54: Forgiveness

They were already in the airport and Yazeed was holding onto her, Sulaiman and Wafiyya were the ones that were going to get them. She looked at his face and smile and spoke, “You seem tired, are you sure we don’t have to go to the doctor again?” She joked and while pulling her small luggage as the man that brought her other luggage's moved past them, he pinched her cheeks.

“I'm not tired, I just don’t want us to go to Kebbi, Jalilah. Can we dodge? Maybe go to honeymoon somewhere for a month or two?” He asked and she giggled before she shook her head at him.

“We have to leave, I want to see how Kebbi looks like, Yazeed. Look, Wafiyya is waving at us!” She grinned widely and pulled herself out of Yazeed’s hold, taking Wafiyya into an embrace and they broke into a peal of laughter. “Oh my god, Wafiyya! I've missed you so much, ya Allah!” She grinned from ear to ear and Yazeed kept staring at the way she laughed and looked so excited. He prayed she would always be this excited for eternity.

Yazeed moved to where Sulaiman stood, staring at him while he smiled widely at them. He hugged them softly ad the next thing he felt was a smack on his nape, “You’re not serious, Yazeed! So now you’re all grown up and married, you feel you’re too big to call me, right? Ilham is also waiting for you at home.” Sulaiman spoke and when Yazeed moved to him so he could smack him back, he dodged and broke into a peal of laughter.

“You’ve always been this violent, Sulaiman. How have you been? I've missed you, you know?” He chuckled softly and tapped Sulaiman’s shoulder while laughing at the annoyed expression he pulled on his face.

“I also missed you, the company has been so boring with no one to bother when I'm tired of working. But you’ll come back next week, right? Unless you want me to die with too much work on my shoulders, Yazeed.” He said and they got into the car, staring at how Wafiyya was showing something to Jalilah on the phone and they were both laughing out loud.

“Wafiyya, is that your boyfriend’s picture you’re showing her?” Yazeed asked out of the blue moon, knowing so well how Wafiyya hated it with passion whenever the issue of boyfriend or marriage came forward.

She rolled her eyes at him and retaliated, “You know I don’t have a boyfriend, mostly boys are hypocrites, most you guys aren't serious at all. Wait, who am I even telling this too? Yazeed wouldn’t understand, and Sulaiman wouldn't too. But Jalilah you understand, right?” She turned to Jalilah who laughed and nodded her head, supporting her wholly.

“I truly understand, babe. Guys? Sometimes I don’t even know what to say about them. Just be careful, Wafiyya, okay? Breaking hearts for them is like breaking a teacup where you can find tons of it when you just walk into a shop.” Jalilah was aware of the look Yazeed was flashing her and she couldn’t help but laugh. She ignored him and avoided all the possible ways to make eye contact with him.

Sulaiman cleared his throat while trying so hard to stop himself from bursting out laughing because they all know who she was referring to, and now that he had made a face, they couldn’t help but burst out laughing too. “Why do I feel the sarcasm dripping from your words, Jalilah? My guy here is boiling, should we take him somewhere to cool off?”

She stared at Yazeed through the rear mirror and giggled softly, “I know of a place that will make him smile this instant, maybe we should try taking him there, you know?”

“Where is the place?” Both Wafiyya and Sulaiman asked together and suppressed her laughter before she answered them.

“The hospital, he loves being a patient. I think...” Before she was done, Yazeed had lounged to the back seat and she screamed at the pitch of her voice, “Yazeed! Oh my god, Sulaiman talk to him!” She was laughing so hard as he tickled her stomach and they all stood there watching them in awe. Was this truly Yazeed? How did he change into this? He kept tickling her while she laughed and the rest of them laughed at them. “I'm sorry, please! I won’t say it again, Yazeed please!” She begged, laughing breathlessly.

Yazeed glared at her before he sat back and she looked at Sulaiman, “Sulaiman I kept begging for you to intervene, but you didn’t. Which will eventually lead me to tell Wafiyya your little secret and you know, she’s good friends with your wife.”

Before he abruptly tapped on the brake, Wafiyya had turned to her with a pleading gesture. “I beg you in the name of God, for the love you have for Yazeed, please tell me. Sulaiman!” Wafiyya turned to him with a mischievous smile, “I’ve always known you have a secret you’re hiding nowadays, we deserve to know, right Yazeed?” She said and Yazeed turned to look at Jalilah.

Sulaiman parked at the roadside and he turned to look at Jalilah, “You know you can’t do this to me, right? Even though it’s still not what you’re thinking of, I assure you Wafiyya will make sure my message filed a divorce case in the court by Monday. Jalilah...” Their uproar of laughter made him put a halt to his words and he knew he either begged today or cried tomorrow, Wafiyya had no sense of loyalty.

“Man, what are you hiding? Ballerina, will you tell us the secret? I and Wafiyya have always been your faves, right?” He asked her with that loving and seducing smile that she knew if she kept staring at for long, she wouldn't know when she would blurt out his baby secret, which seemed bad by the way. She knew Wafiyya so much, even though she would never tell it to Ilham, she would threaten him until he preferred she tell it to her.

“Sulaiman, Yazeed should stop giving me that look unless you want your secret out. Oh my god!” She laughed and they kept bugging her until she promised that if Sulaiman did something bad to either of them, she would tell them the secret. They kept bogging Sulaiman to confess what it was, so he could have a secret from them? He ignored them and drove directly to his house, where Ilham had been waiting for them.

Jalilah smiled when they got into the living room. Yazeed jr that was crawling around the room was what caught her attention and she walked up to him, leaving them at the door while they exchanged pleasantries with Ilham. She picked him up from the carpet and giggled when he made that baby’s chortle. “Hey, Baby! How are you?” She nuzzled her nose on his and this time he giggled. “You’ve been fine? You missed your Daddy Yazeed, right? He’s right over there and right now, he doesn’t even miss you.”

“Don’t listen to her, Baby. You know I love you more than anything, right?” She felt his strong arm around her waist as he hugged her from behind while staring at Yazeed jr that was cradled to her chest. She didn't know what was with them and this kind of hug, but she could admit it was the best they could ever have in their lives.

She turned with accusation coated in her eyes, “What do you mean? More than me? Yazeed...” She whined softly and he kissed her neck before he giggled and the next thing they heard was the shutter sound of Wafiyya’s camera, do they have to hire this girl as their photographer?

“Please, just sign the adoption papers already. Do you know how you two look with him in your hands? Fantastic!” She giggled and Sulaiman and Ilham couldn’t agree otherwise.

“Make sure you preserve your first daughter for my son because all this cuteness shouldn't be wasted, please. We love her already!” Ilham chorused and they all giggled at the same time. Jalilah looked into his eyes and smiled softly.

Their phones beeped at the same time, the picture was sent by Jalilah and that gave them all a feeling of deja vu. “My god! Let’s go to eat, I'm famished. And I also have something to tell you guys!” Wafiyya fondled her stomach and she laughed when the two men groaned in annoyance. They moved to the dining table, Yazeed’s eyes were fixed on Jalilah until she placed Yazeed jr on his baby seat and moved to sit beside him, he entwined their hands that instant. She had always loved it whenever he did that, it gave her a feeling of homecoming. He wanted her to know that he was there and would forever be.

“What is it that you want to tell us? You better be bringing someone home, Wafiyya. Because I'm truly tired of seeing you alone.” That was Sulaiman, and she threw him a slice of tomato, which he caught and laughed at her.

“Yazeed, tell this friend, cousin, colleague...” Sulaiman cut her off before she was done.

“Add father, I was the one that got him married, this man should even start respecting me.” From where he stood, Yazeed threw him a slice of a cucumber and he caught it too, whining this time.

“What do you two mean? Ilham, won't you step in for me?”

She giggled and placed her hand on his, “Babe, I can’t get into your fight with Yazeed and Wafiyya, you know I won’t.”

There were banters around the table, laughter and smiles before Wafiyya cleared her throat. “Bunza, apologize to your wife first. I feel bad for not telling you guys about it since, but then I felt it didn’t matter anymore. But somehow, today brought a feeling of deja vu which I couldn’t ignore, so.”

“What is it?” They asked at the same time and she rolled her eyes out of frustration.

She turned to Jalilah, “If he wants, he should apologize and to forgive him or not should be your choice. Do you remember the picture I've taken of you when my baby boo was born?” That was their first fight, how would they forget?

They all nodded their heads and she continued. “We were all wondering how it got to the blogs and whatnot, and it was after you two left to Lagos that I knew the answer. The next day that I went to the office, there were some girls in our department, and we happen to work on a project at that time, so I had to show them the design with my phone, that’s how they got the picture and sent it to blogs because they wanted to find out the truth whether you two were dating or not. And how I realized was, they asked me about Yazeed at the time, saying that they haven’t been seeing you in the office since he left to Lagos, were you two together? Probably having a crush on him. I asked them how they know about Jalilah and one of them slipped about the picture they had seen on my phone. To cut the story short, I got them fired and decided not to tell any of you. But then, I can’t keep a secret from you two especially when it’s about this.”

Sulaiman cleared his throat and flashed Yazeed the ‘I told you so’ so. Wafiyya changed the atmosphere of the conversation and they kept talking, laughing and Jalilah was aware of his hand that was squeezing hers. She knew he wanted to speak but he didn't know what he should say. And she ignored him for all their stay in the Sulaiman’s household. Sulaiman was the one that took them back home late at night because they had to go for a movie and the day was lively if not for the shard that was between them now.

The moment he closed their living room door, he pulled her to his side. “I'm sorry, Jalilah.” He said, his eyes clouded with guilt and she smiled at him as if she didn’t know what that was about.

“What are you apologizing for? I have to take my bathe, Yazeed. I'm so exhausted, I just want to sleep.” She slid her hands off him and he watched her left to her room, the room she had always lived in. And she couldn't imagine that she was living in this house for the third time, maybe forever.

Yazeed went to his room and had his bathe too, but he knew there was no way he could let them sleep this way. In different rooms and also with her angry and sad over him. He knew things like this were bound to happen, she would be remembering what had happened in their past and maybe sometimes she would regret ever forgiving him, right? he wondered how long that would take. He got ready to sleep and walked out of his room, he had to apologize to her. He knocked on the door and when he didn’t hear her movements around the room, he knew she was either asleep already or in the bathroom.

He turned the doorknob and entered, finding the room empty but he heard the sound of her taking a shower. He moved to her bed and took her phone; he didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he began to take cute selfies in her face. He knew she might not notice the pictures now, but someday she would and that would make her smile. She came out of the bathroom just when he left her phone with his face scrunched up most funnily.

She burst out laughing, “Oh my god, what are you doing, Yazeed?” She laughed and moved to the bed, not minding that she was in her towel and her hair was draped on her shoulders and her back. “Are you okay?” She asked with laughter bursting out of her chest and she collected the open from him. Yazeed hardly ever acted childish, but whenever he did, it was the cutest and funniest she had ever seen.

He chuckled and warned himself to focus on what brought him in her room, not the way she looked now. He cleared his throat and palmed his face, “I was waiting for you when you were having a bath. I want us to talk, can we?”

She was laughing heartily while scrolling through the pictures he had taken and he just stared at her, laughing so hard and happily that he prayed she would forever be this happy. “Please, let us take another one.” She moved closer to him and snapped a picture, but he wasn’t free anymore. “Smile, Yazeed!” She tickled his stomach he chuckled.

After she was done snapping their pictures she smiled, “They look so beautiful. Let me get into my nightdress then.” She pulled herself up to stand up, but he brought her back on the bed.

“I don’t think it’s necessary. I'll help you apply your lotion though, comb your hair and...”

She giggled and shook her head, “No! I told you I'm tired.”

He let her be, he watched as she got into her nightdress and applied her lotion afterwards, he wondered how she did that always at night. She preferred to get into her nightdress first before she would apply her lotion. She was combing her hair when she came back to the bed and sat down, and he collected the hairbrush from her hand, helping her to comb it. “You can’t keep ignoring this, Ballerina.” He spoke softly and she looked up to his face.

“What am I ignoring, Yazeed?” She asked, still acting innocent that Yazeed wished he would smack her head. Sometimes she was so annoying that if he had the chance to, he would reset her brain with that African mother kind of smack.

He collected the ribbon and packed it into a ponytail since they got married unless she was going out, she had been packing her hair into a ponytail because he loved seeing her hair always. He finished packing her hair and sat back on the bed, taking her hands in his and he softly looked at her. “Can we talk now? Please don’t act as if you don’t know what I'm saying, Jalilah.”

She sighed and smiled before she nodded her head, squeezing his hand. She loved it whenever he was trying for them, it always felt great. “Okay, let’s talk about it. But you've already apologized, Yazeed, I don't think there’s a need to talk about it.”

“But you haven’t acknowledged the apology, you act as if nothing happened. I'm sure things like this will constantly happen, we can't always ignore them, they will cause a rift between us.” He said and she nodded her head. She felt like she just wouldn’t want to remember what had happened before, all that he had said and how sad he made her feel.

“I believe it’s in the past, it just feels good that we finally know who was behind it. Can we not talk about it?” She said, not wanting to indulge in their past lest they unveil something so huge that might make her sad for a very long time. “Please?” She added and he softly nodded his head.

“I'm sorry, okay? And I love you, what should I do to make things right?” He questioned with a sly smile and she smiled at him too. She loved the way they were growing softly, understanding each other.

She shrugged her shoulders and her eyes gleamed with her excess love for him, “I don’t know, maybe love me forever?”

He brought her hands up and kissed them before spoke, “I’ll always do that, forever. What more should I do to make up for the past? Take you to the company and make sure every worker there knows you as my wife? Look for that laborer and thank him for making sure we had accomplished our first touch? You remember him, right?”

How could she ever forget?! The hell, did he notice that?! She giggled excitedly, the remains of that pain vanishing from her heart in an instant. “Oh my god! Do you remember that? I mean, you know that was our first touch?! My chest! Yazeed, that was the softest I've ever seen you looked at me. When you asked, ‘Are you okay?’ Oh, my Allah! Do you remember the day we took the stairs, and you gave me your socks because I've taken off my heels? God!” She threw her head back and laughed before she tightly hugged him, “I’ve been in love with you long before I realized I was.”