Malik and Jade

Chapter 24 (Malik): The Conversations

I tapped the two tickets on my desk, talking myself into making the call. It was still a crapshoot if Jade would answer. If I had to guess, for every twenty calls I made, she'd answer maybe one.

She answered on the fourth ring. This was my lucky day, and I hoped my luck would hold out.

"Is everything OK?" she asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "How are you this morning? What are you up to?"

"Nour and I are grocery shopping," she said.

"I won't keep you long, then," I said. "I was just wondering if you'd be willing to attend a hospital benefit with me. It's a formal event, a night at the symphony --"

"Oh, I'm sorry, but I have plans that night."

I tapped the tickets on my desk again, not wanting to point out the obvious. "Jade, I didn't say what night it was yet."

She was quiet a moment, then she asked, "Oh. When is it?"

Once I told her the date, I knew what was coming. My luck had run out.

"I already made plans that weekend to take Nour to see my parents."

"Not a problem," I said easily. "I'll see if my mom can make it. I'll let you get back to shopping. Have a good afternoon."

In the two weeks since we'd gone to the farm and shared a laugh over Nour's funny reaction to the donkey braying, I'd been trying to create more opportunities to share little moments with Jade. Sometimes I was successful, but they were hard fought.

Strangely enough, the ones at night in bed were the easiest ones.

I'd be lying on my back and when Jade came out from brushing her teeth and washing her face, she get into bed, and I'd roll onto my side so I was facing her, propping my head on my hand. She'd get out her night cream from her nightstand and apply it to her face and neck while I watched.

"Do you ever think about going back to work?"

She looked at me, surprised. "I do. But I also don't feel like now is the right time. Nour's going to be my only child and this is such a special time. I swear, Malik, he changes every day."

"I know," I said. "Sometimes it seems like he's different when I get home from work than he was just the previous day. He's always learning new things, hitting new milestones."

Her eyes narrowed on me. "Why? Do you want me to go back to work?"

"Not at all, unless you want to. One of my patients asked me today if you were going back to work, and I realized I didn't know if your feelings about staying at home had changed. I just want to make sure you're staying home because you want to and not because you think I expect you to."

"I've never felt like that. I think you'd be OK with whatever I want to do since I don't have to work."

"I would."

"I'll probably go back to work once Nour starts school, but right now we're so busy with his play group and music classes and swimming classes. Since Abby's cut back on her hours, Nour and I meet her and Griffin once or twice a week and we take them to library events, things like that. And I love my stroller-cise walking group -- I've met so many new friends through that. It's nice to trade babysitting time during the days if one of us has an appointment, and Matthew's set up a calendar for all of us --"

"Matthew?" 

Matthew?

"Yes. He's one of the two stay-at-home dads in the group. He set up our group chat, too. Nour loves him. His little girl was a preemie, born about two months before Nour was so we compare notes on milestones."