Here it is, unedited.

Adeelah woke up late. It was Saturday morning, sanitation day and inspection. When they were all done, the house sparkling, they awaited for Abba's patrol. Abba had been utterly quiet for the past few days Adeelah had noticed.

She had never seen him that way in her entire life. He looked down, disoriented and loose. As if someone was after his life. Adeelah made a mental note to go and see Abba that night.

Although Nafeesah told her that she went and he said there's nothing, she would still try.

She was sitting in Hajiya Sadiya's parlour when Hajiya Sadiya came out.

"Come." She said. Adeelah wondered what happened that Hajiya Sadiya called her that way. Something was just off and no one was telling her. Maybe it wad because Abba was slipping away to a man, whom he wasn't.

"Umma here I am."

"Adeelah baby, you're the one to cook today. I will give you a helping hand though." Hajiya Sadiya informed her. And it wad obvious that her decision wasn't needed. She didn't like cooking at all.

Adeelah didn't argue. Hajiya Sadiya didn't ask much from her and if this would make her happy just this once, she would try and place a giant patience load on her heart.

"What am I going to cook?" She asked, opening the deep freezer that was stashed with frozen food items. Chicken, fish, prawns, and shrimps. All those sea foods, Adeelah loved them.

Hajiya Sadiya's eyes glistened with happiness. She loved how matured Adeelah was becoming. People might not notice but she did.

"Whatever you want. You're supposed to cook with the girls. Let me all fetch them."

Hajiya Sadiya walked out. Adeelah had a big smile plastered on her face. She knew what it meant. Hajiya Sadiya was clever, she wanted her child to be involved so that Adeelah won't have a negative thinking of any sort. It was right though. No matter what since she wasn't her birth mother, she must feel something.

But doing this, chased the feeling away from her chest. She liked how Hajiya Sadiya differed from Hafsatu who could hardly hide way her selfishness.

She was thinking when Haneey and Nafeesah came in, grumbling. They all were relaxing when Hajiya Sadiya brought them out.

"Chop, chop girls." Hajiya Sadiya giggled and left the kitchen to them.

"What are you going to cook?" They pointed the question at Adeelah who was busy bringing out proteins from the freezer.

"We should make shrimps and fish sauce then just cook pasta to pair it. It's that simple." Adeelah told them. She could count the number of foods she could cook and it's because she loved them. She learned them from aunt Siddiqa.

"Okay I have no idea how it's done." Nafeesah said.

"Neither do I."

"Just help out and we gist. Before you know it, we will be done." They all agreed. Adeelah went to the kitchen door and locked it. She removed the key and threw it out of the window.

"I know you all, you may run away. When we're done someone will open us. What say?" She laughed at the expressions on their faces.

Adeelah let the fish cool before she removed it from the ziplock and put it on fire. She handed Haneey some chilled vegetables which she removed from the refrigerator to chop them.

Ya Nafeesah was to make the pasta and help out in clearing used utensils.

"Ya Adeelah please help me with your chauffeur's number." Adeelah stopped stirring what she was turning on. What would Haneey do with Salisu's number. She didn't like how crazy the girl was.

"What? Haneey what?" Nafeesah laughed at Adeelah's way of talking.

"You talk exactly like Abba? Always repeating words like when I failed my Jamb he called me. He was like, 'Nafeesah I heard you failed your Jamb. You what?' I ducked my head low." She laughed.

Adeelah laughed too. "I know he won't talk further until you say, 'I failed Jamb Abba.'"

"That's what happened exactly I had to repeat it while my heart was burning." They erupted in a laughter because that's what happened.

"I don't even know I do it." Adeelah said when their laughter died down.

"I just admire your chauffeur." Haneey said again even though the topic was about to be forgotten.

"How does he looks like?" Nafeesah ask.

"Bald. Black lips. Blabber mouth and all you can think of, Ya Nafee." Adeelah said.

Nafeesah checked the pasta she was cooking and climbed on the kitchen island. The girls joined her as they conversed.

"He's handsome Allah." Haneey whined. Adeelah shifted her gaze to Haneey. She tried to make a picture of Salisu in her head but she couldn't. All she saw was his sanqwal and black lips that she didn't like. But she remembered the scent of his perfume, which that drove her crazy the first time it hit her nostril. She had never sniffed of such good perfume somewhere, not even Ya Fadeel who was a sucker for nice perfumes had ever had it.

"At least to my eyes." Adeelah and Nafeesah exchanged a look. They laughed at Haneey.

"Handsome yen yen yen. Adeelah please give her, let them start a relationship in this house. Let's see how it's going to turn, I wish I will be around when it will happen." Nafeesah said.

"I refuse." Adeelah opposed.

"Why?" Both girls asked at the same time.

"Because He Is My Chauffeur." She didn't know why she didn't like the way Haneey was speaking of him. Haneey should understand that Salisu was her chauffeur. Hired for her alone and not for them all. She just didn't like Haneey around him. He was annoying, yes, but Haneey should leave him alone.

"But I will still give you, but I don't agree with you to go out with him. I know you will eventually turn him to your chauffeur and I will have to take public transport some day because of you." She added to clear the tension she created.

"Okay I heard you. Naji." Haneey agreed.

"And he smells good."

Now Adeelah lost it and shouted. "Ha an! Haneey that's too much of an information Haneey. Lower your gaze. Toshe your kunne and hanci, haba!" Adeelah yelled.

She turned to look at Haneey. "It annoys me to talk of him. I don't like him one bit."

"Okay that aside. Shahid wants to come and greet Abba, should I allow him?" Nafeesah sought for their opinion. Shahid had been Ya Nafeesah's boyfriend since secondary school. When she was in sss one he was in sss three. Ya Nafeesah had been with him in secret since then until now when they wanted to formalize things as it seemed.

"He's not bad." Adeelah commented.

"You should send your Ameer too. You think I don't know. I hear you talking to him and I sneaked onto your phone."

"Ya Nafee privacy invading, it's called privacy invasion!" Adeelah complained.

"Seriously I don't want to be alone in it. You're also twenty, just talk to him so that we will be two."

"What of me?" Haneey waved her hand in the air.

"Haneeeeyyyy!" They dragged and laughed.

Soon they perceived the food starting to burn. They dropped from the kitchen island and rushed to the cooker.

****

Adeelah and her sisters decided to go for an outing after cooking lunch. They were going to shop and eat junks outside. Their accounts were going to shake from all indications.

None of the girls knew how to drive. Ya Nafeesah's Shahid took them out. Adeelah looked at how masculine he became compared to last time she had seen him. He was dressed in a jean and shirt that hugged his gymed biceps. His face was clean of hair. Ya Nafeesah didn't like to see him with heard that's why she asked him to shave it off and he did.

"Ya Shahid, do you know what? Ya Nafeesah is drooling over the nonexistence face of El-mustapha Kabo?" Haneey asked.

"I know her madness over him. He can never beats me. But what if I am El-Mustapha?" The girls laughed.

"You can never be."

"Well yes. Apart from the family firms, he owns ElKab farm and rice milling, ElKab sugar refinery, and ElKab Localfoods. That's what we know and only God knows what he has after this. He has a private jet, I heard." Ya Shahid said.

"You don't tell me you're also a great gossiper like her. That makes the two of you bound." Adeelah said.

Ya Shahid laughed.

"Every guy in Nigeria consider El-mustapha as his competitor. And the guy is so silent like snake even on the media. He's just trending. You need to see how his net worth is rising. Even in his family, he has a lot of enemies but he hardly knows."

"Ya Shahid!"

"I am telling you Adeelah, he's just too simple. He doesn't deserve the wealth as his cousin tells me. The only expensive thing he wears is shoe and his customized watch, worth two million naira."

"Enough of gossip. I won't follow you guys to the path of hell."

"Malama Adeelah." They chorused.

"I heard." She relaxed back on the cushioned seat. She texted Ameer to meet her at where they would have a picnic.

****

While they ate, Adeelah waited for Ameer's arrival. She didn't tell anyone that she was expecting a guest. She didn't even know why she was agreeing to see him after she had made it clear that it wasn't right to be friends.

Maybe she would just tell him the basics and they would avoid wronging Allah in all the ways possible.

Her phone chimed, she had never been so nervous as she was.

It was Ameer. She had to excuse herself to pick the call. When she did, she heard a woman's voice in background and then the call cutt off. Maybe he was having an issue with his wife. Adeelah gave up and went back to where Haneey was sitting alone editing a video which she would post in her YouTube channel.

"Haneey, have your man's number." She dictated the number to her.

When Adeelah switched her data, she saw some news going viral in the school groups. After a committee meeting, Malam Hassan and has been fired from the university and one student had sued him to court. She jubilate in her head and thanked Allah for such success. May Allah keep revealing the monsters in human forms. Ameen.

They chitchat, drank and left for the shopping in a rickshaw because Shahid had to leave and they had to go back home without him since no one knew they went out with Shahid.

*****

El-mustapha had heard enough from Maya.

"It's gonna be a deal then. You stop hanging out with Jaybee and I start listening to Nawwar." He declared his condition.

This Nawwar was disturbing his peace ever since.

She was Maya's friend since he ever knew, that's why most of the times when Maya was in London, she's in the Kabo family house although she wasn't a Kabo. She was just there for Nawwar and El-mustapha's sake.

"Hamma! Leaving Jaybee, I can't,"

"You're pouring away your dignity by being with him, Maya." Maya changed the color of her face.

"If we're going to be speaking of Jaybee then I think we're going to be fighting a lot."

"He's a non Muslim Maya."

"I know. Heard about friends with benefit?" She arched her brows.

"Be careful." He warned sternly and dismissed her.

When she was out, he sighed. El-mustapha grabbed his phone and inquired about his Heer from someone he assigned to monitor her moves while he's away. He badly wanted her but... Lord!

Many girls were after him, some he knew of. Some he had no idea. But here he was nurturing a young love of someone that didn't even know of his existence and she had never seen him too.

That's the irony of life.

He didn't even know how to go about talking to her. She was in different country and he's somewhere about the globe.

She's blind.

Blind to even see the goodness in him.

Dumb.

Dumb to hear him.

He's in a mess of a situation.

***

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