Too Little, Too Late

54

Ibrahim took Ayra home that evening and the thrill of the new place had disappeared with the events that had happened and the events that were yet to happen. With only mere hours to their end, Ibrahim was determined to make every moment count.

They watched the sunset together, as quiet as they had been throughout the ride from her parents' house to what would have been theirs, and Ibrahim committed to memory how perfectly they'd always fit with her sitting between his legs and her back flush against his front.

They prayed both Maghrib and Isha in the mosque and they had dinner together at a restaurant, talking about the things that caught their attention just so the silence didn't continue. When they got back to the house, they showered together and when they kissed, their tears stained it, and Ayra let him lead her out of the bathroom to the bed where he proceeded to make love to her, ensuring he got everything right.

When she fell asleep much later, Ibrahim stared at her for the longest time and then he cried until there was no more tear to shed and a headache threatened to split his head in two.

Dawn took its time to arrive and they caught the sunset while sipping tea. Silence had once again descended between them and Ibrahim did all he could to curtail his tears but they still broke free and he occasionally moved his hand away from the mug to wipe them away. In the chair she occupied, Ayra cried too. They ate breakfast, took a long walk on the beach, and then painted the scenery together; stopping at intervals to pray, eat, and cry while thinking the other person couldn't see.

On their second day, Ayra asked to visit The Hexad as she'd never been there before and she wanted to know how it looked like before she added it to the list of places she'd never visit unless it was extremely important. Although it was the last place he wanted to go in his life, especially when he remembered what Bella had said about Ayra leaving him, Ibrahim got dressed and drove her there himself. Thankfully, the squad was out to meet with some board members concerning the future of the company so Ibrahim took Ayra round and showed her every single nook and cranny of the structure he knew like the back of his hand.

In every office that belonged to a member of the squad, she dropped letters that Ibrahim didn't know she'd written and then she let know that she'd sent Serkan's and Aliana's to them in Amsterdam.

"I never planned to write." She told him. "But the words wouldn't leave my head and I didn't want them to keep disturbing me. I don't care what they do with the letters, honestly. It's just me seeking a closure and this should be good enough."

Ibrahim found the nearest restroom after that and cried. After Zuhr, they had lunch at a pizzeria and then aimlessly drove around Aomi, their hands held together between the seats. They didn't return home until long after Isha had been prayed. They had their bath and then returned to the living room and with his chest still torn wide open, Ibrahim asked Ayra to explain to him the process of Khula' where a Muslim woman requested a divorce from her husband.

Ayra explained it to him the same way Yunus and Maya had explained it to her; in the simplest form so everything was clear and there was no confusion. The silence that followed when she finished was heavy and it weighed down on the both of them.

It felt like forever before Ibrahim quietly asked "What if I don't want the mehr back?"

Her stomach – and her heart – dipped. "Ibrahim –"

He held her watery gaze with his. "I don't want the mehr back, Ayra. It was my gift to you and although I wasn't completely sincere then, I'm not taking it back. I can't take it back, not with everything that has happened between us; both the good and the bad. It'll kill me to do so, so please...Please don't give it back, Ayra. I'm begging you."