The Love I Was Looking For (Halal love story)

||Chapter 17: Around the City||

As last night concluded, by my beautiful cousin taking her leave with her husband having her honey moon the very next day. As of today they are at the airport going to Turkey for their honey moon. Inshallah they make it their safely and have an amazing vacation all to themselves.

As for me and my family we are in the car heading to downtown to explore the city of Chicago. The plan is to look around the city then go to Devon Ave the "Desi Hot Spot". Devon Ave is a street that's filled with Desi shops and restaurants like in New York. 

Sajid and I have been texting back and forth obviously not leaving each other alone. I miss seeing him so much though. I bet he feels the same about me. It's super weird though like being in love and knowing we can't have physical contact till after marriage. 

We be so awkward, we're not the average American couple in America. Sometimes I want to smack the side of his head but again no touching until we're married. 

He goes on and on about talking to my dad about my hand and marriage and I just be smiling at his texts. They are so cute, like what the heck- He's so charming it's adorable. He did call him asking for a job and that was hilarious. Poor Sajid just wanted to work for him and he declined.

"Inshallah, one day I'll make you and your parents really proud", he texts. I smile, and text back, "Meri jaan you already make me proud, and inshallah my parents will love you for you".

Few minutes later we arrive at Downtown. There's so many people at every street, it seemed so crowed here today. It is a nice beautiful day, barely any clouds in the sky and a nice breeze. We find a place to park and get out of the car. 

This parking garage is pretty spooky. Not many people are here and it's pretty dark. I text Sajid that we're here and I'll be texting him here and there and sending him pictures and videos. We start to head out of the garage and climbed stairs to a park. 

I think we're at Millennium Park, if I remember correctly. The tourist attraction here is "The Bean" and the Crown Water Fountain. The bean also known as the "Cloud Gate" being a huge metal bean shape thing made in the center of the park. 

The Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park. We walk a little towards the garden and see the fountains ahead. Two walls per-say, with people's faces on it spitting out water. Something I've never seen before.

I took a video of the fountains to Sajid and posted a few on my story. Kids everywhere playing in the water having so much fun. 

We all take pictures as a family before walking forward. This time of year, it's so nice, it's sunny but with a few clouds. A nice breeze and all the flowers are blooming. It just feels so good being out and about.

We walk further ahead until we see the "The Bean". Isa runs ahead of everyone, amazed to see something he never seen before. The rest of us trail behind him getting the video camera ready and our phones. We all stand together for a picture, a memory for which we all can have.

I send more snaps to Sajid showing him the bean. He opens the snap a few seconds later. He replies with, "A bean wow". 

I laugh, it's just so random for them to have a bean in the middle of the park, I don't know the history behind it or anything but it is interesting. After all the pictures we head down to the city. Buildings everywhere making it one of the busiest cities like New York City. 

"Chalo, boat par chalte hain" (Come on, let's go on the boat), baba suggested. As we follow the signs there was a booth where you pay.

"$42 for adults and $19 for kids". Baba steps forward and pays for everyone while we wait looking at the boat and the water. The line of people waiting for the tour is pretty short right now, but I'm sure it will fill up soon. 

After he finishes paying we wait in the line like everyone else. Mama had chips in her bag and she gave us some. 

I decided to text Sajid since he's been impatiently waiting for me to have an actual conversation with him. I text him, "Meri jaan, I'm back for now". I wait  a little until the message says open. He texts back, "Hii, jaanu. I missed you so much, what. you up too".

I text back, "Awww, I missed you too. Right now we're in line to go on a boat tour. What about you?"

"Nothing just went out to eat and the mall", he texts back. "Oh I see, I bet you had fun", I text. "It was pretty fun", he says. We text for a while until it was time for the tour. I let him know that I have to go and that I'll send him snaps and videos. 

As we got seated on the boat the captain started the tour. We traveled along the famous Hudson River and learned of what happened. Also the buildings and what they are for. The tour was about 90 minutes long. To be honest it was worth it, my family had fun and so did I. 

After the tour was over we headed back. It was around 7 PM here and we all seem pretty hungry. So I think this is our cue to start driving to Devon Ave for food.

As I said before Devon Ave is the Desi hot spot. It's like Little Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. To clothing shops and restaurants all the South Asians live and work there. We get into the car and drive off putting the address into the navigation. It's saying it's a 20 minute drive so not that far. 

Sajid and I go back to texting and him sending cute snaps of himself. I smile and laugh so all the hilarious jokes he says. God, I love this boy so much. I can't stop looking at his pictures, like how am I this lucky to have gotten such a cute shohar (husband). His beautiful light brown eyes and skin so soft and hair so fluffy. I'm literally dreaming, how could I have such a handsome boy.

We arrive at Devon Ave, my mom looks around for the restaurant called Sabari Nihari. It's well known to be the best Pakistani restaurant here. The resurtant was on the left while there was no place to park. 

"Yahan utar jao, (Get off here) I'll be right back. I'll park the car at the masjid", baba says as we start opening the door.

I got Isa out and held his hand as Aya gets out. Mama, Aya, Isa and I head inside and wait in line and for baba. By the time baba came it was our turn, we get seated and look through the menu to see what they have.

"I want have the Tandoori Chicken leg with butter naan and mango lassi". "Accha, Isa and Aya ap log kya chahaye" (What do you guys want?)", my mom asks. "I want boti!", Isa says as he points to the picture in the menu. "You can just order for me, it doesn't matter", Aya says. 

We got our orders placed, in the mean time I went back to texting Sajid. The food was taking a while so why not talk to my jaan. 

It's been around 15 minutes and the food has arrived. It looks really good, I look a few pictures and sent it to Sajid. I bet he would be so jealous right now. I say "Bismillah" and start eating. 

I was 100% right. The food was so delicious mashallah. The mango lassi was to die for, I love it so much. Everyone just shared their food and everything was well made. It became late as we finished. We got some falooda for dessert and that was amazing as well. Today has been pretty good Alhamduillah.

It was time for us to go home to our airbnb and tomorrow our flight home. I watch as we drive off and the stars start to show behind the clouds. 

I sent a picture of it to Sajid. He opens the text a few minutes later and replies with, "The stars I see in your eyes". 

I blush and smile softly, this boy, what am I going to do with him. I text back, "You're so adorable, I love you so much". He texts back, "I love you more jaanu". Text after text we keep going, smiling and laughing to his sweet words. 

Inshallah soon, I hope we travel around the world together and experience new things together. I really wonder what does our future hold for us?...