Too Little, Too Late

17

"...a gentle reminder that you need to continuously work hand in hand with your supervisors a lot this semester so you can get your thesis out of the way as soon as possible. It'll do you a lot of good...That'll be all for today. I'll see you next week."

As soon as the professor left the class, Ayra let her head fall to the top of the table with a groan. Beside her, Ibtihaj rolled her eyes as she got her things together. "Stand up, my friend. I want to go home and eat Amala. Mummy made ewedu."

Ayra sat up. "I'm not jealous. I'm going home to make a surprise dinner for my husband."

Ibtihaj zipped her bag shut. "Does that mean Oga Fahad is finally coming home early today?"

Ayra nodded, getting excited at the mere thought of it. "He is. I texted his secretary earlier and she confirmed it." She put her notepad in her bag, smiling from ear to ear. "Finally!"

"Finally o. Because I was this close to shaking you and putting it in your head that you need to talk to him. It's too early for you to be lonely in this marriage because he's working long hours at the office."

"I'm not lonely though. I mean, he comes home at night and –"

Ibtihaj had a brow raised. "He comes home late, when you're either asleep or about to sleep."

"But he still comes home and I see him in the mornings." Ayra didn't stop smiling. "So I'm not lonely."

"Ayra. When you used to dream about getting married to this man, you had dreams about him being home a lot and both of you having fun together as long as you're both free. It's been almost an exact month since you two got married and you can count on one hand how many times you two have had dinner together because Ibro is working long hours as if he's still a bachelor."

"Don't call him Ibro. His name is Ibrahim."

"Ayra, I will slap you o!"

Ayra sighed, rolling her eyes. "Ibty. This is a phase and things are going to fall into place soon. There's a lot of work to settle at the company because all of them were majorly inactive in order to put things in place for the wedding. Sure, this first month is nothing close to what I imagined it'll be but I know this is a phase and it'll pass." Her smile returned, a little smaller. "It'll all be fine. Trust the process."

Ibtihaj stared at her for a long moment. "Sometimes I want to be as optimistic as you are but omo!" She then sighed. "I'll trust the process but if anything doesn't seem right, I'll shake you to thy kingdom come."

Ayra laughed, nodding. "Sure, you do that. Besides, Ibrahim's coming home early tonight. That's a good start."

"True. That's a –"

Ayra's phone vibrating on the desk cut her off. They both looked at the device, Ibrahim's name flashing across the screen alongside the emojis she'd saved his contact with. Smiling wider, she picked the phone and accepted the call.

"Ibrahim, hi!"

"Hey..."

It took a second to realise his background was familiarly noisy. Ayra's smile dimmed and the excitement that had bubbled slowly faded away. She swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. "Ibrahim, where are you?"

"At the airport..." He blew out a breath. "Something came up so the squad and I have to leave town for a week."

Ayra's heart dropped and her chest squeezed. When Ibtihaj raised her brow again, Ayra looked away, focusing on her bag instead. "Where are you guys going?"

"Geneva. There's this tech summit we were hoping to attend but there was little to no information about it so we agreed we'd find more about it after the wedding craze and when the workload had reduced." He exhaled again. "However, we found out today that they sent an invite before last year ran out and we're to make our first presentation about Little Walker so this is a big deal for us."