Can I Be Your Mrs?

23: Colors Of Perfection

She looked tired, no, he had to rephrase that sentence, she was tired. He had been standing on the stairs, his right hand on the railing as he stared at the ways he danced. He wondered how she was able to do that. She came back from the ballet school only some hours ago, he doubted if she had taken her dinner yet. This had been going on for almost a month now, the last time they had spoken and he let her see his face was the day they had that date. Yes, he could admit to that being a date, because if not, what would he call it? That was the happiest Yazeed had been in years that had surpassed. And after that, he went into hiding again.

He could admit there were times he wished he could go to her and have a decent conversation, just to speak with her, but he restrained himself. He knew he didn't have strong reasons for doing that, but surely, deep within his heart he knew that was the safest way for them. If he kept on seeing her, having meals with her and maybe on some weekends to go out with her, even he himself didn't know what would be of them. And right now as he stared at her like he always did, for the past one month he was sure she didn't have an idea that he came down at night just to stare at her as she danced. And she only did that when she thought he was asleep.

He smiled to himself and watched as she slumped on one of the sofas, catching her breath as she smiled widely at herself. Maybe she was proud of herself for what she did. It was only wonders how he had known so much about ballet through her, and he could say she had improved the way she danced since they arrived to Lagos. This school was doing wonders to her, and he guessed she was loving it. He discreetly walked to the kitchen and bought out all he knew she would like to eat, it was mostly yoghurt and a cake slice, preferably, bounty cake slice.

She didn't know he was there until he sat on the sofa, making sure there was enough distance between them and handed her the cup, "Here, take a sip."

She looked startled at first, but when she saw it as him, she eased off a bit. She reluctantly collected the cup from his hand and stood there watching at him with suspicion in her eyes. He softly smiled, "What? Aren't you hungry? It's your favorite yoghurt flavor, plain, right? And here, a bounty cake slice," he said and placed the cake between them, Jalilah was only staring at him with her mouth wide agape.

"Is this your clone or it's the real you?" She said and sipped the yoghurt, it was as if he knew what she needed but was so tired to walk to the kitchen to get it for herself. But, "How did you know my favorites?" She voiced out her thoughts and Yazeed smiled.

How was he going to tell her? That he knew what her favorite was because she ordered so much of it and on days he realized it was going to finish, he ordered more for her without her noticing? It had gone on like that for a while, him ordering for all her sweet nothings whenever he saw that they were about to finish and he knew they were mostly what she ate, it was always wonders to him how she didn't notice that their numbers were increasing while all she did was ate them. And right now, he didn't have the answer to her question, because he wanted that to be his little secret as well.

For the month that had passed, Jibril came twice and they went out, she would always be back before it was dark, and he had never showed her that he knew she was out with Jibril, she didn't even see him to start with. And right now as she stared at him waiting to answer her question even though she was already taking in the cake and yoghurt, he smiled again. It was befuddling how much he had missed her even though he made sure to steal glances at her whenever she thought he was in his room. But seeing her closely, he missed that terribly. Her voice too, in as much as she had a phone call with Farha or sometimes with Wafiyya, it wasn't enough now that he had heard it close to him.

"What are you doing here late at night? Why didn't you sleep?" He turned back the question and she looked up at him.

"Wait, are you sure there isn't poison in this? Because I'm still in doubt." She said and placed the spoon she was holding down.