Malik and Jade

Chapter 26 (Malik): All That Stood Between Us

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

The weeks sped by until we were coming up on the Christmas holidays. Jade had been busy decorating the house during the days and she'd asked if I'd put the tree up one weekend so we could decorate it. We were having Christmas at our house this year, and my parents and hers would be coming. My brother and his family would be with his wife's parents.

"Jade," I said to my wife when I came downstairs from putting Nour to bed one night, "I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping for presents this weekend. I can get my mother to watch Nour if you want to go."

She looked up from the list she was making, and I could see her internal debate but it didn't last as long as it normally did. "OK. Ask her if she's available for Saturday night."

"I will." Deep breath and then take the plunge. "Do you want to eat out that night? You don't have to answer now."

Since she'd come back home, I'd become an expert on reading the slight nuances that ran across Jade's face, from the slight narrowing of her eyes, to the drawing down of her eyebrows, to the slight hitch at the corner of her mouth. 

Just as I was sure she was going to decline or decide later, she nodded. "Dinner will be fine."

Dinner will be fine. 

On the plus side, it wasn't a no, but I couldn't help compare it to the very first time I'd called to ask her out.

"I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner with me. Without parents, this time."

She laughed. "I'd love to!"

Now, because of what I'd done, my laughing, enthusiastic Jade had become anything but. I was determined that we'd have a nice dinner and she'd laugh and relax around me. I wanted to give her a really good, fun day to enjoy.

On Saturday, my mother arrived and Jade and I left. We hit the stores, Jade had her shopping list in hand, and we knocked out all the gifts for our families and Nour. I was basically the pack mule as Jade practically danced through the stores in her excitement, handing me bag after bag. She'd always loved shopping for gifts.

"Anything you need to get for anyone that wasn't on my list?" she asked.

"I already have your gift," I told her.

"Let me guess...and I'm going out on a limb here...something to do with jade?" she was teasing me. She was actually teasing me. "I know, I know...I should be grateful my name isn't refrigerator."

I almost choked up as I smiled at her. Not only had she teased me, but she'd brought up an old joke between us.

"A jade bracelet!" she'd exclaimed when she opened that first gift from me. "Oh, Malik, it's beautiful. So delicate."

"Be glad your name wasn't refrigerator," I'd teased her. "Or you'd be opening an entirely different gift right now."

Dinner had continued in much the same vein. And if Jade wasn't entirely easy around me, it was the lightest things had been between us since she'd had Nour. My spirits lifted and I couldn't recall a time in my life I'd felt this happy. Her eyes had sparkled several times throughout the day.

Christmas morning came and we gathered to open our gifts. Nour was the definite, and overstimulated, star of the day. He crinkled the wrapping paper, threw it in the air and delighted in the boxes if not the gifts.

"Where's your gift from Malik, Jade?" my mother asked, honestly thinking it had been overlooked. Since we'd been married, Jade's gift from me was always the last one opened.