Footballer's hijabi wife

41. Caught in the middle

AQSA's POV**
I'm standing in the kitchen alone checking if I have all the ingredients I need to make the cake  and sweets I'm taking to maman's tomorrow. We were going to spend the day there and we weren't going empty handed.
Maryam would love these and maman loves the  sweets I make.

Only to realize that I didn't have everything I needed. Since Youssef wasn't back yet I was just going to text him to come with the things I needed.

I  came off a night shift and I've been asleep the whole afternoon. Youssef was at work so we hadn't seen each other all day. He usually comes back at around 5pm if it's not match-day or there are no other activities.

I send him the message of what I need, he doesn't reply but I'm sure he has seen it so I sit waiting for him to come back.

I'm just on the phone texting when he walks in. I run to him with a smile.

'Asalaam alaikum...'

'Waalaikum Asalaam.' He doesn't return my enthusiasm.

'Did you leave the stuff in the car?'

'No.' He says walking past me.

'Youssef.. they are important. You saw my message. Why didn't you get them?' I complain.

He just walks away. What is going on?

I just follow him in to our room.

'Is everything okay? Are you okay? Sorry I didn't ask.' I tell him as I put my hand on his back but he doesn't turn.

'I'm okay. I'm just tired. We'll talk about it later.'

Did he have a bad day at work? What was the matter. Now I'm just anxious. I want to keep asking but I don't want to turn this into an argument so I just leave it at that.

'Okay.' I say as I place a kiss on his temple.

I walk out to give him some space to cool off. I just sit on the couch watching some TV.
Youssef walks out after almost an hour in a thobe.

'I'm going for maghrib I'll bring the things after salah.' He says on his way to the door.

'Okay.' I reply with a reassuring smile.

I'm running out of patience I just want to know what is going on with him.
I go to pray and after that I prepare dinner for us and some tea for a little bit later. I needed some tea.

I'm almost done preparing dinner when Youssef walks in to the kitchen with the bags.

'Thank you. I'm almost done making dinner.' I tell him with a smile.

'Okay, thank you.' He places the bags on the kitchen table and walks out.

We have our food in silence. I try to make casual conversation but Youssef just nods. All I get is a 'mmmhmmm.' 'Hmmm'

Youssef puts his spoon down and pushes the plate a little bit away from him.

At least he ate.

I'm a second away from asking him what the issue is.

'Youssef...' I begin.

'Aqsa, I am so angry.' He speaks in a low tone. I look at him concerned, afraid - what was it about. Me?

I look at him unsure about what to say.

'I'm sorry I've been quiet, I just needed to calm down before I talk about it.'

I nod.

He starts telling what happened and I understand him now even I was mad now.