Ruqayya Ibrahim Tahir.

I sit by the dinner table, breakfast being served around the table. I yawn, covering my mouth the moment I feel the yawn coming on.

"Ruqayya, how is your project coming together?" Abba asks. I nod, yawning again. I really need to get some sleep.

"Everything is going well, Alhamdulillah." Ummi is looking at me like I'm doing something wrong. And I know that look too well. Before I can take my plate and leave, her voice comes.

"You didn't sleep last night, did you?" I shake my head, yawning again. Ummi shakes her head at me as she pours the honey on the pancake.

"Ki cigaba dai. You'll have wrinkles more than your father before you are even forty." Abba turns to Ummi with a frown.

"Kai, Salma. I don't have any wrinkles." Ummi nods as though to say "Whatever sails your boat". Abba doesn't say anything. He simply picks the first from the stack of pancakes on his plate and folds it into a semi circle then bites into it.

From the corner of my eyes, I can see Ummi glance at him, her nose scrunched up ever slightly before she rearranges her face and goes back to eating like a civilized woman —with a knife and fork. They have talked about him eating pancakes like this more than a hundred times. Ummi has now given up on him ever eating like a normal human.

"Where's Fa'iza? Did she oversleep again?" Ummi's face is contorted in a frown. She says I'll have more wrinkles than Abba before I'm forty but truly, she'll be the one having the wrinkles. How can one frown so much so early on a Wednesday morning?

"Salma cut the girl some slacks, she just got back on Sunday. Psychology is not a child's play." Fa'iza, my cousin and best friend was studying psychology at Nile University up until Saturday when she had her send forth and graduation party.

Lucky girl is even done with her project while I'm here stuck with some novel called withered soul. I haven't been able to go through the second hundred pages, I just don't like it. I could've been given a novel by Chinua Achebe, or by Chimamanda Adichie, but Professor decided it was best I did my project on some arewa novel by some sucker who is from Kaduna. How incredible!

"That doesn't mean that she should be oversleeping." Abba picks another pancake, I think his third one and folds it the same way, pushing this one all through his mouth.

"It just 9am, ki barta ta huta dan Allah." Ummi folds her lips in, a sign that she has given up. She doesn't ever argue with Abba.

I focus on my food and when I'm on the last piece, Fa'iza's small voice comes.

"I'm sorry Ummi, wallahi I didn't realize goma yayi." Ummi simply looks at her before she turns back to her almost empty plate. Abba is already done and is pushing some grapes into his mouth as he scrolls through his iPad, doing God knows what.

Devices aren't allowed at the table, but Abba is an exception. He's always one.

Fa'iza takes a seat beside me, nudging me with her elbow.

"Sup." She says with a lazy wiggle of her brows. I know what she wants to say so I flip her off with my middle finger ever so subtly and stand up, leaving the plate there, the maids will clean it up.

"Ruqayya, come back." Abba says just when I go up the first step. I almost stomp my feet childishly but refrain at the last minute. I walk, no drag my feet back to the table and slump on the chair.

"Karya mana kujeran dai." Ummi says with a hiss but I simply ignore her. She's always complaining about something. And sometimes, you just have to ignore her.

"When are you having your external defense?" I calculate in my head, with yesterday being 7th of July, I have ten more days until the defense. No, nine days.

"In the next nine days In Shaa Allah." Abba nods, sucking his teeth, the sound making me cringe.

"We'll be going to Kaduna today, In Shaa Allah. We're taking the evening flight." I can already hear Fa'iza's protest.

"But Abba you said we'd take the train next time." Abba shake his head, turning off his iPad.

"Can't I change my mind?" That seems to shut her up because she folds her lips in, shaking her head.

"After the Kaduna train attack, I think I have developed a phobia for trains," I say lowly and Fa'iza glares at me.

Abba stands up, Ummi standing up with him and picking his iPad for him. I could never, for the life of me.

"I expect everyone to be here and ready by 3pm, today is a work day so there'll definitely be a hold up. The flight is by 4.25pm. We'll be spending the night and the most of tomorrow In Shaa Allah." I have to bite my lip to stop myself from correcting Abba and telling him that's afternoon, not evening as he previously said.

He turns and walks away, Ummi tailing closely behind him. Once they're out of earshot, Fa'iza turns to me.

"How's project going, undergraduate?" I stand up again, taking the remnant of Abba's fruits with me.

"Shut up." She chuckles, serving herself the pancakes with maple syrup instead of honey. Ummi will kill her when she finds out but Fa'iza always managed to escape unscathed. So I'm not even worried for her.

"Come on, bestie. Talk to me." I round the table and whack the back of her neck before sending her a colorful word then heading to my room.

Now I have to do an impromptu packing because of Abba. I sigh and check my phone for any texts from my supervisor. The man has a kink for scheduling surprise meetings where he berates my project only to end up telling me how good it is.

I should be used to it but every time he takes that lane down the berating road, I start to question my own work, and then he ends up praising me. It's safe to say that the man is mentally depraved, most probably. Or the professorship is frying up his brain cells.

I remove the phone and it's cord from the socket and plug in my iPad, Abba says he can't get me a MacBook just yet. Not because he can't afford it, but because he doesn't want to spoil me, or so he says. I know he can afford MacBooks. The only reason he's not buying me one though, is Ummi. He knows she'll keep complaining, and I don't think he enjoys hearing her complain about anything.

I enter the closet and into the bathroom. I can have a quick shower that will give me plenty of time to get ready and pack, or, I can have a relaxing bath which I'll end up sleeping in only to have to rush packing. Don't judge me but the second option seems very inviting.

I start running the bath, obviously settling for the second option. I pick my lavender bath bomb and throw in, watching the sphere scented object float back up. There's a bottle of dark humra in my wardrobe, I'll need it. But I don't want to make more than two trips to the bathroom. And I need the humra to soak with the water.

"Ruqayya!" I hear Fa'iza's voice comes and she slams the door to the room next. I cringe, she knows how much I hate it yet she doesn't miss out on any opportunity to do it. I hate her so much.

"What is it?" I say after walking out of the bathroom. She's on my bed, her inside-the-house slippers still on her legs, hovering over her head. If those disgusting things fall on my bed spread—

"So, what are we wearing?" I scoff, pulling the shoes aggressively off her legs and dropping them on the floor, the part that is not carpeted.

"I'm not matching clothes with you. We are not sixteen anymore." She turns on the bed, laying supine as the novel I'm doing my project on rests in her hands.

"Na'ira died at the end of the book, and Champ is not the murderer," She says and I roll my eyes. Now she just made the book more boring for me. How great!

The thrill of knowing who actually killed Na'ira is all that I've been living on, pushing me to finish the remaining two hundred pages of the book. And now that I know who didn't do it, I— wait.

"Then who actually killed her?" Fa'iza shrugs, slapping the book shut and sitting upright, her legs folded beneath her as she looks around.

"Your room feels like an oven."

"That's because I'm pneumatic, woman." I snap, she guffaws and I roll my eyes. As I said before, I hate this girl.

"You're pneumonic, not pneumatic." I turn to her with a smirk.

"Aren't I both?" Fa'iza scoffs.

"But on a serious note, what do you think I should wear, you know I'm not good with all this. I don't want to even think about what to pack." I roll my eyes.

"Bari inyi wanka." Fa'iza nods and walks out of the room. She always bathes first thing before the break of dawn, otherwise she ends up with a headache.

I go back to the bathroom with the bottle of Humra in hand. I am tempted to dump the whole bottle, but I end up just pouring two handfuls. I derive pleasure in scenting beautiful, it makes me so confident and boosts my ego and pride. And I love it!

When I enter the bathroom, it's just 9.27am. But by the time I'm out, it's 10.58am. Ummi would kill me if she finds out I spent an hour plus in the bathroom. She says we're supposed to spend nothing more than fifteen minutes in the bathroom.

But I love my baths, so I stay in the tub till the water changes from scalding hot to icy cold. And no matter how many times she chides me for it, I'll still do it anyways. I can't stop doing the thing that relaxes me the most if it's not hurting anyone.

Instead of getting dressed, I cover my wet hair that I really should rid of braids and slip out of my room and into Fa'iza's room. The fool is laying in bed, her brows knitted in concentration as she browses through something on her laptop, the same one she's had since hundred level. How she still manages to use the thing is beyond me.

I lean down behind her, breathing down her neck, intentionally making my breath loud and full of air. I know how much she hates it, it's one of her pet peeves. And with the way she's been calling me an undergraduate for the past four days, this is the least I can do to return the favor of annoying her.

"Get off me, Ruqayya." I open my mouth, exhaling loudly as I blow my breath all over her neck. She's lucky I brushed my teeth.

"Ruqayya!" She snaps standing up. Her shoulder hits my jaw, hard that I think I heard it crack. A satisfactory smile sits on her face when she sees the evident pain on my face. Shegiyar yarinya kawai.

"You'll kill me one of these days." I say after making sure I am not injured.

"What were you doing?" I gesture to the laptop when she doesn't reply.

"Oh, I'm just checking out different places I can do my MSc program in Qatar. I see it's starting two months from now so I want to talk to Abba." I shake my head, the girl never rests from school. Why would I want a MSc?

"Kinga zaki iya. The moment I'm done with this degree, I'm off to France to start acting." She scoffs.

"As though Abba will ever allow that." I keep quiet. I know he won't, but it won't hurt to try.

"Let's start packing your things before my deranged supervisor asks to see me again." Fa'iza guffaws and we head to her walk in closet that mirrors mine. Most of the clothes are exactly like mine, with only the sizes differing. Ummi likes seeing us in matching clothes. So most of our clothes are the same.

We enter her walk-in closet and begin to pack, all the while talking about my project and how she's going to approach Abba with the issue of her MSc. She knows Ummi will complain about her lack of plans for marriage, but she said she's willing to take that risk.

The trip from Abuja to Kaduna is a very short one. Twenty five minutes is really short, I've been on twenty four hours flight so twenty five minutes seems like a breeze to me.

When we get down, a car is waiting for us. I want to so badly ask Abba where we're going to, but I know it's better I shut up. We are taken to a hotel. I think Abba booked each of us a single suite.

I can only imagine how annoyed Ummi is about this, she considers this money wastage. If it was up to her, she and Abba will share a room, like they're going to now, and Fa'iza and I will share another. But Abba got us suites, not rooms, and three different ones, when we can all share one, considering the suites have two rooms each.

Ummi was even complaining about the plane, saying we could've taken the train or a car, seeing as Kaduna is not that far from Abuja. But Abba didn't even spare her a glance.

Before we part ways, Abba turns to Fa'iza and I.

"We'll be heading to my friend's house for the evening, we'll have dinner there with them. Everyone should be ready by 6pm." Abba turns to go when Ummi's annoyed voice comes.

"And please, ku saka atamfa. These are really good friends of your father's we're going to see." Fa'iza nods on our behalf and Ummi and Abba enter their suite which is directly opposite mine. Fa'iza's is at the end of the corridor.

An hour plus later, we're in the same car that took us from the airport to the hotel, but this time around, we have escorts. Thank goodness I thought to bring my noise canceling earphones, I would've had a headache by the time we're done here.

I sit beside Fa'iza who is once again, reading a book. Does the girl ever get tired? No, no she doesn't.

We arrive at a two story building with a balcony that overlooks the street. The house is beautiful, but not as beautiful as ours. It looks like something a meager business man would build. I wonder who we're here to see.

We are let inside the moment the gateman hears the sirens, I think. The house has a freaking fountain in the middle of it! And it's actually bigger than it looks. Okay, I might have underestimated the house.

When we get out of the car, there's a woman and a young girl standing by double French doors. The woman is wearing what looks to be a lace but when we come up close, it's an atamfa with embroidery on it. I've seen Ummi buy a lot of those, but I'm not a fan.

Her daughter or who seems to be her daughter is wearing an Abaya, her veil messily draped over her head. Her face is devoid of any makeup and she has a small polite smile on her face. She's beautiful, with a slim stature just like Fa'iza's.

The woman is slim too, looking nothing older than thirty five, but I can swear she's upto fifty. We are led inside, with the exception of Abba who's being led to another part of the house by one of the workers in the house.

"Hajiya Salma, it's been a while. When was the last time I saw you?" Ummi smile at the woman.

"Almost twenty years ago." The woman laughs as she lead us deeper into the house.

"I think it was your daughter's first birthday, we were in Abuja then and Alhaji suggested we attended. Har yana cewa yayi wa Abdallah Kamu." I can see Ummi's face tighten as she tries so hard to hold up her smile. Is there some sort of history between them?

"Na tuna. The poor boy had cried saying he didn't like girls, does he like girls now?" Ummi's jab didn't go unnoticed because I see the woman's face visibly clench before we take a turn into a large open sitting room with royal chairs.

"Please take your seats." We all sit, Fa'iza sitting beside me and Ummi on the seat by my left. Almost immediately, two maids bring drinks, glass cups and some snacks.

"Thank you." Ummi says to them politely and the girls scurry away.

"Please, have some before it's time for dinner." Ummi looks at us and I understand the look, she needs us to be polite, I wonder who these people are.

Fa'iza reaches for a glass cup and pours us both water each. We take two sips, as though planned, and then drop the cups back.

Almost immediately, the call to Maghrib prayer is made. The woman leads Ummi upstairs to pray while we're left with the polite looking girl who leads us to a room upstairs where we perform ablution and pray. I come down first, just because I want to and just as I take my seat and start going through my phone, a deep voice salams.

I look up, only to get my breath knocked out of me. Ya Allah! I have never, in all my twenty four and a half years of life, seen a man so handsome. The way his brows knit in confusion and he tilts his head, Ya Rabbul Ka'abah. Aristocracy and elegance drips off him like sweat from a gym rat.

He opens his mouth and all I want to do is hear his voice again, but the sound of someone's heels as she comes down the stairs has him turning to that direction. Even then, I can't bring myself to look away.

I think I have found my Mr. Right.

24-04-2023
Unedited.

This chapter was supposed to come a day after Eid but life happened. Anyways, how is the book so far?

We've met Bello and Ruqayya, who's excited to meet Fa'iza?

Btw, I'm reading the twisted series 🤭 Y'all have no idea how giddy I am.

I'll rant about it in my blog. Wait, why haven't you subscribed to my blog? You're really missing a lot if you haven't.

Also, don't don't forget to follow me on Instagram @meemxy_.

Ciao!