I noticed something strange while working in the office lately, for some unknown reason my coworkers started to behave differently with me, for example they would suggest to do the reports on my behalf, they greeted me more often and chatted for longer than usual.. As for the topics they spoke about, the topic of marriage was dominate. Like mentioning on the passing that having a powerful husband is a bless, or that it's a must for a family to have someone who is knowledgeable in the laws of countries.
That day, some female coworker even shamelessly offered while handing me the folder i should examine:
_"Noursine, if you need my help with anything then don't hesitate to ask me.. In the future if i wanted to have a visit to France you must not hesitate to have me stay at your house as well"
_"why would i have a house in France in the future?" I asked feeling uncomfortable and confused.
She looked at me as if i was acting silly to hide my mischief and she replied:
_"and where else would you live if not in France if you married a french lawyer! Or are you going to be one of those brides who are kept like concubines in the mainland?"
Hearing her reply, i Finally understood what everyone had in mind, they all thought lawyer Nadir Ghemmari was my fiancé.
It is inevitable to have such rumors circle in our society, since i appear to be more of the kind of girls who keep to them selves and have a tight circle of acquaintances, it was all natural that they would assume that a young eligible bachelor making the effort of coming to meet me personally at my work place was in fact spreading his wings to me and offering his affections.
Although there are in fact so many other links he and i could presumably have like he's just my family member, or my consulting lawyer, or a long lost friend who came for a visit. But our society tend to always gather two young unmarried people of an opposite gender in the long road of marriage regardless of any fact.
So i corrected her in hopes that everyone in the office hears me as well:
_"i'm not going to marry any French man! Mr Nadir Ghemmari is only my cousin!"
"And because i'm already married" i wanted to add, but these words just stuck in my throat.
Sometimes i understand Eliyas's reasons for not announcing our marriage, at first i thought i was hidden because he had another woman in his head, and that he'll one day bring this another woman to the house and say:
_"oh Noursine! Come meet my beloved real wife.. I had kept you a secret from people so as the title of my wife goes only to her!"
But that never happened, in fact, when i had left him before i thought a divorce was a simple paper to acquire since our marriage had no emotions, that man behaved against my expectations though .. At the age of 27 i came to realise that it was better that we haven't acknowledged one another as a partner in public, because this way he carried his plans for his life without worries.. And i lived mine freely, it was indeed wise of him to chose not to let our worlds collide and set chaos in both of them.
I was going to head back to my work holding the folder when suddenly i heard someone calling my name repeatedly with a loud voice:
_"Noursine! Noursine!"
It was a female voice, and it seemed like it was coming from the far end of the corridor out of office where i was sitting, when the owner of this blissful loud throat came closer, I finally recognized to whom it belonged.. It was Selwa's, the receptionist.
I felt goosebumps hearing her call my name even before she reached our office, i bet she was the one who spread rumors about Nadir and I. Now that she was calling me fervently, I didn't even want to start thinking about the reason for that, nor what kind of fantasy talk she will spread later about me.
She soon stood at the door of our office, and yelled as soon as her eyes spotted me:
_"here you are!"
She leaned on the door's frame panting as if she crossed the desert to reach me, then dramatically said:
_" Noursine you either have the biggest luck or the biggest misfortune! I worked in the reception office for 4 years now but i have never received a call from the main office! I felt like the president of the nation just contacted me! Wait.. Even the president of the nation is an old man in the age of my grandfather, our boss is a young, handsome and enchanting so it's even more miraculous and honoring to be contacted by him! Look at my arms .. I have goosebumps!"
One of my elder coworkers interrupted her dramatic introduction yelling:
_" Selwa! Just say what you have already! I'm not having only goosebumps i'm having a heart attack!"
She cleared her voice.. And with the widest smile ever she announced:
_"the big boss, Eliyas Filladi him self.. Is asking for Noursine to be at his office urgently! It's a matter of life and death!"
Once she finished speaking, i dashed out of my office immediately and went to take the elevator with my heart palpitating in nervousness.
That was the first time Eliyas called me to his office this way. Since the building was so high, the elevator naturally took time to reach the top floor, so my brain had the chance to go through all sorts of ideas that could be linked with a life and death matter and in which Eliyas wouldn't be able to call me on the phone but use the receptionist office to reach me instead, by the time the elevator door opened to the top floor my heart was no longer only palpitating.. It was on the verge of jumping out of my body because in conclusion i ended up thinking i will probably find a dead body in that office, and it was the police who actually called for me to go since i was the dead man's wife.. to identify his body.
I have no idea how my dramatic thinking led me to this extreme scenario, the only example that i can think of and would explain the situation in which i was put is when a little boy goes missing for a couple of hours and his mother starts already thinking that he was kidnapped by human organ traffickers or drug dealers when in reality the little boy only enjoyed him self too much playing with a stray cat somewhere in the neighborhood.
That was exactly the situation for me.. My motherly concern was suddenly activated towards my husband.
It wasn't until i walked inside Eliyas's office and i saw him there with my own eyes standing and healthy that i finally gave up that idea.
Still, our bodies don't react as fast as our brains, although i saw that he was ok my heart still pounded fast and painfully, and my legs still trembled like a pair of vibrating chords.
_"Eliyas" i called his name while i weakly leaned on the door after i closed it putting my hands on my chest to comfort my wild heart beats.
Once he saw me he soon ran towards me and asked while he held my waist and shoulders with his arms:
_"Are you ok?"
I bet my face was getting paler because i felt my lips trembling, he held me between his arms and put me on the sofa in his office, he held my face between his palms and made me look at his face, i bit my lips to give them back some color and i replied:
_"i'm ok"
He sighed in relief, and asked:
_" what happened?"
_" why did you call me to your office all at sudden?"
He looked at me confused for a split second before having his composure back and answering:
_" i tried to call your phone.. it was off, so i asked the secretary to call your office and to ask you to come up when you finish your morning shift"
I cursed Selwa in my heart! Why did she have to add "urgently" and "matter of life and death" to something that was neither urgent nor critical at all! That woman will never learn how to report info properly until someone dies of anxiety in front of her eyes.
I didn't want to accuse her in front of that husband of mine though fearing that she will have a dark future, so i said:
_" i thought something happened with you .. You gave me the scare of my life"
Eliyas started to behave strangely after i said these words, he forgot that we were in his office and started to behave naughtily with a smug expression on his face, he even had no consideration to my nervous heart.
After a long time i finally succeeded in pushing him away from me so i asked before i get interrupted by him:
_"Don't tell me you asked me to come to your office just to do this?"
My mouth was soon sealed by him for another long time, when he finally was satisfied he withdrew him self and replied while looking intensely at me:
_"actually i didn't call you for this but i sure will in the future, i wanted to let you know that i will be going in an urgent business trip to G country.. I'm not sure how many days it will take yet, i'll be heading to the airport in 2 hours"
I hugged his neck and as i looked at his eyes i said:
_" i will miss you "
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was an epic moment in my husband's life.
I didn't notice that i had never said this to him before, actually it wasn't until i saw the surprised and gentle expression on his face that i realized that the best confession this man had ever heard from me was: "Eliyas.. I don't hate you anymore!"
He wasn't the only emotionless creature after all.
Seeing how his face went through tremendous emotional changes within seconds after i said i'd miss him for the first time in our 4 years long marriage i felt so emotional as well, not to mention that the times in which this man's face showed any expression except for coldness and confidence were rare.
I pecked the tip of his nose and whispered again:
_"i'll miss you.. So try to wrap up fast and get back to me"
He was so taken aback with what i was saying that he untangled my arms from around his neck, stood up immediately, cleared his voice and said with an extremely serious tone:
_" Noursine.. I will miss you too"
I laughed seeing his serious attitude, i stood up .. kissed his cheeks and told him to take care of him self before i left his office.
I truly missed him..
When i ate my meals alone i missed looking at his handsome serious face while he ate gracefully in front of me.
And when i woke up to an empty bed i missed having someone to ask me the question that needed no answer: "are you awake?"
His trip extended to more than a month because the problem with the branch at G country didn't seem to be solved in a way that benefited the Filladi corporation so Eliyas stayed for further negotiation.
In his absence, i didn't interact much with his family, except for the rare meals i shared with them under my grandmother's persistent nagging i didn't try to be around them at all, so that day when i was going up to my room after i came back from work and my mother in-law interrupted my way and said with a big smile:
_"My dear Noursine! We need your opinion.. Someone asked Ines's hand for marriage!"
I felt goosebumps all over me.
When have i ever been in a relationship with Ines which allowed me to give my opinion about her marriage?
Although my confusion and surprise were clear to the blind, my mother in-law still decided to overlook them and joyfully continued:
_" come! We have a picture of him! He's an old college mate of yours!"
She guided me to the Ines's room..
I rarely went there, the room was large.. bright and bubbly, the bed was the size of my old apartment bedroom, it had even a sofa attached to it, when we walked inside Ines was lying on the bed talking and laughing in the phone, my grandmother was surprisingly there too, She was sitting quietly above the sofa between a crazy set of pillows holding Ines's laptop in her lap.
_" Nana?" I called her name feeling odd with her presence.
She turned to look at me with a dark face and indistinguishable expression which is such a rare thing of Nana, that woman was never too hard for me to read.
While i was looking at Nana, my mother in-law put her hand on my shoulder and she pushed me further in the room to go sit above Ines's bed, she addressed Nana saying:
_" Yemma ( mother).. Come show Noursine Ines's future husband! She must give us an honest opinion about him since she knows him best!"
I didn't understand why that woman was acting so docile all at sudden, and why would she suggest that i know Ines's Fiancé or whatever he is? I had never been a part of her friends circle nor i think the people i know will be to her liking.
Once the laptop was put on my lap though and i saw the picture on the screen, i finally found out the reason why they wanted my opinion.
On the screen there was a picture of a couple smiling to the camera while skiing at some snowy mountain, the girl was Ines.. And the man was someone who used to give me that smile for so long and who used to go in such fun trips with me.
He was Azziz Chouli.. My ex boyfriend.
I felt nauseated the moment i saw him, i had a very bad premonition.. Why did it have to be him? What kind of joke was it?
I lifted my eyes from the screen and i asked:
_" the man who wants to marry Ines is this one?"
_" Yes! He's an owner of a magazine company! Ines said he was a college mate of yours, do you remember him?"
I looked at Nana asking for help with my eyes, she shrugged her shoulders and absolutely refused to give me any hint.
I took a deep breath and i said:
_" yes, i remember him"
I put the laptop on the bed and added:
_" excuse me.. We'll talk later i have to go now"
I ran away before she could catch me.
I leaned on the wall and tried to breath calmly the moment i walked out of that room. The air around me felt so tight all at sudden.
I kept only thinking about Azziz and what nonsense he's trying to pull out.
I know that man.. Not in a million years a girl like Ines would take his interest, i'm not offending her but i just know his type, he told me about all his exes - he had a lot of them-, they all had one thing in common and that it including me of course: they were all careless in appearance and acted with little emotions.
If that man hated anything in a girl then that is when she acts dramatic, take my phobia as an example of that.. He preferred to avoid it rather than to deal with it, actually this selfish attitude was one among so many reasons that led to our breakup, it was already a miracle that he committed to me for 3 years, none of his exes recorded more than 2 months with him before he changed his mind and broke up with them.
There's no way he'd fall in love with Ines who worshipped her looks and acted like a drama queen even in her sleep unless a godly miracle happened with him!
The longer i thought about it.. The longer i felt that he was plotting for something.