Abuja, Nigeria.
March, 2020.
Amna and Aslam returned to Abuja almost 2 weeks ago. They left Bora Bora for Umrah and were in Madina for 7 days before leaving for Makkah to perform Umrah but had to leave on their 4th day in Makkah, they had to reschedule their flight because airports were getting closed as a result of the Pandemic.
They finished the application for Amna's masters a few days after they returned. Amna took some time packaging the baby clothing she got for Sa'adah in Paris and Madina. Also, the beautiful hand beaded abayas, bakhoor, perfumes and boxes of assorted chocolates and pralines from a famous chocolatier in Paris as souvenir. They got gold pendants for Aslam's nieces and her nieces with the first letters of their names each too.
They also traveled to Bauchi for 2 days to visit Amna's paternal relatives- especially her grandaunt who raised her father, Hajiya Dada who couldn't even attend her wedding because she was too fragile and old to travel long distance, even though Alhaji Omar pleaded with her and offered to send a private jet to fly her to Abuja.
After they returned, Aslam surprised her with a birthday dinner, she even forgot her birthday and was busy planning Sa'adah's baby shower with Mimi and Sa'adah's sister in-law. Adnan wanted to surprise her because she was sad they couldn't go for the planned babymoon in Seychelles because of the little complication she had and now the Pandemic situation.
Yasmine and Muhammad invited them over for dinner on Friday night and they had the baby shower on Saturday evening at the Sarius Palmetum Garden in Maitama. Sa'adah and Adnan were expecting a baby boy.
Aslam got busier the week after, the work he left behind piled up on him. They had some clients to meet, some contracts to negotiate, he had the plan for an important client to finish designing and they needed to focus on the new site. He spent a lot of time with Junaid and Daniel at the office while Amna spent her evenings at her parent's helping Sa'adah transform a corner in her old room at home into a nursery. Sa'adah had moved there too because she was due in less than a month.
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Amna was in the kitchen pouring the watermelon juice she made into a glass pitcher while the dolma stuffed in green, yellow, orange and red bell peppers were cooking on the stove on a low heat when she heard Aslam's car zoom into the driveway and less than a minute later she heard his voice.
"Honey, I'm homeee!" She laughed at that and thought does he think he's in an American movie.
"I'm in the kitchen," she answered.
He walked into the kitchen, she was throwing in some mint leaves into the pitcher of watermelon juice. He placed a bouquet of flowers on the kitchen island and walked to her.
"What are you cooking? smells good." He smiled and hugged her.
"Dolma." she grinned "Lovely flowers and how was your day, myArchitect?" She rested her hands on his chest.
He sighed "I had a meeting with the Minister and I was at the new site, an gama foundation, they are framing and then we had a team meeting, I am soooo exhausted." He narrated standing beside her as she added some dressing and tossed the kale and quinoa salad she made not long ago.
"Do you need any help?" He asked.
"No, just go take a shower, I'm almost done here." She sweetly smiled at him.
"Alright, let me help you arrange these flowers in the vase."
"Are you sure you know how to do that?" She raised her brow.
"Of course I know how to, watch me do it." He winked at her and walked to the sink to fill the vase with water.
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