Chapter Nine

"Hajrah don't you dare take another step!" Her mother's loud voice stopped her at the foot of the stairs.

"Umma I'm done talking about this with you." Sabeerah said with an edge to her voice.

"No you're not, what's with this obsession about your job? I'm tired of watching you do this to yourself." Her mother's voice broke and Sabeerah rolled her eyes before turning to her mother.

"I'm not doing anything to myself Umma, you're the one bothering yourself with something totally unnecessary."

"Not being rude Addah but it's not unnecessary, I mean..."

"I will walk over there and hit you if you say another word." Sabeerah interrupted glaring at Huda who flinched before picking up her phone and giving it all her attention.

"Sabeerah it's high time, don't you have someone? Anyone? Gives us his name, please just let me know, I and your dad would take care of everything." Her mother pleaded.

Sabeerah sighed, this has become the daily routine in this house, she'd be turning Twenty-nine in five months and that had fueled her mother's worries about her singleness.

Since the day with that boy who'd called her a spoiled brat and his friend, she'd been set up on a date with four other men but she just wasn't interested.

Even though these men were richer or as rich as her family, they still found her success intimidating. She was a woman thriving in a man's world, she'd be hard to control and that'd be a bruise to their inflated ego.

"It's hard to find a man who isn't trying to put a leash on me and make me the perfect, prim Hausa wife." She said sourly.

"I could start setting you up with men from other tribes." Her mother offered with hopeful eyes.

"Umma do you remember that boy that was here with his friend, the boy that threw a fit because I called him a sexist?" Sabeerah asked as a thought occured to her.

"Of course I do, I thought we agreed we both don't like him?" Her mother asked with a questioning look.

"Eew not him, do you remember his friend?"

"Yes, yes. I can't remember his name though, Suraj or something like that."

"I guess it was Suraj, what do you think about him?"

Her mother's face lighted up. "Habibty are you interested in him? Oh Alhamdulilah."

Sabeerah frowned, "I'm not all that interested in him, I just liked how he'd behaved that day with his friend, he was genuinely angry and had even come back to apologise to us."

"That's so true, a well mannered, good looking man, I'd even thought he was the one who had come to see you and I was disappointed when he'd introduced himself as the friend."

"Well just look for him and set up a meeting and if I like him enough, we'd send out a proposal." With a smile, she began climbing the stairs.

"What? We'll send out a proposal? Why'd we do that? They are the ones who are supposed to send a proposal after the meeting and you will decide wether to accept or not."

Sabeerah turned to her mother, "no one said it's supposed to be so right? Didn't Khadijah may peace be upon her send out a proposal to the prophet Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him?"

Her mother looked solemn, "but... But Habibty."

"Umma that'll be great, this Suraj guy is lucky, let's just focus on the brighter side which is that Ya Beerah has decided she finally likes someone enough to..."

"Tolerate being married to." Sabeerah interrupted before continuing on the stairs and midway she turned to her mother who was now on her phone.

"I don't know what Umma Firdausi said to you on the phone that had you in tears but I know it was about me, this is the last time I'd keep quiet about that woman." With that she went to her bedroom.

••||••||••||••||••

"You don't make out time for us again Bee and that's unfair." Umama whined as she sat on the bean bag comfortably.

"I'm here now and that's all that matters." Sabeerah said untying her beige veil to release her luscious black hair.

"You're here because Umama had to emotionally blackmail you to and stop intimidating us with this your rubbish hair." Hannah said pulling at Sabeerah's hair playfully.

"I miss us three together, golden girls forever remember?" Umama asked with a childlike look. Sabeerah and Hannah looked at each other and bursted into laughter.

"Oh God Umama enough with that annoying clique name." Hannah said plopping herself next to her before wrapping an arm around her.

"It's been what? Fifteen years? Golden girls nonsense." Sabeerah said laughing.

They were at Umama's house on a Sunday afternoon, her two kids were at their grandparents place and her husband Fahad was upstairs in his room. Umama had called her on Saturday and complained about how distant Sabeerah had become from the rest of them and then invited her to spend Sunday at her place with Hannah, Sabeerah didn't have the heart to say no even though she was busy.

Hannah was the craziest among them all, she was always up to new ideas, crazy moves, stupid even.

She'd once quit a well paying job because her boss repeatedly called her Nanna even after she'd corrected him every single time, few days later he'd come begging because she was the best cyber security analyst they had, she made him print a written apology on a newspaper and had still refused to forgive him.

Recently, she broke her one year relationship because she'd cheated on her boyfriend and as a good person that she was, she'd never stay in a relationship with lies, even though he'd forgiven her and pleaded with her not to leave him, Hannah stood her ground.

One of Hannah's antics that was Sabeerah's favorite was when she'd differed a semester to take up third year Mechanical Engineering courses that semester to prove a boy who'd called girls dumb wrong, she'd gotten an A in most of the courses but the head of her department found out and she'd also had to invite her parents to the school.

"So ladies, what's been up with your lives, fill me in." Umama said clapping in excitement. She was the free spirited one, sweet and innocent, she was the glue that held the friendship in place.

She was a medical doctor, due to her small statue, a lot of people always mistook her for an intern at the hospital and it always pissed her off. Umama was very easy to annoy, just make fun of her height or belittle her because of it aside that, she was really the most kind hearted lady Sabeerah has ever met.

"Well my life is always fun filled like you all know. Last month, I thought I was asexual, I honestly don't know how I came up with that conclusion but I'm glad that's in the past because I have a new boss and we're in love, I think he's the one."

"Of course he's the one. Mike was the one and so was Sam, Jude, Henry, Larry." Umama said with an amused expression.

"You forgot about Emeka, Daniel, Femi, Lanre and..."

"Hey, hey." Hannah said interrupting Sabeerah. "That's enough thank you both even though I barely can remember all these people and I'm the one who dated them."

"Well we're the ones they come to plead with to talk to you after you'd have broken their hearts."

"Exactly!" Umama said as she high-five Sabeerah.

"You girls are ganging up against me, you don't even want to listen." Hannah complained.

"Okay, okay we're sorry... Tell us about him." Sabeerah said with a small chuckle.

"He really is the one, he's smart and very handsome. He's a little too much of a flirt but only a little."

Sabeerah and Umama shared a look knowing this one wasn't going to last either.

"Hannah," Umma drawled. "I just hope you're sure of this one, I don't want you to get hurt."

"Me too." Sabeerah said.

"Me three." Fahad said coming down the stairs. He was short and chubby and like his wife, he was free spirited and fun to be around. Almost everyone loved Fahad.

"You both look gorgeous, would you believe me if I said I was single and searching?" He asked.

"Of course we will." Hannah said with a smile.

"I know I don't look a day over twenty but I'm married to a very gorgeous woman, shocker!" He said dramatically. "Oh ladies, don't look so disappointed, you're going to make me cry."

"You're something else Fahad." Sabeerah said laughing.

"Sister in-law, it's been so long." He said to her as he jiggled the keys entwined in his fingers.

"Where are you off to again?" Umama asked.

"Nowhere, I just felt like walking around with these babies, especially this one." He said fondly caressing one out of the bunch of keys.

"He just got a new car and he wouldn't let anyone hear anything else." Umama said to her friends.

Fahad turned to them with an awkward sexy look, "I was going to get a private jet to add to the fifteen I have already but then I decided not to but I could change my mind and get it tomorrow, you know how we rich people are, very indecisive."

As they all laughed, Sabeerah realized how much she missed this, being carefree and just hanging out with her friends.