Misfortunate (Completed)

Fifty Four: Kuje Maximum Prisons

I watched Sa'ad walk into the room with Layla on his heels, it's our first meeting with Falmata and Layla who will be taking care of the details of our wedding. They get information from us and detail our actual planner, more like middlemen.

"Assalamualaikum ladies." He greets, Layla comes close to me, hugs me close giving me a whiff of her Chanel No. 5 and a kiss on my cheek. I kiss her left cheek and she moves on to Falmata. They hug each other for much longer, then sit next to one another whispering as they brought out their tablets from this handbags they've both begun carrying everywhere.

"Let's set an agenda for this meeting. Layla and I already have an agenda and we'll just read it out." They read out lists of things they wanted to confirm with us, like the designer of my dress, Sa'ad's tailor and the wedding photographer were on top of the list.

"Let's start with the designer of your dress. The wedding dinner dress." I flicked through about five good designers in my head. I said them out loud and they both shook their heads very solemnly.

I looked to Sa'ad to back me up, but he shrugged with a face that said, deal-with-this-yourself.

"Midarl." Layla finally said. Falmata nodded very firmly, giving me an idea that they must have decided on this before saying it here. I shook my head, the designer is good at ready-to-wear dresses, not bridal wears and I told them so.

"You always say that we should give a person a benefit of the doubt, look at this dress she designed for a bride in the United Kingdom." Falmata pulled up pictures of a bride dressed in orange applique lace and a wide long veil pinned to her silk scarf. Orange on a bride would have looked frumpy but it looked absolutely fetching, especially with the tailoring. Nearly perfect.

"I still say no. I'll be wearing a white dress after the Fatiha is called, let her design that one." Falmata rummaged in her wide bag, coming up with a slew of pictures I didn't see before. These girls came prepared.

"Still saying no?" I shook my head slowly, pictures of brides, of women in unconventional colors that made them look perfect and in their element.

"Yes. We'll use Midarl." Falmata and Layla slapped their hands on one another in happiness and jotted things down with their tablet pen. We moved on to photographers.

"Let's use EOI pictures for the female events, BH images for the pre-wedding and Najwa pictures for the main wedding photography." I looked towards Sa'ad and he shook his head.

"I'll have to come in here ladies. I want BH for the main wedding photography. Amanso is good but his wedding photography lacks substance. I want Labeebah and I's wedding pictures to feature the love and laughter, to include the light that our guests are going to bring. It's not just me and her that day, it's the union of four families, I want to see their joy in the pictures." Layla and Falmata had confusion that mirrored mine on their faces. Sa'ad is pretty flexible about things so when he says no, there's always a good reason that isn't just casual, you must know that he has thought deeply about it.

"I don't understand." Falmata says slowly, she and Layla pull open Instagram and begin to compare pictures on the wedding pages of both photographers and it finally occured to them what Sa'ad was pointing out.

"I see what Ya Sa'ad is saying. It's very evident." Layla who had been speaking turned to me and asked if I had any problems with it and when I shook my head, they got up and said we were done for the day.

When they left, leaving Sa'ad and I in the room overlooking the man-made lake in the villa. I smiled at him and he smiled back, we sat there, basking in the comfort of our silence until Munir came in all trussed up from playing football.