"I ask sleepily. "It's time for tahajjud."She crosses her arms. She's always on time for all the prayers, and I can't help but smile at her.
"Thank you for waking me up."I kiss the top of her forehead before going out of bed and to the bathroom to perform Wudhu' (Ablution).
Whilst she prepares the praying mats for the both of us, I lean over the bathroom door, staring at her like there's no tomorrow. I simply realise how childish she can be sometimes, but most of the times she's just the ideal wife.
"Ya Allah Mahmood! It's 2:30, adzan Fajr is coming up. Cmon!"She practically drags me to the foremost praying mat and wears her praying dress.
"Allahu Akbar."I raise the both of my hands up to my ears and everything becomes a blur as I focus my attention to my Lord.
After offering the Salah, I walk back to bed to lay on there for a while, or it was to what I'm hoping for as Aisha jumps on the bed and asks for a young, green strawberry with chocolate syrup for topping.
"Doesn't it taste...sour?"I make a face at the thought of tasting young strawberries. It does taste sour, really sour sometimes.
"Yes...no, well I still want it. You should go and search for it."I raise a brow at her.
"Excuse me? It's four in the morning anyway. Which store is open at this very hour?"I tease. Instead of giving up, she takes her coat and set of niqab from the hanger. I know well about her.
"Okay... We'll go and search for it together, k?"A smile creep on her face and I sigh while standing up to take my coat and my wallet. I walk down the stairs with the thoughts of our baby's gender. I actually wonder if she/he will look most as I or Aisha. Either of it, I will love the baby with my whole heart.
I reach out for the car keys and lock the door behind us. The gloomy lights of the street makes me feel want to go back inside, remembering Aisha's condition currently and someone can just come out of the dark alley and Allah knows what type of persons they're. But that thought is easily sweep away when we enter the car.
After searching through almost the whole town, for strawberry early in the morning, Aisha finally surrenders and suggests that it'll be best to get back home since the adzan for Fajr has just been announce a few seconds ago.
Aisha | POV
Having a crave after salatul fajr isn't something I'm looking forward to today. Sure, I'm getting used to the cravings and I can handle it. But this time, I really want green strawberries with chocolate syrup for now. But considering the fact that today is Friday, weekend, I'm sure the stalls around won't be open until minimum, Seven O'clock.
After changing my position in bed for almost ten times, I surrender and walk down the stairs to serve myself with some choco-pops. I hope that helps my crave.
"Aisha?"I don't have to turn around to know who it is. We're living together and there's no one else here except us. Unless I have some problems with my hearing, or we have a problem with the ghaib(s) creatures here.
"Hmm?"I continue to eat my choco-pops while stroking my bump. Sometimes I still can't believe that I'll be a mother in two months. I wonder what will he/she call me? Mama? Ummi? or Mother? Any of them, I'll be definitely happy to be called as a mother.
"I think it's too early to have breakfast, don't you think so?"I shake my head.
"You don't need to wait for the time of breakfast if you're hungry. Am I right or am I right?"I wiggle my brows at him playfully. I sure know how to build the playful environment as he laughs at me.
"Yeah.. you're right. That is why I'm joining you."He takes away the bowl from my hands and before he can escape from me, I jump on his back, causing him to lose balance and boom! Fall. Thank goodness I jump away from him before I can land on the carpet as well. The bowl fall on the ground too, causing a mess in the kitchen.
"My Lord!"He groans, standing up from the carpet while holding his head. I stifle a laugh but end up laughing at him because his hair are pointing out in every direction.
"Geez. I shouldn't have played with a pregger."I chuckle at him.
"You should've known, mister!"I wiggle my brows. I've no idea why, wiggling my brows seems something that I've been doing lately and I love it.
"Yes, fatty."I roll my eyes. I take the mop from the corner of the kitchen and begin to sweep the floor, while demanding Mahmood to take a bath and spare me some warm water.
...
The next thing I listen after placing the Holy Qur'an back to the shelf is my phone's notification ring-tone. I swiftly reach out for it and read the text that I get from Aneesa.
Aneesa, 3:06 pm
Salaam. How are you Aisha? I heard that there's a feast near the Ain Khalid compound, on 6 pm. Wanna go there? I'll go In Sha Allah with Muhammad. Looking forward to see you :D
I smile at the text and quickly reply with 'In Sha Allah'. I place my phone back on the table lamp, not bothering to ask who is Muhammad and pull my hijab on, before I nip off down the stairs to the garden. To my surprise, the garden is already filled with numerous colorful flowers and plants that prominently show its natural colors under the gloomy light of the sun.
"Mahmood!"I yell, once I spot him watering the flowers. "Yes?"He turns around, dropping the water sprayer on the gravel floor. My mouth begin to talk about the festival that Aneesa has informed me.
"You can go if you want to. I will stay at home."I groan. I know he hates the crowdy places, but so do I. I really want to meet my friends and have fun with Mahmood as well, for once, publicly.
"Just for once Mahmood. Please? I promise it won't take long."I plead. He shifts uncomfortably and I know exactly what he's about to say.
"Aisha, how can I ever say no to you? I'll come, In Sha Allah..."I grin, the widest grin I can ever wear.
"Thank you!"I hug from his back. It's actually hard to do so, specially with a bump in between.
"You're welcome."He turns around with a smile and continues to water the plants in the garden. I end up helping him to decorate the garden and the gazebo near the pool.
"Can I paint the borders here, now?!"I shout out from the gazebo, while Mahmood is plucking out the grasses that are growing extremely long.
"Yes. But be careful for it. The paint can't be removed once it's thrown on a surface."I nod my head and check on my phone for some interesting borders. Turns out that I'm in love with a design of a book cover that has some black silhouette birds on.
At first, I draw with an erasable black marker, and afterwards, I fill the designs with black and white paint, since the gazebo's colour is a light brown. For about an hour, I do the whole design on the pillars of the gazebo and I can practically feel my ass, totally numb.
"Ouch."I groan, when tingles appear in my feet. This is the reason why I hate sitting in a position where I sit on the rear of my ankle.
"Are you alright?"Mahmood asks, wiping away the sweats that are trickling on his forehead.
"Yeah, my feet are just...numb."I glance up to face him. His face are red-ish in color and he's sweating loads. With an addition of dirt on his shirt, face and hands, he looks like... tarzan. I can't help the laugh that creep on me.
"What's so funny?"He questions, gesturing his body from head to toe with his hands.
"D-dirt in your face."I hold my stomach from laughing and bit my lip.
"Oooh."A smirk plays on his face and I need no words at all, to tell what he's exactly to do.
"Run!"I demand to no one and I ran all the way upstairs and locks myself in the bathroom.
"Open up, fatty!"This is the second time he calls me fatty. I think I am going insane because of that nick name, because I throw an empty bottle container of a shampoo out to the room.
I immediately close the door after throwing it. Although I can hear muffles and moans of pain from the other side of the door. I shrug at myself and the smirk on my face is evident.
I strip off from my dirty clothes and enter the warm shower that relaxes my tense up muscles.
Wrapping myself in the comfy, warm bathrobe, I dry myself and pull in the undergarments, as well as my abaya on. Glancing at the solar clock, it shows that it's four thirty pm. Not long enough, I enter the bedroom and find no signs of life at all.
"Mahmood?"I search out.
"I'm here!"I walk to where the sound has come from. The walk-in closet. With the card, I open the closet and raise my brows at him.
"What are you doing there?"I laugh at him. He scratches the back of his neck. "I was searching for a white t-shirt and my jeans. I found it but then realise that yano, this closet can only be open with the card. And the car was left out."I stifle my laugh.
"Oh."I pull my lips in to stop myself from laughing. "Yeah, now we can go to masjid for maghrib then off to the festival eh?"I walk out while nodding my head. I still can't think that Mahmood will be a father in two months, yet he still acts like a child. No offence, maturity doesn't depends in age.
...
"Waalaikumsalaam."I reply to Safi, a new muslimah in this neighbourhood.
"Ready to go?"I smile at the voice from my back. Without turning around, I can feel his smile.
"Of course."I turn around. I hook our arms together and walk to the parking area where our car was parked. I crawl in and buckle up while reciting the du'a when riding a vehicle.
Arriving at the festival actually shocks me. Somehow, I didn't thought that the festival will be THIS crowd. Just as Mahmood comes by my side, I text Aneesa, asking her if she has arrived, or not.
Tapping my foot on the cold hard ground (a/n: taylor swift lol), I wait impatiently for Aneesa. It's been half an hour and she hasn't come yet.
"Where is she?"I talk to no one, even though Mahmood is beside me.
"Sabr. Maybe she's stuck in the traffic."His hands goes up to my shoulders to calm me down, and it works a lot, thanks to him.
"Aisha!"I hear someone calls my name from behind. I turn around and a smile appear as I see Aneesa running towards me.
"Oh Allah. H-have you been waiting l-long?"She pants. I nod my head lightly.
"I'm s-sorry! I have to encourage Muhammad for about an hour! He's such an arse!"I raise my brow at the mention of his name. Muhammad? It seems so familiar. Oh well, it's because the name of our Prophet (SAW).
"Oh..k"I smile lightly. Just as we all are about to head to the game's section, a tall, dark midnight shaggy hair approach us and I can't feel so weak than I am right now.
"Introduce him, Muhammad Malik."He again?! And that's when I feel the darkness, slowly embracing my whole body...
(OOPSIE:O XD Salaam! How are you? Sorry I took long to update, it's because I'm too busy preparing for the exam >.<" Ukhti(s)! Please pray for my examination :3 XD Thank you once again, for still reading this story. Dedicated to @Hamii99, for commenting, voting and supporting this story, even though it sucks xD Anyways...
Have a nice day, and May Allah bless you all! Aameen:)