Only In Jannah

18: Belle Isle

My sincere gratitude to Mukhtar Suleiman for his help in completing this chapter.
This one is for you Big Guy 💝

"You seem troubled, are you sure you're okay?" Hidaya asked while casually sipping on her banana shake with her legs crossed beneath the table, Khalil sighed taking a look out the large window they sat next to.

"I'm fine"

"Hey" she said softly. She dropped the banana shake on the small stool beside her, sliding her palms on his hands as she tried to find his eyes "Remember how you said it was okay for me to talk to you? Well you can talk to me too"

He let out a faint smile, something plastic, he liked how her hands caressed his. And he stared at her for another two seconds before he could speak.
"I'm afraid my past isn't as clean as yours, Hidaya"

"That's why its called the past, as long as your willing to do things differently then you're okay"

He chuckled continuously dipping the straw into his cup of Lemonade "Trust me, I'm doing things differently but I just feel like my own past will haunt me--- or us"

"You sound like you committed murder" Hidaya joked trying to lighten the mood "You just make sure that change you made is from within and you won't have a problem"

"I hope so"

For the next few minutes, he drowned himself deep in his thoughts, he knew what had happened had happened, but deep down he knew there were parts of him, something she would definitely be scared of. He stole a glance at her, she was smiling at something, sipping her shake, she was so beautiful he thought, it was as though God had taken his thoughts and made it flesh. She turned and smiled at him, she muttered something but he didn't hear a word, he just nodded and smiled back. He would be damned if he let what was destroy what is for him right now, but still it scared him, he petrified him.

He still traveled a few more seconds in that trance before she tapped him, "We should get going its almost four and I'm sure you're not done for the day"

He threw his head back a little "There isn't much to do, I just had to correct some errors. One more day in the office and we'll be done so I think we can go home now but I'll have to dismiss Ava"

They both went up to the Alhaji Nuhus office where Ava was still on the job, she hadn't bothered to eat lunch since Khalil refused to go with her. She heard Khalil and Hidaya coming down the walk way, giggling over something she didn't care about. She was mad, she took a sigh of disgust, adjusted her blouse and forced a smile on her face.
"Mrs. DanMaliki, you're back" She greeted making her way to where Hidaya stood not acknowledging Khalil's presence in the office, she led Hidaya to the couch where they both sat.

"Please, call me Hidaya"

"Ava" Khalil called flipping through the sheets of paper in the file he held "Record these in the register please, I think this should be the last for 2017" he shut the file and slapped it down on the table picking his car key "Come, Hidaya. Let's go"
Hidaya stood up sharing a short hug with Ava "It was really nice meeting you Ava"

"Nice meeting you too Hidaya, I hope we get to spend some more time together" Ava's eyes lingered on Khalil

"Sure, before we leave" Hidaya replied as she retracted from the hug. Ava kept her eyes locked with Khalil's twirling her hair around her finger as a smirk married her lips.

"Ava you know how I dislike being kept waiting" Khalil chirped in trying to suppress his building anger, he understood what his father's personal assistant was trying to do and he didn't need Hidaya to witness any of it.