Yasmin had checked in and crossed the Immigration. She was passing by the duty-free shops when she had thought of buying her two friends some chocolates. It's Thursday, and they'll be baking again tomorrow. Maybe she could buy a little more to use with their baking. She added some marshmallows and M & M's, which the mothers with young children usually order. When she reached the payment counter, it surprised her, she'd picked so much. It's quite heavy now, so she put them inside her luggage.
When she arrived at Nur Sultan airport, she called Naira to let her know she had arrived at the airport and will go straight to the office. Naira told her to wait for her text message.
"Hey, it's just another three hours before the office closes, and it's Thursday. The bosses have left anyway. You don't have to come to the office today. Go home, rest. Anya and I will see you in your apartment tomorrow, for the baking," Naira texted.
"Thanks then. I will go home straight now. And by the way, I bought some chocolates, marshmallows, and M & M's too for tomorrow's baking," Yasmin replied.
"That's great! See you tomorrow then," replied Naira.
It pleased Yasmin. She could rest a little before she prepares the things they will be needing.
As soon as she reached home, she tossed her used clothes into the washer and put her bag of duty-free purchases on the kitchen countertop. She changed the beddings in case her friends would sleepover in her apartment tomorrow. She'll change her clothes too and add them to the washer before starting the machine.
When she removed her shirt and jeans, it appalled her to see her body covered with hickies, from her breasts and down! Jamil! You're naughty! her mind screamed. Yasmin hoped nothing was visible outside of her clothing and ensured her friends won't see them at all. Yasmin inspected her body in her full body mirror, turning around and removing everything to note where all her hickies are. She can't wear something with a very low neckline.
Yasmin was glad she removed her clothes in front of the mirror. She took her towel and soaked herself in a warm lavender foam bath. Maybe the warm water would help lighten them. Her superficial blood vessels must have burst from Jamil's sucking and kissing. Jamil! No wonder he's taking a long time kissing her all over, he's kind of stamping her whole body with his kisses.
She was enjoying her bath when she remembered what happened in Dubai. She has to take care when going to Dubai, without Jamil knowing. Why would that man kidnap her? Ibrahim may not mean it, but it worried Jamil that he wasn't able to eat. She hoped for a passionate night, but it was late. He can't even sleep. She hoped Ibrahim will find another woman in Dubai. She's already engaged to Jamil, and she wouldn't want anything more but to be married to him. Yasmin hoped that will happen soon. But when? Until when will they have to wait, to be married and live together?
***
From the airport, Jamil went back to his flat to change his clothes before going to work. He was getting out of his car when he saw Ibrahim coming out of the building. Talk about bad luck, he thought.
"Good Morning!" Ibrahim greeted Jamil enthusiastically.
For a man who had waited in his car for his imagined ladylove, that was a surprise, Jamil thought.
Jamil finds it hard to say the same thing to him.
"Hi," he replied.
"Jamil, your father wants to see you," he said.
"Okay, thanks," Jamil answered.
He went into his office first to leave his bag, before he saw his father.
"Jamil, look at this," Naseem said.
Jamil looked at the Golf Club brochure Naseem got from a friend who's having an extravagant club opening affair the following week. Jamil looked at it without replying.
"Isn't your birthday on that Friday?" he asked Jamil.
He had forgotten about that entirely.
"How about let's celebrate your birthday with your siblings, in the club that day?" his father asked.
"Baba, I am too old to be celebrating my birthday. I haven't celebrated my birthday in a long while. I am getting old. Why should I celebrate that?" Jamil said.
Then, his father asked him what he wanted to do. He can take a week off somewhere. He can go home and celebrate it with his mom if he wanted to. Anything, his father said, because he feels so guilty making him work so hard. Jamil suddenly tensed.
Why not? He thought. "Can I?" Jamil asked him.
He can visit Yasmin and stay with her for a week. He intended to take him up on his offer.
"Sure, I'll let you off for a week. You can go anywhere," his father replied.
And he made his father promise.
"Don't have me dropped off, or picked up by any of your bodyguards. I want to move about freely," Jamil said.
His father extended his arm to hug him and promised that he will not.
Jamil went back to his office rejuvenated. He did not expect his father to grant him a week's leave, and now Jamil thought of seeing Yasmin in Nur Sultan. He'll call Yasmin tonight. Jamil must have been on Cloud 9 the whole day that he had accomplished a lot of things. He has almost cleared all his backlogs at work, except for one, but he can delegate that to someone he trusted.
***
By lunchtime, he thought of having a quick one in the grill bar again, since he hadn't eaten the food he ordered the last time when he had been craving those spareribs. When he entered the place, there was Kamal again. Kamal waved for him to join at his table. Jamil was hoping to eat alone and quietly, but here is the very talkative Kamal. However, he owed him that day. If he hadn't shown Yasmin's photo, he wouldn't have known that she's in town. Jamil joined him. He placed his order while Kamal was already halfway through his meal.
Kamal laughed.
"Crazy Ibrahim," he said.
He told Jamil that Ibrahim waited in his car for Yasmin to come out of the hotel for almost three hours.
"The man is obsessed." he continued.
Kamal feared Ibrahim will indeed kidnap the young woman if he sees her again.
"His brain is in his dick. He is not thinking that this is a crime. I hope he never gets to find that woman ever. He is asking for trouble." he said.
Not again, Jamil said to himself. He won't let this thought ruin his appetite. He'll call Yasmin tonight, and plan his leave for that week. Jamil will make sure the next time Yasmin travels to Dubai, they're already a married couple.
Jamil kept looking at his watch that afternoon. He wanted to go home soon and talk to Yasmin about his one-week vacation. Jamil planned to use it in Nur Sultan with her. He would ask Yasmin to take that one-week vacation leave while he is there.
***
Yasmin was in bed when he called at 7 p.m. as soon as he arrived at his flat. She answered on the second ring.
"Hi, sweetheart," Yasmin answered.
"What are you doing?" Jamil asked.
"In bed. I'm tired. I want to sleep early," she replied.
Jamil told Yasmin about his father's offer.
"Really?" she asked.
She promised she'd apply for a week's vacation leave that week. Yasmin didn't realize yet that Jamil's birthday is coming up soon. Then she remembered the hickies.
"Wait! You were naughty. Why did you fill me up with hickies?" she asked Jamil.
"What? did I?" he laughed.
He said it wasn't intentional at all. Jamil saw the hickies when they showered that morning but didn't say a word not to worry her. He just said he didn't know, but he was glad. At least his kisses went home with Yasmin to Nur Sultan. They laughed, and he again apologized.
***
Naira and Anya were knocking so early the following morning.
"We came for breakfast, girl," said Naira and Anya while laughing.
"Sure, I like that," said Yasmin as she invited them in.
Her two friends keep smiling. Their looks mean something else. They're trying to tease Yasmin, knowing that she spent the night with Jamil.
"Hey, I know what those looks mean," Yasmin laughed.
"Okay, then start!" said Anya.
"Is that more important than breakfast?" asked Yasmin.
Both girls answered in unison, "Yes!"
They laughed while Yasmin was filling up her water kettle with water to boil. Then she gave them their chocolate tins as gifts.
Anya looked at Naira and said, "You should send her again next time. Not bad for receiving chocolates for bribes."
"Yeah, Anya," Yasmin laughed.
While drinking coffee, she told them she might apply next week for vacation leave in town, because Jamil might come.
"When exactly?" Naira asked as she looked at Yasmin's desk calendar on the countertop, where Yasmin had circled the date, and wrote Jamil's b-day.
"Yassi, is it Jamil's birthday next Friday?" That was when Yasmin grabbed the calendar from Naira.
"Oh my! I didn't realize when he said he would take a week off that time," she said in shock.
"Then, let's plan a surprise party for him. Just the four of us. Don't worry, Yassi, we'll leave you both early after we've eaten. We just want to meet him. Will that be okay?" they asked her.
"Of course! He will be glad to meet you, girls," Yasmin agreed.
And looking at Naira, Yasmin said, "He wants to thank you for sending me to Dubai this time. I told him you pretended, not to have travelled at all outside of Nur Sultan, and never to Dubai."
Anya covered her mouth in shock. "She said what? Was that how she duped you into agreeing to go to Dubai? And I lost on our bet because she tried to deceive you?"
At that point, Naira was moving away from Anya; and running towards the living room with Anya running after her, pretending to beat her with the rolling pin. They laughed.
"Yasmin wouldn't know that you went to Dubai already, because she's new here. I have to do the baking today because I lost on our bet. If someone should bake today, Naira, it should be the person who had One Night of Love," Anya laughed.
"If not, then she has to tell us the juicy stories now," Anya continued.
The entire day of baking had been full of banter and fun. The two wouldn't stop badgering Yasmin to tell them about her night with Jamil. Yasmin countered, she would rather bake the entire day than tell them anything.
While waiting for the cookies to cool off before they pack them, the girls planned their surprise birthday party for Jamil. They would prefer to grill again. Yasmin told them that one of Jamil's favorite foods was beef steak. So, maybe they could do that, and add some steamed vegetables as side dishes, and mashed potatoes, if not rice. Or they could prepare both. They planned the drinks and dessert as well. Having decided on that, they planned on the time they'd start grilling. They told Yasmin to get the exact arrival time of Jamil so they won't start grilling so early.
Yasmin left that message on Jamil's phone, to let her know his arrival time in Nur Sultan, that Friday. She hoped that Jamil's father would not renege on his promise to leave Jamil alone and not provide him with bodyguards to pick or drop him off at the airport. Jamil will stay in Nur Sultan for a week, and Yasmin had to plan their activities. She would involve her friends in planning the places to visit in Kazakhstan. She wanted this week to be memorable for Jamil.
Yasmin has discovered something to keep their relationship alive while they are apart. Thanks to technology, the phone has bridged the gap between absent lovers. Yasmin made sure that Jamil went to bed happily every day. She sends him SEXT or sex-text at night. Yasmin's nightly ritual of sexting Jamil started on the night after Yasmin arrived in Nur Sultan, after her five-day vacation with Jamil. The very first time, she sent him a picture of herself in a provocative pose; on the next day, a text message that shocked him of her naughtiness and childishness that elicited a guffaw; on most nights, she would inflame and ignite his imagination, driving him crazy with sexual desire and carnal pleasure. Jamil admits Yasmin makes him happy, when she gets naughty through texts, that he longs to see her again... and again.
***
When Jamil arrived that Friday, the birthday surprise delighted him. They grilled the steak and had steamed vegetables. The girls preferred mashed potatoes to go with the steak. They threw vegetables wrapped in foil into the fire like onions, garlic, and pepper. They had red wine with the meat. Jamil enjoyed meeting Naira and Anya. He was pleased indeed that Yasmin has friends she can rely on. Jamil exchanged numbers with them too, in case he may have to call them if he can't get hold of Yasmin.
It was then that Jamil handed Yasmin's friends two of the three duty-free bags with him. The girls squealed and hugged the bags to themselves with much profuse 'thank you's to Jamil. Yasmin laughed at her friends' childish reactions to the gifts. Naira and Anya didn't stay too late that night.
They understood that these two lovers, who don't get to see each other often, need privacy. The girls know, every nanosecond is very important to the couple. They wouldn't be disturbing Yasmin at all, while Jamil is in Nur Sultan. It amazed them to know of their story. It is seldom for lovers to stay faithful to each other after a five-year-long separation. What Jamil and Yasmin have is true, unconditional love.
Emotions and feelings change, but true unconditional love can withstand the test of time.