BFFs: finding love again

23. Last Therapy

"Fatima, wake up. Have you made your decision?" Azanraba says towering over a sleepy Fatima.

"Yes, I have." Fatima yawns.

"Can I hear it?"

"Please, I need you to listen to me. I can't possibly marry a Jinn, my parents won't approve of it. I know I can trust you and I do, really. But, I can't marry you. I just need you to promise that you'd leave me alone. If you really want to see me happy, then  please, let me be, forever. Forget me." Fatima pleads.

"Never! I didn't wait all these years to give you up. Since you don't want to do it the easy way, I guess I'll have to do it the hard way. Let me promise you something, I will get married to you before the end of this month, today is thirteenth right? Then I'll make you mine before 12pm on the thirtieth. I promise." Azanraba disappears.

Oh no Fatima what have you done?!

"I went there to invite you to my wedding. But your presence isn't needed anymore. I've left you, for good. I see you don't want to keep the family tie so I've cut it off. Don't contact me please. Who am I kidding? I'm sure even if I'm dying you won't contact anyone from our family. Have a nice life, I'll make sure to tell Mama to never contact you." And the voice note ends.

Muhammad Aqsam Abubakar what have you done?

But maybe it's for the best, now he doesn't have to deal with nagging a brother. Yes, it's for the best.

Aqsam's thoughts are cut off by the opening of the door. Fatima comes inside wearing a blue ankle length Khimaar. She walks over to Aqsam's table and narrates everything that had happened from yesterday when she left his office to this morning.

"So what did you do?"

"I decided to turn back to Allah, not that I turned my back on him before."

"Elaborate please."

"After a very heartbreaking event, I stopped praying and asking Allah for things. I basically turned into an atheist."

"What event?"

"The death of my cousin."

"Okay. I'll give you something to use as perfume. Also, recite these before you sleep. And add this to your bathing water. We won't meet till after two weeks." Aqsam dismisses Fatima with the said things.

Going to her room, she calls her mother and tells her everything, including the part of her not praying for the past almost twelve years of her life. After almost an hour of scolding, Fatima cuts the call and does as ordered by Aqsam.

"Last therapy." Fatima says to herself excitedly.

Two months, it's been two months since she started this therapy of a thing and Alhamdulillah there's a lot of progress. She came to Dubai for therapy a week after Sa'eed's marriage to Halima, that means it's been two months one week since Sa'eed got married to her best friend. Wow, how time runs fast.

During those two months, alot of things have happened. She found a book on Aqsam's table and after reading it she couldn't help but find herself falling in love with Aqsam. The book was like a diary with a scrapbook inside. They were writings, of a boy - which is obviously Aqsam -, and a girl, whose name is Khadeeja. The girl is dead, or so the book says.

She can't believe it, she's in love! Again! Any other girl would have been happy to have fallen in love with that huge chunk of hotness. But she isn't. How can she be happy? She fell in love with him against her will. She never wanted to fall in love with him. But she did anyway. And that's bad, like very bad.

People who fall in love always end up hurting themselves. So it's better to love, and not fall in love, for whatever falls must break or get bruised. But she can't seem to get rid of it, that feeling in her chest when he looks at her, she can't seem to send it away.

And unlike in those cliché novels or Zee world series where a person would have to be told that he's in love, she found out herself. How? She also doesn't know. But one thing she knows is that she's in love with Muhammad Aqsam Abubakar and there's nothing that can change it. The feeling can't be suppressed so instead of trying to suppress it, she's going to let it bloom by confessing her feelings to him today after the therapy.

Then also, Fatima found out the reason why Aqsam's surname is different from Hamza's even though they're brothers. Aqsam's mother got pregnant out of wedlock and then the father, whose name was Abubakar, died. She gave birth and then Hamza's father, Shaddad married her then she gave birth to Hamza.

Again, she found out why Aqsam is always so closed off from girls. The reason is that whenever he's free with a girl, he believes he is cheating on his dead fiancee Khadeeja.

She also found out a lot more. During the second month of her therapy, she was asked to cut off all communication with other people. She should concentrate on getting the Jinn completely away from her. And she has succeeded. So since then she hasn't touched a phone, Abba - her father has been handling her business so she doesn't have anything to worry about.

She's getting a phone today so she'll call her best friend and find out all that has happened. For now, she needs to center her mind on her confession.

Aqsam groans in annoyance. He doesn't know what to wear. Today is the last day he might ever see Fatima again since she's going to Nigeria and he has cut himself off that country and anything that has to do with it. But why does he even want to impress her? He hasn't worried about impressing a girl since Khadeeja died.

He finally settles for a mild tomato red kaftan with a plain black cap. He couples them with a silver Calvin Klein wristwatch and black hand made half shoes. Impressed with his look, Aqsam sprays that Oud that always screams his presence. Smiling, he walks outside.

Fatima has been able to crack that wall of his. Most of the time, he spends his evenings with her on the roof top. He doesn't know what got into him that made him judge her before knowing her but now he knows, she's a beautiful carefree kind hearted woman with a child's heart. She just needs love, that's all.

On Khadeeja's death anniversary, she stayed with him while he sulked and insulted her every chance he got. But she ended up making him smile that day. That was the first time Muhammad Aqsam Abubakar smiled on Khadeeja's death anniversary. Normally, he'd ask the receptionist to say he's not around and then he'll sit in his room rolling through the muds of what if i had done this.

But that day, Aqsam smiled and laughed, all thanks to Fatima. He hates to admit it but Fatima is a gem. He thinks he might be falling for her but he can't. That's betrayal, he can't betray Khadeeja, no freaking way. So it's just safe to say he likes her and never wants to be away from her, simple!

Walking into his office, he meets Fatima sitting down. His Oud assaults her nostrils making her turn.

"Is the whole Aqsam late today?" Fatima taunts with a teasing smile on her lips. All the while she's filming it. This might be the last day she sees him and she needs to have something that will keep his memories alive with her, no matter how far away from her he is.

"Shut up!" Aqsam grumbles even trying so hard to hide his smile making Fatima laugh. That laugh that does a lot of things to his thinking.

"So what's remaining? I thought we finished everything up yesterday." Aqsam says and Fatima nods.

"Kai! Banace miki banason kina girgiza min kai kaman kadangare bah?" Fatima's jaw drops, literally. She looks like a gaping fish.

"So you can speak Hausa?" Fatima screeches.

"Toh fasan min kunnuwa." Aqsam rolls his eyes, something he learned from Fatima. It took him almost two hours to get the hang of it.

"Please don't stop speaking Hausa. It sounds so good." Fatima says then covers her mouth with her hand realizing what she just said. Aqsam won't allow her to breath because of this. But where will she seem him again. This is her last therapy.