A toast to successful intimacy.
“Wow! I didn't hear that just now.” Helena says, parabolically.
“Me neither.” Patricia answers, too.
Myla chews hard on her lip. She's so finished, and wishes to disappear.
“Alright, that's enough. We've seen them kiss on screen before. You, take this to the table.” Mrs. Mehdi, tells Patricia.
“And, Helena, this is for you.” Diana gives a plate of food to her daughter.
Myla is left alone with her two moms as she ignores them to do what she stopped doing.
Mrs. Mehdi darts her gaze to Diana, and they exchanged a knowing look.
“You know, Diana, when our husbands gave us the same look Jamal gave his wife just now, we didn't understand what it meant, until we found out, we were carrying their seeds.”
Myla gulps, but she doesn't look at the women. She just tries her best to compose herself after an embarrassing moment she encountered.
“They never really opened up to us as we thought. So, they give us that...look which were warning signs, a baby will soon come in.” Diana adds.
Myla knows this is about her, and Jamal. The thought of it scares her so much. So, she struggels to keep focus of what she's doing, rendering deaf ears.
“Besides, did you see how she took care of those kids? Not all women will do that,”
“I know right. She's going to be a great mom. After all, Jamal must be thinking on how to make it possible. I'm sure he can't wait to see her mend their own kids.”
Myla gives up the struggle, and faces them. “Moms, stop talking as if I am invisible!”
Mrs. Mehdi, gives her daughter-in-law a soft gaze. “Oh child! We're sorry, we didn't know you were listening.”
“I know you all want me to open up about two days ago. Well, nothing happened between us. I've told him what I want, and he respects it.”
They look at each other, and back at her. “Men are not what they tell you they are, Myla. We need to observe what they feel, just the way they do with us.”
Myla looks at her mom, who just gave her a piece of advice.
Mrs. Mehdi, takes over. “It gets even difficult sometimes, because you can't tell what is going on in their heads.”
“He's just going to keep showing you moments like earlier, when his eyes said 'I want to put a baby in you', but he's never going to mention a thing, except if it gets out of hand.”
“If you're expecting Jamal to tell you everything he feels, then you'd be shocked. Remember what we told you today.”
Myla's mouth agape by what her Mother-in-law just said.
She blinks her eyes, trying not to buy the frightful words. “But, mom, he told me himself. He respects my decision, and he is not going to go against it. If he wanted to, he wouldn't have agreed to it.”
“Respecting your decisions, doesn't mean he agrees to it. Myla open your eyes.” Diana says.
Myla chuckles, and returns to continue her work.
“I mean, he has never pressured me to lay with him, even when I told him I will be abstaining from sex on my fertile days.”
“You did what?!” they exclaim in union, and Myla shudders, facing them.
“What?”
“You just said the weirdest thing I've ever heard from a married women's mouth.” Nina walks into the kitchen.
“You know what? This discussion is not over.” her Mother-in-law says, walking away with Diana, who leaves a tray of cherry cake in the oven.
Myla doesn't want anyone talking her out of her decisions.
Myla walks ahead to hug her friend, and before Nina queries her, Myla says, “Please,”
Nina nods. “Sure.”
There is a moment of silence, and Nina can't help, but say. “Poor Jamal.”
Myla presses her lips together, and the blonde hair lady says, “Oops,”
...
“Hahahahah...”
Everyone laughs as Amid has been making the table humorous, along with the old Mr. James.
Myla is seating next to her husband, while everyone settles manually. Patricia invited her boyfriend, to introduce him to the family, so they're seated next to each other, as well as Nina, and Michal.
The kids are not stable, so they flutter around the dinning.
“Tell us where you met him, or did he meet you?” Mrs. Mehdi, questions.
“No, I met her, at her favorite restaurant back in England.”
“Oh. She always loved that place, from an infant, but little did I know someone will find her there.”
Benjamin looks surprised. “She didn't tell me, she has been there for quite a long time.”
Patricia, chuckles. “Not really. Well, we leaved there for sometime, before finally settling in the states.”
“Did something happen?”
Patricia looks at her mom, and says. “My dad. He died there.”
Benjamin looks at his girlfriend remorsefully. “I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked that.”
“No, it's fine. It was time we moved on.”
Mrs. Mehdi, looks at her plate of food, while Jamal is diligently staring at Patricia's boyfriend.
Myla notices the intensity of her husband's gaze, and says. “Well, Benjamin, we're happy to have you with us. Hope you take good care of Patricia. She's our sweetheart.”
He smiles, but impulsively, his eyes catches Jamal's, and he looks away in fear.
Myla nudges her husband's feet, underneath the table, and he brings his gaze to her.
They do a non-verbal communication, before he concentrates on his food.
“Nina, what's your baby's name?” Diana breaks the silence.
“Soffi,”
“She's so pretty.”
“Thank you, ma'am.”
“She refused eating the soya beans cheese I gave her.”
“Actually, she hates soya beans in general. And also gets allergies from it.”
“That's sad. I don't think I've ever had allergies, even as a little kid.”
“I've never had allergies either, until when I put to birth her. Well, her dad has allergies. So when I got pregnant, I automatically became contagious.”
“Oh, I get it. She took over her dad's stimulation.” Helena, says and Nina nods.
“Mine was different though. I had some slight allergies, but they disappeared after these twin came. Dad's gene conquered.”
“Patricia refused to take over her dad, but Jamal got it all.” Mrs. Mehdi says.
“Don't tell me he has an allergy.” Myla says, and everyone snaps their heads to her.
“Jamal has allergies. Not one, not two, not three. He has seven allergies so far that I've known him. I'm surprised you haven't noticed.”
Myla looks at him, sympathetically.
“Why haven't you told me about it.”
“Because they're no more, except for one; Coconut.”
Mrs. Mehdi is flabbergasted. “When did you notice these changes.”
“Myla cooked for me, once, and only after eating, that I discovered my allergies were gone, because the food she cooked where my allergies. Yet, there was no after effects.”
Everyone settles in silence, and Myla says. “I know what that is. It remains in your blood, but becomes inactive when you're above a certain age. Maybe our kids will get it, only if your blood is stronger.”
Hearing his wife talking about kids, he has high hopes of becoming a dad soon. A smile graces his lips, and Myla just stares at him blankly.
What is so humourous about what she said?
Michal looks at his friend, and chuckles. Nina smiles, too, because that's just how Michal behaved, before she took in the second time.
“I have great news. And, I only remembered this after... staring at Jamal's expression towards his wife.”
Nina winks at Myla, and the oblivious woman baths her lashes, confusedly.
“I'm pregnant.”
Myla's face brightens, as well as everyone on the dinning set.
“Finally, I'm going to have another grandchild.” Mr. James rejoices, staring at his daughter-in-law.
Michal laughs. “It was hard. She didn't want to get big.”
Jamal says something in Arabic, and Amid laughs as well as Michal.
Michal learned some foreign languages as an ex army, and Arabic is one of them as they got into the war front with those tribes.
Mrs. Mehdi, and Patricia got his words, but it only settles in after. They look at Jamal, then Myla, who didn't understand a thing.
“We need a double celebration for this.” Myla, tells.
“Double? Is there something else, we need to celebrate?” Nina asks.
“N-no, no. I meant after dinner.” She looks down.
Jamal lifts his glass. “A toast to successful...intimacy.”
He says the last word in Arabic, again, and Nina understand it as she learned that word from her husband.
She spits out her drink, and apologizes at once. “Sorry.”
Myla frowns a bit, but then she lifts up her glass to toast. After the hit, Jamal sips his glass of wine staring at his wife, but she's looking at Nina instead.
To be continued...