Chapter 48 : B

"I'll be at the palace so when the tutor is ready to come, just bring him please. I need to calm down." Na im realized he needed some comfort and no matter how much he hated it, the only person that could comfort him the way he wanted was Maryam and damn it, he was going to her as fast as he could.
As he drove to the palace, he remembered how it had been more than two weeks since when Fatima had called to tell him that the clothes were done and ready for pickup, but he kept on forgetting. Today, he swerved his steering wheel to the saloon and when he parked, he sighed as he remembered their moments with Maryam in that place. 'Teemah s Saloon it read and he jolted out of the car at once.
They greeted each other amiably and Na im kept on thanking her because he wouldn t have known what he would do about Maryam s clothing without her help. "The money you gave was too much, Captain, and I've bought clothes enough, ones she might not even be able to wear them all so I decided to buy her some toiletries every girl needs." She pointed at a huge bag for him and then turned, "It consists of pads, her inner wears and jewelries, shoes, veils and makeup accessories. Please don t hesitate to come to me whenever she needs something and if she s going to agree, bring her back for another session."
They all chuckled at that, knowing so well how hard it was for Maryam with just the one session she had in her saloon. "Thank you so much, Fatima. I sincerely have no words for you and I'll try to convince her for another session to see if she ll agree." He gave her a bundle of money to show his appreciation and she thanked him profusely before her girls took some of the huge bags to his car and he left, smiling and wondering how happy this will make her.
He went directly to his chamber and asked the guards to take the bags to Maryam s apartment while he took the last one in. He waited until they left before Na im knocked on the door and Bilkisu came rushing to open it. She slightly gasped when she saw him, as though they had been speaking about him and thought he was dead and then smiled when she saw the bags by his side, even tough curiosity was what filled her eyes more.
"Take these bags inside, can you?" She nodded her head, yet, Na im helped her with the bags in the living room and no matter how Bilkisu wanted to stop herself, she couldn t.
"Mero! Come here, he s here today!" She said excitedly and when Na im turned to her with an unbelievable expression, she clasped her palms on her mouth and smiled at him, "Pardon my manners, Your Highness." She quickly disappeared into her room at the look she saw on his face.
He fixed his eyes on her door and saw her running to check whether what Bilkisu had said was the truth or not and when she saw him standing there as he fixed his eyes on the door, Maryam couldn t take a step further. She just stood there, staring at him longingly while her eyes filled with tears. Even though, now that she had seen him, she was so angry at him that she might kill him by mistake.
"I'm so sad, can you give me a hug?" He sounded so low and his voice so soft when he said that. He didn t realize how much he had missed her until he saw her across the living room from him. If he could, he would be the one shedding the tears she was silently shedding now. "Please? Just a short quick hug to comfort me, Hoor."
He watched her took tentative steps towards him as she battled with her inner self, but it looked like whenever it was about him, he always won over her. She stood merely an inch away from him and Na im ached to hug her as tightly as he could to his body, but he knew he had to let her hug him on her own accord. She stared up at his eyes, no more crying, as she wanted to see the sadness he spoke about.
"Don't speak to me after this." She warned and he nodded his head silently, getting comforted even before she went to him and her small body embraced his large one and Na im didn t hesitate to hug her back. He held her tightly into his arms as he closed his eyes to relish the warmth of her, the soothe her soul and body brought to his soul and how amazing and safe he felt when in her arms.
They stood that way, both their eyes closed as they filled in the space that their absence created in their hearts. Maryam didn t release her hold on him until she was certain that hug was enough to comfort a grieving heart and she turned to go back to her room when he held her wrist and smiled softly at her.
"I'm not going to speak to you, just bought something you might like to check out." He said, his eyes wandering at the bags that were in the living room and when her eyes dilated at them, it occurred to him that she didn't notice the bags in the first place.
"What s inside these bags?" She couldn t help but ask and Na im took her hand and went to the sofa to sit together with her.
"I just bought them, let s check them to see what s in there." She nodded her head eagerly and he brought the bag close to them. Na im motioned for her to open it and she did, then gasped at what she saw. "They re clothes! Not these abayas, but real clothes we wear over here, right?" Her eyes were getting misty with how much happiness she felt and he nodded his head at her. When Maryam pulled the first set of clothing, she looked at him excitedly, "Can I try this on?" He chuckled at her contagious excitement before he nodded his head at her and she ran to her room to get changed.
She rushed outside, her hair uncovered as she swayed in front of him, grinning and giggling at how she felt all caked up. The skirt hugging her body and the blouse too was in no way any less beautiful than she would have wanted it. Na im stared at her mouth agape. He had been thinking of her as a little girl all this while, yet, seeing her in this skirt as she swayed around him happily was enough proof that those abayas she wore had hidden everything about the body in her possession. This was in no way the body of a 17 years old!
"I was talking to you!" She whined and he quickly brought his attention back to her and made sure what he was thinking was hidden from her. Her hair dangling behind her in a ponytail and how beautiful she looked, he couldn t afford not to take a picture, a video, anything of her in these clothes.
"You look so beautiful, Mairam!" She blushed, going over to the console mirror in the living room to check out herself again. Her smile was so wide that he thought if this was how happy she would be if he brought these clothes to her, he should have done that since.
He walked over to where she stood as she stared at herself in the full length mirror in front of her. Na im wordlessly hugged her from behind and she slightly gasped before she took a glimpse of him through the mirror and he smiled at her. "Let s take a picture, this is so beautiful to waste the look without a picture." He loved that her hair was open and he could still smell how amazingly it scented from the session in Teemah s saloon.
Maryam reluctantly placed her hand on top of his that had surrounded her waist before she smiled even brighter than before, and he snapped them. They kept on changing poses while laughing at themselves and when they were done with the pictures, still standing in front of the mirror, "Wait, won t I get a gift for being such a loving husband?" She nodded her head without an argument, even though she knew what a gift clearly meant in their language.
"What do you want then?" She asked with a lovely smiled and Na im thought for a moment but when he opened his mouth to speak to her, Maryam clasped it shut with hers and she kissed him as lightly as a kiss had ever been, forcing his hand to touch the shutter of his camera and it caught just when her lips were on his.
"There. It s what you want, right?" He was still unbelievably staring at her with his pulse only getting back to normal when she had ran back to the clothes and she kept on bringing them out until she was tired and there was still more.
"I think we should get them to your room and if you want, I'll help you set everything in the wardrobe." She nodded her head almost immediately and they both carried the bags into her room.
Maryam pointed at a bag before she asked, while already opening it. "What s in here, it doesn t look like clothes." She said and when she had opened it, she shrieked happily. "These are..." She kept bringing out the shoes, then the perfumes and when she came to the inner wears, she was as shy as the teenager she was, but Na im only chuckled and watched her. The first red lipstick she had touched made her looked up at him excitedly. "This is a lipstick! Thank you!" She squealed happily and before he knew it, she ran to his arms and hugged him as happily as she felt.
He wrapped his arms around her with a soft smile, "I should ve gotten these to you since." He said with a chuckle and Maryam slightly pulled her body away from his.
They were so close that it had affected him already, so having her this close to him while she pushed her plump and pink lips towards him to apply the red lipstick he was sure would look eccentric on her wasn t something he would easily overlook. "Let me do this first, because you ll be angry if I dare smudge your lipstick after applying it and I'd be damned if I don t kiss you today, Mairam." She was about to argue, to tell him that she had already kissed him today when he took possession of her lips and she gasped slightly.