Heyoooo my people 👋🏽👋🏽, how are you all? I hope you're doing fine? I'm so sorry for the late update. I've just finally got some of my mojo back and I decided to write something today, hopefully y'all will like it enough to leave comments and a vote at the end.

See y'all at the end🥤😘

Sa'ad Lamido

"Major major!" I laughed at Adnan who was saluting me and found my seat on the black mesh chair they had left for me.

"Major major!" Adnan hailed again and I felt a smidgen of irritation started to form in my lower belly, so I waved him off and picked up the menu. Putting it down a second later when I remembered with a jolt that I'm going out with Labeebah later and I can't be too full for it.

"Major? You're not eating?" I raised a brow at Muslim who had been watching me steadily since I came, not greeting nor saying a word. He and I haven't been seeing on the same wavelength since he beat his wife and I like it that way, if not for Adnan, I'd not be speaking to him ever again.

"I'm not. I'm going out with Labeebah later. I'm keeping my stomach empty so I'll be hungry later." I explained with a smile as the waiter left the drinks they'd ordered. Adnan was having something like a banana and strawberry smoothie, while Muslim was nursing a malt.

"Wow, you guys are serious?" Adnan who had taken a sip of his drink suddenly asked. I furrowed my brows and the remembered they had no idea what Ma'mun did for me and Labeebah.

"Yes, very serious even." I answered, leaning back in my chair so I can see their faces well. Muslim leaned forward, took a good helping of his drink and licked his lips. I shook my head, Muslim is so extra.

"But you're going to marry a young girl before you marry her Sha, she can't possibly be your first wife. You should even be playing with her, not having this conversation about whether or not you are serious with her." I relaxed my brows with a smile in their direction.

From what I can see, both Adnan and Muslim have the same opinion, but Adnan will wait until Muslim speaks so he can chip in from time to time.

"Abokina, it doesn't seem like the right decision to take. That woman, however beautiful she is, is public property, many directors must have slept with her, especially with her newly found fame. Only Allah knows what she did to get to that point. You have to be careful, I have only one advice, find a young fresh blood, marry her and marry Labeebah or whatever her name is afterward." Adnan was nodding his head over and over like an agama lizard at the statement Muslim had made.

I turned to Adnan, with a smile I asked, "These are your thoughts too?" He nodded reluctantly. I let my smile disappear slowly and I assumed a persona from when I'm training my boys at the barracks.

"Listen to me clearly. I'll only say this once. No woman is a chess piece for any man to put in any position you feel like. Two, Labeebah and I's relationship, is nothing but our business. If In Sha Allah, we marry eventually, I'll think twice about inviting people like you to my house. Especially you Muslim whose modus operandi is to beat your wife into submission. I'm clearly at the risk of beating mine if we keep being friends."

Labeebah

"Ma, Ya kike, Ya karfin jiki¹?"

I frowned, with a deep furrow of my brows when I heard Ma's weak answer. She answered fine, but obviously didn't sound like it, sounding like she sounds when Kawu's people come to Kano just to stress her out so I asked her.

"No, they don't have the strength to stress me. I'm just down with malaria. I'll be fine after taking medication." I exhaled with relief. I don't want anything to happen to Ma, I don't know how I'll live.

"Should I come to Kano?" I asked her with a cock of my brows as I adjusted the volume of the video I was editing for my video blog. She hastily said no, making me drop the mouse I was using to navigate the editing.

"Why? Are you hiding something from me Ma?" Her only response was a weak chuckle that further cemented my thoughts of traveling to Kano for the weekend. I took out a pad and wrote on it to remind myself to buy a ticket.

"Hide what? Aren't you going on a date with the soldier boy today or is it tomorrow? Will you leave him hanging because you're needlessly worrying about me?" I pressed pause on the continuous playing video to frown and wonder how Ma knows so much about my schedule. A name dropped itself in my mind and I shook my head. Zainab talks too much, we need to talk about it, Kaka calls and she gladly tells all, Ma calls and she does the same without reservation. We need to discuss this.

"So, what if I'm going on a date, I can cancel for the most flimsy of reasons what more the fact I think that you don't sound well enough." She laughs out loud, this time it's far better, a heave a sigh of relief. She's sounds safe.

"Don't do that. Go on your date, dress up, be happy. Do you hear?" I blinked with a smile and answered her in the affirmative, But I've made a mental note to travel to Kano by the weekend. She and Kawu will just wake up on Saturday morning to my arrival, I'm sure they'll be so surprised.

"Alright Ma, I'll talk to you later. I have stuff to do before I go out later." Ma asked when my date was and I told her.

"Allah ya shirye ku², be safe, don't stay out late oo." I laughed and ended the call, reminiscing the time when I just began going out as an adult. She would text me, ask me to return home before Magrib no matter what.

I walked to my closet and pulled the door open looking through my clothes Iyamé hung according to their use; Abaya, atampa and English wears. I flipped through the Abaya section and remembered the date was supposed to be an informal thing, I pulled out a lilac full length kaftan that I bought on a whim from an Instagram vendor some weeks ago. I'd not found any informal events to wear it to, today, one has come up.

So I took it out, shook the dress out and walked to the hallway to lay it on the ironing board in the hallway, it's signal for the younger maid in the house to iron it. I walked back into my room and set up my ring light, before beginning to prep my face for some light makeup.

Just as I sat down on the chair to begin, my phone rang and I picked it up without looking at the caller ID. Falmata's voice came out of the speaker phone and I leaned back in the chair, I hope everything is okay.

"Yaya Beebah, good afternoon." I greeted her back and began to slowly apply concealer to the top of my cheeks and waited for her to speak.

"Uhn, it's Baayi's birthday in a few days, and I wanted to ask you if you'd like to do a photoshoot with us, and contribute money to buy him a gift with us." I frowned and looked at the calendar, although I'd marked Baaba's birthday, I'd completely forgot about it.

"I'm very willing to do whatever you guys are doing, send me the full bill. Let me take care of it." I said firmly. She began to argue, the gist of her argument being the fact that the photographer was some expensive one here in Abuja. I cut her off gently and agreed to pay, only asking for the bill. She laughed happily and cut off the call, telling someone beside her how beautiful it was to have an elder sister. I laughed and continued to wear my makeup.

About an hour twenty minutes later, I was done, I stepped into the living room where Iyamé and Sa'ad discussing, she had made Sa'ad laugh very hard just as I walked in and I winked thankfully at her. Iyamé is such a peaceful human that it's so easy to forget she's in a room, but when she speaks you never forget her.

"Assalamualaikum." He got up, adjusted his own kaftan before greeting me back with a smile still firmly placed on his face. He ushered me out after greeting Iyamé again, he was dressed in an all black ensemble. Black embroidered Zanna cap, black kaftan and black slippers on his feet. They all seemed to compliment his bronze skin very beautifully, just like accessories that they were.

"Where are we going?" I asked, even though I knew. I just wanted to open the conversation floor because the silence seemed to nearly swallow me up.

"Ombre cafe in Guzape. Do you know it?" He turned to me as he wound into the main expressway. I nodded, though the day Rabiah and I went, we didn't go in because it was a reservation only day that day. We were disappointed but went home early to find Iyamé to cook for us.

Soon, we wound to a stop in front of the very beautiful nearly all glass bistro like restaurant that had taken on the style of a French cafe, we got in after confirming our reservation and I was wowed by the interior. Nearly everything was in the shades of ombre, very shaded, but it didn't turn all dark with dim lighting like I'd expected.

I nodded as the server took us to our seats, very nice. The lady, in a hijab, smiled at me very widely as she put down the menu in front of me, I smiled back at her uncertainly. She breathed in, out before fanning herself slowly. "You're so inspiring. So Ma Sha Allah in person too." I noticed she was touching the phone in her apron and I asked with my eyes if she wanted a photo, she quickly said no. The cafe had policies concerning that, so I nodded with another smile and waited for her to introduce their menu to us.

When she left, I saw Sa'ad watching me with a find, indulgent smile. I raised my brows at him and he shook his head, refusing to speak. I shrugged and began eating the cavatto pasta they'd placed in front of me.

After a few mouthfuls, the plate was haalf empty so I set down my fork, took a sip of lemonade and asked him, "What are your opinions on raising children with flogging and degradation?"

He set down his own fork of elbow pasta and wiped his mouth before answering me. "Why did you ask that out of the blue?" I didn't answer, only leaning back into the soft brown chair I was sitting on with my arms akimbo waiting for his answer.

"I'm not a flog-a-child man. Probably because I've seen it in the army how flogging or any sort of heavy stuff on the human nature just makes them resistant to whatever you're doing to them. My children my truthfully not have more than four to five hits their whole life, they'll hear more of me asking them questions. I want to raised my children the way my father's wife raised us, I mean, haven't we all turned out perfectly?" I chuckled, knowing it to be true. His older siblings are poster perfect men.

"Tell me what your opinion is, on dividing house chores to kids." I set down the glass of raised again and wondered what he meant, he clarified for me and I nodded. "That would be on a rotation basis for me. No one will base house chores in my house on gender, both boys and girls will learn to cook-which is a survival chore- if I may add, before they turn fifteen. It's going to be very important to me." He nodded and seemed to frown.

"All these my children, my children both of us are doing, isn't it supposed to be 'our children'?" I glanced at him and the warm smile on his face turned me into a blushing smiling mess.

In Sha Allah, our children.

Glossary:
1)Ya kike, Ya karfin jiki= How are you, how's your health?

2)Allah ya shirye ku= God guide the both of you.

A/N
Wazzupp beautiful people? Who likes their interaction?☺️☺️

Anyways, see y'all soon. God bless and keep you all.

Love you!

TheOmoope 💙💛🙃