LAYLA

Chapter Three

It's been a week since I went out with Nabeel and his family is coming over today again, and when I say family I mean all of them, that's all four of them, his brother Zayyad is back in preparation for the wedding, I think it's going to happen sooner than I expected but I'm not complaining.

I'm a little scared or nervous rather but mostly I'm excited, this is what I wanted, everything is falling in place, I'm going to have beautiful children, i mean my husband to be is very handsome and I'm not ugly myself, i won't say I'm beautiful like those perfect hausa girls that's got everything, I'm not cute or beautiful, but I'm pretty, very pretty in fact, and I'm also really confident in myself.

When I got up from bed on Saturday morning, i went straight to my bathroom, brushed my teeth, performed ablution and had my salat(prayer). Then I recited the Quran(holy book) and went downstairs to make breakfast, I made chips and fried yam for everybody and put it in a cooler since nobody has come down yet, then I started putting down the ingredients for the fried rice I'm going to prepare for this afternoon, when I was done I started cooking, an hour and thirty minute later I was done, so I headed up to my room to rest, i stopped at Amina's to tell her that I've cooked breakfast and lunch and that she will serve breakfast cuz I'm definitely not going downstairs anytime soon, i went to my room and as soon as my head hit my pillow I dozed off.

When I woke up it was thirty minutes after twelve and their Nabeel are going to be here by two pm, well at least that's what they told my parents, I went to bath and brush my teeth again, when I came out it was already past time for Zuhr so I prayed and started applying my make up, i picked out a native skirt and blouse to wear, i got dressed and tied my headtie like one i watched on one of aishcream's turban tutorials and went downstairs, i picked my phone and the time was 1:53pm, so they should be here soon.

When I got downstairs Amina was setting the table since we were having lunch with Nabeel's family today, Amina looked really beautiful, there was no doubt that she was prettier than me, I think Zayyad will not be able to keep his eyes off her if he doesn't already have a girlfriend.

While we were setting the table, there was a knock on the door and I rushed to get it, i plastered my biggest smile and opened the door. And yes you guessed right, they were the one's, i greeted Nabeel's parents and his really young looking mom pulled me into a tight hug, I was really surprised I said hi to Nabeel,

  "Hi princess, this is Zayyad" he said gesturing to a man standing beside him"and zayyad, this is Layla"

I thought I would fall over, because there, standing in front of me was the most gorgeous man I've ever laid eyes on. I swallowed hard and took him all in. He was tall, a least six feet, his skin was dark and his hair was pitch black. The beard on his jaw just added to the appeal and accentuated his angular face. It was rugged and perfectly manicured all at the same time.

I could see he was muscular;his broad shoulders stretched the kaftan he was wearing to busting capacity and baby I was drooling.

Then he smiled and geez, my ovaries couldn't just deal with this. As soon as this thought crossed my mind I came to my senses,I can't believe i was having that kind of thought about future husband's brother.

 "Hi, it's good to finally meet you, Nabeel told me about you"I said,

 "And you should be layla"he said.

The way he said my name. Softly, gently. It rolled off his tongue like rich, dark, liquid chocolate.

I fought the delicious shiver that slithered down my spine.

"Yup, that's me, alright come in, the table is set"I said a little too quickly, hoping that my emotions weren't obvious, cuz that will be seriously embarrassing.

I've haven't had a crush since Ridwan, and even then it didn't feel like this.

Everyone was already seated, I sat in between Abba and Nabeel, Amina was seated in between Zayyad and Mrs Garba, and Zayyad was facing Abba. What a shame!!! Oh wait, not really.I really need to keep my sanity in check.

Everyone on the table engaged in discussions, Amina and Abba were already asking Zayyad questions and they were really into it. So i turned to Nabeel and started talking too,we talked about random stuffs, work, the food and whatnot. I told him that i discussed the housewife stuff with my parents and they were totally ok with it, I've already submitted my resignation letter and it's still processing, it's be done soon.

After lunch our parents moved to the living room, while me, Nabeel, Amina, Abba, and Zayyad went upstairs to the living room that just for the three of us, we use to hangout out there when we were younger.

Zayyad and Amina were really hitting it off and for some unknown I wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody. So I just took my phone and started going through my social media accounts, I used to be addicted to i********: when I was younger but now I'm a major twitter addict, I'm not really into Snapchat and watsapp like I use to be and don't even go close to Facebook... I don't even have an account there. So these day it's just me, twitter and i********:. I checked my i********: first, i had some messages but I ignored them, followed back some people that followed me and headed to Twitter.

Ha, home sweet home.

I was reading some tweets, retweeting and liking stuffs, my main reason for liking this platform is because you see people you can relate to, funny tweets, inspirational ones, sad ones, even the totally useless and annoying ones too, but my point is generally,in my opinion, it is the most educative and fun social media platform.

I was laughing at some funny tweets when I felt the space beside me on the couch dip low, it was Zayyad, i didn't need to look up from my phone to know it was him, I turned off my mobile data and turned to him smiling. Suprisingly he was smiling too, i noticed that he has dimples on both cheeks when he smiles, but the one on the right cheek was more prominent. His lashes was ridiculously long, I mean he is a guy, he doesn't even need it, mine is short, as in the direct opposite of his, but at least it's straight.

 "Hey"I said in a small voice

"what are you laughing at"he asked,

"Huh"

"On your phone"he said, pointing at my phone in my hand

 "Oh it's just some funny tweets"I replied

 " Ok, I'm more of an i********: guy, i tried using twitter one time and gave up after a few days, i didn't understand the app"he told me,

 "It's just the ritual, normally after getting the app, you don't understand it but after some months when you check again, you get the hang of it, it's mostly like that with people, and when you finally start loving it, it's really hard to stop"I rambled on,

  "Hmm I never knew, i just forgot about it when I didn't understand it, so are you on IG then?" He asked,

  "Yeah I am"

  "Okay, what's your handle"

I told him and he checked it out and followed me, i have 3458 followers and I've been on this stuff for 5 years, twitter is better, i have over 10k followers on the platform.

"Hope you'll follow back, you have killer pictures so I hope you won't form.

 "Since you're going to be my brother in-law, to be, i will make an exception". I turned on my mobile data and saw a notification, i have a new follower, I clicked on it and checked.

 "And he said I have killer pictures"i scoffed,

 "So Is that a compliment, you think I'm hot? You can tell me, i like it when beautiful girls compliment me"he said, spotting a wide smile

 "Not really, it's obvious that you're good looking, i don't need to feed your ego"I said with a smug look,

 "Hmm, my brother got himself an interesting one, I'm looking forward to you two being together"

I laughed at that, I like him already, i hope his brother will talk more when we get married. I noticed that Amina was no longer in the living room with us. 

We talked for some time, some minutes before the Adhan(call to prayer) for magrib(dusk prayer) was called, everybody appeared, we all performed ablution and prayed magrib together,

Nabeel and his family left after praying,my parents picked out a date for the wedding, it was next month, me and Amina clean the house up and retired to our rooms to sleep, i wasn't tired so i went to Amina's room to talk for some time, we were both sitting on her bed,

 "Zayyad is really handsome, don't you think, as in my friends will not want to miss the wedding if I tell them about him, they might have handsome cousins too so everybody gets a snack"Amina gushed, she seemed to be really fascinated by him

 "Oh Amina, you are crazy, she say na snack" I said laughing. "But I like Nabeel even though he's quiet, do you think he is shy, i like shy guys, they make things more interesting"I said, pretending to have that dreamy look

  "Abegi, talkative guys are my thing jare, never shy, makes the romance more interesting" Amina said with a silly smile on her face.

Now I was really laughing, this girl has gone crazy.