A Promise to Aabidah (#1 Natives series) #ProjectNigeria

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

         ALTHOUGH AABIDAH ALI HAD MADE up her mind about giving her relationship with AbdulAzeez another try, she had only spoken to him a few times during the rest of the week. She wasn't playing hard to get, she was too old for that anyways. But she had been thinking and praying, and she knew now that if she was going to try again they had to make amends with the past that she couldn't stop thinking about. And with that in mind she had called him.

It was Friday, the last day of the week. Aabidah who had had an event-filled and stressful week blew out a sigh of gratitude as she clocked out for the day — and thankfully the week. With school term beginning soon, she still had to register Bilal into a school then buy all his school necessities.

Aabidah felt like she would collapse from the work load soon. Bilal had come back from his grandparents three days back and was being rebellious. She thought he had gotten used to living in a small town but she was wrong. He complained about the weather, he whined about everyone speaking their native tongue, and worst of all, he refused to go to her grandparents' because his cousins "spoke behind his back".

Aabidah was exhausted and it was a good thing her brother was now around to handle the seemingly out-of-control young lad, otherwise she didn't know how she would have coped with him.

Sighing, Aabidah dragged her feet outside the office, unable to bear the fatigue that was slowly making its way down her legs any longer.

She was thinking about how nice it would be to be cuddled under a warm blanket, a hot cup of the herbal tea her sister had sent her in her hands as she regenerated lost energy when a hand shot out in front of her.

Startled but irritated by the intrusion of her personal space, Aabidah looked up with a glare expecting to see Ahmad standing there with the snarky grin he had grown fond of recently, but jerked back when she saw AbdulAzeez instead.

"AbdulAzeez," she whispered the name before she could stop herself.

He was sporting on a blue patterned kaftan with a multicolored hula cap that looked strikingly good on him. Aabidah found herself admiring him more dressed up in the perfectly ironed clothes rather than the paint-stained sweatpants and T-shirt he usually wore when he was painting the building of her work place.

"Watch where you're going," he told her, moving to the side so a few of her colleagues could walk by.

Aabidah smiled when the ladies bid her goodbye before turning back to AbdulAzeez. She shouldered her bag with debilitated fingers then glanced briefly at the sky above them. The sky was crowded with thick, gray clouds that she could barely feel the warmth of the sun on the exposed skin of her face. The wind was gentle but since it was rainy season, Aabidah knew it wouldn't take long before it started raining again and AbdulAzeez didn't work on rainy days.

"What are you doing here?" she queried.

"I came to see you," he stated, simply.

One brow shot up. "Me? Why?" Her exhaustion was beginning to mess with her thinking process. Aabidah couldn't understand why AbdulAzeez looked slightly puzzled by her question.

He bent at the waist to stare directly into her eyes. "You called me," he told her. "Did you forget?"

She pursed her lips and blinked twice. "I did? Why can't I remember?" She asked him, her brows furrowed as she tried to remember making the call. Her fogged memory was making it difficult to recall properly.

AbdulAzeez watched in amazement as Aabidah rocked gently on the sole of her heels, her eyes blinking in and out of focus. He bit back his laughter. It was  amusing, watching the prim and proper Aabidah Ali doze off on her feet. One more thing to tease her about. But what if they didn't have that sort of relationship anymore? What if she had called him to say she wasn't interested in giving them another chance?