Can I Be Your Mrs?

5: "I Got These For You"

She tried stretching her body but she felt as her joints moved painfully. Lazily opening her eyes, Jalilah looked at the clock on her bedside drawer which caused her to jerk upright, which made her experienced the worst kind of pain she had ever experienced in a very long time. She placed her hands on her head and groaned, feeling as her temperature rose a bit. She knew something of this nature would happen, but never this worse. And now, she had to be at work, she was even late.

She groaned again and walked softly to her kitchen, finding it so hard with her sprained ankle and her head threatening to burst into two. She got herself the only headache and fever pill she had, which was courtesy of Mama and gulped down, not even remembering the fact that she hated medicine. If she was going to have it as she wanted, she would go back to her bed and sleep some more, but she knew they had a lot of work to cover today. She moved to her bathroom directly and took her bath while silently wincing in pain.

She got ready and didn't mind getting herself something to eat. One, because she was so sick and she hardly ate when she was sick. Two, because she was extraordinarily late, she wondered what Yazeed would do to her if he looked for her and she wasn't there. She was silent inside the car, thinking of the best excuse to give him while she kept blowing her nose with each passing second. The driver finally pulled in front of the building, she paid before she walked out, holding her bag firmly.

She knew she was a total mess today, but she had no choice but to keep going. When she reached the elevator, she dropped the tissue she was holding in the bin and stared at it while thinking of what to do. She knew it was high time she knew how to get into the elevator herself, but every time she braced herself for that, she couldn't and she ended up failing wholly.

"Which floor?" She heard a voice behind her, and when she turned, it was Wafiyya smiling widely at her.

"Oh, Wafiyya, I should start calling you my guardian angel. 9th floor please, I'm so late, right?" She asked while they entered and turned to look at her while she waited for an answer.

"Yes, you're late. And you're a mess today. Are you sick? Your nose is red, your eyes too, your whole face doesn't look like yours. What's going on?" Wafiyya asked while she helped Jalilah held her handbag as she blew her nose.

"That rain, I caught a cold, Wafiyya. And you know I told you I sprained my ankle yesterday, right? Everything is messed up for me, I want nothing but to stay at home and sleep. But that man, I'm sure even if I'm going to spend a week without coming to work, he'll keep mine for me. It's better to do it at the right time than do it while everything is choked up for me."

"Why don't you tell him you're sick and you couldn't make it? I'm sure he wouldn't force you to come if you took an excuse from him." Wafiyya insisted, and Jalilah laughed before she shook her head.

"It's like you forgot the person we're talking about, right? Please, we're talking about Yazeed Adam Bunza, I don't even have his number to call him and take that excuse, plus he wouldn't let me have the day off even if I'm taken to the hospital." Wafiyya laughed and they kept talking until they reached the 9th floor and Jalilah collected her bag from her, "Thank you so much, Wafiyya. Wait for me at the elevator during lunch." She smiled widely and walked away while she watched as Wafiyya pushed the 6th-floor number and she slid down.

She had to stop herself from looking at his office while she approached there until she was seated on her chair and she heaved a sigh out of relief as if that was the heaviest task she had ever done to herself. She blew her nose and before she could make the next move, the office phone had rung, she needn't know who it was, because she knew it was him.

Nonetheless, she picked up. "Hello? Good morning."

"Morning." His voice was cold and distant, what was wrong with him? "I can see you're just coming to the company, come over as soon as you can, we have some work to do." And before she told him anything, not even an okay, Yazeed had already ended the call. She wanted to smack him through the phone but she restrained herself knowing that he could easily see her from his office.