Soiled #ProjectNigeria ✔️

Chapter Eight: Part One meets Part Two

"Why haven't you been returning my calls? " His voice is a mix of husky and deep. Making my insides twist in fear of what I'd do if he shouts at me.

I exhale loudly and purse my lips. I try to spoon another yogurt into my mouth but it's melted already. I hiss lightly.

" My mother is here, let's go greet her." He picks up my purse and waits for me to follow him. I have no choice but to follow him so I stall by folding the napkin on top of the table. My knees are shaking, my heartbeat is beyond normal.

He looks funny carrying my purse so I quickly try to take it from him. He lets me have it and we walk the short distance to his mother. More like his entire family's table. Ya Allah. I hate crowds.

"Asalamu alaykum" I greet

His mother stops the conversation she's having with a  fair man that looks exactly like Adeel. His father. I squat slightly and she holds my hand to stop me from going further.

The chair next to her is empty and I gratefully sink into it. I notice Adeel has walked away. Traitor. I look round the table of six and one thing strikes me, they all have a striking resemblance to either Adeel's mother or father. None of them have a mix of both, they picked sides.

"How are you doing?, I hope everything was to your liking. I picked out the jewellery set myself." She asks me and I smile brightly at her before ducking my head shyly.

"I loved everyone of them. They looked so beautiful." I just spun a lie, apart from the first time I looked at it. I threw all of it into my jewellery box. I have no idea what designs on it are.

"I'm glad, so is your mother here? " She asks looking behind me to the table I was sitting at earlier, that means she saw me giving so much attention to my chicken bones. Ya Allah. This is so mortifying.

"No Ma. I'm a friend of the family. That's how I received an invite." She smiles and nods in comprehension.

I stare at her face again, she has a beautiful nose, the loveliest bone structure even for an older woman. But, who offended her by helping with her eyebrows. They look hideous.

"I know my eyebrows look bad, you don't have to look so much at it. Zarah my last daughter begged me to let her use my face. Things we do for our children." She waves her hennaed hand around her face and makes light of it.
I feel embarrassed and play with my fingers. But look at her face again.

Whoever Zarah is, she did a great job except the eyebrows. She needs to steady her hands, every other part looks nearly flawless.

A small cup of yogurt is set in front of me, with chopped mangoes and pineapples as toppings. I look up in surprise. "Thank you very much."

He grunts and looks away. His mother taps my hand and points at a fair petite girl dancing with her laughing friends. She sights her mother and smiles brightly before loosing her smile and running over.

"Hamma Adeel, haba. You didn't tell me she was here."  Adeel puts his hands up in mock surrender. She smiles brightly at me and then I look at her face. She has the same facial bone structure like her mother. Perfect for makeup. Where other women look at clothes, I look at faces.

"How does our makeup look, I did it?" Adeel's Father looks at his daughter critically  "No wonder your mother's eyebrows looked funny." We all laugh. Well I hold mine in.

I try to find words to use. "Ah.... it looks good honestly, it's just you need to steady your hand when drawing the brows. That's all."  She heaves a huge sigh of relief.

"I'm FatimaZarah, I'm 15, final year in secondary school." She holds out a slim fair hand to me. I take it in mine.

"Nabeela Afrah, I'm just going to hope you know the rest of things about me. My age is ancient."  She claps gaily and we all burst into laughter. She's funny.

I stand up abruptly and tell them I want to see the couple before I leave, Adeel's mother pats my hand before asking Adeel to go with me. Not another mama's boy.

"I can make my own decisions all right, my mother doesn't run my life." Shock courses through me, is that how transparent my face is?  We walk to meet Ajìkè and her husband, Adeel greets Ajike's husband with a pat on his head and pushes his cap to cover his eyes. They are close.

I look wistfully at the couple surrounded by people dancing, I'd have to throng that place to get to Deeju, I'll see her during the conveyance. I'm making her up.

"I'll just see Deeju tomorrow. I'll call you once I get home." Ajìkè nods and says they will be leaving soon too.

I walk away expecting Adeel to stay back with them, instead he follows me to my car. I soon see why. Husband number one is standing next to my car waiting. Not tonight Ya Allah. I can't deal.

Imagine my life, husband number one is meeting Fiance, soon to be husband number two. Dear Allah, is this a punishment for one of my sins?

I walk to the driver's door as though I haven't seen Husband number one, Adeel takes a cue from me by watching me sit in the car without a word to our unwanted visitor. I start the engine and turn on the air-conditioning to cut off all types of conversation channels.

Adeel waves gaily at me and I drive out of the venue. I sigh in relief, hurdle number one crossed. I just hope mother won't be awake when I get home, I certainly can't deal.

When I finally drive into my father's compound, it's late and I spy my dashboard, it's 11:42, enough time for me to sleep in till tomorrow afternoon. And evade Hajiya Mama.

*******

Hello people😋🙋,

Good evening, how are you all doing?  I hope you all are fine and in good health?

Today's chapter was a challenge😲😳,I've never been to a Hausa wedding so I completely relied on different descriptions to come up with mine, how did I do? 

We also finally got to meet the elusive Husband number one, if you want to do anything, biko sheath your weapons. You'll still meet him again. Very soon. 😡😯😩😰

No too much talk, y'all should please help this book cross 700 reads. I'll update tomorrow afternoon based on this. God bless you, keep you safe and heap blessings on you. Goodnight. 😘😘

                      Yours Truly
                       TheOmoope.