CITRUS

The Setback

Malik finds the nearest cab to get him back to his car as he drove back to his place.

It was nine am as he walked back into his apartment. It was a little messy but he ignores and walks back into his room.

There lied Zansi as she rested on one side. She quickly sits up when she feels Malik's presence but he doesn't even seem to acknowledge her as he changes back into more comfortable clothing.

"Malik.", Zansi groans as she watches him plunk on the bed. " you're just coming."

But Malik wasn't having it. He was too tired.

"And you're just going to ignore me and come straight to bed?", she proceeds to nag.

Malik ignores and shuts his eyes. But he can't have peace of mind when Zansi keeps tapping on his back.

"Malik wake up and talk to me."

"Madam I came back, didn't I?", he roses at her in a very raspy tone. "And obviously I'm tired. Just let me sleep."

"You're so selfish!", Zansi bawls. "I was worried about you and you didn't even bother to return my calls,I didn't even sleep as I waited for you."

"Well maybe you should've when I told you to. It's not me that asked you to stress yourself.", he grunts leaning back down on the bed. "And please... ya isa. Na gaji. Ki barni nayi bacci."

Zansi feels hurt to the fact that he had no regard for her. The workload at work didn't give him the right to dismiss her, right?

She sighs. There was no use arguing with him. Malik would soon blow it out of proportion.

She lies on the other end of the bed and pulls her blanket to cover her.

***

Malik wakes up with a stretch. He had gotten an email sent to him about the pending documents he was yet to take care of at work.

He recalled Miranda offered to take care of it but probably left her too crippled to come to work now.

He jumps off bed, brews coffee, takes his pills, gets ready and strides off, leaving Zansi asleep.

As Malik worked on the files, he receives yet another email from Vincity and finally musters the courage to open them all.

They were the most formal threats he had even seen. They had also started to make appeals for investigations, Abdulmalik was only relieved they hadn't started to seek search warrants.

To make things worse, he receives a phone call from Alh Bula, urgently needing him over.

It was another session of deep investigation, tasks commitment and being the middle man of vendetta.

***

Eventually, he arrives back home, worn out and exhausted. He always had a bad temper when he was either hungry, tired or had bad migraines coming along.

By the time he came back, It was late. He had set himself a curfew due to the current insurgence going on. And Zansi didn't make it easy for him. She begins to nag about him being late as usual and never having time for her, and honestly, she was starting to push him abit over the edge.

"So can we just order pizza for dinner today?", Malik asks, checking up his Uber eats app.

"Are you serious right now? All you care about is food? You have just been abandoning me and that's all you gotta ask about right now?"

"So... I'll take that as a no then.", he shrugs.

"You're so unbelievable!", she huffs, marching to the bedroom.