Accepting You

Chapter Twenty Two

I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, was what Yusuf had expected Dawood to say after he had confessed that his afternoon at Asiya's had gone worse than his exams during his first year of university.

However, Dawood hadn't said those words. He hadn't said anything. 

Dawood had simply patted Yusuf on the shoulder, almost to say, "Sorry man," and sighed.

Yusuf had promised Asiya that he would fix things, but how could he? It felt like things were ruined beyond repair.

Asiya wasn't answering Yusuf's calls or replying to his messages. 

Yusuf was rejecting his mum's. 

Yusuf hadn't heard from Asiya's parents, and his aunt hadn't waited for any of them to step further than a hundred feet away from Asiya's front door before she announced she wouldn't be apologising because she had nothing to apologise for.

It had been six days since Yusuf's last delivered but unread message to Asiya. 

Yusuf desperately wanted to fix things, but with how she was understandably but heartbreakingly behaving, Yusuf was beginning to feel like there was nothing left between them for him to fix.

The situation felt like a rope painfully pulled from Yusuf's hands.

He couldn't do this without Asiya. After all, she needed to accept the apology, and right now, she wasn't even accepting his calls.

His aunt also wouldn't apologise. Even if she did, she wouldn't mean it.

Then there was Asiya's family. Her parents. Her sisters.

Aminah had looked at Yusuf with a disgust he had never expected her to openly display.

Asiya's mother hadn't spoken to Yusuf when he had walked past. She had just looked at him, her eyes filled with disappointment and pity. Asiya's dad behaved normally and greeted him goodbye.

What had Yusuf said back? Nothing. Nothing meaningful, nothing worthy, nothing convincing or impacting.

Yusuf had messaged Asiya's dad afterwards, thanking him and apologising for the day. Abdul-Rahman had just reacted to it.

Yusuf was sure cracks lengthened and deepened in his heart every minute.

His heart was breaking, but his work was unforgiving, giving him no time to pause and think of a way to repair it. Yusuf had returned to London to find a brown, depressing pile of files to soak up his tears.

He would normally happily drown himself in work, using it as an escape, but there was no escaping his feelings this time.

Some of them didn't belong to him. Asiya was powerful, and her feelings were powerful. 

She was hurting, so Yusuf was hurting, too. It didn't matter that Asiya wasn't near or interacting with him. Her feelings were electric, and they travelled through him in waves.

"Yusuf, please keep your phone on you tonight," Alice said as she stood at his desk.

"Sure thing, Alice," Yusuf said.

They were taking one of their cases to court next week, so all the relevant documents, forms, bundles and submissions had to be perfect.

Alice worked best at night. She had called Yusuf six times last night and three the night before.

"It's so if anything important comes up, I can get it to you as soon as possible," Alice explained.

Yusuf fished his work phone out of his pocket, an iPhone that was slim and plain but screamed money because every employee at the firm had been given one and slapped it against his other hand.