Come, Fly With Me

TWENTY

Before we knew it, 6 months had already gone by. We'd got into a routine in our new life and are as happy as can be alhamdulillah. Ehsaan was working full time and was busy as ever in his office - it turns out being partner of a law firm is awesome, but has its downsides too. He was often tired and still had work to do even when he got home in the evenings, but however big his workload, he still made sure to make time for us.

I had managed to secure a job at an international school here in Dubai so was putting my teaching skills to good use in order to enhance the education of children on this side of the world as best as I could.

It was great. Every morning we'd get up together and have breakfast and Ehsaan would sometimes drop me off to work before heading over to the firm. I'd get home before him and do some chores or cook dinner so that when he does get home, everything is done and we can have the evenings to ourselves. On Fridays, we both have the day off or can work from home, so we have a slow morning and attend the masjid together for Jummah prayer.

Since we arrived in Dubai, we'd been for our honeymoon and both our families had come to visit us for a few days. In the last few months though, FaceTime and WhatsApp had to suffice as everyone had been busy with school or work.

We'd arrived home from a three day trip to Hong Kong last night and I'd woken up with a banging headache. Seeing as today is Monday, it's full steam ahead and back to work. Monday's are full teaching days for me, so I had to get up and prepare for the day. Ehsaan was still asleep, so I watched him for a few moments, smiling at his peaceful slumber and running my hands through his messy hair before sitting up and getting out of bed to shower. As I walked into the bathroom, my stomach churned and I suddenly felt I needed to be sick. I quickly lifted the lid off the toilet bowl just in time to lean down and throw up the little contents of my stomach from the small dinner I'd had last night when I was too tired to eat properly.

Seeing as it was both of our first times visiting Hong Kong, we'd been very unfamiliar with the restaurants and struggled to find places to eat that were halal and didn't cook with alcohol - in the end, we decided to play it safe and we had to just eat whatever we could, and my body was not pleased.

I brushed my teeth and had a shower, then prayed fajr, intending to wake up Ehsaan as soon as I'm done.

I sat by his sleeping body, playing with his hair and calling him quietly,

"Ehsaan, come on. You need to get up. Fajr is going to end and I want to have breakfast with you before you leave for work."

He groaned, opening his eyes. "No. I want to stay home with you" he pouted, making me laugh.

"No, get up. We both have work today." I said, leaning my head on my hand as the light-headedness returned.

"Hey, are you okay?" He sat up in bed and took me into his arms.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm okay. Just a bit dizzy that's all. Come on, hurry up, I'm waiting for you in the kitchen for breakfast."

He looked worried, but nodded anyway, going into the bathroom to get ready. I sighed and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, stopping to drink a cold glass of water in the hope that it would help settle my upset stomach.

Ugh, food poisoning was NOT nice, at all.

As he came into the kitchen and sat down with his coffee as I sautéed his mushrooms, my stomach heaved and I ran into the washroom, throwing up again, though this time it was just fluid as I'd already emptied any food out earlier.

I didn't even notice that Ehsaan had followed behind me until he collected my hair in his hands and held it out of my face. I seated myself on the cool tile floor and he'd wet a washcloth with cold water to wipe my face. He helped clean me up without saying a word then said,