Sadique 1

He had a mocha complexion, blue eyes that seemed to always laugh, soft curly hair that formed into a decent afro, broad toned chest and long legs. Nakhanu loved lying on his broad back laughing that it was her comfort zone. Nakhanu ran into him while auditing his company. Their first meeting was horrendous. She could not understand how a man, a CEO to be precise could be that irresponsible.

'Your company accounts have not been audited, your accounts are a mess, and you have a huge deficit. Are you trying to run your company down', Nakhanu ranted while perusing the files from the company's finance department.

'Isn't that why I am paying you. To sort out the mess' Sadique replied nonchalantly while walking away with a set of car keys swinging round his index finger.

'From what I can see you seem intent on closing up the company', Nakhanu stated.

'What if I am', Sadique replied as he disappeared to the corridor.

The statement stunned Nakhanu. In a second, she had recollected herself, picked her handbag and followed the man who had just gone outside. 'I do not work for people who are ready to involve those who want to live in their suicide mission. Once you are done playing with you employees' livelihood call me. You have my contact information', Nakhanu dictated while going out. Sadique's eyebrows perked up, intrigued. On the other hand, Nakhanu hurried to school to pick up her twins. It was better than working for a rich heir who threw money about without caring about the fact that he was a benefactor to thousands. Seeing her boys running out of the school gate made her happy. The twins ran into her hands, both narrating about their day at the same time. She loosened her grip on them and guided them to the car. After ensuring they were safe in their seats she started the car.

'Where should we go boys', she shouted through their narrations.

'To daddy, to daddy,' they sang out in unison.

'Then hold tight', she said as she cautiously initiated a drift before taking a turn and heading to Dunia Inc. to see her husband. Motherhood was not easy. She preferred dealing with adults as opposed to children who could not understand what you are talking about and refused to compromise just because they felt like it. And they could not just keep quiet. Taking after her, the twins were noisy and their stories were endless. If she switched of and withdrew into her own world, she would be pulled back by frustrated screams of

'Mommy, you are not listening to us'.

She felt like she was listening to a mini-version of herself whenever they said that. She always stated that sentence to them a lot and suspected karma. She would turn around and reassure them

'Yes babies, I am listening'

'We are not babies anymore', they would shout in agitation.

'Yes, yes, you are not. Lets sing okay. I will sing with you' after that she would be pulled into a rendition of baby shark. She would smile but scoff within,

'Mph, trying to be all grown yet you are singing baby shark'.

At Dunia Inc., Paul was forced away from his work by a pair of tiny footsteps.

'Daddy', the tiny steps came in and hugged him. Behind them was a woman in heels smiling at him. Sighing, he walked to her and hugged her as if comforting her.

'They must be a handful right', he said while leading her to a chair.

'Sit here and wait for me as I warm our food', he headed to the kitchen in his office leaving his sons bouncing on the sofa. The only time they would calm down was when they were eating or sleeping. Their parents let them be since they were being kids. As long as they were neither violent nor disrespectful, Paul and Nakhanu would not interfere with their ideas of fun. Paul was grateful to have Nakhanu as his wife. He loved her to bits although he knew that Nakhanu did not love him. One could describe her affection as friendship and respect. She admired his decisiveness and firm security. To her, that was her kind of love. She assumed it was love even though she had never fallen in love before. Paul treasured their moment together but deep within he was scared that one day her spontaneity, the spontaneity that led her to drop her course in Medicine in her 2nd year and take up Accounts and the same spontaneity that took her to Country B might kick in. The dread he had lived with during their first two years of marriage was waning now that they were in their 6th year of marriage. Yet he could never shake off that feeling completely. It always felt as if he was holding her on behalf of an unidentified person.

During their lunch, she kept ranting about Sadique's lack of concern and the fact that she will not work with him again. He smiled as he listened to her, knowing that she will take up the case again. Being a passionate Accountant, she would not hesitate to get the company accounts back in order if there was hope. If a company was beyond repair, by nature, she would not have talked about it at all and treated the matter as nonexistent.

'Whatever you decide honey. Now eat up', he said while scooping food into her bowl.

The twins ate silently as if their mother's rant was some kind of drone passing through the sky. It did not concern them. Which was true.