Being Mrs Dantata

34

Hanan had underestimated getting used to being without Zayd.

Rearranging the house had kept her busy in the week after their honeymoon when he had stayed with Amal. Their sleepover had been lovely too. The Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday that followed were nothing short of nice and when he had to leave on Thursday morning to stay with Amal for the rest of the week, Hanan realized it was not going to be as easy as she had thought. She missed him a lot and the only thing she could do was pour her everything into work so her thoughts did not stray and take a negative turn.

Employees at Zayd's had seen the management change coming. Hajara was moving abroad and although Hanan wanted it kept secret for a little longer, telling everyone in the company that she was going to take Hajara's place was unavoidable. Jonathan was to be the Vice-President and Jane was going to step into his shoes as the head of the Interior Consultancy Unit. The good thing about the change was that issues could now be tackled swiftly instead of waiting for Zayd to come over or send back a reply regarding contracts and other matters.

Hanan feared she would be found lacking so she put in her best to learn everything she could as quickly as possible. They changed her office first, moving her to Zayd's office. She had it touched up and Hajara's secretary, Mufeeda, was to be her assistant the way Summayya assisted Zayd. She and Hajara spent a lot of time together. Each time Zayd came to see how things were going, Hajara let him know Hanan was going to run the company even better than she had.

Zayd, however, did not like how Hanan overworked herself. When he brought it up, she told him that she could handle it all and that she was perfectly fine. Not wanting them to argue about it, he let it go.

October went by. They did their best to get used to the routines in their lives. November was even better. One thing Hanan noticed along the line was that although Zayd tried his best to be very just between them, he leaned towards Amal more. Hanan told herself – which was not an easy thing to do – that it was normal.

She told herself to get used to it because no matter how just everyone tried to be, there was always going to be a slight bias. She let herself believe it was because Amal and Zayd had spent a lot of time together, more than she had spent with him and they (Amal and Zayd) had gone through a lot too. Then there was the fact that she saw Zayd more than Amal did because they worked in the same area and ran into each other a lot. He went to work and returned with her on most days too.

However, all those reasons did not mean she did not feel bad when he had to cancel on her because something regarding Amal had come up. The October-November period was crazy for those who worked at the parliament, Amal included, so there were times when she needed Zayd to help her pick up or drop off things, pick or drop her off, go with her for an event or be there when she broke down underneath the stress.

Hanan did not mind him doing those because she would have done the same too. It was just that most of the time Amal called, Zayd was to spend the day with her and if she had planned out something, they had to cancel or reschedule and she would let it go, smiling when he returned just so she did not sound ungrateful or as though she was asking for too much.

December began with her decision to fall into a personal routine to maintain her sanity. She looked forward to Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays because she would be with him. On Thursdays and Fridays, she worked until she got too exhausted to think about anything else. On Saturdays, she chose to do whatever came to mind and on Sundays, she prepped meals for the whole week.

Whenever Zayd called, asking if they had anything planned, she kept her mind open to two scenarios: something had come up and he wanted them to cancel or he wanted to know just so he could plan something for the both of them. The routine helped more than she had expected it to and the days went by smoothly. She kept up with everyone, politely declining hangout invites because she wanted to clear things up at the company before the Christmas holiday. By the time work resumed after the New Year, she would be leading Zayd's.