Taking Chances

Page 13

'He's right.' Thohir said.

Dina glared at him. He grinned then kissed her forehead then mumbled something on her ears. Her face relaxed.

'But good woman is hard to find these days. They are easily taken. And I want her to be my daughter in law.'

I sighed. 'I can't mom. I want her too. But I can't.'

'You did it. With Monica.'

I got taken aback. 'who's Monica?'

'Your ex-wife.'

I relaxed a little. 'her name is Katrina.'

She waved her hand in the air. 'whatever.'

'yes I did it. And yes it was a mistake.'

'You did it with ... Katrina,right? ... but still able to finish the project. What happened with your marriage is a very different thing. It's her fault and you know it.'

'She's a virgin,mom.'

'So what?'

'She will want to marry a virgin too.'

'You're wrong. She likes you too.' I looked at Dina. She nodded her head.

A warm hand touched my shoulder. My mother said calmly. 'Go get her,son. She could be the best thing that ever happened in your life,if you allow it.'

I grabbed my car key and sprinted out of the garage and climbed up on my black Harrier. Once I reached the gate,I didn't know which way to go. Left or right? I pulled out my phone and started searching for her phone number. Yes yes that's right, I have her number saved in my phone. Once I got it,I punched in her numbers. One tone. Two tone. Three ...

'Hello?' A familiar voice greeted me from the other side of the line.

I breathed in relief. 'Zahra?'

There's a short pause. Did she know it's me? Did she recognized my voice,just like I recognized hers?

'Speaking. Who is this?'

'Khalil.'

'Who?' This woman drove me to the edge of my life. I could have a panic attack.

'Khalil. Dr Khalil Nurdin. Can you tell me where you are now?' Maybe I was indeed in a panic attack.

'Is there something wrong,sir?'

Breath Khalil. Take a deep breath and relax. 'Get out of your taxi.' I knew my frantic voice would scare her,but I didn't care. All I could think was that I didn't want to lose the chance.

'Why?' Wait,what? She's not scared of me! She's actually challenging me?

'Please Zahra. I need to speak with you. Ask him to pull over.'

There's no reply.

I groaned in frustration. 'When you got out of the house,which way did you go,left or right?'

'Left.'

I quickly headed left. 'Tell the driver to pull over.' Its hard for me to hold myself from yelling. I used to be able to manage my emotion well before. That's before Zahra came into my life.

'Okay ... Okay.' I heard her mumbled 'bossy' before hang up the phone. Who did she call bossy? Was it me? Many people called me bossy behind my back,they're afraid of me. I think Zahra was not included. I couldn't help it anymore. I laughed out loud,from the top of my lungs.

When I found her,she was standing at the side of the road and kicking something with her foot. She heard me closed the car door and turned around.

I walked to her. 'There's something I need to say to you. I ...'

'Stop there.' She held up her pointing finger and I stopped dead at my track. I looked down at my feet to look if there any reason why I should stop about 3 meters from her. When I couldn't find the reason,I looked up at her again.

'You can talk now.'

'Can I come closer?'

'No sir,I'm afraid not.'