While I am pulling away from the hug, I hear my name called—or rather screamed—from inside by none other than his Royal Highness, Ismail. I wonder why he had to tell everyone we live in the same house in such a manner. This man will never cease to amaze me.
“Umit, Umit, where are you?” Ismail shouts from inside the house.
“I am by the poolside!” I shout back.
“Is that Ismail’s voice I hear?” Fatima asks looking surprised and confused.
“Yes, it’s my voice you heard,” Ismail says, walking toward us.
“Why are you shouting my name?” I say standing up while guiding Ismail away from our table.
“Because I did not know where you were,” Ismail says.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I did, but you did not pick up.”
“Oh sorry, I left my phone inside to charge.”
“It's fine, anyway I was looking for you because I can’t seem to find ice cream anywhere and Aayan is screaming for it,” Ismail says looking stressed.
“Th
For the past week, I have been sending my passport back and forth to embassies. And If I don’t have all my visas ready by the end of the week, Ismail will have me served up on a silver platter for dinner. Ismail had to push back the trip to next week because of me. I feel bad, but there is nothing I can do about it except pray and hope to have all my visas by next week. I am currently at a car workshop, getting my car back from repair. I am about to get into my vehicle when I get a call from Waheeda. “As-salamu Alaykum,” I greet answering the call. “Wa alaykumu as-salam. Where are you, sis?” Waheeda asks. “I am fine, thank you for asking,” I return with sarcasm dripping from my voice. “I don’t need to ask you that as I saw you this morning, so I know you are fine,” Waheeda says chuckling. “What a lovely sister you are,” I say smiling. “I know, I try my best. Anyway, I am calling to ask where you are,” Waheeda says.
The next day I do my morning routine of prayers and exercise, and after breakfast I drive the children to school. I am wearing a brown sweater, wide leg trousers, orange tote bag, an orange hajib and leopard heels. I drop the kids at school and drive to the office. I have been working all day, and now I am on my way to pick the kids up from school. I prayed Dhuhr (Afternoon) prayer before leaving the office. As I am walking out of my office I see Fatima and Emma walking towards me like they have a bone to pick with me. I hope I have done nothing wrong. “Where are you going to?” Fatima blocks my way not allowing me to pass. “You have been avoiding us all week,” Emma states, putting her hands on her hips. “How can you guys say that? I would never avoid you guys. I have just been swamped that’s all.” I realize I have hardly spoken to either of them this last week. “Really? Because if you are not avoiding us, where are you going now?” Fatima says
The next morning, I wake up and start screaming with excitement at what I see in the front driveway. A matt black Lamborghini Aventador S is parked with a big sign that says ‘Umit, Congratulations on your new car. Please enjoy!’ I can’t believe after what I told Ismail yesterday, he still went behind my back and got the car for me. “Ismail!” I shout his name while rushing back inside the house. “How may I be of help, my lovely lady?” Ismail smirks knowing exactly why I am looking for him. “You got me the car after I clearly asked you not to.” I say trying to sound angry, but far from it. If anything, it’s the shock of my life. Never in my dreams did I think Ismail would go ahead and get me a car. “I know. But I wanted to, so I did,” Ismail shrugs his shoulders. “Ismail! I don’t know how you expect me to pay you back. That car is at least $500,000! That is practically ten years of my salary.” I can feel a headache starting from
“You have my ticket and passport, right?” I say to Ismail who has been busy with his phone since we got into the car. “Yes, I have it,” he says, not taking his eyes off his phone. “Alright and are we stopping for breakfast on our way?” I ask feeling very hungry. “You can have something to eat on the plane, we don’t need to stop.” “We have to stop and get something for me. Do you want me to starve before we get to… where are we going first again?” I say holding my stomach. “You won’t starve, and we are going to Greece first.” “I can’t wait to go to Greece, but Ismail, please let me get something to eat before we leave,” I plead. “Not necessary because we have arrived,” Ismail says getting out of the car. “We are at the airport already, that was fast,” I say surprised stepping out of the car. “Ismail you own a private jet?” I ask noticing we are standing in front of a plane and not at the car parking lot.
I have been sleeping all night long since we arrived on the island Mykonos in Greece. It’s morning now but I am still sleepy because of the jetlag. It’s 10:00 a.m. already. I woke up earlier to pray Fajr (morning prayer) but went back to sleep.I am meeting Ismail in the resort restaurant to go over some files that he needs my help with. I step into the restaurant and see him at the far end, close to the beach. I walk over to join him.While sitting down, I remove my sunglasses and my Panama hat, but my hair is still covered with a hijab cap. This causes Ismail to greet me with his beautiful, but annoying laughter.“Have you looked in the mirror this morning?” Ismail asks laughing.“I know I look horrible but surely not that bad.” I know my eyes are bloodshot and red from lack of sleep. There are bags under my eyes, making me look grim, but I doubt I look bad enough to make him laugh.“Please put on your su
After Ismail and I finish eating I go back to my room to shower and get ready to meet up with Fatima later in the day.I take a bath and wear a yellow floral full-length gown. I tie my hair with a brown hajib which matches the flowers on my dress. I am also wearing black sandals.A few hours later, I pray Dhuhr and meet up with Fatima downstairs for lunch in the hotel’s restaurant.“As salamu Alaykum,” I greet hugging Fatima.“Wa alaykumu salam,” Fatima says standing up to hug me.“How are you doing?” I ask sitting down.“I am good and you?” Fatima replies sitting back down.“I am good too. You won’t believe what I found out after all these years,” I say.“What did you find out?” “You know how I thought Ismail was the reason I got fired for all those years?” I say taking a sip of Fatima’s drink.“Yes, and don&rsquo
We are currently in Italy. Ismail and I are having dinner outside at this beautiful restaurant. The sky is so beautiful, with all the stars shining so bright. I am wearing a satin burgundy mermaid gown. This is our last week in Italy. We spent the first two weeks working and the last week is spent like a vacation.“So, I have been meaning to ask you,” I say while eating my steak.“What?” Ismail asks.“How long have you known Udar was in love with Fatima, and you didn’t tell me?” I ask trying to sound indignant.“Why?” Ismail says chuckling, “Am I supposed to tell you that?”“Yes, you are supposed to tell me,” I reply, “Because… we’re friends,” I say realizing it is true. Having gotten to know Ismail better over the past weeks and especially during this trip, we have gotten close, and I enjoy his company more than I ever thought I would. When I think of how
While driving back to the hotel Ismail gets a call from Udar telling us that Fatima has fainted, and they are in the hospital. I ask the driver to quickly drive to the hospital, wondering what could have caused Fatima to faint. I pray the whole way to the hospital, hoping that nothing serious has happened to my best friend.We arrive at the hospital and quickly walk inside and ask for directions to the room number Udar gave us. We take the elevator to the second floor. That is where Fatima’s room is. We arrive at the room and Ismail is about to knock on the door, but I stop him. I can hear their conversation and I think we should not disturb them.“Udar, you called me your love,” Fatima sounds very tired and rundown.“Yes, my love. You are my love. Fatima, you are the love of my life. I have never loved anyone as much as I love you. I love you so much that seeing you faint in my arms was a wakeup call for me to tell you how much you mean
I can’t believe today is the day, the day I have been waiting for. Today is the day Ismail and I get married. We came back to Nigeria for a month for the wedding. Technically, we are married as we had our traditional marriage back home in Nigeria, yesterday. Our traditional wedding was so beautiful, and I was so filled with joy yesterday. Ismail and I looked the best of the best, we both looked gorgeous.I wore my tribal attire for the wedding. My tribe or my native language is Idoma. We have a particulate color combination that represents my tribe. It is black and red, and it is worn for special occasions like weddings, Idoma meetings and burials. I wore a white lace blouse and a black and red wrapper with beading appliqué. My head tie and shawl were of the same Idoma attire I tied around my waist. The jewelry I wore was a white three-row African beads necklace and white African beads earrings. I wore diamond crisscross strap, block heel, sandals. Ismail wore a
2 MONTHS LATERIt’s been two months since everything happened and life has been good. Fatima and Udar are married now, and I couldn’t be happier for them. Fatima has started her own company, and she is doing well. I am so happy for my best friend. Udar supported her all the way, and they are both happy together.Emma and Austin are also doing fine. Everything is working out well for them and Emma has adjusted well into her family’s business, which is also growing. Austin helped Emma through her transition as CEO, and they are happier than ever. I am so happy that my friends are all doing well and have found their own happiness.I have opened my own company and Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah) I am doing well. Ismail has been amazing these past two months. He visits me in my new office every spare moment he has. Ismail made sure my office was not far from his, so he bought the building my office is in, just a few blocks away f
I can’t believe I am in the hospital again, watching as one of the people dearests to me battles for their life. I can’t imagine my life without Umit. She is my everything and that’s why I wanted her as far away from me as possible, but she won’t listen. Her fearless desire to help me could have cost her life. How I wish she did not have that fearlessness in her. But I won’t lie, that is one of the things I admire about her. She is the most fearless, courageous woman I have ever met in my life. Her amazing will to help is something I will always love about her. Ya Allah, please save the love of my life.I can still remember when I first moved into Aazim and Waheeda’s house and found out she was living there. I was annoyed that we would be sharing a roof, but I was also happy because I saw it as an opportunity to tease her more. Teasing Umit was something I always found fun to do. I loved it when she got all angry because she always looked c
“Umit, are you seeing this, what could be down there?” Ismail is as surprised as I am.“I wonder too. But first let’s take pictures, it might come in handy later,” I take a step back to take a good picture of the elevator. I also close the door and take a picture of that. You never know what might be useful later.“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ismail asks, stepping into the elevator knowing we are taking a big risk.“Yes, let’s go,” I say, stepping into the elevator. The elevator’s door closes, and we press the only button.The elevator takes us deep down. I don’t even know if we are still above ground, but I know for sure we went down far before coming to a stop. The elevator door opens, and we step out of the elevator. What is in front of us is something I could have never imagined in my entire life. I walk forward to see if I am really seeing properly because I can’t be
“How long do you think it is going to be before he comes?” I ask wondering if he is coming at all, because an hour has gone and there is no sign of the man.“He should be here any minute according to our observations. He comes here every day by 9:00 p.m. and it's 8:50 p.m.”“Alright, but do you know something.”“What”“I don’t even know what he looks like.”“Really?” Ismail asks surprised.“Yes, I have never seen his face, only his back.”“Oh, that’s right. But don’t worry when he comes, I will point him out for you.”“There won’t be any need for that because he is here,” I say, seeing the scary man whose nose I broke, walk in beside a man who looks like his boss.“Really, how do you know?” Ismail says and is about to turn his head, but I stop him before we draw attention to ours
It’s been a few days since David said he found something. I won’t say he found something useless, but neither will I say useful. He just discovered something odd that day. David was monitoring the locations of the places Mr. Alberto was going to through the GPS tracker. When he said he found something, he realized that Mr. Alberto was going towards the outskirts of town. We followed him and thought he was going to a club on the outskirts of town. It’s normal for Mr. Alberto to go to a club, but what makes it odd is the fact that this is more of a small bar, and not even a busy one at that. There is no security at the door to ask you for their ID’s and there is no line of people waiting to enter. It’s really a small bar, and what makes it odd is that he goes there every day. Mr. Alberto is a well-known person in society and could get into any club here in San Francisco he wants to. So, the question we are asking ourselves is why does he go to such a smal
We ate dinner not too long ago. I prayed Isha (Night) prayer and went outside to the backyard. I am sitting down, looking at the stars. While I am admiring the stars, someone comes and takes a seat beside me.“What is this beautiful lady doing here all by herself?” Ismail asks.“I am just looking at the stars wondering how it would feel again to live with less worries in the world,” I say clearly affected by the compliment, but I have a lot on my mind right now.“Don’t worry, In Shaa Allah, everything will be over soon” Ismail says smiling reassuringly.“Ameen,” I say smiling a little, understanding that he is trying to cheer me up.“Speaking of over… I am sure that by the time you are able to go back to work, you will have finished your internship at my company,” Ismail says, sounding a bit sad.“Most likely,” I say also feeling a bit sad. Because now I kno
“How are you doing my dear? I hope you are doing okay? Have you eaten? Have you found somewhere to pray? Do they have a mosque so you can pray? I hope where you are staying now you are not finding it too hard. My baby girl, I hope everything is fine?” There is only one person in the world who will fire all these questions at once.The woman who made me into the wonderful woman I am today, my number one person in the world, my mother. She was the first person I called because apparently when no-one knew where I was, Waheeda decided to call my mother, crying that I had been kidnapped and How she didn’t know what to do, and she didn’t know if I told my mother anything before I went missing. I laughed when I heard it because how will my mother in Nigeria know my whereabouts, when I am staying in America. I am sure Waheeda was just confused and did not know what to do and that’s why she called my mom. I don’t blame her; I probably would have don
We both finish eating breakfast and walk to David’s study. We walk in and take our seats. Once we are all seated, David is the first one to speak up.“Thank you both for coming...” David says, but Ismail cuts him short.“Why are you being so formal? It’s not like this is a business deal or something,” Ismail chuckles.“Shut up and let me talk, Ismail,” David replies.“Sorry, go on,” Ismail says making a hand gesture, smiling sheepishly.“As I was saying before ‘Mister I know it all’ spoke. I want...”“I am not ‘A know it all’. I just asked why you spoke so formal,” Ismail interrupts again.“Ismail, let the man talk,” I say holding back my laughter, because seeing the two of them bicker is fun to watch.“Thank you, Umit, and Ismail don’t open your mouth until you a