Chapter Eight

Sufyan didn't hate Halima but he didn't like her either, he honestly still couldn't fathom how he'd gotten tangled with her but he was sure this was all Maryam's fault.

"Brother Sufyan just give it a little while, you'll love her, you'll see." Maryam said serving him a glass of juice. He was at her house visiting, her husband was out if town and her daughter was taking a nap.

"She's good but I'm just not feeling the whole thing, she does everything just to please me, I want a partner not a servant." He said running his hand through his hair, Halima was driving him insane, two months of being with her and he was so stressed.

She always wanted to talk to him, hear from him, do things to please him. He couldn't even have a normal discussion with her because she always agreed with his views!

"I don't see a problem with a woman doing things to please the man she loves." Maryam said innocently. Sufyan knew she wouldn't understand, no one would because even though he'd met Sabeerah only once, he couldn't get her out of his mind and he always found himself unconsciously comparing Halima to her, Halima came short.

"Can you believe mom is already talking marriage and telling me to start the preparations?"

Maryam bursted into laughter, Sufyan frowned at her.

"It's not funny."

"The love would come, right now just accept the fact that finally a girl has caught you in her hook and you can never escape a Yoruba girl, most especially one that has your mother's frail heart." Omolara said coming out from the kitchen munching on chin chin, Sufyan eyed his sister honestly forgetting she was around.

Omolara was undoubtedly the prettiest amongst his three sisters, she was dark, slim and tall.

"Mom is not helping matters at all, I just want to be left to have my choice of partner."

"They've given you enough time already, you always had an excuse or the other about every girl." Maryam said giving him a stern look, the kind she gives her daughter.

"Halima has him ensnared." Omolara said cackling.

"Don't I know that?." Sufyan asked hitting her head playfully.

"Pray about it and Allah will help you In Sha Allah- if He wills." Maryam advised.

Sufyan had performed istighar- prayer about decision making but he was yet to understand the situation. Was Halima good for him? Wasn't she?

"Enough of Halima talk, let's talk about something else." Omolara said before launching into a talk about a writer's forum she was organizing.

•••• •••• •••• ••••

Sufyan was in deep thoughts that night about Maryam's advice on him performing istighar, he decided to. He stood up and went to his bedroom toilet where he performed ablution and then change into a thawb before splaying a mat, he stood on it and began praying.

After praying, he picked up his phone, lay on his bed and went through Sabeerah's Instagram page where he noticed she recently just uploaded a picture of herself, she got so many likes and comments from obvious admirers, he tried not to feel jealous because he should expect it but he felt jealous still.

"They're threatening to take their products off our hands if we don't do something about this issue before tomorrow." Jane said her manicured slender finger scrolling on the tablet on her hands.

Sufyan ran his hand through his hair like he always did when he was frustrated or tired. Mike the social influencer who'd been hired for the promotion of a product from one of their clients was unreachable and the products weren't on his social media pages yet, the client was impatient and intolerant.

"We'd have to get another influencer on this and ask Mike for a refund of the money and products, if he doesn't agree, we'd sue him. How about that?" He asked looking up at the rest of the creative crew which Jane was the head.

"That seems fair enough, we don't want to get bad reviews from the client." Jonathan said reclining on his seat.

"God! The head of their media publicity department has been calling me like crazy, my ears are beginning to hurt from her screeching." Lilian, his personal assistant complained with a groan. Sufyan smiled at her, she was one of his favorite employee, they were old friends from the University and she was efficient which was why he still kept her as a P.A but with a yearly increment in her salary.

"How's your husband doing?" Sufyan asked Lillian as he drove out of the office premises. Her car had broken down earlier that morning so he'd made it his responsibility to go drop her at her home.

"He's fine, still grumpy." She said with a small laugh, Sufyan smiled. Lillian had gotten married five years ago and she was still childless despite every effort to conceive, her husband had gotten frustrated and turned his anger towards her with incessant complaints and beatings she'd never talk about but Sufyan knew eitherways.

"When is your next checkup and..."

She cut him off. "Enough about me Sufyan, tell me about your relationship problems because they always seem to be one."

Sufyan sighed, "I don't want to talk about Halima anymore, maybe some other time because right now, I'm tired."

"I understand but I just want you to know that marriage isn't something you should ever let yourself get pressurized into... Never."

"Don't I know that?" The rest of the drive was in silence and when he parked in front of the estate she lived in, he saw her take in deep breath before unbuckling her seatbelt.

His voice stopped her as she reached towards the door's handle. "You know I'm always here if you want to talk." Sufyan said.

She turned to him with a smile. "I know and I'll forever be grateful for you, it seems you're the only one I have left." A lone tear ran down her cheeks.

"And I'll always be here." He promised.

"I know, take care, my regards to Halima." She said laughing as she exited the car. Sufyan watched her go into the estate before driving off his mind clouded by thoughts of Lillian, he wished she'd open up to him, he wish he could do something to help her out. He stopped at a cafe and got chocolates and cupcakes for Salma and Salim before heading there.

On the way his phone rang and it was Halima, he sighed before picking up.

"Assalamualaiku- peace be upon you." He said.

"Walaykumsalam- and unto you peace. How're you? How's work? Have you gotten home?"

"I'm fine and so is work. I'm on my way to Aliyu's place."

"Oh I wanted discussing something important with you."

Sufyan's heart rate picked up, "what's it?"

"I don't want to disturb you, you're driving..."

"Don't worry, you can say it."

"So earlier today, my mom was talking about when our families will meet officially. I'm not trying to pressurize you or anything but we've been together for two months and twelve days now so I think it's high time."

Sufyan remained quite, his mind racing. Their families meeting officially means engagement and setting wedding date.

"It's a little bit too early for that you know." He finally said.

"We're not getting younger Sufyan, we've known each other for long and families are beginning to ask questions."

"It doesn't matter what families say Halima, if we're not ready, we aren't, our families aren't the ones getting married right?"

"Yes, I understand." She said in a small voice.

Sufyan sighed. "You aren't crying again?"

"I'm not." She said in a tear filled voice.

"You can't keep doing this everytime I don't do what you want, it's not fair on me." He complained.

"I'm sorry, I just can't help but feel that you're not interested in me and I'm forcing myself on you and it hurts so much when you love someone but you feel insecure about their own feelings about you." Her voice sounded so pitiful, Sufyan began feeling guilty.

"I'm sorry if I make you feel that way, okay we'll talk more about this when we meet okay?"

"It's okay."