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

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

            "NEXT."

The bank was a beehive. Sounds of customers prattling away, shoes clacking as people walked by, and keyboards clicking filled the cool air.

Aabidah Ali didn't look up at the line of customers as she yelled out the word. She was focused on wrapping up the previous customer's deposit that even when the next customer came up to her she still didn't look up.

"Asalamu alaykum," a male voice greeted. "Ina kwana."

"Wa alaykum salaam. Good morning," Aabidah replied with her eyes fixed on the screen of the computer. "Please hold on," she told the person in Hausa, then in English said, "let me just finish this person's work."

"Ba damuwa. There's no problem." The man responded. "It's good to see you like this."

Suddenly aware of who the voice belonged to, Aabidah jerked her head up. "AbdulAzeez?" She gasped in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

He looked around at the bustle and chuckled. "What do people come here to do?" He asked before looking back at her. She wasn't smiling.

Aabidah pressed her lips together, displeased. "I don't have time to play Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with you, AbdulAzeez." She expressed, dropping her eyes back to the computer screen. "If you didn't come here to make a transaction then please leave the line. If you're not aware, we're awfully busy today although it's the middle of the week." Her voice was clipped.

They were indeed busy and she didn't even know why! Work was rarely that tedious during the middle of the week with a few locals and students as their main focus. Occasionally, Aabidah and the rest of the staffs would find themselves laughing and chatting amongst each other. Just yesterday she had been talking about how she was going to visit a colleague of hers that had just put to bed with two other female workers. They had all agreed to go during their lunch break the next day, it seemed like they would have to postpone that visit.

"I did come here to make a transaction," AbdulAzeez assured.

Clicking one last time on the mouse, Aabidah steepled her fingers together, placed her hands on the table, and offered him a professional smile. "So?"

"But I mostly came because I wanted to see you."

Aabidah used the tip of her tongue to wet her lips. She darted her gaze around the room for a while before settling it back on him. "Look," she began calmly, trying to remind herself that he was not the man who had lashed out on her weeks ago or the one whose neck she strangely wanted to snap in two, but rather a regular customer. "There's a long line of people behind you, if you don't have anything serious to do here let someone who does do."

Breathing in a huge amount of air, AbdulAzeez took his time as he rummaged through his pockets. "I do have work, you'll see." He grumbled. "I want to withdraw..." he slapped a slip of paper on top the granite island. "...this."

With a sigh, Aabidah drew her gaze away from him to the piece of paper in front of her. Her eyes grew twice its size and her mouth almost dropped when she saw the number of zeros written cursively on the little paper.

How much is this? A voice asked eagerly in her head. It'll take you a while to finish attending to him, so that gives him a lot of time to —

No! Aabidah cut the little voice off before it could conclude its sentence. She lifted her head to glare at him but was gifted a wily smile in return.

"Four hundred and ninety thousand naira," she mumbled to herself then without thinking, asked, "What do you need this money for?"

Pleased to see that she had initiated a conversation, AbdulAzeez tilted his head and grinned. "Do you really want to know?" he asked.