Yazeed Jr
His eyes were fixed on the road while his hands expertly moved the steering wheel around, she didn’t know what had gotten into her to be staring at him this hard without an ounce feeling of shame that he might at any minute and he will find her staring. Something clicked in her brain, they had never spoken about her house, she didn’t have his number nor did he have hers. How did he get all that within just a day? Or he dialled his number on her phone and tracked her address? No, he couldn’t do that, she even had a password on her phone.
“How did you find my house?” She asked, and for a split second, he turned to look at her before he looked back on the road.
“Sulaiman gave it to me from your file, anything?” She shook her head, she needn’t ask where he had gotten the number from, because she was certain it would be the same story as well.
They drove in utter silence while she thought about the possibilities of this being real. She hadn’t forgotten what he had said, ‘Beautiful. You look so amazing.’ Jalilah knew that she would have those words carved into her mind for eternity, even the voice he spoke them with was exceptional, he didn’t look himself.
“Are we there already?” She turned around while looking at the place he had driven in, he looked at her and nodded before he took his eyes off her. She was it was okay for him to be changing within minutes, but she didn’t like this Yazeed anymore, she wanted the old him. The Yazeed that could be a parcel delivery man just to surprise. But she didn't voice a word out about how he had changed, she knew he would be back to his normal self within some time.
They got out of the car and she waited until he locked it before she walked to where he stood, “Which movie are we watching?” She asked with a hint of excitement on her lips, Yazeed loved to see her this happy.
“The invisible man.” Came his short reply and she internally rolled her eyes before they walked into the building side by side.
He had already gone to buy their tickets when she spotted some popcorn and chocolate and she walked to the stall. She bought two for them and walked back to where she had left him. The first thing he said to her after he saw her was, “Where did you go? I've been looking for you.”
She sly smiled and decided to tease him for a while, “Did you freak out that I might be lost?” No answer, just a hard glare that forced a pout out of her lips, “Come on, I just bought us some popcorn and chocolates, that’s all.” She brought forward all the things she had bought and Yazeed shook his head before he motioned for her to go in.
They walked side by side but with no voice shared that Jalilah wished she had stayed in her apartment, she would have had her work done b now and she would have danced to her brim, easing off her mind. They found their seats and sat down, she handed him the popcorn and when she gave him the chocolate, he shook his head.
“I don’t take too much sugar, you can have it.” She placed it back on her laps and turned to face him fully before the movie started.
“Please, can I not refer to you as the boss? Because right now I'm so pissed and if I do...” He didn’t let her finished her sentence when he cut her off.
“You might want to punch me so hard that the security agencies around will come to my aid, right? Go on, no boss today until on Monday.” He tried smiling but it came out as forced, that wasn’t what Jalilah wanted to see. She wanted the real cheerful Yazeed that put no effort in being happy for himself.
“That will be it, but not enough. Because even if they rescue you from me, I'll make sure to throw something destructive at you so that you’d be forced to the hospital because you can’t even move a limb. But please, I don’t like this coldness, you brought me here so I could at least feel alive for a day, feel like there’s more to life than hitting the buttons on my keyboard, why would be you sulking you face all along? You know I can’t enjoy it this way, right?” Her voice nearly broke at the end, but she held a stoic expression. She knew they weren’t a thing, him bringing her for a movie didn’t mean anything to him, but to her, it was the everything and more.
“I'm not sulking my face, you’re just conjuring things in your mind.” He shook his head, but Jalilah was so stubborn to let it slide.
“Was it because you said I looked beautiful and now you regret every bit of it?” She had to ask because she had noticed since he said that his mood had changed and he had been doing nothing but fixing his eyes on the road as if it what the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He palmed his face and heaved out an exasperated sigh, she was so cute and stubborn at the same time. Yes, maybe that was his reason of sulking his face because he had realized he was only making things worse for her, even though he knew he wasn’t supposed to do this, he wasn’t supposed to say things, he did. Because he felt light within when he did, and he wished he could fight himself about that.
“So you need an apology now? And no, that’s not my reason. It’s just a mood that strikes, nothing more.”
She turned away from him with the pout more prominent on her face, crossing her hands over her chest, Jalilah spoke again. “Yeah, the mood of course. I wonder how you could like a lady during her period at times. This minute you’re all smiley and happy and the next you look so sad that it scares me out.”
For the first time in her life, she heard Yazeed’s laughter that she had to turn to make sure he was the one. “For real?” Those were the words he kept repeating while laughing and Jalilah fixed her eyes on him to have a soul satisfaction. She knew that she had told this to herself, that Yazeed was handsome, unnaturally handsome even. But she could swear that nothing could beat the laughing Yazeed. He looked so carefree and happy that she wished he could stay like this forever.
After he sobered up, it was so hard to stop laughing but he had to, because of the way she was shamelessly staring at him that she was beginning to make him uncomfortable. “Okay, I've never thought you could think this of me. I don’t even know what to say, thank god I'm a man. But, has anyone ever told you you’re crazy? I can’t wrap it around my head how you could even think this of me, just because I don’t smile often doesn’t make me that way.”
“You need to see the way you looked as you laughed, it was so amazing. Please laugh often and smile as much as you can. And yes, my best friend makes sure I know that more than a zillion times a day.”
“I'll smile often to prove your words wrong.”
“But you have to take these chocolates, they’re so sweet. And no, I don’t mean in a sugary way, but sweet in sensation, you won’t regret taking them.”