Chapter 32-

"Why are you doing this to me?"

This question made my heart race, as if I had just luckily survived a bull fight. His hands drop to my waist and he encircles a hand round it. His other hand goes to my cheek, then to my chin as he makes me look into those beautiful brown eyes of his. My belly rumples in the sudden outburst of emotions. My eyes shift to his half parted pink lips as I remembered I had kissed those lips twice.

My body starts aching for more and as he lowers his face to meet mine, I look away right before he could kiss me.

"Stop. We shouldn't." I murmur as I escape his lips. "We made a deal. Deals come with rules and we are breaking rule 4.

We were breaking to many rules these days. He nods and I notice how his face falls.

I go to my room and wash my face. Opening my drawer, I bring out our marriage agreement and reread the rules.

Both of us have a copy. I silently pray that before the end of this marriage, I would have figured out these weird feelings. The rules are very important and we have broken two out of six in just three months.

Rule one and five were already broken. I hope we don't break more.

This rule of temptation was getting the best of us, I just hope we don't go any further. With Yousuf back, I can't imagine the dramas that could possibly happen. For all I know, I have to keep my space from these two brothers.

I sigh and find my way downstairs, Omar's voice calls my attention. Instead of walking downstairs as I imtended, I sit on the stairs and eavesdrop. I didn't mean to, but I can't stop now.

"Yeah I have to. Being here with her isn't helping, I need a break from everything. I need to figure out what's happening to me. I have to be away from her."

What's he talking about? Is he referring to me?

"Thanks...I don't understand my feelings anymore...sure. I'll meet you in an hour." He cuts the call and slams the phone on the glass table, but not hard enough to break it. My brain tells me to walk back upstairs and pretend I didn't hear it. But the stupid me inside me tells me to go meet him.

Hard pick...

I'm going with me. I find my way downstairs and cough to get his attention. He springs up in surprise I suppose, his brows raised in alert.

"How...how long were you there?" He asks as he relaxes.

Swallowing hard, I say out the words I didn't want to hear. "Long enough to know that you're leaving."

He opens his mouth to talk but not a single word comes out. Stepping closer to where he stood, I hold his hand in mine. "But we are going to complete the deal right?"

He gives mine a tight squeeze. "Missing me already?" He jokes and I let out a laugh. But I can see past those words, I can clearly see the pain in his squeeze and I wished I could say what's in my heart. I don't even know what's in it.

"You wish." I tease him back. A serious look takes over my face as I gently pull my hands out of his. "But where are going to?"

"Maldives. I'll be back, I promise. I just want space to figure out my emotions and get this out of my system." He gestures to us, my heart sinks at this. I nod in understanding as I realize it might just be a good idea for the both of us to take 'this' out of our systems. But God knows I wish he hadn't put it in that way.

I couldn't tell what I was feeling. It isn't something as simple as infatuation or lust, it's a feeling way deeper than that. I fear it's the word I don't want to associate with, unfortunately, I do not control my feelings. It's not going to be easy, but I won't go down without a fight.

Being with him is not bad, not good either. Just annoying in a fun way. But, too much of something is never good right? Now we are dealing with the consequences. As much as I hate to admit, I wished we stayed and faced it together, instead of him leaving me. However, I know that it would make things worse. And things could get out of hand with that word creeping into the picture. Only problem is that I can't tell if it's a good or bad thing. For now, I have to stay away from that dangerous position.

Danger is you middle name!

Stupid heart! Never gonna listen you again.

But you want to.

Damn! How the heck do you know me so well?

Cos I'm in you bozo.

Oh yeah.

"There can't be an us." He says coldly and leaves me speechless and sad. Speechless that he had to say it, sad that it's true.

He later comes downstairs with his boxes and the guards carry them to the car. "See you in a week then."

"Have fun." I smile back. He nods and leaves.

Just at that moment, Aliyah bursts in through the front door. "Spill!"

I sigh and tell her everything.

"Okay, so you guys are on break."

"Seems like it." I frown and sip the juiced pizza.

Aliyah straightens herself and clasps our hands tightly. "Don't be sad, we're gonna have fun and in no time, you would be kissing my foot." She grins and I cringe at the idea.

"Sounds great." I say sarcastically and she rolls her eyes.

"The foot kissing or having fun?"

"First of all, eww. Secondly, you have ideas how to make this fun thing possible?"

Her eyes sparkle as she smirks, hiting her chest once like Tarzan. I swear this girl acts as if the first thing she takes in the morning is weed.

"I'm the woman for the job." She takes out her phone and dials a number I don't know of. After a few rings, the person on the other line picks up the call. "Operation fun mode! Bring it with you, fast!" She disconnects it and grins while she gurges on potato chips.

"You sleeping over?"

"Can't leave a sis in this state." She winks. A knock on the door draws our attention and I hold up my spoon in protection.

Opening the door, Yousuf gives us a weird look. "Is that for protection?" He points to the spoon in my hands.

"You have no idea the powers the mighty spoon possesses." I walk back to my position. Aliyah quickly wraps her headscarf and smiles at him.

"Wait a second, is this the guy that ditched you on your wedding day?"

"Run Yousuf, run!" He stares at me before running out the door fastly,

"Oh no you don't!" She runs after him screaming. I stand at the door with my spoon in my juiced pizza.

"Come back here!" She orders him but he doesn't stop. Even I wouldn't stop.

"And why should I?" He screams as he keeps running like no tomorrow.

"So I can murder you!" She roars as she chases him to and fro. What a psycho.

After what seems like ages, they stop and agree to continue the next day. Aliyah is still holding a kitchen knife in her hand as they share the bag of chips. The knife is completely useless but I'm not getting into an argument with the queen of arguments.

"Why does your porridgelike food smell like pizza?"

Aliyah gasps in shock. "He hasn't tasted the great bowl of infinite deliciousness?"

I push the bowl his way and hand him a spoon. "I feel like I'm about to eat poop soup with pizza toppings."

"Shut up and just eat!" Aliyah flashes the knife. Immediately he gets the sign, he gulps down a full spoon and smiles in approval. Maybe the knife isn't so useless after all.

"This is amazing!" He squeals like a kid and hastily finishes the bowl.

"Woah, slow down beasty, we have lots of juiced pizzas in the kitchen." He speeds off to the kitchen. The doorbell rings and this time, I stand behind Aliyah because she has a knife in her hand.

"I'm way too young to die." Adam raises his hands in defend as he drops the wooden wheel on the floor.

"Kinda too old to live too." I wink and help him the wheel.

"I think too hot."

"Touché." He winks at Aliyah. "What do you even need this for?"

"Her husband has travelled and this damsel in distress misses him. So our job is to ensure she has fun for a week. Now we're waiting for one more person." Aliyah begins, sounding like I'm in desperate help which of course I'm not. Okay maybe a little, who's this person we're waiting for anyway?

"Faisal isn't gonna make it tonight so he promised to meet us tomorrow Insha Allah. Can you two set the wheel of fun please?"

After setting it up, I'm made to spin it and after a couple of seconds, it stops at camping. Aliyah announces that we would go camping tomorrow at 11am sharp. For now, we would spend it watching TV.

My hand travels to the other side of the bed as I feel its emptiness. Events of last night finds its way to my head again. The two idiots passed out on the couch and since we could't lift them, we switched off the lights and went upstairs to sleep. And I thought the guys were supposed to be our knights in shinning armor.

Looks like the ladies are the warriors here. I sit upright and thank Allah for giving me the opportunity to be alive. I find my way to the bathroom, after I freshen up, I wear a peach colored palazzo pants with creamy white sweater and peach colored flats.

I step into the guest room to find Aliyah like a mess. "Don't tell me how I'm related to Tarzan please." She yawns and rubs her eyes.

"Isn't that normal?"

"Only if you can't figure out your feelings then yes." She smirks.

Why did she have to bring this up huh? "I hate you!" I grit my teeth in anger.

"Of course you do and I hate you too love." She chuckles as she brushed her teeth. I take out my phone and dial Omar's number.

Should I call him?

What am I gonna say?

Maybe just a good morning or how was your night?

Let me just text him.

Sent!

In less than a minute, my phone vibrates. I read his text and smile.

-

.

"Aisha?" A feminine voice calls. I go downstairs to meet Karen sitting on the couch. "Hey!"

"Hey Karen, how are you?"

"Good, I kinda need your help with a material. I can't seem to think of the perfect style for it."

"I'm sorry but she can't help you." Aliyah comes out of nowhere. "She's on a vacation which technically screams no work. I'm Aliyah by the way."

"Karen.' They shake hands. "Sorry to disturb you, everything has just been so hectic lately. I'm so tired."

An idea plays in head. "Why don't you come with us. You look like you need a vacation too." Her eyes are red from intense work and dark spots are visible underneath her eyes. Even with a smile, one can easily tell that she's overworked and weary.

"I'm sure your boss won't mind. If it makes you feel better, I would call Omar and inform him."

"I would love that but I don't want to be a dead weight." She looks down.

Aliyah sits next to her. "What nonsense, it would be wonderful to have another female."

"Yeah, please come."

"If Liam agrees."

I nod and after much persuasion, she was given the permission. In return, I made a deal to be Omar's slave for an hour.

One more detail, I think there's a connection between Karen and Yousuf as the have both been glancing at each other for the last one hour.

We have thirty more minutes to kill so I go to Aliyah's room. "You sure about Faisal?"

"Yeah it's alright. We settled things and this vacation isn't about me but you, so what about Omar. Have you two talked?"

"We texted each other." I reply earning a disgusted look from Aisha.

"You simply texted? Call him douche bag! Infact, Facetime him."

"What if he's busy?" I find an excuse, and a terrible one.

She kicks me out of her room so I could Facetime him. "Now go be a woman and make me proud."

I spend about fifteen minutes on Facetime with my mum because she's definitely the most important person in my life. I tell her my daily life of lies which I feel dead guilty for.

I call Omar and he picks up.

He's shirtless and his hair looks wet, maybe from shower or swimming.

"Assalaam Alaykum." I wish him and he replies. I can feel his discomfort which makes me sadden. Is this a wrong idea.

"So how's everything going?"

"Cool, not as good as being with an annoying and stubborn woman. But I'll manage."

I let out a chuckle and can't help but notice how he keeps looking left.

"Are you busy?"

"Me? No, not at all. Why the question?"

"You look-" I get cut by a feminine voice at the background. Omar's eyes open wide as he looks at me. I hear the faint giggles but I don't miss her next words.

"There you're naughty boy."