Three's Company

6. Call Failed

Her favourite food in the whole wide world was her mother's Kanafeh.

Mona could remember being a young child and running into the kitchen to see her mother making the intricate dessert. Those evenings were filled with joy and family.

Therefore, she associated her favourite food with love. It was something she would eat whenever she was happy, or sad, whatever the mood, she ate her favourite treat.

When she first moved to the states, it was hard to find authentic Arab food. It took her many tries and years to find the one place that gave her an ounce of joy like her mother's cooking did but alas, she managed to find the perfect place.

Scratch that. The twenty-year-old she had met had found it for her, on their third date in Chicago. She never expected to be as amazed as she was at the hidden gem.

When she spotted piles of Kanafeh set out on her dining table, she could do nothing other than stare into a haze.

With a low grunt, she picked up her phone in a fury, phoning the culprit behind the delicious treat.

On the first ring, it got picked up straight away. As she expected it would.

"Stop sending me stuff, I don't want it." She snapped harshly, the effects of her rough week evident.

Heath had left soon after she said what needed to be said. She wasn't too sure nor did she care to know where he left to and where he now called home, but he, sure enough, was gone.

Still, that didn't stop him from showing his existence in the week she prevailed away from him.

"Good morning to you too, hayati. I see you've gotten your Kanafeh just fine then?" His morning voice had yet to settle, she could hear the deep husk in it still.

"This is borderline harassment, Heath. You can't keep doing this every day, I'm getting sick of it. Yesterday was mountains of Falafel and today it's this bullshit. You need to stop it."

"But you love Kanafeh. Your mother said you've been craving it for a while now. I thought you would be happy."

Her mother. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "Why are you speaking to my mother, Heath?" She let out, repeating his name to get her point across.

If she had to resort to speaking to him like a child, then so be it.

"I talk to Samya and Aamil on a daily. You know that."

At the mention of her parents' names, she leaned her hip against the side of the table and her chest heaved out a depleted sigh.

She wanted to be upset at her parents but she knew it was her own fault.

She hadn't told them about the divorce yet, of course, her loving parents would still want to talk to their beloved son-in-law regularly.

Her parents cherished the man who looked after their daughter. Or so they thought he did.

"I don't want you talking to them anymore. It's weird."

"She calls me every day at the same hour, and she has done so for the last ten years. I can't ignore the call, Mo, it would kill her." He was right. Her mother would be way too concerned and call her a million times asking why her supposed husband wasn't answering her calls.

She didn't even know what the two of them spoke about anymore, to be completely honest, she didn't think she wanted to know.

"I'm going to tell her that we got a divorce soon. I will, I just haven't found the right time to tell her." She explained awkwardly, not knowing why it was so hard to tell her parents the news.

Noticing her hesitation, his voice drifted through the speaker. "I like talking to them, there's no rush for you to say anything if you can't yet." He reassured her.

Phew. She thought that he wanted her to tell them to stop calling him already.

It was going to be a long conversation, one that she was sure would evoke the emotions she had suppressed for so long.

"Still, seven plates of Kanafeh for one person is too much."

"Have one every night of the week, problem solved."

Her lips pursed in thinking. She guessed she could do that, it was better than throwing them away.

"Where exactly are you staying right now?" She asked in curiosity, wanting to know his whereabouts.

"Chicago."

She paused to think about that, and as if sensing her thoughts, he added, "I'm staying in the penthouse I bought when we first met, remember the one we got Otto in."

"Oh," is all she managed to say. "Yeah, I remember that place."

Otto brushed up against her leg, causing her to glance down at the fur ball.

She found herself reminiscing on when he was a little pup and the fond memories were enough to make her smile.

"You always hated how he would jump on the sofa at that place and want to cuddle," Mona murmured, vision blurring with emotion.

He let out a throaty chuckle on the other end, she could picture him rolling his eyes. "That's because his dirty little paws used to ruin the cream leather."

Both of them went quiet after that.

She didn't recognise her voice until she ground out the words in a forced mumble.

He was staying in the same place he had first told her he loved her, in the same place they got their dog, the same place she realised she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

Sleeping on the same bed he had made love to her for the first time.

"You said you'd do anything." She reminded him in a faint whisper. "Anything, Heath. That's what you said to me."

"I did say that." He agreed, seemingly more wide awake at her gentle words.

"I'm asking you to leave me alone. That means no more gifts, no more contacting me, no more trying whatever is it you're doing to try and make things right. You can't fix us. I'm not the one that fell out of love with you, I'm still madly in love with you and you're only hurting me more by doing this. I don't want you to want me now because it hurts." A sob she didn't know was there racked at the back of her throat and her bottom lip quivered. "I preferred it when I was invisible to you because at least then I could hide the way I feel."

With another soft whimper, she swallowed thickly. It hurt. Everything hurt.

She hadn't cried over him in so long, she had been doing so well and he had to come and fuck it up.

"There is nothing to fix when I'm in love with you and I always will be. You're trying to fix a situation you messed up and you're trying to fall back in love with me but I don't need you to do that to me. Not again. Leave me alone, just leave the fuck alone, Heath."

She wasn't sure if she was screaming or not but her throat felt so raw.

She hung up after that, without further warning and suddenly she felt like she could breathe again.

One day at a time, she reminded herself. You can do this, Mo.