IT ENDS WITH HIM (Completed)

3. Debilitation

Tonight they were invited to a little family dinner hosted by Khalid's older brother, Omar and his wife Yusra. She had rushed home after work to quickly bake a mouthwatering cherry cheesecake to take with them.

"Wow that smells amazing," commented Khalid when he walked into the kitchen.
"Thank you. I hope it tastes as good as it smells."

For the evening, the two had decided it would be cute to wear matching colours. She wore a navy blue maxi dress with white polka dots paired with a white hijab while he wore a white dress shirt and blue dress pants. It was mid January and the snow had started to fall. It's a good thing that she reminded Khalid to switch to winter tires last week. When they arrived, they were greeted by Yusra. She wore a deep red satin dress that complimented her blonde long hair that fell over her shoulders. She was undeniably gorgeous.

"Assalamualeykum, come on in you two."
She said embracing Kahlid then Hafsa.

"We brought cherry cheesecake." Hafsa smiled handing over the baked good to her.

"Mmm it looks delicious!" Gushed Omar who popped in behind his wife. "Thank you Hafsa. I know you made it just by looking at it. My feeble brother could never," laughed her brother in law. To this Khalid rolled his eyes.

Hafsa's mother and father in law as well as sister in law, Aqsa were already seated in the living room. Aqsa was Khalid's youngest sister, the baby of his family. Hafsa quite rather liked being in the company of Aqsa as she was very talkative and not one to hold back on voicing her opinions. She thought of Aqsa as her own younger sister, given that she didn't have any siblings of her own.

"Dinner is ready," sang Yusra.
"Music to my ears," joked Khalid's father.

The dining table looked exquisite. It was evident that Yusra had placed a lot of time and love into preparing all the dishes.
The evening carried on with several conversations all raging from work, new hobbies and random jokes. Hafsa found herself enjoying the evening and thought all was going well until Khalid decided to crack a joke.

"Dinner was fantastic! Yusra really knows how to cook. I don't know why women these days make excuses for themselves on not knowing how to cook. Yusra has a degree and is a great cook. Hats off to you, sis. Let's try some of my wife's cheesecake. Hopefully this time it's not salty!"

While Khalid said this, he had grabbed onto his wife's hand underneath the table. For a millisecond all eyes had fallen on her. She hated being the centre of attention.

"Don't be mean Khalid! That was obviously a mistake. I'm sure Hafsa is a great cook." Said Aqsa backing up her sister in law.

Hafsa silently thanked her.

"Oh my God, I remember," piped in her mother in law. "That was so funny".

Hafsa had turned a shade of pink, evidently mortified. She tried and tried to free her hand from her husband's grasp but it was no use and she didn't want to make a scene.

Last thanksgiving before they had tied the knot, Hafsa had baked an apple pie for her in laws. That was the first time she had baked something other than cookies or cupcakes on her own. She had even made the pie crust from scratch. Between following the recipe and fighting with time, she had mistakenly placed salt instead of sugar. The entire pie was inedible. She felt horrible that she had wasted all that time and ingredients in vain but what was worse was the impression she had left on her new family: pathetic and laughable. Now sitting at the table with the same people a year later, the embarrassment was all flooding back. She hoped that this time, she would be able to make comeback.

"Mmm this is soooo good," complimented Aqsa. "I can have this everyday."

Everyone hyped in in agreement. Hafsa quietly thanked the Lord.

"Dinner was delicious, thank you for having us. You're very lucky to have such a talented wife, Omar. Not every man can say the same for their wives." Said a chuckling Khalid.

Again. Another stab to Hafsa's honour.

Yusra chuckled with him and Hafsa watched as Yusra gave Khalid a warm hug and he returned it.

"Thank you for coming," she said pulling away from her brother in law and looking over at Hafsa. "Please come by more often."

"Thank you for everything," Hafsa said saying her goodbyes to everyone and with that they made their exit.

As soon as they were in the privacy of their home, Hafsa confronted Khalid.

"What was all that about tonight?"
"What are you talking about Hafsa?" asked Khalid confused.

She scoffed. "You seriously don't know eh? The entire night you humiliated me every single opportunity you got! What are you insinuating? That I don't feed you well? I wake up early every morning to cook you breakfast and pack your lunch. And then after work I make us dinner. Is that not good enough for you or did you want me to ask Yusra to cook for you from now on?"

At this Khalid laughed humourlessly.
"So this is about Yusra then? You're jealous of her?" He asked examining his wife.

Hafsa bit the insides of her cheek. If she was being honest with herself, she did feel a tad bit insecure around Yusra but she could never bring herself to admitting that. She noted how her husband always complimented her looks and her accomplishments.

"Don't you dare make me look like a pathetic, jealous wife. This is solely about you undermining me in-front of your family. Did you think twice before you spoke tonight or was it all verbal diarrhea?"

Khalid ran his hands through his light brown hair, an action he did when he was exasperated.

"Fine, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel insecure. I thought the comment about the salt was funny at the time. Are we good now?" He asked hugging his wife.

"Yeah I guess. I'm tired I'm going to bed." Replied Hafsa.

Between all the emotions and the stress of tonight, she was indeed exhausted. She prayed her Isha and called it a night. As she was dosing off, she could feel the bed dipping in behind her, indicating that Khalid had decided to go to bed too.

"Khalid, did you pray Isha?"

"Yes" he mumbled.

He kissed her goodnight though she knew he didn't. This made her uneasy. If he could lie so easily about his prayers to her, what else was he keeping from her?