HE IS MY CHAUFFEUR ✅

THIRTY ONE

Neither revised nor edited.

Nawwar didn't want to marry El-Mustapha. He was once her crush and his attention was something she once craved for. Now she didn't want anything that had to do with him. He didn't see her with any worth. Why would she stick to him? She had moved on with Farouk and now Baffa told her the wedding would hold in two weeks.

She had smiled bitterly at her father and left his sight. How could she say no to him? He would be shattered.

"Ya Nawwarah, he's at the gazebo." Her sister told her. She quickly cleaned the tear that cascaded on her cheek. She had to act like she was happy. After all she was going to be Mrs El-mustapha.

"Linah, ask Beatrice to serve him coffee. I will be with him in a few." Nawwar finished and dashed into her bathroom. She looked at herself at the mirror and wondered why El-Mustapha didn't find her attractive. She washed her face and rubbed a cleanser cream. She wiped it off and threw a veil across her shoulder.

When she sighed him, his face straight, she felt better. She took her time before she sat before him.

"Salam alaikum." She greeted. El-mustapha answered immediately. Did she know that? He thought she would greet him with a hi or hello just like her best friend and his sister, Maya.

Nawwar moved uncomfortably, her eyes on the artificial waterfall that adorned their compound.

"Baffa told me." She swallowed something.

"Baba asked me to come. You have something to say, he said."

Nawwar smiled when she saw his eyes on her. "Yeah I don't know either. I don't know why he sent you." But the truth was she knew. Baffa told her to start arranging the wedding that's why they're in their Kaduna residence. And she should make a list to El-mustapha once he ask. For now, he didn't and she wouldn't dare say it.

El-mustapha held his chin with his hand. "I guess I should leave but before that I heard you need some money."

Nawwar smiled again. He wanted her to sound miserable and in need. She won't. They were not poor too.

"No, Amma has ordered my furniture from Turkey already. My kitchen utensils too arrived yesterday from India." She smirked under her smile.

El-mustapha chuckled. "As if I didn't hear from Mahmoud that Baffa sold his plaza that's in Abuja to do that. If you want money, open your mouth and talk. Nothing is impossible from me. You know?"

Nawwar grimaced. What's wrong with El-mustapha? Why did he want to downgrade her. Was he like that all along? Well, he's at the wrong place.

"I think I will get back." She rose to her feet. She would rather sell her golden necklaces and bangles and act like its from El-Mustapha.

He rose to his feet too and dipped his hand in his pocket.

He removed some cash in dollars.

"That's five thousand dollars for your bridal gift. They call it lefe or whatever."

"Maya should be your aid. I won't mind having my wardrobe filled with MayApparels cloth." With that, she left the place. The money untouched by her. El-mustapha swallowed. He turned to leave but something bug him. He couldn't leave the money behind. He shouldn't.

Show her five thousand dollars is nothing to you. A voice in his head whispered. He took two steps away and stopped.

You can't waste that amount. Pick it. She knows you're capable of more than that.

El-mustapha slapped his face. At the end, he picked his money and exited the house.

Nawwar could see everything from where she stood. She laughed out loud. She never knew he loved money this way even though he had them plenty. Now she's knowing who he really was. Under that calm and dashing smile was the other side of him. One could never tell from a far.