It is honestly one of the world's worst kind of frustration to hear a story from Eliyas.
I'm not exaggerating, there are people who unfortunately are not meant to be story tellers, And it is such an unlucky experience having to hear everything from them.
I mean, I worked as a journalist for a decent number of years, I spoke, interrogated and listened to countless people narrating events that they experienced, so when I say that my husband is one of the worst I had to listen to .. Take my word for it!
I wanted to know what happened with Ines and Akrem, I'm not going to lie and say that this matter was simply a lame topic I brought out to fill the awkward atmosphere, because the moment I heard "Ines" was actually "the one who chose to marry Nadir" and "Eliyas" was surprisingly "against that" I became 1000% curious.
But the further I asked him and received his short not so detailed and rather cold replies I lost every interest in knowing more.
What I vaguely understood is that when he spoke with Akrem, while lecturing him their discussion magically shifted from scalding into asking whether Akrem was in love with Ines, I have no Idea how the Eliyas Filadi I know ended up asking such an emotional question but miracles can happen apparently, Akrem gave a positive answer, I swear this is what this useless husband of mine literally said:
_"Akrem replied positively, since this was the case, I thought a change of plans became necessary for the sake of a good man, not that I disregarded mr Ghemmari of course, I decided to let Ines know that there were two good men waiting although she deserved none among them in my opinion."
Later when Ines came, she chose Nadir, as for the reasons and circumstances leading her to exclude the man she kissed so passionately for an eternity, I don't know of them, and Eliyas sure didn't bother to ask nor even notice.
Akrem decided to leave the villa, I can guess this was the result of him feeling uncomfortable after the situation we witnessed, and also for the simple reason that he was seriously hurt.
Ines was kicked out though, although Eliyas explained her departure beautifully, it was still just kicking out.
_" I will talk with her later and see why she did this, You and your sister are sure one of the most complicated of people. " I said with a sigh once he finished speaking.
He glared at me for no reason, then said nothing, because I was right of course.
Once this discussion was over, we remained boringly silent, I inspected the people walking around us, the garden was almost empty except for us and the bodyguards who were low key standing almost everywhere, then I smiled mischievously and decided to have a bit of fun.
I sneakily grabbed Eliyas's hand then held it tight between my palms.
"A man's hand is sure different" I thought to my self while giving it a throughout examination, although he led a very comfortable life his hand was big and meaty like that of laborers, I guess his ancestors didn't have it as easy as he and his father did, my hands looked so tiny in comparison.
I kept touching his hand with the tips of my fingers, drawing circles and shapes, as weird as this was it suddenly became a very exciting thing to do.
After a very long time, it finally occurred to me that while I was doing this, Eliyas was calm and unmoving, when I sneaked a pick at him I found that he was intensely looking at his hand and very focused on my small actions, as if I was doing something of great importance.
_" what are you thinking about?" I asked curiously.
To my surprise, he bluntly replied:
_" about you."
As any other female on the surface of this planet, I obviously felt flattered and pleased to the extremes, smiling widely I asked cheekily:
_" what are you thinking about in me?"
I was expecting to hear simple answers like: "I'm thinking that your hands are small", " I'm thinking that our date is making you feel very bored, so I'll take you to the most expensive restaurant in D city so as you show off your beauty" or even "I'm thinking that I love you very much"
To my surprise, he didn't even raise his eyes to look at me when he replied:
_" I'm thinking how I can make it up for all the people you lost in life, how I can replace them all."
I was confused, so confused that I stopped drawing random shapes on his hand and just held it tightly mid-air.
He continued:
_" I did few investigations this morning, Your mother is in M city, she owns an embroidery workshop and an apartment of her own, currently seeing another man, we need further investigations to know more but I don't think that's necessary."
To say I didn't feel anything after hearing my mother's news would be an insult to my pain, not that it hurt me to know that she moved on already and had a steady life, I was pained because I had to hear about her through sneaky ways like investigating and through my husband who barely even knew her.
But having the affection of one's parents isn't natural and valid after all, It's time for me to accept this fact.
I looked at the ground pensively then commented:
_" She always hated embroidery, that woman, she had to make money out of it after my father's death and she complained daily because of it, the machine she used often broke so she had to spend longer hours doing the work by hand, the needle often pricked her fingers, her eyes and back hurt for little money, and I had to take care of the house and her temper, those were the hardest times on her, sometimes I feel forgiving of her remembering the struggle she had to go through, but then her life became better, what other excuses could I still give?"
_"I feel helpless seeing you getting sick by the simple mention of this woman while she's leading her life unperturbed." Eliyas interrupted me.
I turned my head to look at him, he seemed very angry when he added:
_"I understand your attachment to your mother, I was a man who longed for a woman who neglected me for long years too, I know all about not being able to let go, but I'm finding my self in a useless position where I just can stand far and watch, I can handle everything Noursine, but when it comes to you when I feel helpless, and I always do, I can't handle it."
_" You don't have to solve anything for me." I said seriously.
I understand Eliyas's bossy character, I know he values me to the point of considering my own problems as his, but the last thing I want is to burden him with my emotional suffering.
He bears great responsibilities already, he doesn't need to have any additions from my side.
I brought his hand which I was already holding to my lips and i kissed it, then I looked at him warmly and honestly admitted:
_" you can't possibly prevent all sadness and hurt life throws in our way, can you? you just have to be by my side through it all, just carefully watching and offering your love is enough, I'll do the same for you, that's what marriage is."
I stopped talking, then just looked at him..
I'm in love with this man, like i've never loved anyone before, but there are times when I feel exceeding warmth when being with him, an even more overwhelming love towards him, and that was one of those moments.
I asked:
_" Eliyas, did you take me out on a date today because you wanted to cheer me up?"
He nodded.
And i swear, If we were not in public, I would have kissed the life out of that man.
Since I couldn't do that, I could only remind him:
_" I love you, really, I love you so much."
His mood improved so much afterwards, It was I who cheered him up after all I guess, He even suggested walking around in the small garden while holding hands with me, and heavenly finally said:
_" You must be hungry, let's go eat somewhere."
Once he suggested this, I had this enlightenment moment when I came to realise that the woman should not always act humble and prudent letting the man take all the decisions on her behalf. For instant if I let my husband choose the restaurant where we'll have our once in a lifetime date meal how can I be sure that he wouldn't just randomly select one of the old fast foods that I frequently went to in college? Then give me philosophical explanations like:
_" when I saw you eating here in college, I promised my self to take you here again in the future and now I finally can fulfil my promise."
I absolutely refuse this nonsensical so called romance! I did not invest an hour dressing up for nothing!
Therefore, I immediately threatened him:
_"You better take me to the fanciest restaurant in this city! You better pay a monthly salary's worth in this lunch or else you'll sleep on the couch for a week!"
He heartily laughed then replied:
_" I wouldn't risk then."
To be precise, this "heartily laughing" didn't stop even when we went back to the car and the chauffeur drove randomly around the city, Eliyas kept glancing at me all the time and laughed for no reason, this phenomena can only be explained by this: He never laughs, but when he starts laughing he doesn't know how to stop.
Being the tolerant person that I am, I overlooked his strange behavior and even generously suggested:
_"since you're so busy laughing for nothing I will find a good restaurant by my self."
I grabbed my phone, then typed on the search box:
" traditional family restaurant in D city"
I gave it a bit of thinking then added conveniently:
"__ with delicious food"
I know serving good food is the basic for every restaurant, but I wanted to emphasize this point.
While I was scrolling down in the screen analyzing every suggestion i got, someone was still very busy laughing, at this point I lost my calm temper and impatiently asked:
_"what is it that you're laughing at!?"
He turned to look at me, then shamelessly replied:
_" I'm just happy you finally decided to have mercy on me my dear wife, I was afraid I'll really sleep on the couch for this week, a restaurant in D city where I have to pay my monthly salary for one meal? It isn't even possible to find such a place."
I glared at him for an eternity, then scrolled up on my phone, wiped what i earlier written on the search box, then angrily typed instead:
"The most expensive restaurant in D city"
Few moments later I loudly announced while throwing my phone to Eliyas's lap:
_" we're heading to Xx restaurant!! Here's the address!"
He took time to examine the description, then he finally stopped laughing, not even a glimpse of smile was left on his face, I bet he red the prices on the menu, such a stingy creature!!
_" Can we go somewhere else?" he asked warily after some time.
I smiled in victory, shrugged my shoulders and replied:
_" Sure, a week on the couch is not so long of a punishment anyways."
He immediately asked the chauffeur to take us to the place I suggested.
You see, no matter how rich is a businessman, he'll always remain rotten from the inside not wanting to spend a dinar!
As I smiled beautifully rejoicing in his internal suffering, my husband kept pensively looking outside the window. Then when we were finally close to our destination he weirdly said to me:
_" Noursine.. Promise me that I won't sleep on the couch tonight."
I looked at him confused and said:
_" you won't, aren't we going to the place I wanted already?"
_"Just promise me." He insisted.
I nodded unsure.
He then sighed, and resumed his "looking out of the window" session again.
It didn't take me long though to realise that the money was not my husband's problem with that restaurant after all!