\'For You\'

She tried stretching her body but she felt as her joints moved painfully. Lazily opening her eyes, Jalilah looked at the clock on her bedside drawer which caused her to jerk upright, which made her experienced the worst kind of pain she had ever experienced in a very long time. She placed her hands on her head and groaned, feeling as her temperature rose a bit. She knew something of this nature would happen, but never this worse. And now, she had to be at work, she was even late.

She groaned again and walked softly to her kitchen, finding it so hard with her sprained ankle and her head threatening to burst into two. She got herself the only headache and fever pill she had, which was courtesy of Mama and gulped down, not even remembering the fact that she hated medicine. If she was going to have it as she wanted, she would go back to her bed and sleep some more, but she knew they had a lot of work to cover today. She moved to her bathroom directly and took her bath while silently wincing in pain.

She got ready and didn’t mind getting herself something to eat. One, because she was so sick and she hardly ate when she was sick. Two, because she was extraordinarily late, she wondered what Yazeed would do to her if he looked for her and she wasn’t there. She was silent inside the car, thinking of the best excuse to give him while she kept blowing her nose with each passing second. The driver finally pulled in front of the building, she paid before she walked out, holding her bag firmly.

She knew she was a total mess today, but she had no choice but to keep going. When she reached the elevator, she dropped the tissue she was holding in the bin and stared at it while thinking of what to do. She knew it was high time she knew how to get into the elevator herself, but every time she braced herself for that, she couldn't and she ended up failing wholly.

“Which floor?” She heard a voice behind her, and when she turned, it was Wafiyya smiling widely at her.

“Oh, Wafiyya, I should start calling you my guardian angel. 9th floor please, I'm so late, right?” She asked while they entered and turned to look at her while she waited for an answer.

“Yes, you’re late. And you’re a mess today. Are you sick? Your nose is red, your eyes too, your whole face doesn’t look like yours. What's going on?” Wafiyya asked while she helped Jalilah held her handbag as she blew her nose.

“That rain, I caught a cold, Wafiyya. And you know I told you I sprained my ankle yesterday, right? Everything is messed up for me, I want nothing but to stay at home and sleep. But that man, I'm sure even if I’m going to spend a week without coming to work, he’ll keep mine for me. It’s better to do it at the right time than do it while everything is choked up for me.”

“Why don’t you tell him you’re sick and you couldn’t make it? I'm sure he wouldn't force you to come if you took an excuse from him.” Wafiyya insisted, and Jalilah laughed before she shook her head.

“It’s like you forgot the person we’re talking about, right? Please, we’re talking about Yazeed Adam Bunza, I don’t even have his number to call him and take that excuse, plus he wouldn’t let me have the day off even if I'm taken to the hospital.” Wafiyya laughed and they kept talking until they reached the 9th floor and Jalilah collected her bag from her, “Thank you so much, Wafiyya. Wait for me at the elevator during lunch.” She smiled widely and walked away while she watched as Wafiyya pushed the 6th-floor number and she slid down.

She had to stop herself from looking at his office while she approached there until she was seated on her chair and she heaved a sigh out of relief as if that was the heaviest task she had ever done to herself. She blew her nose and before she could make the next move, the office phone had rung, she needn’t know who it was, because she knew it was him.

Nonetheless, she picked up. “Hello? Good morning.”

“Morning.” His voice was cold and distant, what was wrong with him? “I can see you’re just coming to the company, come over as soon as you can, we have some work to do.” And before she told him anything, not even an okay, Yazeed had already ended the call. She wanted to smack him through the phone but she restrained herself knowing that he could easily see her from his office.

She took her bunch of tissue, her phone and MacBook before she left. She softly knocked on his door and walked inside with tentative steps, her ankle didn’t hurt as much as it did when she woke up, but it wasn’t flashy as well. She found herself a spot in her usual sofa before she looked up at him, “Good morning.”

He had his eyes fixed on his screen and he only looked up to her when she had given up a reply from him and began switching on her system. “Will you mind sending...” Her words were cut off by a sneeze and she blew her nose afterwards before she continued, “Sending me the works, please? I'll review them now and sort everything out.”

He only nodded his head and Jalilah rolled her eyes at him, she hated this cold look on his face. She knew she only knew this version of himself but she had seen a sparkle of a warm Yazeed within him yesterday. She believed that this wasn't his real self, as if he had been hiding behind this cold body of his for a very long time.

Throughout her stay in his office, she kept sneezing and blowing her nose that she wished she could go back to her apartment, to her room and sleep until her body was tired of sleeping. When it was finally zuhr time, and he still hadn’t uttered a word out to her, she was the one that kept talking with her sore and tired voice when necessary. She watched as he walked out of the office without even informing her that he was going to pray like he used to. What the hell was wrong with this man? She wondered and shrugged off her shoulder, standing to her feet when she saw Wafiyya’s message that she was waiting for her.

She left for the elevator and that was what she realized that Wafiyya was waiting for her at the down floor, and now she had no other chance. Looking around their floor, she saw there was no one but him, walking toward the elevator and she knew history had to repeat itself. She masked up her emotions and walked behind him in a cool manner one would think it was so cool for them to walk side by side without sharing a word out.

It wasn’t until they entered that he noticed she was the one following him. She sneezed some more and blew her nose while her head throbbed for the umpteenth time. She placed her palm on her forehead and felt her temperature while she winced softly. “Ya Rabb, I'm so sick...” Another sneeze came. She kept reciting ‘Alhamdulillah’ as required in Islam but he hadn’t said anything, that riled her up.

“I get it, if you can’t speak to me because of your reason which I don’t know of, but can’t you at least pray for me after I sneezed like it is required in Islam? I know you’re my boss and all, but no one is beyond correction, right?” As much as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him, she couldn't. That was something she did whenever she was annoyed, and right now, she was even frustrated.

He looked at her, their eyes met for a split second but there was no reply from him. He looked away from her and kept staring at his phone screen. She knew she would be either thrown out of this company because of what she was going to do to him or he would beat the hell out of her if he was the abusive type. Because there was no way she was going to let this slide.

She moved an inch close to him and placed her hands on akimbo. “I do respect you, but what you’re doing right now is something I find so annoying that I might not be able to control myself. Why don’t you at least voice a word out?” She spoke through gritted teeth, but all Yazeed did was stared at the distance between them and he took his eyes back to his phone.