His Sabah

X

It had been nearly a month since Sabah had been married to Salim, and over the course of it, she had grown to understand a couple of things about her husband. For one, he drank his coffee black. Black. And it didn’t just stop there. He never took any sugar with it, either. Many times during breakfast, she had offered him the small glass bowl filled with it and he always turned it down. Oh well. More for her. Unlike him, she couldn’t even imagine drinking black coffee. Heck, she barely even ever drank coffee. She was more of a tea kind of girl, and she always made sure put more than enough of everything in it—four tablespoons of sugar and a splash of milk, to be exact.

Another thing about Salim was that he always read the newspaper every morning while he ate his breakfast. If he found something interesting in it, he would pause, push his plate aside and rest his elbows on the table, squinting at the small print of the article as he read intently. Sabah would watch his expression while he read. Depending on what kind of article he was reading, his face would contort with anger or a small smile would begin to curve his lips. On more than one occasion, curiosity had gotten the better of her and she had casually gotten out of her seat and traced a path behind his in an attempt to catch a glimpse of what he was reading. Every single time, he would look up and glare at her, then fold the paper over not so discretely.

There were other things about her husband that Sabah had come to grow used to over the weeks, as well. He liked to wear his gold Rolex more than any of his other watches, something she had slowly caught on to during the mornings when she helped him get ready, despite his many protests and harsh threats not to.

He drove his Porsche more than any other car in his garage, something which never failed to surprise her. After all, he had about nine other vehicles he could take to work—all of them different fancy, expensive brands—and yet he favored his Porsche over all of them.

He was very serious when it came to his work and he always came home late on Fridays, close to midnight. Thankfully, she hadn’t smelled smoke or alcohol on him once during these times, so she assumed it was because of extra work or something along those lines that caused him to stay late.

Apart from his likes and dislikes, Sabah had also learned a lot about Salim’s personality in the short time she had lived with him. When he was angry or having a bad day, he would grit his teeth and snap at her and anyone else that happened to be around, regardless of whether they were to blame or not. When he was in a good mood, he would actually be sort of civil towards her and it was those moments that she, and everyone else in the house, cherished and awaited the most.

Right now, however, was not one of those moments.

“I refuse!” Salim yelled for what was probably the hundredth time. Ami Jaan sighed and closed her eyes.

“You can’t. I’ve already bought the tickets,” she said again, her tone still calm and collected. Sabah stared at her in surprise. How she could be so patient with her son, she had no idea. When Salim acted like that towards her, she felt like clawing his eyes out and shouting that he was being childish and idiotic. Yet, she hadn’t been able to. Not yet, at least.

“Well, cancel them. Rip them up, throw them in a fucking fire, I don’t care!” he seethed, turning around and crossing his arms across his chest. Sabah resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He really did act like a big baby that wasn’t getting his way when he was mad. And that irritated her. He had no right to curse at his mother like that. Especially since she was the only parent he had left.

“Salim, you deserve a vacation. And besides, you two still haven’t gone on your honeymoon. It will be nice. You’ll get some time off to relax and spend with your wife,” Ami Jaan argued gently, unfazed by the harsh language he had used with her.