Affianced By Force

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - Reality or Paranoia?

"Is it just me or do you now take your time to dress up?" Faisal asked as he opened the car door for Umamah.

She shrugged and asked instead.

"It's an all-day in today, yeah?"

Faisal fixed their seatbelts, making the azkaar for leaving the house and seeing that she followed suit, he replied her question. "Yeah. For you."

The emphasis on "You" made Umamah roll her eyes. "So what? The Boss only gets an hour?"

He grinned, starting the ignition. "Pecks of being your own boss. But you do know I am not just going back to seat in my office, yeah?"

"I don't care." She said, pulling a tea flask from her backpack. "You will be leaving me alone for the entire day. It's not pleasant."

"Ummie, we discussed this already. I will only be gone for five hours, In shaa Allah."

"You mean, ten!" She said and before he responded, she began to provide details "The flight is four hours. The meeting is two hours and the flight back is another 4hours. Don't treat me like a child Faisal."

He smiled. With Umamah, it was a win-win. As he paused at the traffic light, he glanced her way. "You could still join me."

"Haha!" She mock-laughed. "You know it's not possible. As the head of strategy for NLG, there will be no movement without my presence today."

"Then, postpone the thing... Or cancel!"

"And have everyone accuse me of abusing my privileges? No thanks."

She took a sip from the flask as Faisal headed out of the traffic. "Stubborn as a mule." He muttered.

"What's that?" She asked, dramatically craning her ears to hear him.

"What's what?" Faisal feigned ignorance.

She creased her brows. "Doesn't suit you to pretend, sir. What you just muttered under your breath. Spill!"

"Oh, I said, Always my muse." He lied.

Umamah laughed then, amused. "Faisal Abdur-Rahman Aadam is scared of his little wifey. This should make headlines... For weeks."

"I am not scared of you!" He muttered again, under his breath.

"What's that?" She placed a hand around her left ear, stretching towards him to listen.

"Nothing!"

She burst into another laugher. "You are really hilarious." She laughed so hard that the liquid almost came back out through her nose.

Everyday, she discovered a part of Faisal that was intriguing. Of course, she knew he wasn't scared of her. Just of losing her, and she wasn't going anywhere either, unless Allah called her back to Him.

She shouldn't be teasing him this much, especially as they would both not be seeing today until late at night, in shaa Allah.

She unhooked her seatbelt, so that she had sufficient freedom to move around, then she turned to him and placed a hand on the right side of his face.

"My adorable husband. So sweet, yet so masculine. So meek, yet so domineering. You know the sweetest part of all these? That I am the only one that gets to see this side of you. Just me. Little Umamah Sulaym."

Faisal wanted to tell her that there was nothing little about her, but when he looked from the road to her eyes, there were no jest in them. They were a captivating black balls and very white holders. Pride of ownership radiating in them like a galant orb.