Please, Find Me

Chapter 24

"... didn't tell you." She could feel the light threads of sleep pulling her back into her dreams but his voice had cut off all hopes of returning. "I assumed Naazli told Farah."

He was leaning against the headboard, playing mindlessly with the watch in his hand as he listened to Is'haaq drone on, unaware that Hoori's eyes were on him as he spoke.

"Fine. Sorry."

He didn't sound very apologetic at all.

"It's at 9. Will you be able to make it?"

He waited silently for Is'haaq to finish complaining, rubbing his eyes as he did so.

"If you can make it, then go. If you can't, don't go." He ended the call, tossing his phone carelessly onto the pedestal besides him before he laid back down once again, staring up at the barely lit ceiling.

"Was that Is'haaq?" He turned at the sound of her scratchy voice before he looked away again.

"Ya."

"Wasn't he here yesterday?"

"No. They went for a weekend away." He turned away from her, trying to convince himself to go back to sleep. "Go back to sleep Hoori. It's still early."

But her eyes were already closed and she was lost to the world before he had even spoken a word.

...

Hoori stood in front of the bathroom mirror, rubbing her hair with her towel as she waited for the steam to dissipate from the room. She couldn't get the events of the previous night out of her head.

Before this, they had slept together a grand total of 7 times during their entire marriage. And each time, she had been the one to initiate it. The first time was when Ihsaan had touched her.

The second was when her parents had cancelled her trip to London because they were too busy.

The third had been the day she deleted all of Jannat's pictures from her phone.

The fourth had been on her birthday- her parents had forgotten and had instead asked their accountant to deposit extra money into her account.

The fifth had been the day before her sonogram. She was so scared that they would find something and nothing could quell her fear nor allow her to forget it.

The sixth had been the day her parents flew into South Africa without visiting her before rushing back home to London.

And the seventh had been the day where she felt so truly lonely that not even her books could give her company. Her sister was dead, her parents were too far away and her husband... He was so emotionally unavailable that it was as if he was never there at all.

And every time she had gone to him he had obliged. He never knew why it was that she would go to him and kiss him but he never questioned it either. And when they were done, she would walk into the shower and they would pretend as if nothing had ever happened. She had gotten her little slice of oblivion and that was it. They didn't need anything more than that and they certainly didn't need to like each other further than that.

But last night...

She covered her face with her towel as she thought about the way he touched her and the way he kissed her and the way he ran his fingers over her skin for what seemed like hours afterwards because she had asked him to.

Sort off.

She opened her eyes and lowered her towel before she stretched her neck just a little to the side to look at the little hickey just beneath her left ear. She knew there were more and she knew he had found them all the night before but she risked dying of blushing had she stopped to really examine them closely. She was only too grateful that he had left before she had woken up. She needed to get her head all straightened out and she needed to compose herself once again before even attempting to talk to him.