Impulse

FOUR: FRUSTRATIONS

It was drizzling as Tahira was making her way into Dalema for a few things, it took her all but 15 minutes to get what she needed, including toothbrush, hair remover, shampoo, her face cream, and other important things. As she tried to make her way out of Dalema to malam Talle who was waiting for her in the parking space the rain got heavier, so she waited for it to lighten.

An unknown number called her phone, at first she was just going to ignore it but then changed her mind "Hello?" She answered.

"Tahira kenan, kina duniya" a strange female voice said through the phone, she looked at the screen again to see if the number would look familiar but it didn't, she put the phone back on her ears "I'm sorry who is this?"

"Adilah ce" {it's Adilah}

Tahira looked at the screen of the phone again, confused. "Oh!" She replied weirdly "Ok"
"You know i mistook your relationship with my husband for some stupid love cliché, but it turns out you're just a common prostitute"

"Excuse me???" Tahira raised her voice

"Well when women get paid for the kind of relationship you had with my husband, they're called prostitutes right?"

Tahira was confused, she didn't really understand what Adilah was talking about, did Abdulmaleek tell her they were intimate, her head started spinning. It took her a moment to regain herself, she could hear Adilah lashing out in the background but all she could think of was that the world now knows what she did, what if Adilah decided to report her home to her father. She thought of the beating her father was going to give her.

She immediately hung up, she ran inside the rain to their car. "muje malam Talle, yi sauri kai ni gida" {lets go Malam Talle, hurry up take me home}

Immediately she got home, she went to her room and locked the door, she dialed Abdulmaleek's number a couple of times and it wasn't going through. Frustrated, she paced up and down the room, until finally the call went through.

when her call came in he was confused, the number was no longer saved on his phone but he knew her digits all too well not to recognize them. He let it ring thinking maybe she miss dialed it, but then it rang again, he picked up immediately thinking it might be some kind of emergency. "Hello?" He said
"You told her??? Why would you do that? Who does that?!" she yelled

"I told who what? Are you ok?"

"Your wife, Abdulmaleek, you told her about us?"
"I don't know what you're talking about Tahira, you just called and started screaming at me. And the last time i checked there is no 'us' so what are you talking about"

Tahira wanted to scream, but she didn't instead she was trying to get the thing stuck in her throat to pass.
"Hello" he called again when there was a blank silence.
"You told Adilah that we were intimate" she said this time quietly.
"Why would i do that? We don't even talk about you, what are you talking about??"

"You're such a liar.." she yelled, Abdulmaleek swallowed hard, he was trying as hard as he could not behave the way she was behaving "...your psycho of a wife called me, calling me a prostitute, that i get paid for the type of relationship we had.."

Before she could finish he cut her short "don't ever call my wife a psycho again, first of all, second i told her nothing. And third i did pay you. Next time you want to call me please act accordingly otherwise don't ever call me again"  immediately after saying those exact words he hung up.

Tahira looked at the phone, the world was just turning around in circles, he had never said words more hurtful to her than these. "I did pay you?" That was what upset her the most, so he indeed told Adilah about them including the money he let her keep. She sat down on the bed, and before you know it she started crying. Why was she crying? She couldn't even be sure which part of it was making her cry. Maybe because she was called a prostitute, and now she actually felt like one, or maybe because for the first time Abdulmaleek lashed out at her. It wasn't about her feelings which she believed were long gone, it was about her ego which was shattered.

After a few moments, she realized that maybe his reaction was not that strange, maybe she it was her fault for not controlling her own anger, but still she found no excuse for why Adilah would call her and accuse her of being a prostitute, and no excuse for why he would call her the same thing indirectly.

Abdulmaleek hung up the phone and throw it hard on the table "such nonsense" he growled. He was angrier than he had ever been with Tahir, ever. It was a bowl mixture of many things. He used her, yes! He lied to her, yes! But he loved her, when he wanted nothing but to marry her, she turned him down, simply because she was too proud to be his second wife. Or so he thought. And now out of the blue she called talking to him like her junior brother, and calling his wife a psycho. Whatever Adilah might have done, he was not comfortable with anyone talking about his wife in a disrespectful way.

The frustrations creeped in, now he might have also said a few things he didn't mean, he relaxed himself and calmed himself down, telling himself that nothing she would say again would make him lose his cool, then he called her back, it rang and it rang but she didn't pick up. There was nothing worse than feeling the way he was feeling at that moment. It was raining he picked up his umbrella and went straight to his car, then straight home to confront his wife.

Adilah was home, waiting for the inevitable she knew was coming. She found the debit, going through her husband's phone started since before they were married and now it was becoming habitual. The money was just too much for her to ignore, after all he keeps telling her they have no more money