[D]

“May he lead a happy life full of faith and success.” He silently prayed, and they answered with smiles on their faces.

But one thing Jalilah had noticed was, as much as she was certain they were all happy, something was amiss. It felt like sadness still lingered somewhere in their hearts, most especially Yazeed that had his eyes fixed on the boy. If she didn’t know him, she would have said he was nearly going to break down, but she knew it would never be him. Even if he was going to break down, it will when he was alone.

“Come in, Jalilah.” Ilham broke the silence with a slurred voice and all eyes were turned to her.

Yazeed looked up at her with a smile and nodded his at her, “Come and see him, Jalilah.”

She smiled and walked up to him, she stood beside him and stared at the baby’s face. “He’s so cute, Yazeed jr.” She smiled when their eyes met.

“I think we should call him something apart from Yazeed, having the same name as his father isn’t something good. Like what if he’s all grown up and they’re together? Someone might call out to one of them and they’ll all turn?” That was Sulaiman, and even though he was joking, Yazeed knew he was initiating that so they could all think about it.

“No please, let’s all call him Yazeed.” He said and when Jalilah noticed that his hands were shaking a bit, she knew she had to do something lest she wanted Yazeed jr to be hurt.

“Can I hold him?” She asked and he appreciatively nodded his head before he spoke.

“Yes please, I need to calm my racing heart after seeing this bunch of cuteness.” They chuckled and he watched as she stretched out her hands, waiting for him to drop the baby on it. He carefully placed the baby down but he realized their hands were touching and before he could take his hands off he had to make sure she was holding the baby. Their eyes were all fixed on the baby when they heard the shutter sound of the camera and they turned to where the sound came from after he successfully handed her the boy.

“Please, you all need to see this picture.” Jalilah looked at the beholder of the voice and then back to their faces, but she saw that none of them was surprised. She turned again and she was smiling widely at her.

“Wafiyya?” She asked, finding it so hard to believe her eyes.

“Jalilah is, you look so cute holding that baby together.”

Jalilah closed her eyes and shook her head for a while to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. “Are you their...?” She couldn’t even bring herself to ask the question, because it was clear she was.

“Yes, I am. My name is Wafiyya Kamal Bunza, another cousin.” She chuckled and Jalilah tried so hard to understand.

“You didn’t...?” She let her words trailed off because she couldn’t imagine what would happen, how embarrassed she would be if Wafiyya had told her cousin everything.

She came to where she was and side hugged her, whispering into her ears, “Act your normal self, girl. How could I reveal all that? He’ll burn us together.” She chuckled and brought her phone to her face, “Look at this picture, isn't it amazing? I'll send it to you all now, check it out and rate my photography skills.”

Their phones beeped at the same time and she guided Jalilah to a sofa before she got the chance to take a look at the picture. It was a picture of them when he was handing her the baby and their eyes were all staring at his face, they looked like they were the parents, and even though Jalilah was shy about the picture, she loved every bit of it.

She instantly sent it to Farha with the caption, ‘He’s going to be the father of my children.’

She turned her phone into silent mode and locked it because she knew the moment Farha saw this message, nothing could stop her from raiding her phone with calls and messages and she knew she couldn’t answer to all Farha would have to say in front of them.

She looked up at Ilham that had this soft yet mischievous smile on her lips while she stared at her phone, “Yazeed, have you seen the way you two look in this picture? Ya ilahi!” She exclaimed and turned to look at Sulaiman, “Don’t you think we have to give them Yazeed jr for some time? He looks so much like them.”

Wafiyya laughed and shook her head, “Ilham, I don’t know where you have gotten this idea from, but by Allah, it looks like the best idea.” She turned to look at Yazeed, “Bunza jr, should we give him to you?”

“Wafiyya,” Yazeed warned through gritted teeth and she lifted her hands in surrender.

“I wasn’t the one that initiated it, the baby’s mother does. As much as she loves her baby, she is willing to give it to you as long as you’ll get yourself a bride like my amazing friend. She’s the only one we want, it’s even high time you get married wallah because we ca-” she wasn’t able to finish her sentence when Yazeed threw a bottle of water at her and she quickly dodged it, the whole room arose with laughter.

Jalilah was thankful that after she had given the boy to Yazeed to say the Iqamah to him, Sulaiman quickly diverted their conversation into something else. But she found it so hard to even know what they were talking about, she just wanted to go home. As if he heard her unvoiced plea, he turned to look at her.

“Should I take you back home now?” She nodded her head not meeting his eyes.

“Yazeed, will you please drop me off too? Umma said I bring some things to Ilham, and I didn’t come with my car. Before you even say no, you know I owe you a lot.”

Yazeed turned to Sulaiman with an exasperated look, “You alone knows how much I hate this girl, Sulaiman. Ilham, I'll be back shortly, what do you want me to bring for you?”

She giggled, “It’s your way of saying I'm your favourite cousin after Sulaiman. Jalilah, let’s go already, he can’t say no to me.”

“I think I'd like ice cream,” Ilham replied to him because she was sure he was going to ignore Wafiyya for all he could.

“Babe, you can’t take ice cream,” Sulaiman corrected and turned back to Yazeed, “Just bring her maybe suya or something that she would love to eat.”

They were walking out of the room when they heard Ilham’s voice, “Yazeed, make sure you bring Jalilah to the naming ceremony. I'll wait for her arrival.” Jalilah congratulated them once again and she promised Ilham that she would come to the naming ceremony, Insha Allah.

They walked to the car in utter silence with Wafiyya having a phone call with her mother about the things she should bring to the hospital. Throughout their sojourn, they didn't share a word until he dropped Wafiyya off and she leaned onto his window.

“Yazeed, will you please come back to take me to the hospital on your way? My car is with the mechanic and the drivers aren’t around.”

“Take an Uber, I have important things to do. And last I recalled, I'm not your driver, Wafiyya.”

“At least you know my name. Bye, Jalilah.” She rolled her eyes at him and waved at Jalilah until they disappeared from her sight.

Jalilah turned to look at him after he had parked and managed to smile, “Thank you so much for today, it’s so refreshing.”

“You’re welcome, Jalilah. I'll send you an email with...”

She used her palmed and blocked her two ears while she whined outwardly, “Please, not work again. Wallah, I want to rest and think about nothing but my Korean oppas, I promise I'll work so hard on Monday.”

The way she acted forced a chuckle out of his lips and he nodded his head at her, “Get ready to work so hard on Monday then.”

She hopped out of the car and leaned onto her window, “You should smile more often, it looks so good on you. Oh, I wish I could emphasize that enough. And I forgot to mention, you have a lovely family there.”

He only stared at her with the kind of smile he was sure she would love, and she waved happily at him before she walked into the house. The moment she slumped onto her sofa with a loud squeal, she brought her phone out and saw tons of notifications from Farha, she laughed. Today had been amazing, embarrassing and funny altogether.