J A N N A H
"Okay, this is a shocker," Jannah muttered as she stared at Farhan through the window. She was seriously still finding it hard to believe Farhan himself came for her and that too, he followed the most respectable route.

She looked again. He was indeed there, sitting on the carpet in her father's house, talking to him and even laughing along with him. The only thing moving around in her head as she stared was . . . 'How a man can be that beautiful, masha Allah. He was clad in a white kaftan, and on his smooth soft looking hair was a black Zannah bukar. But If she didn't have an ounce of like in her heart for him, she would have hated him for coming straight to her parents like that.

"Oh, Allah." She drew back, chewing her nails.  She walked back and forth in front of the closed door contemplating between heading back to the house and going inside. She was so nervous.

"Uhm, Uhmm." She heard someone clear his voice behind her and she jumped back startled. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that it was her mother. "Oh Allah mummy, you scared me. How long have you been here?" She whined holding her chest. Mummy eyed her saying, "ba dole ba. Abeg collect this and take it inside." She said pushing a tray of drinks and cups into her hand.

"Banson shashanchi Jannah, you better collect yourself and go inside. Don't keep them waiting."
"And please if you can, don't make a fool of yourself." She added and walked away.

"Jannah, is that you?" Baba called from inside. She groaned, screaming internally. If only she could just disappear right now. "Yes, baba."
"Ah Toh come in mana, don't keep the young man waiting."

She has envisioned 101 scenarios where she meets a guy she is attracted to for the first time before and this is never it.

From inside she heard Abdallah saying, "let me get the door for her." And in an instant, the door flung open with a grinning Abdallah holding it wide open. He winked at her and she eyed him. "What are you doing here?" she mouthed, brows furrowed. "I don't know." he shrugged holding that grin in place. She wanted to slap that grin off his face more than anything at the moment. She hasn't even finished mentally preparing herself yet.

Shaking her head, she prayed to Allah to help her not make a fool of herself. "Bismillah," Abdallah said. She silently cursed him and made her way inside.

On the outside, she looked like she had everything under control but she was shaking on the inside. All their heads turned to her as she walked in.

If she was to trip and fall right now, in front of them, on her face, what will she do? Oh gosh, that will be so embarrassing. She brushed those thoughts aside and tightened her hold on the tray.

"Ina wunin ku." She greeted setting down the tray on the center table in front of baba. "Aa Jannah keep it there." Baba pointed at the space between Farhan and Abdallah. She bit her lip and did as she was told. They all muttered a thank you. Her eyes locked with Farhans' as she made her way to the other side of baba to sit down, and he smiled at her. And here comes the butterflies again.

He looks more handsome in person than in all pictures of him that she had seen. Ok, she may or may not have stalked him on social media. What was she supposed to do? When the opportunity presented itself she took it.

She quickly looked away and focused her attention on the carpet. Oh my god, this is going to be so difficult.

They exchanged pleasantries and then went silent for a couple of seconds before baba cleared his voice. "Jannah, do you know this man?" Her heart slammed in her chest. Not slamming is a small word for what her heart did, it somersaulted and cruised in her chest.

As a matter of fact, yes of course she knows this man. In fact, she has been crushing on this man ever since she saw him for the first time, it was an attraction at first sight. But how was she supposed to say that to Baba?

Farhan looked at her, waiting for her answer as everyone else.
"No...no I mean yes." She lowered her head and groaned. When does she not ever embarrass herself?

They all chuckled and Baba asked, "is it a yes or a no?"
She pulled her veil further down to cover her face, "well yes, I've seen him around during Maryam's wedding. He was amongst the groomsmen." Up until that moment she hadn't looked up. Abdallah internally laughed knowing exactly what the truth was.

"Yes indeed, he claims that he has seen you around and has taken quite an interest in you. So he decided to come forward and ask if he could seek you." "But I told him I wouldn't force anything upon you, without your permission." He added.

She nodded in appreciation. Alhaji Ibrahim looked at his daughter and Farhan then got up saying, "well then, I'll give you some space to talk. Abdallah come." Both Abdallah and Farhan got up. Farhan looked at him with eyes filled with appreciation and smiled. "Thank you, sir."

He also smiled and walked out with Abdallah trailing behind him. Once they were out of the room. Both Jannah and Farhan's eyes met and they smiled.

He opened up a sprite and poured it into two cups. "Here," he said passing one cup to her.
She shook her head, "I'm okay, thank you." "I insist." He said still holding the cup up. She stared at the cup without saying anything.
"Please take it, my arm is starting to hurt." He whined, making a face. She laughed and collected it. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He sipped the drink. "So how are you?" "I'm fine, how are you?" She asked staring into his eyes. How can someones eyes be so brown? It's absolutely beautiful.

"I'm fine now. Who knew meeting the parents of the girl you like would be so hard. I was squirming in my seat." He leaned back, resting his back on the body of the couch. Jannah's eyes widened a bit but she quickly masked it with a smile. How can he be so straightforward?

"You don't look like a person who gets nervous easily."
"Oh trust me Janna, that took a lot of courage." "But you know, with every hardship comes a reward." Does he mean she's the reward? -"well Janna, before I talk your ear off, allow me to formally introduce myself." They both smiled. She then nodded adjusting her veil.

"My name is Farhan Muhsin, I am 30 years old and I am a doctor. I am the only child of my parents. 
As if she didn't know that. "Doctor?Masha Allah."
He smiled, "I know it must have come as a shock to you when on a Saturday morning, a guest came banging on your door asking to see you,"

She stared at him with a small smile. "I'm sorry, I just had to. I didn't want to lose the opportunity when it presented itself. I know some girls may find it a bit intrusive, but I wanted to start the right way, that is if I am given a chance to." 

She stared at him unable to say anything.
"So what do say, would you like to give it a shot?" He asked hopefully. She stared at the floor for so long he thought she won't answer him, then she nodded and looked at him, "sure, why not."

They chatted a bit, laughed about a few stuff, and got to know each other more.

"Janna, I have to say your dance moves during the wedding were quite particular, I could never move like that." She threw her head back and burst into laughter. "I'm so sorry," she said between her laughter. "I seriously am so sorry you had to see that. Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed."

Farhan shook his head, "no, I didn't mean it in a bad way, you are a good dancer." "Oh, please don't insult me." That day when he saw her, it was probably during Maryam's henna party, and she danced like crazy. If she'd known he was there, she wouldn't have danced at all. Good grief.

"Oh, please erase that horrible memory from your brain."

M A R Y A M
5 months later
   Maryam was in a hurry as she brushed past a dozen of people that were in her way as she made her way to her car. She grumbled as she remembered how far she is from her car. She had been in a hurry this morning on the verge of missing her lecture she parked it at the first vacant parking spot she had come across.

She rolled her eyes as her phone rang again and pressed it to her ear. "I'm on my way," she said as soon as she answered the call. "Baby, I told you this flight is by 5:30 and it's well over 4:30 already. Why are you still not here?" Muhammad asked irritated.

She reached her car and got in. "Well, it's not like I can teleport or something." She was beyond annoyed. This was the 3rd time he was calling her in a row. And it probably won't be the last. And all those times, she had explained why she was going to be late.

"You always have to say something, don't you?" He said clearly not amused. She let out a sigh and turned on the car. The weather was unsurprisingly hot that afternoon.

"I already told you the lecturer didn't come early, and he left the class late. What was I supposed to do?" She put the car in reverse and reversed out of the parking lot.

"You could have left the class. You could have taken an excuse and left the class. Maryam, I told you to be home by 4, now what? I swear if you're still not here in the next 10 minutes, I'm leaving you behind." He said and disconnected the call.

She threw to phone on the passenger seat and growled. Who does he think he was? Does he think the class is some sort of playground where you could just walk out or take an excuse and walk out whenever you liked? Yes, you could do that. But the lecturer had them write a test immediately after his lectures, about 5 minutes before the class was supposed to end.

He irritated her so much she could scream. If this was not important, she would have told him to leave without her. But it was ya Amma's wedding. The my were going to maiduguri(their hometown) where the wedding celebrations were taking place their hometown.

She got home in exactly 6 minutes, thank God there was no hold-up on the way. She honked and security came and checked before lifting the bar for her. She parked the car in her regular parking spot and turned it off.

She looked up and found Muhammad standing opposite her, loading their suitcases in his car's trunk. He turned and fixed her with a disapproving stare. She took her eyes off him, grabbed her bag and phone, and got off the car.

He continued loading the trunk alongside his driver. Seeing how he ignored her, she also minded her business and went straight into the house without so much as a side glance.

She went straight to the toilet, eased herself, and grabbed her bag of toiletries. As she was leaving the toilet, she caught a glance of herself in the toilet mirror and grimaced. She looked horrible, with eye bags from all the late-night studying she has been doing for the past few weeks and her extremely dry lips. She looked no less like an animal in the desert.

A knock startled her from her frenzy, followed by Muhammad saying, "come on, let's go." She splashed water on her face and got out. He had already switched off the lights, turned off the air-cons, and was standing by the main door. He fixed her with a stare. Maryam rolled her eyes.

She adjusted her scarf and veil, and walked past him, cradling her bag to her side. He locked the door after them and proceeded to the car. She sat in the back and Muhammad sat in front.

"Ina wuni Hajiya." The driver greeted her. She let out a small smile and said, "Ina gajiya Umar, ya aiki?"
"Lafiya Alhamdulillah. How is school? Gaskiya Hajiya kin gaji."
"Are you going to keep talking or are you going to drive?" Muhammad snapped at him. Umar apologized and started the car. Maryam shook her head and returned her attention to her phone. This man needs to chill.

She rolled her neck and stifled a yawn. She was starving, tired, and in need of as much sleep as she can get. "Umar, have you collected my clothes from the tailor?"

He nervously glanced at Muhammad, when he saw that his attention wasn't on him, he said, "yes hajiya." She breathed a sigh of relief and muttered, "toh Alhamdulillah." She honestly thought Reedas was not going to deliver because she took the clothes to them 2 days ago.

She started viewing her cousin's snaps who were already there. They had gone together with the bride the day before yesterday. Maryam was so jealous but they had to stay because of her exams.

The bride and her bridesmaids and cousins had a small barbecue night yesterday, they had so much fun. She was viewing Yasmin's snap and was grinning at the amount of teasing ya Amma was going through. They were in a room, some on the sofa, some on the bed, and some on the carpet and were bringing up embarrassing moments of ya Amma's life and even how she met her fiancé. Maryam remembered the night before her wedding also, when they all ganged up on her.

". . . Maryam?"
"Uhm?" She snapped out of her thoughts and found Muhammad looking at her through the rear mirror. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

He looked away and almost when she thought he wasn't going to say anything, he said, "I said there's a box of pizza beside you if you're hungry."

She looked at her side and found a box of domino's pizza which she hadn't noticed earlier, she couldn't hold a smile back. That's so nice of him, even though he was pissed at her, he still bought her food. She met his gaze and said, "thank you." Barely containing her eagerness, she opened the box and dug in. Muhammad looked at her through the mirror and smiled.

The driver looked at them and shook his head smiling.

                        ~~**~~
Hy guys, how are y'all?
I'm so sorry for not updating for so long, I don't even have an excuse to give.

With love, Fatima🥀