Chapter 27-

"Let's play a game. You in?" She asks me wearily. Evident that she still has flu yet the sparks in her eyes shone brightly.

"Yeah, I'm in."

She pulls out her phone and places it against her ear.

"Can you come over...call him...thanks, bye." She cuts the call and walks off to the kitchen. I follow suit and find her scanning the fridge.

What's going on?" I ask. She smiles from the corner of her lips. "You'll see." She simply says and leaves.

I bring out a can of soda and take a sip, grabbing another can, I leave the kitchen but stop on my tracks. Why do I have two? For Aisha? If she wants one I'm sure she knows the way. I drop it on the slab and go to our room while drinking mine.

My eyes widen at the sight of her. My eyes wander around, accessing the gorgeous view of her, not missing a single part. Her see-through white gown falling loosely on her body stopping just below her knees as the huge sweater she wore earlier falls to the floor. I can clearly see the curves hidden underneath the black lacy bra and undershorts. Her tanned bright skin that looked pale suddenly glows. Her long jet black hair sweeps past her shoulders cascading down to her waist, shinning beautifully.

Unconsciously, a lump rests in my throat and I swallow hard. I'm aware of the strange powerful feeling that suddenly rises in me. A feeling I'm not familiar with, a feeling that is quite complicating and scary.

Our eyes clash and at that moment, my heart rumples in shock and confusion. I didn't know when my hand clasped the door knob and my legs moved on their own, shutting the door as I walked out. My eyes involuntarily close, thinking of the last minute when her full pink lips parted slowly in surprise.

What the hell am I doing thinking of her? I go the living room and gulp down my soda in haste. Just then, she walks down in a grey sweater and black pants. She wraps a black Veil round her head, tucking in the strands of hair that escaped. She walks past me, her eyes not meeting mine which obviously means she is avoiding eye contact. I had imagined her exploding in anger but her face held no such thing.

We sit on different couches, our eyes fixed on the TV. I didn't know if she is truly concentrating on the movie but for sure, I'm not. The image in the room keeps replaying in my mind and each time I remembered how she looked at me, I find myself staring at her.

"How many times do I have to remind you that I'm your husband. I thought you've gotten use to the fact. I don't know why you're silent and all, it's not like you're even sexy." I lie, trying to compose myself and not look worse than she does.

She doesn't look at me and I feel a bit annoyed because I expected a comeback. "Five more months and I'm done here." She sighs. "Five more months."

At that moment, awareness hits me. We would have to pretend for five more months and that's it, we are done. It feels good but a little part of me isn't sure if I want it to end. She had been there for me and right now, she still is. It doesn't matter if we fight a lot, I have strangly grown to like it, used to the little skirmish. But five months is enough for me to get her out my system all together. And I would finally be back to the old me but that too, I'm not sure I want.

The creaking of the door tears me from my thoughts and two figures walk in. Smiling and chattering, in Aliyah's hand is an empty green glass bottle. In Adam's is a pack of Mountain Dew, swinging along side with a white box in the other.

"Assalam alaykum." They wish us and we return the wish. Adam drops the pack on the table and Aliyah pounces on the couch, handling the remote like she had just crashed into her house.

"Let's get this party started!" She exclaims taking out a doughnut with chocolate dot toppings. I give Aisha a questioning look and she smiles in return.

"Let's play spin the bottle." She announces and sits on the marble floor.

"I'm gonna order pizza." Adam states and in some minutes, we were all gathered in a circle sitting on the floor with the bottle at the middle while I gurge on Doritos.

Aliyah spins the bottle and it stops at me. "Truth or Dare?" She asks and an evil smile breaks on her lips after I chose dare. "Dress in PJs and sing I Love You from Barney while being video recorded."

Aisha immediately bursts into an uproaring laughter and I give Aliyah a pleading look. "Please change it, I don't think I can handle the disgrace." But she shakes her head. She is a pretty wild, fun girl, I could tell already but this dare is a complete disgrace. "It's an insult and harrasment to my ego."

Aisha hits my shoulder playfully laughing, obviously imagining me. I cringe at the thought of it and think of an excuse.

"But I don't have any PJs, so you see it's impossible."

"I've extra!" Aisha squeaks and goes upstairs. She later returns with a Pink Panther pajamas and I scrunch up my nose in distaste.

"There's no way I'm gonna where this. It's pink for crying out loud!"

She shakes her head and I can see that she has no interest in changing it, I put it on.

Aisha laughs her heart out while Aliyah records and as for Adam. He couldn't even look because he is rolling on the floor. This is so wrong.

"But you have to admit that I have an awesome voice." I say as I sit back. Aisha pretends to gag and looks at me.

"Wait, you want me to make you feel happy or tell you the truth?"

"You're just jealous."

"Of your horrible voice? No please keep that."

"Why don't you just quit resisting everything about me."

She rolls her eyes and lets out a chuckle. "The only thing I'm resisting is your stupidity and cockiness which seems to increase every second." I think of a comeback when I suddenly remember we have company. She must have realized it too because she slowly looks their way and back at me.

"And...and...of course it was a joke. The only thing I couldn't resist was your charm on me."

I give a sigh of relief. She could have ruined everything. Luckily, they both take it as a joke.

"Anyway, let's get back to the game." I cut in and she nods in approval.

I spin it and it keeps turning before it slowed and stops at Aisha. Her expression darkens in annoyance and I grin, well evilly.

"Truth!" She says sharply not even giving me the chance to ask her first. I crook my lips in a teasing smirk. "Little girl is so scared to choose dare. Guess you aren't as brave as I thought."

She smiles and looks at me squarely in the eyes. "Your intimidation won't change my decision. It doesn't work on me." I raise my hand in defeat. "Okay, whatever you say." I think hard of a question but unfortunately, find non. I have million of questions racing through my mind but non is as satisfying as I want. At the moment, a question plays in my head and I smile.

"Would you rather go blind for a day or kiss a horse?"

"Easy, kiss a horse. I mean if I'm blind, how am I going to watch Spongebob? Or Nella The Princess Knight? Or Tokyo Ghoul? Or even better, The Glorious Qur'an? I can't even imagine not looking at your handsome face for a day." She inches closer and whispers. "So you know, I had be on cloud nine not to see you for a minute."

Aisha spins it and it stops at Aliya.

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare, cos guess what? I'm flying conquerer!" She yells raising her hands like some warrior on a battle field.

"Okay...blend this piece of pizza and drink it." She picks a slice and hands it to Aliya whose grin drops to a scowl. She stares at her in disbelief and sighs. "A woman gotta be a woman right?"

We go to the kitchen and put the slice in the blender before turning it on. It turns to a thick reddish brown paste. She closes her eyes and takes a sip. Her eyes shoots open and she smiles. "Surprisingly, it tastes like pizza only juicy and better."

In one gulp, she drinks the whole cup. I can see the slight frown on Aisha's face but hides it with a smile. She had wanted her friend to hate it but it backfired and unexpectedly, Aliya loved it and blended two more slices. I watch Aisha bury the slight annoyance and take a sip. Her face brightens in approval and Adam nods too as they drink it.

"It didn't go as I expected but it was worth it and it's really delicious." Aisha confesses and pushes a cup my way.

"No I'm good."

She shrugs and exchange a lock with Aliya. In a flash, these two crazy rabid squirrels start blending anything food including Doritos.

Now, it's Aliyah's turn to spin the bottle and as she did, it stops on Adam.

"T or d?"

"Truth. No way I'm going for dare."

"Scared chicken! Lets see, what is the thing you find most annoying about Omar?"

My eyes meet his and he says flatly. "His egocentric smirk."

"What? I don't have an egocentric smirk!" I defend myself.

"Sorry mate but it's the truth, it hurts but you have an enormous amount of ego."

I look at Aisha to back me but she avoids me and stares at her nails. "Fine!" I frown.

"T or d?"

I have the urge to say D but it didnt go well last time, so I went with T.

"What's your biggest regret?"

I let out a deep sigh and without much thoughts, I already know the regret I'll take to my graves. "Not becoming the good Muslim my mum wanted me to be when she was alive."

A soft touch on my shoulders electrifies my body and her sad brown eyes capture mine. "She's always with us and I'm sure she's proud of you. May her soul rest in peace." We all say, "Ameen."

The room goes quiet for a while and I decide to break the silence.

"So let's get this thing rolling!" I yell in enthusiasm and I see their eyes brighten.

"Dare!" Aisha squeals and a pure evil smile forms on my lips.

"I'll draw on your face with a marker. Then pretend you're a bird and eat cereal off the floor, using only your mouth."

Her excitement drops. "I'm out!" She stands to leave but I drag her back to the floor.

"You just crushed my ego this time." She whines and begs me to change it but I don't. She finally gives in and let's me draw on her face although I can feel the intense hatred oozing from her. Nonetheless, I draw all sort of styles on her face including horns with red marker on her forehead and moustache and beard. The laugh was too much as we watch her battle with eating cereals off the floor. Aliya and Adam clutch their stomachs in laughter as they fell to the floor. My sides hurt deeply and tears escape my eyes, making it difficult to concentrate on my phone as I recorded her. She was so red with rage as she returned to her position and she spins the bottle hard. She smirks as the bottle points directly at me. Smirking like a demon freed from the depth of hell.

"I dare you to-"

"But I said truth princess." I smirk back and her smirk turns to a frown. It's a death wish to choose dare when you are up against Aisha.

"When you fart, do you sit there or move away from it?"

"Why should I? Farting is when my awesomeness leaks and fills the air with blessings. After all, FART stands for Freed Awesomeness Radiation."

"Dude that doesn't make sense!"

"It does to them." I look at Aliyah and Adam to back me up but they don't.

"Is today international don't back me up day?"

The bottle lands on Adam. "What's the biggest lie you've ever told?" I ask knowing that Adam would never choose dare. "I'm going with dare." He says.

"Woah! Are you sick? This is the first time you have ever picked dare."

"Just feel like it." He shrugs.

"Take a shot of pickle shot." I smile. He stares at me and frowns.

"Why?"

"Payback."

You see, some years back, Adam made me eat a spoon of mustard because he knows how much I hate it and now it's payback time.

"I've been looking forward to this day for a long time." I laugh dramatically and take some pickles and blend it, sprinkle a pinch of salt and pour it in a cup for him. Immediately he takes it, he puts his hands on his mouth and rushes upstairs to the bathroom.

He later returns and glares at me. He spins it, unfortunately it stops on me but I go for truth. I can see the disappointment on his face when I choose truth.

"Do you ever just stare at yourself in the mirror?" He asks

"Of course, every single day. As a matter of fact, if I had a mirror that could speak like that in Snow White, I'm sure it would bear witness that I'm worthy of being stared at every single day. What a beauty, even Aisha steals glances at me every time I'm not watching."

"Then how do you know I look at you when you're not watching?"

"Because I'm Omar Malik, I know you do."

"Or because you're a jerk." She says under her breath and I glare at her. She ignores me and drinks her pizza juice.

Yes! The weirdo ordered more and blended all. Aliyah and Adam drink theirs too and I crunch my nose. What's with them and sweet PP.

Aliyah named her invention that.

After the long night, Adam and Aliya retire to the guest rooms after they had both passed out shortly after leaving Aisha and I on our own. Careful not to blow away our acts, I close the door behind me and I meet her looking at nowhere in particular. "Turn around." She commands and I notice that as she said those words she didn't look at me.

"No."

This time she turns and glares at me. "I'm not ready for your jerkmatics lessons."

I ignore her and walk up to her, she doesn't move back but challenges me by folding her arms over her chest.

"New rule, you can undress in front of me." I tease and she huffs. "So I can unleash the pervert in you. Guess what? You can't make me."

Just at that moment, she places her palm on my cheeks and pecks it. "Anything you say love." She leans and whispers, "Adam's at the door." I smile back and my eyes shift to him.

"I'm sorry. Didn't mean to come in like that. Aliyah needs nutella and she kind of sent me to help her with it."

"On the second shelve." I reply.

She gives me a playful glare and I know deep down that was no playful glare. "How do you know where I keep my nutella?"

"I may or may have not used some." I scratch the back of my head.

"So you were the one stealing them. I had to buy it thrice last week!"

"I wasn't stealing. I was simply borrowing without asking." I defend.

"Um...well I'm off. Good luck mate cos you'll need it." He winks and leaves. Her smile vanishes and she twists my ear.

"Don't touch my nutella ever again! And are you gonna turn your back or what?"

"Yes...please...stop!" She lets go of me and I face the other way.

"You looked half sexy earlier." She smacks me with her hand and I chuckle lightly. As I take a peak at her, I could swear that I saw the corner of her lips curl into a little smile.

• • • •

"KERCHOO!" I sneeze as I munch on my chicken nuggets, Aisha looks at me sniffling as she too ate it.

"This is wrong but feels so good." She smiles. "We need to stop!" She dryly says and I nod in agreement. The flu grew worse as we spent two days in the cool pool and had an ice cream bucket contest. When the flu was about to go, we just had to ruin it and things weren't funny. Too tired and lazy to cook anything led us to keep ordering pizzas and chicken for the past two weeks. It stayed that long.

But it was a bit worse for her and her body gets hot sometimes. She would keep on shivering in cold and the stubborn woman wouldn't agree to go to the hospital. We had to call a doctor to check on us.

With nothing much to do, I'm left with my own thoughts.

I hadn't expected her to come back for me but she did. Although I was totally innocent and I forgive her, I was still glad she came. Mum was the pillar of our home, while dad was dumping cash on us, mum was the one showing care and love. Not a minute go by that I don't miss her.

She reminded me Aisha, so stubborn and outspoken but she held a bigger part of my life that Aisha didn't. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate her neither do I like her. And the word love is for the weak and vulnerable. Trust and get betrayed, love and get hurt. Love is a blind game that the ladies know how to play well. They're so good at that that they can make a man love them but they end up breaking the man's heart. But sex is a game I play well, a game I know all the cards and tricks. It's a game I'm ready to play. Love means commitment, loyalty, trust and promises; commitments I'm not ready to make and promises I'm not ready to keep.

I've become so good in a being a playboy that I'm ready to keep the cards down, time to flip the pages and it is my mother's wish I become a good Muslim, I must do this for her.

"What's...on your mind? Can you...just...change the channel. I can't stand that show, it...sickens me." She refers to Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I nod and change it to Gravity Falls and she grins childishly, in this few weeks, I saw a different part of her; a nicer and childish version. She is different, I can't describe it. Well, it's confusing but to me she's just like them, gold diggers and attention seekers, but that also, I couldn't verify. As I said, she's complicated.

My eyes graze over her as she completely focuses on the cartoon and licking strawberry ice-cream. I tried to stop her but we all know her and her persistence. She licks her lower lip as little of the ice-cream slides down her lip, licking it so it doesn't drop on the blanket we are currently sharing. She got only one and I'm too weak to go up so we share. Although the heater is on, it feels like it's 10°c and our noses look like a blusher was applied on them.

"Can you stop staring at me, I'm not Jenny."

She huffs.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know exactly what I meant." She replies, her eyes not once leaving the TV.

"You think I would compare you to her when you're not as half as sexy as she is. Don't get your hopes up, I wouldn't even touch someone like you."

She glares at me sending death curses with those big brown eyes. "At least I'm decent enough not to let some rotten playboy's hands all over me and FYI, the source of your stupidity and cockiness comes from there."

"Why the comback? You wanted an answer and I gave you one but now you're harassing my ego."

"Can we not talk? It's distracting me from watching." She ends the conversation and resumes to the TV.

She tears her eyes from the show once it finishes and looks at me. "Any plan?"

"A movie?"

"Sick of it, how about knitting?"

There's no way I'm going to knit like some little girl. Her bright face drops when I shake my head in refusal. "Nah."

"Come on what's so negative about that?"

"Everything, it even has the first same consonant."

"Knitting starts with k dummy." She laughs.

"And is it pronounced with or ?"

"So what? Just try it, it's not bad to try new things."