Clueless Love

The next day I wake up early, pray, eat breakfast, and get ready for a day full of meetings. I get dressed for the meeting in a black jumpsuit with a collarless coat, black heels, a black clutch, a black hajib, and my black sunglasses. Everything I am wearing is black, today. As I go to meet Ismail, I try not to think about my feelings for him. As my Mum said, I will know with time if he likes me the same way. I will act like nothing has changed between us. But now I realize the depth of my feelings for him, I will never see Ismail as just my ‘brother-in-law’ again.

“Aha! Umit, did someone die?” Ismail chuckles as I walk toward him.

“Is the black too much?” I ask, wondering if instead of looking professional I look like I am going to a funeral.

“A bit, but you look beautiful as always.”

“Thank you,” I say trying to hide my smile. Maybe everyone is right, and Ismail does really like me, but I won’t know for sure yet.

“You are welcome,” he says leading me out.

By the end of the week, we are done with half of the meetings we plan to do in Iceland. Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah) most went successfully.

Today is Saturday, and we are all going to the Nautholsvik Geothermal beach. Everyone in the house is coming. We are going to have some fun and relaxation after a stressful week.

I am helping Aunt Maria’s boys build a sandcastle, and I must say we are doing a magnificent job. She has two boys, twelve-year-old Benjamin and Ethan who is ten. Ethan has his mother’s blond hair, while Benjamin has his father’s dark locks. Both boys have inherited the most gorgeous green eyes from their dad.

“Umit, smile,” Fatima says taking a picture of the boys and me.

“How does it look? Do I look fine?” I quip, walking over to her to see the pictures.

“Is there a time you don’t look fine?” Ismail says smiling while walking by, causing me to blush and my heart to accelerate. Is this what it feels like to be complimented by the one you like? Wow! I don’t think I can ever get over these feelings. It is a nice, happy feeling.

“Back to earth, miss,” Fatima snaps her fingers in my face.

“Sorry, what were we saying?” I say coming back from my thoughts.

“You were checking your pictures, to see if they were fine,” Fatima replies giving me the camera.

“Yeah, they actually look fine,” I say checking them, and I love them because I look good in all of them.

“Let’s go for a swim, and take more pictures,” Fatima says walking towards the water.

“I will give the camera to Aunt Maria, so she can take them.” I walk over to Aunt Maria and hand her the camera, asking her to take a few pictures of us while in the water.

Fatima and I swim in the geothermally heated lagoon with the boys, while Aunt Maria takes a lot of pictures. As I am coming out of the water, I see a guy going through my bag. I quickly run toward him while shouting, “Hey, what are you doing?” He does not answer but takes something from my bag. I can’t really see what it is. I don’t even realize I started chasing him at full speed until I hear Ismail’s voice asking me why I am running.

“He stole something from my bag!” I shout while increasing my speed.

I see a shortcut to where he is going, so I take that route. I get there before him. He is coming at full speed and turns back to see if I am still following him. I use this opportunity to swing my arm wide knocking him down. I quickly place my lower leg on him, so he can’t run. I bend down to search him while using one of my hands to pin him down.

“What did you steal from me?” I yell searching him, and to my surprise I find my phone. I thought he stole my purse, why would he steal my phone?

“Why did you steal my ph… aha you bit me,” I scream releasing my hold on him while trying to ease the pain from the bite. He bit me so hard it’s bleeding. He uses this opportunity to push me off him and runs away. I wish I knew why he took my phone. I have a feeling this has something to do with what happened in France, but I can’t understand why it’s happening. I must find a way to figure out why all these things are happening to me.

“Umit, you are bleeding,” Ismail pants while trying to catch his breath.

“That guy bit me,” I say walking back to where everyone is.

“Does it hurt?” Ismail says sounding very concerned.

“Yeah,” I say feeling the pain.

“Sorry, let’s have a look at it and clean it up.”

“Thank you,” I tell him feeling happy he cares for me, even though it’s not that big a deal.

“Did you find out what he took?” Ismail asks.

“My phone, but I don’t know why. Do you have any idea why he would take my phone, but leave my purse?” I wonder, confused as to what is going on.

“I am not sure, but can you tell me what he looks like so we can find out who he is and maybe find out why he is targeting you?”

“Just a little but not that much. I didn’t really look at him,” I only took a glance at his face. I was busy holding him down and checking for what he took.

“Alright when we get back home, we will try and find out who he is and why he would steal your phone. And wow, you are so fast! I took the same route as you, but you reached him minutes before me.” Ismail states sounding very surprised.

“I have been told that before,” I smile feeling proud of myself. Even though I have not trained in months, I was still fast. Ismail doesn’t respond but nods his head smiling back.

Once we reach the others Fatima and Aunt Maria ask what happened. I explain everything to them, and they have the same shocked reaction I had. We all pray we will be able to find out who he is and figure out what is going on.

As I am trying to remove my makeup wipes from my bag with some difficulty using only one hand, a pair of masculine hands take my bag from me.

“Let me help you with that,” Ismail says taking my bag from my hand.

“Thank you,” I suddenly feel shy that Ismail is going to go through my bag, not that there is anything he shouldn’t see.

“What do you need?” Ismail asks opening the bag.

“I was trying to get my makeup wipes to clean the bite.”

“Oh, I will do that for you.” He takes the wipes out of my bag and starts cleaning my hand.

“Thank you,” I say pleased he cares for me. I might be confused about his feelings for me, but I am not confused about the fact he cares for me.

“It’s nothing,” he says returning my smile.

That afternoon Ismail and I go hunting for an artist who can draw the face of the man. We meet a few good ones in the afternoon, but none get a drawing good enough for scanning. I have an app which is used to find missing people. The app scans the picture of the person and tells you any information the internet has of that person.

The next day, we found someone who drew well enough for the app to be able to scan it, but it came up dead. We tried everything we could to find him, but it was like we were looking for a ghost. The fact that we did not have an actual picture of him was making it more difficult. Ismail and I had to give up after three days. Whoever sent him has good people hiding his identity, because with my face identity app we should have been able to find him. I just pray it’s nothing serious because I have no clue why these things are happening.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.