Too Little, Too Late

21

July, 2021.

At 1:30AM in the early hours of Sunday July 4th, Ayra was startled awake by the sound of a confetti gun going off. She nearly fell off the bed, scared to death, but familiar strong arms caught her at the last minute and Ibrahim's laughter got through her scare haze a moment later.

She blinked until the fear faded away, leaving surprise in its place. Her heart then began to race and her smile started out slowly. "Ibrahim?"

Ibrahim, who'd been away from Atlantica since she and Ibtihaj's staycation in June for meeting after meeting and conference after conference, smiled when he stopped laughing. "Hello, sweetheart. Happy Birthday. I'm an hour and a half late but it's good enough, don't you think?"

She wanted to cry. "You're here."

"I am." He smiled even wider. "I made it clear at every country that the squad and me had to get things wrapped up before July 3rd because there was no way we were going to miss your birthday. I've been jumping from one flight to the other since morning but it paid off. I'm here now."

A small laugh bubbled out of her and she hugged him, breathing his familiar scent in and finding a lot of peace in it. "God, I missed you."

He kissed her hairline softly. "I missed you too...Happy Birthday, Ayra."

She smiled against his chest, extremely happy he'd returned because she assumed she'd be spending her first birthday while being married alone. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome." He then pulled back. "Your cake and present are downstairs in the living room. I would have said we open it tomorrow after Fajr but I'm exhausted and I don't want to spend the whole day sleeping, only to give you the present and have you blow out your candles when we're about to leave for the little party the squad's throwing."

She beamed. "You guys are throwing me a party?"

He looked at her as though she was crazy. "Are we not supposed to? You're important to us, Ayra, so it's only right that you get a party the same way every other person on the squad gets a party."

Her face was radiant as she got out of bed. "I'm going to pee and then we'll head down, okay?"

He nodded, smiling right back at her. "Okay."

The trip to the bathroom revealed her period had made its monthly appearance so she got changed and then they headed down. Sitting on one of the coffee tables was a strawberry shaped cake that scarily looked real and on the ground, sitting prettily was a box wrapped in fuchsia pink paper with a white bow.

Ayra turned to her husband, her expression extremely soft. "Ibrahim..."

"I wanted them to make a Leilani cake but they said it was going to be a lot of work on such quick notice so I told them to go with the strawberry instead because it reminded me of Valentine's morning when we had chocolate coated strawberries. The cake better taste nice. It was expensive."

Unable to help it, she laughed while he simply smiled. He got a candle and lit it and she made a wish before blowing out the candlelight. He then got them plates, forks, and a knife from the kitchen. Just like she loved her cakes to be, the cake had three layers with whipped cream in-between and she loved how moist it was as well as how heavenly it tasted.

Once she'd taken one too many bites and had thanked him over and over, she put the plate and fork aside and then pulled the box closer. Now that she was seated on the ground, the book seemed bigger and she nervously glanced his way. "Ibrahim, what's in here?"

He simply smiled, his forearms on his knees as he leaned forward while comfortably sitting on the sectional. "Why don't you open it?"

Still nervous, she turned back to the box, said a quick prayer, and then lifted the lid. Her eyes proceeded to nearly pop out of their sockets. Staring right back at her was a pink Polaroid camera and a digital to analogue Polaroid photo printer. She slowly reached into the box and picked them up, turning – still with wide eyes – to Ibrahim. He smiled boyishly. "I may have seen you scrolling through Polaroid cameras when you took a break from reading during exams so..."