"Ah?" 

AbdulRahman looked at the white message response box in pure disbelief at what he had just read. He could not believe it and had to re-read it several more times to digest it. 

It would turn a lot things around, the plans he had sent out to be slowly made had to be expedited immediately. The most pressing would be to find them a house and furnish it. 

A knock sounded at his door just as he was sending a group text to his friends going with him to Ibadan on his visit to his in-laws, they would have to take an extra bag. He sighed and got up to open the door, his expression showed all of his emotions such that when his older sister who had arrived that morning, knew immediately that something had gone wrong. 

"Dume fe'i be ma? What happened to you?" She asked in fluent Fulfude, stepping into the room without being invited inside. She looked around the room, shaking her head.

AbdulRahman allowed judgement from  a few people, his sister was one of them. 
She was allowed to talk to him about anything, give her unreserved thoughts and he would listen. He knew she was about to say something about his being homeless, and whatever she said was as true as it came. 

"Why don't you invest in real estate for Allah's sake? Now you wouldn't be in a hurry to find a house if you had several littered around the place." AbdulRahman chuckled, all of the tension from the message Amina had sent earlier fizzled out, leaving only a twinge in his chest. 

"You're the one who dabbles in those things, I don't like them. It's enough to have one house, several others, I really don't care. Now though, I've realized why, I can't bring my wife here. I'm not twenty." He finished with some conviction. 

"Aren't we just going to do an introduction tomorrow, In Sha Allah?" AbdulRahman shook his head, throwing his hand halfway through the air and bringing it down almost immediately. 

"She just texted me asking if we could have the Nikkah on Friday. I told her I'll have to think about it. She and I also need to talk as well. I was thinking we had time, now it looks like we don't." His sister, his very strict sister nodded, agreeing with him without making a fuss about how he was being rushed. 

"Not bad, but that means there will be no time to buy her new stuff. Oh my goodness, there will be so much to do if you're getting married on Friday. Stocking her closet since she's not getting a lefe, buying things for the house, the house itself, AbdulRahman!" His sister's shout made him realize that there was so much to be done, so much more left to plan. 

"Give me your card. I have a four bedroom duplex at Wuse two, you can pay me back slowly." AbdulRahman gaped at his sister, his shock apparent from the way his jaw dropped. 

"Wuse two! Four bedroom? My dear sister what have you been spending money on?" His sister rolled her eyes, her veil shaking as she waved her hands everywhere in a bid to make it look small. 

"Made a few investments here and there and now I have cool cash rolling in from my tenements, from turning the houses I get into luxurious mansions and then selling it off." AbdulRahman still shook his head in surprise, wondering how she juggled all of that with her job as a magistrate judge in Lagos. 

"I'm in awe. Well done Yaya." His sister smiled, still stretched out her hand for the debit card she'd asked for earlier, AbdulRahman fished through his small wallet and handed his Black no limit card to her. He held unto it for a moment, suddenly remembering how when they were younger, his sister has gone shopping with her friends at a mall in London, their father had come back home with a headache when the bill came. 

He knew his sister. "Yaya, careful please." His sister laughed, a deep belly laugh that was as sarcastic as it came. 

"You don't have the power to ask that of me. Wait to be notified of how much I spend, ehn?" With that, she walked away, shutting the heavy door behind her as she left the room. AbdulRahman sighed and rubbed his head from crown to the back, he suddenly had no idea what to do with himself. 

He found a chair to sit, close to the window where he watched his mother and sisters billow, yes billow in their boubous to the car that was idling by the gate, he watched as they drove out, his sister's escort driving out after them. He sighed, picking out his phone from his pocket, then he pressed the call sign atop his and Amina's messages. 

"Assalamualaikum Amina." He greeted confidently, he'd promised himself that whatever came out of this discussion, he would take it as it was, he would take whatever path Allah set out for him, try his best to be a good husband and leave the rest to his never forsaking Lord. 

"Walaikum Salam. How are you?" She asked, as though she'd not just dropped on him a huge bomb. So he said so. 

"As good as I can be, considering what you said to me earlier. Why the rush? I was under the impression you were not so ready for marriage." She sighed and AbdulRahman suddenly decided to see her face as she spoke, so he requested for a facetime call. She agreed and they set it up almost immediately, her phone was facing the ceiling, the other moment, her face showed up with a flood of light showcasing her skin. 

He leaned back and watched her get comfortable before prompting her to speak. "Well, all of a sudden this week, one of my relatives informed my ex-husband's family about my impending marriage in a few months. Knowing them and what they can do, my parents and I decided to shock them all by having the wedding right under their noses. When it is all done, I want to see how they'll spoil anything." She was heaving from an anger that boiled from a place AbdulRahman understood. He nodded thoughtfully and bit how lower lip as he made a decision. 

"As long as you don't feel rushed, I'm fine with anytime. Is there anything you'd like to have in a house? A study, a closet anything, say it. I'll have it ready for you." He watched her contemplate for a moment before she said, "I want a study I can have meetings in, That's all." She answered and he nodded. 

"I'll see you tomorrow In Sha Allah?" He asked, which should have signaled the end of the call but she stopped him with a small sound. 

"Are you okay with it being on Friday? Do we need to talk more about it?" He shook his head with a slight movement, he watched as she visibly calmed down having a sigh of relief. 

"It's okay by me. I'm going to be a husband whether tomorrow or in the next five months. It has been predestined to be so, so let's do it." Her eyes softened and she smiled brightly at him, suddenly the phone's connection went awry taking away that smile away from him.

AbdulRahman found that he missed the sudden joy that her smile brought him. The call ended some seconds later but the image of how her lips and cheeks widened into that beautiful smile, he was suddenly glad he would look at her for a long time to come as long as Allah willed. 

He sighed, leaning on his chair in quiet solitude, taking joy in that ease and quiet when his door sounded with a harsh knock. AbdulRahman hissed lowly, knowing it had to be one person. Attahir. 

Tahir opened the door with the air of one who had no care in the world, marching to his friend, he rapped a knock that resounded around the room on AbdulRahman's head. 

"Have you gone crazy?" He asked Tahir with a hand on the area that had just been assaulted. He felt the prick of tears form at his eyes from the pain and then pursued Tahir out of the room.

Tahir, sensing that AbdulRahman was about to pursue him had a headstart on him and began to race down the stairs to the small living room. It was empty so it let them run around until AbdulRahman caught Tahir in a headlock. 

"Sorry! Hey! Sorry na, don't snap my neck-" Tahir begged with a voice muffled from being under AbdulRahman's arm. AbdulRahman left him after rapping an equally painful knock on his friend's head. 

He adjusted his grey jallabia with a frown and began to walk away, leaving Tahir behind. Tahir rushed to him, his long kaftan top billowed behind him as he caught up with his best friend. 

"You're nervous right? You don't ever respond to my teasing unless you're nervous. What are you nervous about?" AbdulRahman sighed but didn't stop climbing the stairs, he turned on the corridor till they reached his room. 

Tahir stopped for a moment, scared of AbdulRahman's silence but he still entered and shut the door.

AbdulRahman's face had turned pensive in the time it took Tahir to make up his mind about going in or not. He was right to be scared though, he'd gotten beaten silly by AbdulRahman once when they were eighteen. He never really annoyed AbdulRahman like that again since then. 

"I'm scared that I'll do something to her and become like the man she fled the city she was born in for." He blurted out, still feeling very pensive. 

Tahir thought he was joking and said as he lay on the long leather sofa with a thump. "Are you waiting for me to say I'm sure you won't?" AbdulRahman cocked his head to one side, wondering what Tahir was getting at. 

"The first biggest mistake you could ever make is thinking that Naimah and Amina are the same women. No two people are the same, you need to understand that there will be times when you will test her and she will test you as well. 

'Marriage isn't a bed of roses', it isn't just a saying, it's the truth. You can't start out a union like this without making sure that you both understand what the stakes are. You must pray to Allah, together I must say, for His guidance. 

There's a reason Allah put a person in our lives, they either become a blessing or a lesson. Yes, Allah is the best of planners, but the way we tweak and stir makes those plans the best things for us. 

Tweaking here can mean being genuinely nice to your spouse, can mean makijng their lives easier, making sure that they can come to you with both their wins and their losses, it is being their solace, besides Allah on the days of trouble. There's so much to marriage than saying, 'I accept'. 

You're accepting to be someone's daughter's protector, you're signing up for so many things and on the day if Judgement, may Allah not question your choices. Ameen." 

Tahir moistened his lips after speaking, realizing that he'd said so much and for so long as well. He blushed with his head down, seeing as AbdulRahman was staring so hard at the wall behind him. To diffuse the tension, he got up and went to the fridge, picked a can of a fizzy orange drink and drank straight from the can. 

"I spent all my good saliva talking to you. A word is enough for the wise, I hope you listen." He said with a wave of his free hand. 

"Attahir, when did you get so smart?" Was the only question AbdulRahman asked after thinking for so long about what his friend had said.

**********

Helloooooo everyone, who missed me? Abi is it AB and Amina you missed?

Apologies for the long time since I last updated. I'm happy to be back here as well, thank you so much for being so amazing 😍 we're at 7k reads now.

Also, we are not sharing invitations to the wedding, it's a family affair alone. Kindly watch via zoom, I'll send the link soon.

Sending you all the love in my corner of the universe, please leave a comment, please vote, please share to your various social media, God bless you abundantly for me.

TheOmoope 💙😊💗