After The Honeymoon

8. Honey-versary

"I saw that you were perfect, and so I loved you. Then I saw that you were not perfect and I loved you even more." - Angelita Lim

Madiha

I stared at my computer screen as I sat in the chief resident's office. My bank account's main web page was open and after spending a good ten minutes trying to remember the password, giving up and then resetting it, I had finally navigated to what looked like my account. Even though, I really had no idea what all the different categories and tabs meant.

Like what's the difference between a savings account and a checking account? Or what is a credit line? Is that different from a credit card limit? And then what is a retirement fund and why is my take home salary so much lower than what my hospital pays me?

Despite being a student for almost 20 years of my life (from kindergarten to med school), no one had ever taught me the basics of finances. Even when I had received my first paycheck, Abu had helped me set up a bank account. Since then all I had ever done was give that account information to new employers to set up direct deposit of my paychecks, and make sure that my sole credit card was always fully paid every month.

Lucky for me, I had always been so prudent that despite not knowing much about finances there were plenty of zeros on the number of available cash in my account - enough for Moin's first semester of college. 

Thankful that the crisis I thought I had created for myself was averted at least for now, I packed my things and was ready to leave for the day when Omar's text message buzzed on my phone.

Omar: Come to the main entrance, I have a surprise.

A surprise? 

My type A personality wasn't a fan of surprises for at all, but I temporarily forgot about that when I saw him standing off to the side just outside the front entrance, with his hands tucked into the pockets of his khaki pants and the top two buttons of his light blue dress shirt open. His wind-swept hair was messy as usual, yet I found myself pausing to admire just how handsome my husband was.

A smile crept across his face as soon as he noticed me, and though the sunglasses hid his eyes I was sure that behind them he was looking at me, intently and passionately, like he always did when he stood still the way he was now. 

"You look prettier than usual. Did you do something to your lips?" he asked as soon I was near enough. It had always amazed me how he managed to notice the smallest things about me. 

"I'm wearing a new lip gloss."

"Let me check," he pulled me in for a quick peck on my lips, then licked his own lips. "Hmm...minty strawberry, I like it."

"Hey, stop stealing kisses," I could feel my cheeks heat up. Despite the fact that we had probably kissed hundreds of times since we'd been married almost a year ago, I still had no control over how I reacted to him. 

"Fine. I'll behave," he grinned at me before putting an arm around my waist and leading me towards to the visitor's parking lot in front of the main hospital. "But the surprises I have for you will make up for any stolen kisses"

Oh boy...surpriseS...not just A surprise. I took a deep breath. 

And I sure was surprised when we reached the parking lot, and he extended his arms out towards a car. "And here is the first one...ta-daaa."

What the heck? I gaped at what was in front of me. The car he was pointing towards was a silver-grey BMW convertible. The top of the car was down so I could see the beautiful brown leather seats and the sleek, stylish interior.