Genuine happiness lies not in what we plan to achieve in the future, but in the appreciation of the little we have in our present.

The lives of the four love birds have taken a definite pattern, which involved spending literally all Saturdays together, learning more about each other, exploring each others capabilities and shortcomings,  except for when Ahmad goes to Lagos for the weekend. Sometimes the meet at home, other times they go out. They were at that point in life where everything was a total bliss.

This weekend, the girls met them at downtown. They ordered their food as usual. When Arif took a bite of his Mexican shawarma, he scrunched his nose.

"I can make a better Mexican filling in my sleep."

"You can cook?" Ameena asked

"Uhm..." He nodded

"Awwwn." She cooed.

"Is that surprising?" Arif asked

"Well...in a society where chauvinism rules, I think its refreshing  to have someone who can cook, kind of sweet actually." Ameena said

"Eh..em, so you think the ability to cook is ah...vital in a relationship?" Ahmad asked

"Not really, but then when a man knows how to, then its like an added bonus." She answered

This made Arif to almost choke on his food. Ahmad gave him the 'don't even go there' eye.

"Personally, if you ask me, I think cooking for one's partner is the most romantic thing to do...well, except if I am the one doing the cooking." Nadia giggled

"So how about you, do you do any cooking?" Ameena asked Ahmad.

Arif started coughing while Nadia handed him her glass of cold water.

"I ah...its kind of complicated." He answered.

"Does 'complicated' has anything to do with setting a whole building on fire?" Arif teased.

"No way! You are worse than me." Nadia laughed at Ahmad.

They all burst out laughing, except for Ahmad who sat with a smug look on his face.

"it's not an actual fire, really... Just some little smoke that set off the fire alarms and the Newark fire department decides to show up...besides, I was making one of those gourmet dishes, so they are bound to come with complications. " he defended himself.

"You call Mac and cheese, gourmet?" Arif teased

"Ah...yes, gourmet Mac and cheese...sincerely speaking, I can't cook to save my life." He admitted

Laughter erupted around the table, making heads turn from the neighbouring tables. They ate, talked, laughed and had fun before they walked the girls to their car.

Ameena won't allow Nadia to drive whenever they go out, for fear of her life and of her mom if she sees a dent or a scratch on the car. She slides into the drivers seat and buckled her seatbelt.

Ahmad leans in with a smile and said "anjima"

"Anjima what?" She asked a little confused

He cast a confused glance at Arif who was standing at the opposite end where Nadia with an equally confused look too. Arif was doing all he could to refrain from laughing.

"You told me anjima means goodbye in Hausa." Ahmad accused him.

When the realization dawned on the girls, they also joined Arif in his laughter.

"What's funny? He told me to say anjima and now you are all laughing."

"Bro, the 'say' in the anjima is also Hausa...its 'se anjima', I didn't mean you should say 'anjima', got it?"

They all laughed again and this time he joined them too. Promising to surprise them in the near future.
______________________________________

January 6th, was the date for the convocation ceremony of Nadia and Maryam. The build up of the excitement however was altogether something different, graduation explicitly meant marriage for the girls.

Maryam has a boyfriend that was willing to take the risk, well...risk, considering half of the talk they had was about her and the other half, she chatted with virtual friends on her phone. She was uninterested in his likes and dislikes, what pleased her a little about him was that he is from an affluent family.

Baba Alhaji has decided its time to meet the families of the suitors and talk things out and set the date for the wedding. He had met the three gentlemen already and he liked them, the only thing left is to make it official.

The construction of the mining plant, will be over in less than two months. To Ahmad, there couldn't have been a more perfect timing. Everything was falling in place.

He was sitting on his desk in his makeshift office. His neck was killing him, he knew he needed some sleep but he had to finish signing the order for the last shipment of crushers they were expecting before the year ends. He stared at the tiny framed picture of Ameena on his table, his index finger traced the line of  her face. A smile slowly crept around the corner of his lips, she will be his...soon, he thought.
______________________________________

Lagos

The otherwise beautiful girly room was looking nothing like its old self. Used facial wipes littered the pastel rugged floor along with few plastic caps, empty packs, soda cans and what not.

The girls were on the bed with an assortment of make-up and brushes scattered on it. They were experimenting with contouring.
They giggled after applying and took a picture before they wiped it off and reapply it again. They were following the steps from make-up tutorials they had saved from various you tube videos.

"That's not fair, you didn't wait for me to pout before you took that picture." Said Lola.

"Looky...what guy wouldn't swoon on this picture?" Saudah asked pushing the phone to her face

Your jerk of a brother

"No lie jare...am yet to perfect my kardashian looks. Until then..."

Amid there experiments, a message came in Saudah's inbox, she smiled when she saw the sender but when she opened it, a gasp escaped her lips, its a picture of Ameena and Ahmad at an eatery, she was smiling and looking down while Ahmad was staring lovingly at her, they looked every inch the perfect couple, with a caption, you owe me a hundred G.

She had totally forgotten about the bet with Jim. He had insinuated that her brother was in love with Demi's friend but she argued that she is sure he's just been nice. That's just who he is, he is always nice to strangers and she's no different. They had placed a bet of one hundred thousand naira which was a joke in itself.

Before she could react, Lola had snatched the phone from her hand. The laughter vanished from her face, replaced by a scowl. She stared and stared at the picture as if conjuring a spell to kill them, right there and then.

"Am so sorry, its that yeye Jim, no mind the picture abeg. Am sure it means nothing... Maybe they bumped into each other. "

Lola quietly walked out without a word leaving her with a half made-up face. She sighed, she hated to be caught in the middle of this silent war that's been going on between her brother and her cousin. He had made it quite clear that he doesn't want her but their mom has insisted Lola stayed at their house for she is her future daughter in-law.

She loved Lola because aside from being her cousin, she was this cool, trendy friend she looks up to. She bore no ill will against Ameena, but it would have made her happier if he had chosen Lola. As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water.

All this while, she didn't realise Lola had taken the phone with her.

Without knocking, she barged into her Aunty's room. She couldn't find her, she walked out and headed downstairs. The flowing tears threatening to blind her as she staggered down to the living room where her aunty was entertaining her guest.

The sight of a distraught Lola, with unblended contour lines like a disgraceful zebra, mixed with tears caught everybody's attention. They stopped chatting and just gaped at the vision before them.

The ever graceful Alaja stood up calmly, apologized to her guest for the interruption and excused herself. She held her and they walked out to the connecting waiting room. After they sat down, she asked what the problem was, to which Lola's sob grew louder and she just thrust the phone to her face.

Alajas soft graceful features hardened at the sight of the picture she was shown. She continued looking while rubbing her niece's back. She spoke calmly, just like the calm before the storm.

"Stop crying enh? I will deal with this. Don't worry, you are the one I chose and my word still stands...I've got this okay?"

Lola left but she didn't go back to Saudah's room, but rather into Demi's old room, which was no one's at the moment. She stood by the full length mirror and stared at herself. What is it that the wretch possessed that she don't?

If anything, her butt was larger than Ameena's, Kardashian style.

She Will make him pay for hurting her this way. She with make him grovel at her feet.

Meanwhile Alaja went up to her room and grabbed her phone from the vanity table. She dialled a number and waited. When she heard the croaky voice from the other end, she smiled.

"I need you to do me a favour."

***********************************

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