Chapter Twenty-One

THE NEXT FEW DAYS FELT like a vacation of sort to Fatiha. Right after leaving Nasarawa with her auntie, all they'd done was go round Abuja -but of course that was only after they'd freshened up in the hotel room auntie Halimah had booked for their one week stay.

When they'd first gotten to the hotel, Fatiha had been puzzled and before she'd even had the chance to ask, her auntie had confided something to her about not being able to share the same space with the family of the girl who'd snatched her niece's fiancé. The thoughtfulness had made Fatiha tear up but when she'd soaked herself in the hotel's bathtub, she'd sighed in content.

On their second day, Fatiha was beginning to ponder over why her auntie had decided to take the sudden trip. She'd asked later that night after they'd returned from another full day of sightseeing and shopping, and all auntie Halimah had told her was, "Ramadan is close, let me enjoy a little before then. Besides, having new abayas to rock for taraweeh doesn't sound so bad, if you ask me."

It didn't, Fatiha had silently agreed. But if she died from exhaustion what use would the dresses be?

They'd tasted almost a hundred food and desserts from a dozen restaurants, watched the most recent films in cinemas, bought an excess amount of dresses and shoes, gone to the zoo, and as crazy as it sounded, they'd gone mountain climbing on their third day even though they knew they wouldn't reach the top.

Exhausted didn't even count as a word in Fatiha's dictionary at the moment. It was the evening of their third day in Abuja and she felt like she'd been wrung dry and left to wither.

Fatiha was lounging on a long high-backed plush couch when auntie Halimah stepped out of her room. She began to object to any more outings when she noticed how her auntie was dressed.

"Oya," she hyped with a laugh as she moved to seat on the couch. "Who's this beautiful lady?"

Auntie Halimah eyed her playfully. "Keep quiet. I'm the one you're mocking abi?" She laughed.

Fatiha shook her head in disagreement. "No na. You look gorgeous. Takeaway." She said genuinely then held her thumb and fore finger together in the 'okay' sign.

"Are you sure?" her auntie asked as she smoothed a nervous hand over the blue sequin gown she had on.

Fatiha nodded. "Yes," she said. Then after a moment, she added, "Let's add a little color to your face."

"Okay."

Fatiha tossed the novel she'd just began reading aside and stood up from her seat. As she got closer to her auntie, her brows began to wrinkle in concern. "Are you sure you're okay, auntie Halimah? You're looking a little pale."

The older woman looked up from tugging her hijab to the right place. "Really?" she asked as she placed a hand on her sunken cheeks. "Nothing a little rest won't handle."

"Then rest," Fatiha tried persuading. "Stay here with me. We can read a novel or watch a movie or eat something sweet. Hmm?"

Auntie Halimah shook her head as she began walking to her room. "I can't," she said.

"Why?" Fatiha asked.

Looking over her shoulder, the older woman gave her niece a shy smile before saying, "I have a date."

"What?! A date?" Fatiha gasped in surprise. She didn't feel the envy she thought the little info would conjure, instead she felt concern.

She slapped a hand on the door of her auntie's room before it swung close in her face and followed the woman inside. "A date with who?" she interrogated.

Her auntie waved dismissively as she settled on a small cushioned stool in front of a dresser. "It's a group date. My friend set it up." She explained. "You know Maman Safiyah?" she asked in Hausa.

Fatiha affirmed the question with a nod. How could she forget the woman who had introduced her to her daughter's bookclub?

"Toh, she and her husband were going on a date o, then they decided to make it a double date at the last minute since her husband has a divorced friend who's looking to remarry."

Fatiha pursed her lips as she let the words settle over her muddled brain. Sure this was a good chance for her auntie to possibly end her widowhood, but was it really that worth it for her to go out in such a state?

"Can I come with you?" The question was out before Fatiha could think about it a second time.

Auntie Halimah chuckled. "Fatiha, you were just mumbling about how you were too tired to go out." She reminded.

"Well, that was before I saw how you looked. I'm worried something might happen if I send you out alone. Let me come with you." She begged.

"No." Her auntie said. "Nothing will happen. I'll be fine." She reassured. "Besides you have a full day ahead of you tomorrow. You didn't forget you have to attend a book launch tomorrow, did you?"

"I didn't, but it-" Fatiha began to argue but her auntie stopped her.

"Will you make me up or not? I am actually excited about this and I don't want to be late." She confessed.

Fatiha sighed in resignation as she accepted the cosmetics bag her auntie handed her. There was nothing more she could do save pray the stubborn woman came back safely.

It took Fatiha fifteen minutes to apply a light makeup on her auntie. The moment she announced she was done, auntie Halimah sprang from her seat and hurried out with murmurs of how late she was.

Still hesitant on letting her leave, Fatiha rushed out after her auntie. "Please be careful." She pleaded. "If anything happens, call me immediately. If you feel sick or weird, just call me. Don't forget to send me your Uber driver's plate number and details. Also, remember to do your adkhar! Okay?!" She cried after the woman but she was already gone.

Sighing, Fatiha slumped against the wooden door as she closed it shut. Wearily, she went to the enjoined kitchenette to get a drink. Her throat felt parched from shouting. After filling a mug with water, she opened the fridge and took out two chocolate chip muffins before going back to her abandoned book. The snack was slowly becoming a favorite treat of hers.

There had just three more days left before they would go back to reality and their monotonous town. As much as she would miss this, she couldn't wait to go back to her normal routine.

She dropped down on the couch and picked up the newest copy of a romance novel she'd bought at the very last minute yesterday during a fair.

The hotel room her auntie had booked was not a VIP suite, however, it was the most luxurious room Fatiha had ever stayed in. Even more luxurious than her uncle's house in Karu. At the thought of her uncle, Fatiha was reminded again about what he'd done and how his daughter was going to be married to the man she'd once loved.

"No, Fatiha. Don't think about it. Don't!" She chastised herself as she felt a jab of hurt fron the thought. She took a huge bite out of one muffin, needing the sugar boost.

After the second day on her auntie's unexpected trip, Fatiha had realized why auntie Halimah had asked her to be the one to accompany her. Perhaps if she were exhausted out of her wits she wouldn't be able to think of her failed relationship-was probably what her auntie and parents had reasoned. And Fatiha had to hand it to them because their plan worked-but just not at night when she was alone with her thoughts.

Shoving her depressing thoughts aside, Fatiha leaned back on the couch and began reading. The sound of her phone pinging with a message cut through the silence surrounding her like a hot knife through butter.

Tossing the book and snack in her hands aside, she grabbed the phone sitting on the coffee table with her heart in her throat. "Ya Allah," she prayed, "please let auntie Halimah be okay. Please."

After unlocking her phone, Fatiha clicked on the notification bar and froze. It wasn't a message from her auntie. It was from Munir.

A little unsettled, she moved from the couch and made herself comfortable on the rugged floor of the large living room as she tried to calm her racing heart.

Fatiha stared at the text for a while without actually seeing it. Ever since Munir had stumbled upon that embarrassing day of her breakup with Faisal, she had been avoiding him. She ignored his text messages but he persistently kept on sending them to her. He was probably sorry about how he'd behaved the last time they'd seen each other. Or he felt guilty about having unknowingly taken part in causing her breakup. She didn't know. But what Fatiha knew was that it wasn't entirely his fault her relationship had fallen through.

She was at fault as well for going out alone with a non-mahram. She also felt bad for how she'd reacted the other day, but she wasn't ready to listen to whatever he had to say. Fatiha knew she should apologize for her rudeness and lack of appreciation for his timely help, but she couldn't face him just yet.

Another ping alerted her of a second message. This time she read it. Can we talk, please? It said.

It took Fatiha a while and her disturbing her bottom lip to come to a decision. "Okay, fine. Let's get this over with," she muttered as she connected to the hotel's WiFi.

Messages flooded her phone from six days ago before she saw Munir's. His last message had been sent merely three minutes ago. With a prayer she clicked on it.

The messages were all the same. Him apologizing for what he'd done. Him asking her to give him a chance to explain. Him asking if she was okay.

After reading through his messages more times than was required, Fatiha decided to respond. His last message included a tasleem and him asking her how she was. She sent an emoji responding to his greeting, typed down 'fine' then hit the send icon.

Almost as if he'd been holding the phone and waiting for her response, Munir's reply came instantly. That's fine. That's nice. Alhamdulillah. So...how was your day?

She could literally hear him exhaling heavily. Fatiha pursed her lips as she replied. It was fine, alhamdulillah. After a second thought, she returned his question.

Munir's response was the same as hers. Then it went quiet. After three minutes of silence, Fatiha picked the courage to ask him what it was he wanted to talk about.

Nothing. He said. I just wanted to talk. You know...about random things?

Fatiha wasn't sure she wanted to have a random conversation with her best friend's brother. Before she could map out her unease, her phone vibrated in her hand with a new message.

How's Abuja? Noor told me about your trip.

Oh, Nooriya. Fatiha wasn't surprised he knew about her trip. Not when he was the brother of her best friend. And not when said best friend had a running mouth.

Hope you're having fun.

Yes. Abuja's fine and auntie Halimah seems to know all the best places. We went mountain climbing today. Safe to say I'm never doing it again.

It wasn't until she'd tapped on the send icon that it occurred to her what she'd just done. With a gasp, Fatiha reached to delete the message but was stopped by the sight of two blue ticks. She sighed, her heart in a knot as she waited anxiously for him to mock her.

He didn't. Fatiha read his message over and over as an uneasiness stormed her lower belly. Instead of the taunting remark of an oversized person never being able to reach the mountain top she'd been expecting, he stated how glad he was that she was having fun.

What will you be doing tomorrow?

Puzzled by the change in his behavior, Fatiha made a silent dua. People who change drastically overnight, die afterwards. Wasn't that something she'd heard before? Or did she hear it from someone else? Were those even the correct words?

Fatiha didn't know why she was having this weird conversation with the guy who'd tormented her during her younger years to begin with-and even as she feared for Munir and his sudden change-she still typed back a reply. He was in Nasarawa and she was in a fancy hotel in Abuja; there was nothing he could do other than nod his head.

I'm attending a launch tomorrow.

Ooh, that's cool. What type of launch?

Fatiha scrambled back on top of the couch, plucked up her discarded muffin, took a bite then replied. A book launch.

Woah! Fatty's going places. Am I proud of you! You used to hate going for such things. Something to do with stage fright or a big crowd, if I can recall correctly.

Fatiha gasped stunned. She couldn't believe he still remembered that about her. She couldn't remember when last she'd gone to such a crowded occasion. Weddings? raised a little voice in her head. Those are different, she thought and pushed back the image of the last matrimonial union she'd attended.

She'd broken off her own wedding at someone else's wedding. The irony of it was awfully hilarious but not funny.

Their conversation wasn't going at all as she'd expected, but it wasn't bad. In fact, it was good. Strangely so. And she found herself enjoying it. Their subjects of discussion spiraled from what she was going to do to what she'd been doing during the last couple days. Surprisingly Fatiha told him everything.

It was because she hadn't told anyone else, she found herself explaining to herself. The excitement of everything she'd done felt so fresh as he asked that she couldn't stop herself from sharing. Maybe oversharing was a more suitable term. As she reenacted everything she could remember to Munir, a sense of awakening surfaced inside her.

Munir, her bully-or rather, ex-bully-could be a good and satisfying audience if he so wished. Why hadn't she noticed it before?

No. She had. She had just chosen not to acknowledge anything that seemed to bring him into a good light.

Fatiha laughed as they talked, the uneasiness she'd been feeling moments ago had long disappeared and had been replaced with a freedom she'd long disassociated with her best friend's brother since she turned six and he turned eight.

It wasn't until she woke up to the sound of the adhan that Fatiha realised she'd fallen asleep while she'd been chatting with Munir.

With a gasp, she hurried into a sitting position and unlocked her phone. She groaned at the five unreplied messages blinking back at her from the screen of her phone. She read through the messages, replying only to the last one wishing her a great day at the launch.

Thanks, she sent. Then after a moment of hesitation, wrote, You too.

Not wanting to still be there when he came back online, Fatiha quickly switched off her hotspot. She read through their conversation last night with a hint of smile on her face. The conversation hadn't been what she'd been expecting, and although she was surprised at how much she'd told him Fatiha felt somewhat relieved and cheerful.

Fatiha turned to look out of the glass wall on her left with an intake of air. The pre-dawn sky was still dark, but she could hear the sound of motor engines zooming through the capital. A faint sound of an imam calling to prayer filtered through the begginings of the day. From the clear canvas, Fatiha knew that the day was going to be hot and breezy and wonderful.

As she went through her and Munir's messages, the mention of auntie Halimah snatched the little smile from her face.

With a start Fatiha took off for her auntie's room. After a knock, she pushed the door open. It was empty. The sheets were wrinkle free, a glaring evidence that supported the alarms blaring in her head that her auntie hadn't returned home.

Telling herself not to panic, Fatiha checked for a message from her auntie. There was none. She was beginning to grow hysterical when her phone pinged in her hand.

I decided to sleep over at Salmah's place last night since it was too late to come back to the hotel. No vex. Hope you did not wait for me. Anyway, enjoy your outing with Safiyah today. Asalamualaikum. :-*

Heavy relief washed over Fatiha like waves it almost knocked her down. She closed her eyes, exhaled and shook her head in mock disbelief. She couldn't believe the woman, but she was glad she was okay.

Typing back a quick response, she locked her phone, dropped it on a table then headed for the bathroom to start her day. First things first, salat.

***
Asalamu alaykum guys! Sorry for the late update. Unfortunately Embraced will have to go on this year again, but I'll try my possible best to wrap it up this month. Have a wonderful and productive New Year. And may your dreams come true this year. Aameen.

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Ma salaam 😘