The Marriage Demands (#Wattys2017)

Chapter 29

ZAKRIYA ISLAM

2 months later

Her constant crying and moaning jolted me awake. I turned to her and rubbed her back.

"Shh, it's okay," I murmured in a comforting tone. Turning her towards me, I quickly embraced her and tried my best to calm her down. "Make it stop, please!" She cried and beseeched, her nails digging into my shoulders.

"Shh, it will, calm down first," I kept on rubbing her back but her cries wouldn't subside and she did what she's been doing to calm herself: she jaws met with my bare shoulder and her teeth sank in hard. I squeezed my eyes shut and pursed my lips together and tried to bear with the pain: my brain and body had become sort of habitual so what I was doing was not only blocking out the pain but just perceiving it as pressure.

After a few seconds, the pressure was relieved, her cries died down and her body loosened under my hold. Carefully, I laid her head on the pillow and planted a chaste kiss on her forehead. Even after all this time, her tear stained face and pain stricken expression while she slept twisted my stomach and wretched my heart painfully.

I sighed as I entered the bathroom and rubbed my face to get rid of the drowsiness. But the stinging feeling coming off of my neck and shoulders was stimulating enough to wake me and keep me awake. I walked towards the sink and leaned on it as I stared at myself in the mirror: the huge bite marks were still red and painful.

It's April now and she's still in withdrawal.

Sometimes it gets so painful for her that it's even difficult for me to watch and when I embrace her to help her cope with the pain, she bites me really hard but I don't mind; anything to help her through this difficult time.

The withdrawal sighs and symptoms had toned down a bit but according to Haleema, the psychological effects would take time to clear off.

After taking a cold shower and performing ablution, I cleaned the wound with alcohol and applied ointment on my shoulders and dressed it appropriately. When I got back to the room with nothing but a towel covering my waist, I went to the closet to fetch myself some new cloths. I drew the curtains from the windows and carefully opened them so as to not make any noise. Amber was sound asleep now and unlike other nights, she looked restful today.

There's so much work that needs to be done: I need to look for a job because of my recent dismissal from my old one. I needed to get groceries and pay the bills. And it was all thanks to the money that Gran had left me that came in handy during this difficult time.

Grabbing my morning coffee, I unlocked the main door and took the newspaper from the doorstep. As I sipped on my coffee and went in with reading the papers in search for a suitable position: I don't mind if it involved hard work as long as I get to make a decent and humble living, then it's okay.

When my eyes caught sight of a job offer for the position of financial consultancy requirement at MA investments, I almost choked on my coffee when I saw the name of the owner of the company.

Shehzad Atish; it's the same American guy I had met at a bakery a couple of months ago. I hope that I still have his card with me. I entered the bedroom to retrieve my wallet and thankfully Amber was still asleep.

And I was even more glad to find the card. Dialling the number, I waited with a pacing heart as the number ringed. Oh Allah please let this be the solution to my problem.

"Asalam alaikum, Shehzad Atish speaking," came the reply of the guy. I sighed with relief; for a second I thought he wouldn't attend a call from a random stranger.