Seated on a chair with her eyes closed, is Aisha. She had found love in the hut a few feet from the garden. She felt as the wind brushed on her bare skin, in pain, Aisha shuddered. A lone of tears cascaded down her cheeks as she remembered her encounter with Mama last night. She had never thought someone would beg her in her life, not to talk of Mama.

She felt a squeeze in her as Mama's words came back to her. Mama entered the room with her tears rolling down her cheeks, and she met Aisha seated on her bed; clueless. As soon as Aisha saw Mama walking inside the room, she sat upright from her laying position and sat at the edge of the bed.

"Mama..." She called out softly and Mama sat down beside Aisha. She held her hands and tears were rolling down her cheeks in a rush.

"Aisha. Can I beg you a favour?" She asked, and Aisha nodded her head softly while trying to wipe Mama's tears away.

"Aisha, I know I'm in no place to beg you this; do I come out as a selfish mother? I know you don't love Abba, but please will you do this for me?"

Aisha felt a pang in her chest, she had nothing left in her life but Mama. Nasir hadn't ben in the house for what seemed like forever. It was just two days, but she felt as though she had spent an eternity without setting her eyes on him.

"Mama..." she slurred, unable to know what was the right thing to do. She had never been this confused, lost and stranded in her life like today. Her tears were rushing down unchecked on her lips, she was in pain.

"Aisha, will you do this for me? Abba had never mentioned a girl he liked but you. And Baba said he will cut all ties with him if he didn't get married soon. Aisha, Baba is a man of his words, knowing Abba, if that happens, I will never see his face again. I know you guys aren't on good terms, but I know he'll make a good husband. He'll treat you good, I promise." She held her hands in her's, and Aisha had never seen a begging and crying mother until today. She had once seen the way Mommy cried, and Aisha had never wished to see another Mother crying from that day.

"Mama, I don't know what to do. I'm confused, Mama What should I do?" She asked, feeling as her heart squeezed with so much pain.

"Tell me, for a second in your heart, at least you have something in your mind that you want to do. What is it?" Mama asked, setting her eyes intently, Aisha felt even more confused.

She took in a deep breath and close her eyes, squeezing Mama's hands that were in her hands. "I want to do what you want, I'll marry him, Mama, you don't deserve my denial." As she said the words, she felt a tightening in her heart, and slowly she heard her life slipping away.

"Are you doing this for me, or you're doing this because you want to, and you feel you'll be fine afterwards?"

Wiping her tears away, Aisha smiled at Mama. Even though ruefully, she did. "I'm doing this because I want to, but the huge part of it is because I don't want to see you in pain, Mama. So, I'll get married to Abba, it's like I'm still together with you. He's a good person, I know."

It took only a few words to destroy her life, she knew. And during Dinner that day, even though they were the only ones at the table, with Abba and Nasir missed; she told Baba that she had accepted. Because Mama told her he said he wouldn't comply unless sh wanted to marry Abba as well.

Now as she thought about it, with only a month away to her wedding, not with Nasir, she broke down, yet again. She fell on the floor and hugged herself to her chest, feeling as if she would run to a place she wasn't known by anybody. She wanted to hide, but this time, she didn't want Nasir to tag along.

They had never clearly said the words out loud, but she knew they were in love, and it would take a few pushes here and there for them to get married. In her heart, she knew Nasur would feel less tormented than herself, at least, he had Madina. But her? She was stuck with whom she would love to call a monster, but he's a family. Her would-be Husband.

All this sounded strange to her. How could she get married without the knowledge of Mommy? Of all the plans Mommy had for her wedding, she was stuck with a monster, whom she was sure he didn't love her not a single bit. He wanted to use her, she knew.

"If this is how you're going to be, then why did you accept it? Don't even try to tell me you had no choice." She heard his voice behind her, and she watched as he walked over and sat on the chair opposite hers.

He handed her his handkerchief and she collected it with shaking hands. She wanted Nasir, she loved him more than anyone in this world, and right now; she had killed herself with her own hands. She accepted Abba, and there was no going back, she knew.

As he motioned, she cleared away her tears and sat back on the chair. Their eyes met, and she saw how broken he looked. There were bags under his eyes, and within two days, he had lost weight and looked the worst version of himself. She knew he must have even cried, seeing the way his eyes were swollen, even though not as swollen as hers.

"Are we into a staring contest?" She could see it, he was trying so hard not to breakdown before her. But every minute he spent with her was getting painful and more of a torture.

She shook her head, but that meant an opener for her tears, and she cried. The bitter painful kind of cry. He watched her from where he sat and wished he can wrap his hands around her so they would cry together.

"I promised not to cause you pain, I failed. Will you ever forgive your Dr?" She broke more when she heard him said that, and it brought back to her memories she knew were best for her to hideaway. Just like he hid Madina, she would hide his memories from her self.

"You didn't, you give me the best life possible. Thank you, Dr." She looked at him, still sniffling while trying so hard to fight off her tears.

"Do you think you'll ever love him? Will you give him your 12 kids?" This time, Nasir had to look down to stop her from seeing his tears.

She smiled with tears in her eyes. The kind of tears on shed on his death bed but smiled knowing he had the best life on earth. "I don't care about love, I told you; I hate men. And sadly, he's within the range." She laughed a burst of humourless laughter.

Nasir nodded his head and gulped back his tears. He looked at her with an attained bravado and smiled. It was a fake and painful one, they both knew. "And you'll live together with him?" He let his words trailed off. Silently, "Forever?" He added and she nodded her head at him.

"You'll do the same as well. Hopefully, very soon." She said and looked away from the look he was flashing her, it was a look full of pain.

"I can't get married to the one I don't love. And you're the one I love. Aisha, I know this might come..."

She cut him off, feeling the exact pain she felt two days ago when she read in his letter that he loved her. She knew he didn't tell her he loved her before because he learnt a mistake from the life he had spent with Madina, whatever that kind of life was.

"I know, Dr Can we talk about the letters today?" No rules, I promise."

With a rueful smile, he nodded his head and sat upright. "Will you talk first, or I should?" She asked, looking directly into his eyes.

"You go first, I want to collect every single thing about you in my heart. From the way you talk, the way your face moves while you talk. Your eyes, and yes your lips. But I need s favour from you, Aisha."

"Which favour? Let me wash my face, that way I can give you more than a thousand of my Billion Dollar smile before we part ways."

When she sat back, she looked fresh. And almost relieved. Almost. "I was going to ask you about the Billion Dollar smile. As much as I want to see how you'll look on your wedding day, I can't be there. But I'll always imagine your face on that wedding day, because that's the only version of you I have in me with makeup, and I believe it will be the most beautiful. You were happy then."

"Who's talking about the wedding now? You said you love me in your first letter which I happen to read last. So, let's laugh about it as you wrote."

Nasir shook his head, she was trying to be strong, he knew it. "Aisha you can't keep acting as if nothing has happened and wouldn't happen very soon. I love you, but can we please not talk about that? I break me all over."

Stubbornly, Aisha shook her head. She felt this might be the last time she would see Nasir. Not the last, but the last free time she had with him as the girl he loved and the girl that loved him. "What if I'm going to tell you that I love you much more than you'll ever love me. Can we have the conversation as much as it makes me cry but I badly want to get it off my chest?" She ranted off in one breath and heaved a sigh. "I want to have the best memories of you as possible. Can we please talk about the love we have for each other even for once? We've been running away from this conversation ever since I met you."

He sighed and smiled at how flustered she looked while she talked about love. This would have been the Aisha he would get married to, but it was too late. Abba, his one and only brother asked her before him. He had never thought he would experience this kind of pain, not again. Don't go into that. He warned himself and he knew better than anyone else.

"I would love to now. But wait, you said you hate me. I'm only one year into your age range. I'll be 25 in a week to come. Am I still accepted?" With a glint of amusement, he asked. She wanted to have the best last memories of him, and so he wanted.

"Dr!" She whined, and Nasir pulled his hands up in surrender, laughing. "You know I was lying even back then. Look here." She handed him a paper neatly folded, excitedly.

He turned the paper in his hands and looked at her with a smile. "What is in here? No rules today, you said."

She nodded her head and Nasir was sure Aisha had never looked this cute in her life. She had her lips pursed and the endings were curving to the beginning of a smile. "I'm not a poet, but I have a love for poetry due to how Fatima had been pestering my life about it. So, these are my first attempts. They're two. One I wrote it in pain, and the other when I feel how your love fills my heart. Should I read them for you?" She offered, seeing how he was admiringly looking at.

"Yes, please. Start with the painful one. So I'll be smiling widely at the end. My god, Aisha, I want to marry you. You're just amazing that it hurts to think we'll have boundaries between us in a month to come."

She didn't look up from her letters when she answered him," And so do I, maybe more than you'll ever want to." Before he got a word out of his lips, she started reading the poem out loud.

I'm going to write you out,

The whole of you.

That smile that spreads wide like the sky,

That beard that gets me swooning from a distance,

And the squint from your eyes when you laugh,

I'm going to write it all.

I'm going to write you out,

Out of my head, my heart,

And the little places you fill in my soul.

I'm going to write you out,

The whole of you,

From your letters that seem therapeutic,

To the adjective that means lively,

'Zippy' you wrote, I'm going to write out.

I'm going to write you out,

From your height,

The soft subtle fairness of your skin,

To your chiselled nose, and the lips under your cheeks.

From the way you adorn you Kaftan as though a king,

And your neck, jewelled with a stethoscope,

Dr, I say; I'm going to write you out

All along with the Billion Dollar smile, you paint on me.

"That name, 'Zippy' I wrote it in one of my letters, right?" Nasir exclaimed, tongue-tied and awestruck. She glared at him and recited the other one.

Do I have to fly up to the sky

Meet the sun and beg her to smile differently at you today

So you could know

I'm into you, as passionately as the sun

Disappears into the clouds at evening

Painting the sky with its colours?

Do I have to swim in an ocean

Paddle, float and drown to its chest

To dive a sword into its heart and have it overflow to your soul

To suffocate and threaten to end your life

So you could know

I'm crushing on you, floating and drown into you

Wholly, like the fishes, sharks and octopuses living in an ocean?

Do I have to sit beside a tree

Shake its roots and make a thousand upon a thousand leaves fall

That way I can take them with me

Blow them to the sky and give them the will

To embrace and make love to the stars

So you could know

Seeing the stars cocooned into the leaves

Something has happened, strange enough to make the moon envious

Something extraordinary and pure

The sacred feeling of being in love with you.

She looked at him, and despite her attempt to conceal her tears, Aisha broke down. "I love you, Dr. I do." She cried, and it broke Nasir's heart even much more than her words struck his heart. He didn't know he had been staring too much at her until he felt a salty liquid on his lips.

"And so do I, even more, fierce and painful than yours." She looked at him and he smiled through his tears. "Now, my Billion Dollar smile."

They burst out into pitch of laughter with tears rolling down their cheeks. "I love you, I really do." They muttered in unison and let their tears flow freely.