'Oh my Allah, now I know! My fave was lied against'

I rolled my eyes at the dramatics of that comment and scrolled down the many prayers for Allah to give me peace. I checked the insights of the post and found out a hundred thousand people had posted it to their story. I chuckle, people sure like drama.

I leave the post and check how many people secretly visited my page, over two hundred and fifty thousand. I nod, this would be good for me also, it's like killing two birds with one stone, scold Ali and gain more followers.

My phone pings with a video call from my aunt and I swipe up quickly, I want to hear what she has to say. "Ma, Ina Kwana." My mom smiled, holding the ends of her scarf, she really doesn't understand when I tell her no one else can see our calls. "Labibi. How are you doing?" I shift, putting one of my fluffy pillows behind me as I recline further into my bed.

"Ma, I'm fine. Very fine." She tries to look at my face well, which in my aunt-speak is; putting her face to the lens of the camera. "Are you eating well? I hope you're not eating all those junk." I shake my head before shaking no, and that I'm eating healthy. I know she called for a separate reason.

"Labibi. Good work with that useless man. Can you imagine his audacity." I laughed and heard my uncle laugh also in the background, my aunt takes on my battles and fights them all by her own self. Comments on my pictures, insults naysayers like no man's busniess.

"Who helped you?" I smile, my foster parents know that I like to run away from confrontations and situations that potentially turn out to be a fight.

"Rabiah introduced a PR company to me. They drafted the message and sent a sound warning to that yeye man." My aunt nods emphatically. "Good, now no one can just talk nonsense." I laugh and end the call, seconds later, while I'm scrolling through my phone, a knock sounds at the door and I'm pulling on my satin bonnet that I wear in the mornings.

"Good Morning." I say when I open the door. "Good morning Labeebah, I want to speak to you and Amal before I leave for work. So, come out now." I nod and walk back to my room, put my phone back to charging and do the short walk to the bathroom to get some scrub unto my face since today is my exfoliating day. If I don't like the conversation, I'll just keep using my hands to rub my face in circular motions.

When I reach the leaving room, Amal and Abdul are waiting, I giggle silently to myself as I remember their wedding hashtag again. I find a seat at my comfy plush high chair and wait for them to begin.

"Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh." Amal says the reply to the Salam loudly while I just sit there mummuring the reply as slowly as I can. Abdul clears his throat and sighs before talking.

"Ramadan begins in a week and a half." I nod, saying an Alhamdulillah. "So, I wanted the both of you to know that you'd share the housework equally. Two weeks each of the holy month, so think of how free you'd be." I sigh, I should have known. As much as I do not want to have anything to do with them, I'll just have to keep pick and do my best on those days because I can forsee it, Abdul will stress me out.

Abdul's modus operandi is like this; after you've gone through the day reading the Quran and just generally being a good Muslim, he calls you around five pm that about ten of his friends are coming over for Iftar.

They all come with specifications; one likes Miyan Taushe, the other likes Sinasir, another likes Waina and another likes egusi and tuwo. And then expect you to pull off chef like skills in two hours. I catered it all the times he pulled out trick cards like that which is why I earned the name 'Delicate amarya' in an unkind manner amongst his friends.

Now, I want to see if he'll try that with Amal. "...Labeebah!" I turn back to him, he has jerked me out of my reverie. "Choose." I smile at Amal and choose the last two weeks, I'm gambling on the fact that they'd too busy begging Allah to answer their prayers than come to the house to eat.

"I would like to say something." Amal raises her hand, I notice the henna she made is a darkened red that fits the shade of caramel that she is.

"Well, I want the last two weeks too. I want to be able to focus on the blessings of the last seven days. Those are very important to me." She says and I  flicked her a sneering glance before taking my eyes off, this little girl is a child.

"Abdul, I'm not changing my mind.  Can I leave now?"I say with finality, He nods and waves me off, I get up from the chair, rubbing my face as I go. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Before shutting my door, I hear her burst into loud tears. I'm sure he must have told her jokingly what he did to me last year, as cheating men are wont to do. Now, she doesn't want the same treatment meted out to her, all I say is, if you could not correct him then, don't come looking for pity now.

My phone's is lit up ringing and I rush to it, swiping it to pick the call. I look at the caller last minute. It's a number I don't know.

"What is wrong with you? Can't they play with you again?" I wonder for a moment who it is before it clicks. Ali.

"What do you want?" I ask a question of my own. "Well, tell your lawyers to back off." I laugh and end the call, back off abi? You haven't seen anything yet. I tap the screen to blacklist his number and in a second he is forgotten.

My phone rings again as I get up to go bathe. "Hello." I smile automatically, it's my PR person.

"Hi ma'am." She chuckles and asks me to call her Zaina. I agree and ask her what is up. "Well, Mr Ali called our legal team, he's ready to tell all if you'll take away the threat of court." I sigh.

"What do you think? You're the professional here." She sighs, the silence stretching between us us becomes pensive. "Well, I think you should accept, at least you get to know whom to stay away from, how to do so next time." I nod, seeing the sense in her words. Then I remember Nafeesah.

"I saw my assistant with them a couple of days back." Her surprise is unconcealed. "What? Isn't her loyalty supoosed to be with you?" I smile, last I checked no one except my aunt and uncle are totally loyal to me.

"So at the moment, I'm in need of a new assistant." She tsks and asks to speak freely. "Go ahead," I grant her audience, playing with a bead bangle I picked from my table.

"You need an agent. A good agent will pick you a very good assistant that knows how to do everything you need to get done." I narrow my eyes.

"Really?" She says yes and proceeds to list out a phone number for me to call. Give me a few minutes, let me let her know you're calling." I nod, then when I remember she can't see me, I say okay.

"I think you're incredibly talented and you need someone who has your interests at heart." I sigh and accept to call the person.

****

"This is how you make a good Miyan Bushashen. Your best bet is tuwo shinkafa, so it's easy to cook and quick if you'd like to be done with it in about forty minutes to spend time on cooking other things for your family." I stop spooning the peanut colored soup into a stark white soup bowl with a flourish and a smile.

"Thank you so much for watching." The scene ends and the whole set erupts with cheers, it's been a long day for us all since we had to finish cooking in time for editors to edit. Hard work I tell you. I take off my apron and walk to corner where I hid my handbag and pick it up, sitting in a chair to call a cab first.

"Labeebah, well-done." I smile stiffly at him, I've learned my lesson from Ali's case, no unnecessary smiling, no unnecessary slow fending of useless advances. Kill all attraction immediately.

"Is there something I can help you with before I leave?" He hears my tone, and shakes his head slowly, my phone pings with a text, the driver is here. I wave a gay greeting at the rest of the crew and leave the studio immediately, it's almost seven pm and it's two days to Ramadan.

As I get into the car, my phone rings. "Hello,"  I answer as the driver manouvers the car out of the closed street. "Allow Amal to do her cooking on the last two weeks of Ramadan. What kind of unruly person are you?" I shut my eyes, sigh and call up every home training Ma gave me.

"Good evening ma. Abdul told us to choose and I chose ma." She hisses, clearly angry. "He supposed you'd be sensible, who knew you'd be unnecessarily wicked like that. Haven't we begged you?" I exhale plenty air from my mouth, throw the phone into the seat beside me and look outside the window. She can talk to herself, I do not care.

*****

So, guys, I'm done for the next at least a week or more. I want to concentrate on writing more chapters, so wish me luck and plenty of inspiration.

Also, what are your thoughts on Labeebah? Still too slow? Ali? Or even Abdul-Mumin? Amal? Give me your full thoughts in the comments box, let's talk.

See y'all later.

God bless you. I love you all. Thank you for 4k reads 😭

TheOmoope 💙❣️