A Halal Love Story #Wattys2019 - BEING EDITED

Chapter 32

Recap...

Saafiya's family, Auntie Lubna's family, and ours stay behind to clean the banquet hall since we decided that Umme's family should go home. They had enough tiredness to last them a century.

Hamza and I are put on kitchen duty since Saafiya's family had to leave after an hour.

"So are you excited?" Hamza asks and I immediately know what he's talking about. I grab another plate to wash before I answer.

"Definitely but it also kind of scary." I say quietly with a smile. He nods and smiles faintly at me.

"What about your mystery girl? Did you propose or tell her?"

"Yup. I did it a while ago and she accepted. She's ecstatic."

"Well that's good."

"Yup. We'll be getting married soon."

I feel my heart ache and my muscles tense.

"In fact, I'll bring her along to your wedding." He says with a wide smile. It takes everything in me to tell him to not bring her, as amazing as she sounds.

That night when I lay down in bed, the true countdown began.

CHAPTER 32

The warm bed and the soft blanket are so alluring as I smack my alarm clock, and go back to my wondrous sleep.

"Wakey wakey!" A voice yells as I groan and cover my face with my pillow.

Suddenly the warmth of my pillow case is replaced by the cold frigid air.

"Who did that?" I say looking up to see Umme and Saafiya pointing at each other with an innocent smile.

"Five more minutes please." I groan trying to push the comforter back over my cold body.

"I never thought that we had to resort to this Saafiya, but I think we have to." Umme says, and on the count of 3, both of them are playing tug of war with my precious comforter. I hope they don't rip it because I won't have a comforter for tonight—wait a minute today is the 23rd!

I shoot straight up in the bed with wide eyes.

"I think... she got it Umme." Saafiya says looking satisfied with herself.

"I'm going to meet mystery man today!" I yell as I get out of bed.

"Guess someone is excited." Umme says wiggling her eyebrows.

"You guys are so mean." I say fake pouting.

"Now go take a shower. You still have to eat, and the makeup artist is going to be here in two and a half hours." 

I nod and go to take a shower. The butterflies in my stomach seemed to have gotten worse over the past couple of weeks but I'm super excited to finally find out after almost a whole year who mystery man is. As I wash my hair, I realize that this is the last time that I will be taking a shower in this house because next time, I will be married In Sha Allah. I thoroughly clean my hair and use my strawberry shampoo and conditioner. 

I get out of the shower and decide to dress in a pair of harem pants and a loose full sleeve shirt. I keep the towel on my head since I don't like to blow-dry my hair often. Blow drying my hair in the past always resulted in damaged hair, so I stick with the "au natural" way of drying my hair now. AKA the towel. Plus I have a lot of time before the makeup artist comes over.

Once I get out, I go downstairs and see that mom, dad, Saafiya, and Umme are already sitting there eating breakfast. 

"Assalam O Alaikom." I say to everyone as I take a seat in my chair.