Behind A Smile ✔

25

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Taking a last look at her reflection in the mirror - she was putting on a sky blue abaya and a white hijab wrapped around her head. She looked breathtakingly beautiful. Satisfied at her appearance, she took her bag from the bed and ambled out of the house.

To her utmost surprise, Ibrahim was standing just outside her gate, with a bouquet of flowers in his left hand.

Her eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. She raised her arm and took a swift look at her wrist watch. "What are you doing here?" She whisper yelled.

"Good morning to you too." He replied sarcastically, a smirk playing on his lips.

Zynah rolled her eyes. "Don't you have somewhere more important to be? The office for example."

"Nope." He shook his head. "I took a day off yesterday and to answer your first question; I made you leave your car at the office yesterday, so I'm here to take you to work today."

"You know I have more than more car." She pointed out, shrewdly.

"I still feel obligated to." He shrugged. "So shall we?" He flashed her a grin and held open the car door for her.

"Hmm...alright." Zynah obliged reluctantly. She walked out of the opened gate and ambled towards him.

"These are for you." He stretched out the bouquet of flower to her.

Zynah's gaze lingered on the beautiful red roses before it darted to Ibrahim. She really didn't want him to feel bad, but she knew she had to do things to make him know she wasn't leading him on. Albeit his denial, she knew he had feelings for her, otherwise, he wouldn't have dedicated some much of his time to her. "I'm sorry, Ibrahim." She apologized, avoiding his gaze. "I can't accept these flowers."

Within a blink of an eye, his demeanor contorted in sadness. His eyes did no justice in trying to hide it. It was evident. "These are just flowers. I'm not giving you these flowers right now because of what you're thinking."

"And how would you possibly know what I'm thinking right now. Are you some sort of supernatural being?" She teased.

"No, but I was also thinking what you were thinking, so..." He shrugged. "Please accept these even though you're going to throw them away later."

He sounded so desperate that Zynah couldn't resist accepting the flowers just to make him smile and she did. "Thank you."

"No, thank you for accepting them." He smiled. "Shall we?"

Zynah's lips pressed in a thin, straight line. She nodded and got into the car.

Carefully, he shut the door and swiftly went to the other side of the car and got in. Turning the key in the ignition, the car roared to life. He put on his seatbelt and made sure Zynah did just that, before beginning to drive. "I'd love to see you smile heartily someday. I'm sure it'd be dazzling."

Zynah turned her gaze to the window beside her. She let down the glass and allowed the cool breeze kiss her face. He said he would love to see her hearty smile someday, when she herself didn't know if she would ever be able to do that anymore. Not only her trust in men was broken, but her whole life was complicated. She had a son whom she abandoned for three years and a husband whom she ran away from.

~~~~

"Mom." Ramlah's voice was laced with worry as she called and rushed towards her parents' room.

Not bothering to knock, she barged into the room, but unfortunately, her mother wasn't in the room. She met her dad sitting on a reading chair with his glasses on and a newspaper in his hands, like always.