Chapter 18

The car came to a instant halt in front of the enormous university building.

"If you feel the need to leave school or you feel uneasy at any point, do give me a call." He said after giving her the routine forehead kiss she was waiting for.

Umaymah nodded slowly as she reached for her bag on the back seat.

The routine had slowly become normal to her.

Pray, get ready for school, hop into the car with Salman and drive to her school. Once the car stopped in front of the building, the kiss came then and she sled out off the car for class.

On days when they both stayed home together, the kiss came immediately she woke up.

But this day's routine was a bit different from the rest.

After she nodded and was about to get out of the car as she always did with her bag, Salman's large hand held hers.

She turned to face him while retracting back into the leather seat behind her.

He took a hold of her other hand and raised both her hands to his mouth.

He left soft kisses on her fingers and knuckles.

"Please don't go hard on yourself." He now moved his hand to her face.

All these while, all Umaymah could do was just stare.

New thing added to the routine.

She noted mentally and smiled a bit.

A thin one.

"I won't, now stop worrying and head to the office." The smile still sat on her lips.

Throughout the past days, they had spent much time together and Umaymah had grown more comfortable, relaxed and opened around him than before.

He returned her smile and slowly drew his hand away from her face.

"Don't forget to call if you need me!" He called while waving when she was about fifteen feet away from the car.

Umaymah waved back and disappeared into the massive structure.

Time flew by like thin air without any notice.

The first two lectures felt fleeting than normal.

It was as though time was playing a game of chess.

Flying unreasonably fast and wanting her to desperately return home when all she longed for was for the hours to slip into slow motion.

For the day to stay a bit longer.

She didn't want to return any sooner to where her own thoughts and guilt slowly ate her up alive.

She was surrounded by people here.

Lecturers entering and exiting the class after designating various assignments and exercises.

Waves of students flooding the hallway with mixture of different smell; from luxurious perfumes to nose stinging odour of sweat.

She had never felt like staying longer at school as she did at that moment.

She didn't like it but, at least it got her mind of certain thoughts for a certain time.

"You were absent throughout last week," Khair didn't stop throwing questions at Umaymah. "What happened?"

Umaymah ignored and continued her stroll to the staff section to hand in her project.

She had completed it that morning before the dinner at her In-laws house and the tragic incident that had suddenly taken her off guard, leaving her with guilt.

Khair had kept on throwing questions upon questions at Umaymah immediately she entered the class and took her seat.

"Come on answer," Khair picked up her pace behind

Umaymah. "And is that guy really your husband? How come you never told me? We've been seatmates for a while now." She didn't back down.

Emphasis on the seatmates!

Umaymah inhaled and exhaled silently while holding the bundle of binded papers to her chest not looking back to spare Khair a single glance.

"Umaymah..." The clicking of Khair's heels against the floor drew closer. Her vivid and unmistakable vanilla scent became more evident. "And I didn't see you reading your novels today, are you fine?"

Umaymah abruptly stopped in her tracks causing Khair to stagger before gaining her balance back.

"Khair?" Umaymah had a tight lipped smile on.

"Umaymah?"

Umaymah breathed out heavily.

"Could you please spare me?"

"How can I? You didn't come for an entire week and you expect me not to ask?" Khair moved her finger in a circular motion in the air. "C'mon I'm not some nutter!"

"Okay fine, I was unwell and had to stay back home."she still had that smile on her face as she hugged tighter to the papers that were already probably crying out for help.

"Aishh! You should have said so earlier." Khair face palmed herself. "How do you feel now?"

"Much better and thank you for your concern." Umaymah resumed her stroll.

"That's nice," Khair hurriedly followed her seatmate and walked beside her. "I've still got one more question, is he really your husband?" She gently nudged Umaymah with her shoulder.

Umaymah had a straight face on.

She was trying her very best not to lash out at Khair.

Her mind slowly started drifting back to the incident that had occured a week and some days back.

From her brother not informing her to him calling her the day their mother passed away.

Anger slowly built up in her and Khair wasn't making it any easier with her chatter.

"Khair!" She snapped with an unusually high tone as she turned to the red haired girl clothed in a body con dress by her side making everyone's attention turn to them.

She looked around awkwardly and muttered "He's my husband Khair, yes he is! Now please just leave me!" She placed light knocks on the door in front of her then turned the knob of the office door after hearing a low response.

"I need space and you really aren't helping." Umaymah sighed.

She glanced at Khair who was staring at her with concern on her face one last time before allowing the office swallow her figure.

The clatter and cluttering of spoons and fork against the ceramic plates from the table behind them filled the atmosphere.

It was a small family of four; Two adolescents and their parents.

The two boys had started making the irritating sound right when the couple entered the restaurant.

Focus on an object. Just ignore it.

Umaymah picked up the menu and scanned the list of foreign food that were written in play script font to ignore the irritating and annoying sound.

Nothing was registering into her head.

Salman was the one who had insisted that they try out the indian restaurant few blocks from her university because according to him, sometimes we need to try something for a change.

The only thing she could understand admist the rows of foreign words were curry, chicken and biryani that were repeatedly written after a few strange words down the column.

Cling.

Cling.

The sound was becoming unbearable.

It seemed as though the boys were doing it on purpose.

Umaymah raised her head from the menu to look at Salman's face.

She wanted to figure out if he understood what was on his own leaflet or if was he just as lost as she was.

"Why do you have your face all scrunched up?" He chuckled lightly as he gestured to the waiter that had just served another customer. "Is it because of the menu or that sound." He shot his eyebrow up in the direction behind them while leaning forward.

She dropped her eyes back to the menu as if giving it another try to see if she'd understand something, but it was looking even more complicated than before.

"Have you decided on what to order?" Her gaze returned to his.

"Nope, I'm just as clueless as you are." He placed the menu aside and encaged his hands between them.

"We should have just stuck to the other restaurant." She rolled her eyes.

"I guess we could just go with whatever name sounds fancy, what do you say?" Salman noticed the waiter approaching their table now.

"Whatever." She looked down at the menu in her hand again, trying to make out at least something meaningful out of it this time while suppressing the sound coming from her stomach with her other hand.

After ordering whatever sounded fancy on the menu alongside the suggestion of the Indian waiter, they eventually decided on what to get.

The waiter disappeared behind the metallic doors at a corner of the room with their orders on his pocket notepad.

The sound of the spoons, forks and knives seemed to have stopped or maybe she was ignoring it pretty well.

Umaymah made a slight head turn to have a glance to see if the family had left or the boys had finally come to their senses and realized they had to stop.

The seats were empty.

A silent sigh escaped from her mouth.

Finally!

"It was definitely the sound." Salman leaned back into the seat not releasing Umaymah's gaze.

"It's really annoying if you ask me," She also rested her back in her seat. "Like, you don't have to let the entire restaurant know you're eating."

After the waiter returned with their orders, their table held different local indian dishes.

The flavourful cuisine made with various Indian spices filled the atmosphere around them.

From the crispy fried dough topped with reasonable amounts of potatoes, chickpea, yoghurt, spices and chutneys for appetizers to the two bowls containing Tandoori chicken and butter chicken respectively.

Two plates of hot rice sat in front of both of them with a large wooden spatula containing butter and garlic naan set in the middle of the table.

"Tandoori, butter chicken, papdi Chaat and Vindaloo." The waiter identified as he placed the bowl of extremely spicy meat base curry next to the naan.

"Vindaloo," he pointed to the bowl of spicy meat he had just dropped. "Pork used to cook..." He tried constructing a meaningful sentence in english.

"Pork?" Umaymah's eyes widened as her eyes travelled to the geometric patterned ceramic bowl containing the meat.

"No no," the waiter shook his head vigorously and pause to think before uttering another sentence.

"This not pork, beef, Vindaloo India, pork."he explained.

Umaymah turned to Salman with a questioning look on her face.

Her stomach grumbled again.

"I think he means the dish is originally made with pork but this one is made with beef."

"Yes yes, this beef not pork," The waiter smiled as he adjusted his white apron around his waist.

"Name is Samar, owner of this restaurant and Muslim." He gestured around with his cream coloured set of teeth exposed through his wrinkled smiley face.

Umaymah picked up one of the naan from the and examined the fluffy, thick and leavened flatbread topped with garlic.

"That's nice." Salman smiled back at Samar who was now explaining how to eat some of the dishes.

"If you need something, let me know." His smile was so bright.

He was excited to see a Muslim couple visiting his restaurant again after a really long time.

"Sure." Salman grabbed a spoon.

"This is so good." Umaymah closed her eyes and allowed the butter melt on her tongue. "It goes really well with this." She dipped a piece of the crispy flatbread into the bowl of tandoori chicken curd.

"More reason why trying something different was a great idea." He took a scoop of rice mixed with butter chicken into his opened mouth.

"Khair." She said with a full mouth.

"Huh?" Salman wasn't making any sense from what she had just uttered.

"Khair, the girl that is usually with me on the bench, she's my seatmate." She took took a big bite from the crispy fried dough with toppings.

"Okay?" He didn't get why she was telling him that all of a sudden.

"I just thought you should know." She shrugged.

After emptying nearly all the content on the plates, Samar brought forth their bill.

"Thank you so much for the meal Sir," Umaymah told the old man as her husband paid for the well-deserved meal. "I really enjoyed it, especially the bread with garlic toppings."

"Naan," his smile widened. "I'm happy." Samar signaled a much more younger waiter as he emerged into the kitchen.

"Thank you very much."The old man gladly collected the extra money Salman handed to him. "This is for you two, ladoo, naan and butter chicken."  Samar passed a white polyethene bag to Salman who collected it gratefully.

"Jazakallahu Khairan." Umaymah couldn't help but appreciate.

"Ameen." His smile never fell.

Umaymah's phone rang.

"We'll return for another meal soon, In Sha Allah." Salman noticed Haider's number pop up on Umaymah's phone and disappeared almost immediately as she terminated the call on the first ring.

"I'll be expecting you." Samar blessed them with his gracious smile as they left the restaurant.

"Can we please make a quick stop at Starbucks?"

"I suggest you try orea frappucino this time around, you know, for a change."