Mistaken Perception

Chapter 5

Aisha groggily managed to untangle herself from her bed sheets moving toward the phone ringing in the living room. Stumbling she made her way out of her room sleepily tying her nightgown. She knew in the pit of her stomach who was calling. She staggered toward her purse, it was still where she had thrown it when she got home. 

She hadn't had time to rest.  Right after work, she sat at the table working on homework with her siblings. Her friend Samia hadn't been able to start on dinner, so Aisha had to throw something together for them. After that, it was a roller-coaster of getting her siblings in the bathroom and sending them to bed. 

Of course, Musa had wanted to fight about his sleep time and only seemed to effectively drain her of what little energy she had left. If her great Aunt hadn't yelled at him to go to sleep, Aisha knew he would still be up.

She fished around her bag hoping the ringing phone was her personal one, but she had no such luck. She managed to wrap her fingers around the business phone glancing at the name. Of course, it was Gabriel, there hadn't been a doubt in her mind that it would be him. She wondered if the man ever went to sleep. 

She had been working for a good solid three weeks as his and his brother's secretary and he had begun with the nightly demands from the first night. She sighed looking at it for a second debating whether she should turn the phone off or not.

She relished the idea but knew it would cost her if she ignored him. She had quickly deduced that Gabriel was a man who didn't like to be ignored. With a defeated sigh Aisha picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she said sleepily stifling a yawn.

There were a few seconds of silence.

"Send me the financial report from this week," was his abrupt demand.

There was no Hello, no I'm sorry I woke you...nothing. Aisha rubbed her eyes a bit annoyed.

"I sent the attachment to you yesterday," she said laying down on the couch and closing her eyes as she snuggled into the pillow.

"You did?" he asked and she could hear him typing.

"Hmm..." was Aisha's sleepy reply.

There were a few more seconds of silence and Aisha found herself falling asleep again.

"Don't fall asleep," was his command as if seeing her.

Aisha groaned and sat up yawning again.

"Is there something else you need?" she asked the annoyance leaking into her voice.

"Yes," was his reply deciding to ignore her tone.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Hold on," was his single reply.

"Didi..." came the small voice of her sister.

Aisha's head snapped up looking at her baby sister who had tears streaking down her face.

"Misky...oh love... I'm right here," said Aisha ignoring the phone and placing it on the table.

At her sister's gentle voice, Misky broke down crying and ran into her sisters welcoming arms. Aisha had thought she was getting better, but though her tantrums and crying for her parents had stopped. Once in a while, Misky would wake from a nightmare. She never could tell Aisha what it was about, but she liked to curl next to her and sleep it off.