Chapter Ten

Sufyan's cheeks were begining to hurt from how much he'd had to fake smile, at this point, he wished he could disappear from this moment.

Hadassah gave him a sympathetic smile. "You look tired Brother Sufyan and I'm sure we're all boring you."

Two pairs of eyes belonging to Zubayr and Halima turned to look at him.

"Eh, just a little." Sufyan said with a little laugh. Somehow Halima had blackmailed him into having to bring her along to a dinner invitation from Zubayr and Hadassah, and now he wasn't even enjoying himself.

Halima looked at him with worry and he felt his heart clench with guilt. "Should we leave?" She asked.

"No, no. I'm fine." He said immediately, he wasn't ready to be alone with her.

"He has to be." Zubayr said throwing him a plantain.

"Zubayr! Don't do that!" Hadassah screeched as she eyed him, Sufyan chuckled at how his friend deflated immediately.

"Yes Zubayr stop acting like a kid." He said and then he felt a kick from under the table, "awww!" He said rubbing his leg.

"Why? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Zubayr asked with a mock caring tone.

"Are you injured? Let me see." Halima said worriedly and Sufyan leaned slightly away from her.

"No, thank you I'm okay."

"Brother Sufyan can you come along with me to the kitchen, I need you to see something." Hadassah said standing up.

"What's it? Why didn't you show me?" Zubayr asked with a frown.

His wife gave him a tight smile. "Because I want to show Sufyan instead."

"Oh okay." Sufyan said as he stood up too.

"But I want to see too." Zubayr whined and Hadassah gave him a light slap on the head.

"Stay here and entertain Halima, I'm sure you both have a lot of memories to relive."

Halima laughed awkwardly. "Not good ones, trust me."

Sufyan followed Hadassah into the kitchen where she closed the door behind him.

She turned to face him. "So what's up?"

Sufyan stared at her confusingly. "Didn't you want to show me something?"

Hadassah face palmed. "Oh Allah! I was mistaken to have thought you'd at least be smarter than Zubayr. I have nothing to show you, I came here to talk to you about Halima, what's up?"

Sufyan had first been friends with Hadassah long before she'd met Zubayr, they had been close and still were up till the extent permitted by Islam. She was smart witted and she noticed little things, she was also very blunt and gave the best of advices so Sufyan found it easy to unburden himself to her.

He began from how Hassan had asked him to go with him to see a girl and how Hassan had ended up being an ass to her and her mother, then to the situation he'd found himself with Halima.

As he spoke, Hadassah's expression kept switching from amused to unbelief then to empathy.

"You're an asshole, you know that right?" She said after he was done talking.

Sufyan shrugged. "I've told myself that quite a number of times."

"That lady out there is obviously enamored with you and..."

"Only you would use the word enamor in person." He said rolling his eyes at her, she eyed him before picking up a plantain from the bowl at the centre table and throwing it at him.

"Undoubtedly an asshole!" She cursed. "As I was saying, Halima is enamored with you and you obviously, very obviously don't reciprocate her feelings. What I wish to understand is why you're still stringing her along? And don't give me that bullshit about being trapped, Farida did even more than this when you piqued her interest but you somehow made her back off."

Faridah was Hadassah's younger sister who'd tried pursuing a relationship with him and truly, she'd done even more than Halima. Faridah was bold and outspoken, she always went for what she wanted but like Hadassah had said, Sufyan had somehow gotten her to back off from him, it was majorly because he'd made a girl from the office to pretend to be his girlfriend.

"It's not that easy with Halima, our families know each other." He said. "And my mother and sisters like her, even if I try avoid her, I come home at the end of the day to see her in the sitting room laughing and talking with my mother."

Hadassah laughed. "she's smart, I'll give her that but we're smarter."

"We?" He asked confusedly.

"Yes we, me and you." She rolled her eyes at him as if it was supposed to be obvious that they were now a team. "You don't like her and I'd never watch you be with someone you don't like, and I'll be saving her from a lifetime of heartbreak by being with a man who isn't equally enamored by her, she deserves better."

A smile formed on Sufyan's lips. "It's good to know that you're not among those who're looking to get me married at any cost."

"Oh trust me, I am but I wouldn't frustrate the life of a poor girl while doing so. Now tell me more about this Sabeerah girl."

He shrugged. "I don't know much about her."

"But yet you like her this much, how much more hypocritical can the heart get?" She asked with a frown.

"Well we'll better get back in there." He said pointing outside the kitchen.

"And work on your expression, stop looking like you're seated on nails and eating gravel for dinner." Hadassah warned.

"It was that bad huh?" He asked following her out.

"Very bad Ya Sufyan, very bad." She replied to him over her shoulders as they both joined Zubayr and Halima who looked like she'd rather be anywhere else.

"Oh dear, look at you." Hadassah said staring at Halima, she turned to her husband accusingly. "what'd you do to her?"

"Me? I didn't do anything." Zubayr answered innocently.

"I don't trust you." Hadassah said in a wary tone, she turned to Halima, "I apologise for whatever it is he'd done, he could be an asshole sometimes."

"Hadassah!" Zubayr complained.

"Sorry babe, you know I didn't mean it." She said giving him a quick kiss on the lips that had Sufyan rolling his eyes yet again.

Halima stood up and began to clear the plates.

"No, no, there's no need for that. We have someone to do it." Hadassah tried to stop her but Halima refused.

"It's common courtesy for guests to do so." She insisted.

"Please don't, I really appreciate it but thats why we have someone for that." Hadassah said trying to collect the plates but Halima moved backwards from her, stumbled on her just vacated seat and fell down, the glass plates shattered on the floor.

Hadassah's shriek was even more than Halima's, Sufyan immediately bent down to attend to her. She was thankfully uninjured, just a little shaken.

He helped her to her feet amidst series of apologise from Hadassah.

"Be careful Grace." Zubayr warned the cleaner who was sweeping up shards of glass.

As Hadassah and Zubayr escorted them to Sufyan's car, she was still apologising to Halima.

"Hadassah it's okay, it wasn't your fault." Sufyan said to her.

"It was, I'm just glad you're not hurt." Hadassah said with a forlorn look.

"Even more reason for you to stop apologizing." Sufyan countered.

Halima smiled. "It's okay, there's nothing to be sorry about."

"Well goodnight to the both of you. Halima please keep tormenting his life for me okay?" Zubayr turned to Halima with hopeful expression.

Laughing she replied, "I can't do that."

The drive home was silent except for George Michael's careless whisper playing from the radio.

"Are you mad at me?" Halima asked in a quiet tone.

He turned to her questioningly. "Why'd I be mad at you?"

She shrugged. "I should have listened when Hadassah asked me to let it be, but I didn't and ended up ruining her fine China plates."

Sufyan gave her an 'are you serious look?'

"The plates don't matter to Hadassah and it's not your fault either, you simply wanted to help."

"Yeah, I had a feeling she didn't like me and I wanted to prove myself, she must hate me now."

Sufyan was quiet for awhile as he fought the urge to bang his head on the steering wheel out of frustration.

"Hadassah likes everyone Halima, and she most certainly liked you too."

"Really?" Halima asked in an excited tone. "Was that what you both went to the kitchen to talk about?"

And this time, Sufyan hit his head on the wheel thrice causing the car to horn, Halima flinched at the suddenness of everything.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"No Halima, we didn't go to the kitchen to talk about you. Hadassah had something important she wanted to discuss with me." Sufyan said gritting his teeth.

"Oh, that was it?" She laughed nervously. "I was a little worried she was complaining about me."

"Why would she even complain about you?" Sufyan snapped.

"Well during dinner, I didn't even take a bite from the beef sauce and even after she'd urged me to, I didn't. I saw her staring at me after that, she looked a little angry."

Sufyan didn't even bother with a reply for her, he focused on the driving and tried to imagine she wasn't there, it was a little easy as she sunk into her seat and went quiet. He parked in front of her home and waited for her to get down but she didn't.

He wasn't ready for any relationship discussion or any other discussion for that matter, he was bone tired and he was already envisioning himself on his bed, he had a long work day tomorrow.

Finally Sufyan turned to look at her when she was still yet to get down, she was playing with her fingers and staring attentively at them.

"You aren't getting down?" He asked her.

"I want us to talk about..."

"No Halima, we aren't talking about anything tonight. For Allah's sake please." He pleaded tiredly.

"This is important, it's about us."

"Oh God..." He said with defeat.

"We are in a relationship and I need to know where it's heading, you can't keep postponing meeting with my family."

Sufyan took in a deep breath, maybe he should actually take Hadassah's words. There was no use stringing Halima along if he was interested in another woman that he regularly stalked her social media page and even if Sabeerah wasn't in the picture, Sufyan was sure he still wouldn't be interested in Halima, she wasn't his type in the least bit.

He didn't know what his type really was until he met Sabeerah and he realized it wasn't just about physical looks, he was enamored  with outspoken and strong willed women.

"I truly appreciate you Halima, I really do and I'm thankful for having you in my life but this relationship, us, it just..."

And she flung open the car door and walked out. Sufyan opened his side of the door too and came out of the car only to see her heading towards the gate of her house.

"Halima." He called out to her.

"Go home Sufyan, we're both tired and don't know what we're saying." She replied him without even turning back. She opened the gate and went in, leaving it to slam loudly behind her.

Sufyan got back into his car with an incredulous look on his face.

It was official, Halima was crazy!