Faith

Chapter 13

NASIHAH'S POV

"Nasihah, Nasihah get up."

Slowly, my eyes open, first into
squint and then fully. Zaidan is sitting on my side of the bed with his hand on my arm. He's dressed in black pants and red-and-white striped button down that's buttoned up half way. For a second my eyes flick to the clock on the well. Has it really been an hour since Fajr? I'm still tired.

I lean up on my elbow. "Yeah?"

"You have work today, right?" he says.

"Yeah. At 7:30."

"It's seven. Just thought I'd let you know." He gets up off the bed and walks to his closet. His back was to me but I could tell he was finishing buttoning up his shirt. Hesitating, I pushed the blanket off of me and swung my legs over the side of the bed.

"Are you feeling better?" I ask. He pauses for a moment.

"Yeah. Better enough to go to work, at least."

I used the awkward silence in the room to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. When I came out, Zaidan was standing in front of a mirror and fixing his hair. His shirt was fully buttoned now and he had a red tie around his neck and a watch on his wrist. I went to my side of the closet, which I had finally finished organizing, and pulled out an army green long-sleeved shirt, turquoise jeans, and a turquoise scarf.

Just as I was about to go back to the bathroom and change, Zaidan cleared his throat. I turned to him.

"What?"

He shoved his hands into his pockets and shuffled his sock-clad feet. "My mom's not going to be here tonight. She's going to her friend's house. She asked if we wanted to go but I said no."

"Okay. I don't mind." I took a step to the bathroom before he said "wait". I looked back at him.

"I don't really know what happened last night. I forgot. But... Thanks."

"It's alright, I guess."

"Hey, Nasihah?"

"Yeah?"

"While Mom's gone... Did you wanna do something? I mean, only if you want to. You know, just a little, well, whatever you wanna do. I just thought that since we haven't done much and since I don't really know you and all we could, I don't know, watch a movie or eat goose--I mean foose, food, sorry. Like lunch--er, not lunch. Dinner or something, whatever floats your goat--boat, sorry--"

"Zaidan," I said, smiling. He stops rambling and looks up at me, his face red. He scratches the back of his neck.
"Sure. We can do something."

"Okay," he coughs, awkwardly. "I'll be back from work around 6-ish."

"I finish at 6:30."

"Right. Then I'll see you then." He rushes to the door and leaves. I start laughing. I didn't know Zaidan could be nervous. I thought of him as an intense and serious and confident man. He was so cute rambling on and on and on... And because of me. I felt my cheeks heat up. After realizing I'd been standing there for five minutes, I run to the bathroom and change.

•••

"So what's it like being married?" Julie asks with a smirk. She's sitting on the desk to the side of of the pharmacy, kicking her legs. I'm slouched in the swivel chair behind it, lazily spinning around while playing with an empty pill bottle.