Bound ✅

Car Ride

Once Halima turned down the wedding invite, she set back home. And although Asokoro was far away from her own father's house, she had no intention of getting there early. To avoid questions.

She listened to songs on her phone as she walked on the hot tar road that steaming afternoon. She looked back in the direction of the house she left, the wushe-wushe must have begun by now.

She resumed walking after taking a gulp of water from her water bottle she stowed inside her bag, for days like this one. So, when the car slowed down beside her, she didn't notice until cold air blasted her.

She turned with a smile at the source of the cold air, hoping it was natural breeze, then she met the eyes of her arch enemy. Jamal Abubakar.

"Ina wuni." She rolled her eyes as she said the greeting. But couldn't take her eyes off his fingers that tapped the steering wheel thoughtfully.

"Lemme drop you where you can find a cab or  something." Halima bit her lip hard to stop her from saying something bad.

"No, thank you. I'm content to walk. I'll be at the junction very soon and I can get a cab from there." She gestured at the black gates of the estate that loomed far off.

He looked at his watch and sighed back into his chair. Halima then noticed that he had taken off the Babban Riga she'd seen on him in his pictures and rolled the sleeves of his kaftan to show off his fine forearms. Halima wondered how it would be like to contrast his skin against hers. But she caught herself at the last second.

"It's 38 degrees Celsius. Even a plant would shrivel up in this heat. Talk less of a human being. And I'm sure you're cooking in that hijab." Halima's head rang a bell. A loud bell.

"Thank you very much Mr Abubakar. I'm fine and In Sha Allah, Allah will be my shade in the days when I need a shade." His mouth dropped open and Halima thought for a second if she'd misjudged him again.

He stepped out if his car and rushed to her side with speed. "You're taking it beyond what I said and Wallahi, I didn't insult your wearing a Hijab. I was just trying to show you the pros of letting me drip you off. Simple Malama." She bit her lip and rethought her unnecessary walk again.

Then agreed.

He quickly opened the car door and she stepped into the cool, sleek interior of the luxury car. Once he shut the door behind her, he ran around to open his side and get in.

"Thank you for coming with me. I've been thinking of a way to apologise to you for all I said the day we met." He joined his hands together on the steering, making Halima's heart loose several beats. He was just effortlessly handsome.

"It's fine." Halima heard herself saying and she silently breathed herself for agreeing so quickly. Even his cologne was head turning.

"It's just imperative that you stop forgetting your children. One day they'll remind you if it. Especially for a sharp child like Jariyah." He nodded and clasped his hand around the steering.

"I was just not myself you know. Things were happening to me and I was questioning my very self. That day i'd been accused of something I didn't even do. And you know no matter how old you get, you never get the pain of being wrongly accused out of your chest, it's like a knife turned in your gut over and over." Halima nodded and suddenly, she was emphatic about his situation even if she didn't know who accused him wrongly.

"You can stop here for me. I'll get a Keke to the main junction here." She watched him roll his eyes and drive past the place where he asked her to stop him.

"I'm not leaving you to walk under the sun alone. I'll drop you off, safe and sound at the gate of your father's house. Shikena." Halima  shook her head and rolled her eyes. But he'd replied get in a tone that brokered no argument, so what was a girl to do? Look a gift horse in the mouth?

"So asides hair styling, what else can you do?" Halima pursed her lips and clucked her tongue. All this snobbish rich people sef.

"Hair styling is an important job thank you very much." He clapped his hands and sneaked looks at her keeping his eyes on the road.

"Malama! This is the second time in less than twenty minutes that you're misunderstanding me. I only wanted to know what other skills you had. No issue if you're ashamed  of your job." Halima's mouth dropped open. He just had to turn the tables on her.

" Na you know. I said what I said." He guffawed in reply, and Halima let his laughter wash all over her.

" You're one determined woman. Alhamdulillahi for that. But, I didn't look down on your job. I saw the fine job you did on Jariyah's head and I was marveled. Maybe people don't tell you enough but you must be good at what you do." Halima mouthed a quiet thank you and hugged her black bag closer.

" How did you see me sef, it was just me on a lone street." He flicks his right hand, drawing Halima's attention to his wristwatch.

" Found you on Instagram. Looked at your last post and all." Her eyes bulged as she looked at him.

" Why would you search me out?" He tutted like she was a child.

"I just told you I wanted to apologise and you just accepted my apology. Why else would I seek you out? I'm not a stalker Malama." She rolled her eyes in reply and didn't bother voicing one. Instead she focused on the familiar landmarks that showed she was close home.

Once he turned into her street, Halima was struck by how people would look at her coming down from a man's car and she quickly stopped him from driving further. At the beginning of the street was an uncompleted building no one was in. No one would see her.

"Why?" She shook her head, trying to cook up a story for him. He raised an eyebrow and she went for the truth.

"I'm a widow. People will talk." He sighed and stepped on the brakes.

"Just so you know. Even if you don't talk to a man for five years and they still find you with one, they'll still talk. It's all because this world is so unfair on women." Halima nodded and thanked him for the ride. She quickly looked around and saw that no one saw her come down from his car.

Then she hoisted her bag unto her shoulder and began to walk to her father's gate. When she reached, his words returned to her. The world was truly unfair to women.

*****

Hi guys,

Good Morning.

Sigh: your girl can't sleep, so I decided to write. I'm supposed to wake at four to read for my exam tomorrow but my body is refusing to acknowledge that I need sleep. Na me know though.

Also, we are having eye opening conversations, and all. But we haven't even gotten anywhere. You want to guess where were going next? If you guess correctly, the next chapter is for you.

See y'all when God wills.

From a really tired Omoope.