HER WEDDING NIGHT

CHAPTER 16

Jamal couldn't believe his wife to be was that beautiful. He couldn't stop himself from stealing glances at her.

When he thought about the way he was staring at her, on his way home, he felt stupid.

He slapped himself mentally for letting his emotions get the better of him. It was unexpected. He was expecting a fat illiterate village ugly girl, not someone as gorgeous as Akeela.

She was a beauty. Dammit!

Oye, his friend wouldn't stop teasing him on their way home. When Jamal got tired of his teasing, he stopped the car and asked him to get down. Haneefah was his partner in the teasing act.

Jamal felt he was losing his mind. There was so much on his head and the jest was getting him angry. Oye was an annoying jerk. He wondered how they became friends in the first place.

He was trying to take everything in.

His wedding date was fixed already. Even though he liked Akeela already, he felt it was too soon. He needed to know about her. They needed to know each other. That was why he fixed the next weekend, for their date, so they could get to know each other better.

Why were they rushing them? There was still plenty of time, why the rush? He kept asking himself. He hadn't gotten over Sarah yet and he needed time to heal and learn to love his wife.

He knew loving her would not be difficult but letting go of his feelings for Sarah was going to be difficult. He needed to get rid of his feelings for her so it won't hurt his marriage with Akeela.

After dragging Oye and Haneefah out of his car, just a few distances away from his parent's home, he muttered angrily, "Stupid boy, find your way home", and he drove away with Oye still laughing hard.

Immediately after announcing the wedding date, his mother had started talking about how she would go to Dubai with Haneefah and Akeela for the wedding dress and the necessary things they would be needing for the wedding. Every one of them seemed to be excited about it, except Akeela. And him too.

He didn't know what he was feeling. He didn't know whether to be happy that he was getting married to a beautiful, intelligent, and smart lady like Akeela or to be sad that his heart was divided.

Akeela was someone he could boast about to his friends. But he wasn't excited about the whole wedding charade. The reasons were unknown to him.

Akeela couldn't hide her displeasure at the whole thing, he noticed. She left the dining room before they could even commence eating the late lunch at their house.

That was when he knew the whole thing was not hard on him alone, but also on his wife-to-be. They had a lot to do. They needed to let go of their past.....and start a new life together. Learning to love each other and helping each other to forget the pains and sorrow of not being with the ones they love.

After much thinking, Jamal wondered why he was letting his parents take control of his life. Why can't he just tell them he won't marry their choice of woman? Not because she wasn't beautiful enough but because he wanted to prove to them that he was an adult.

But he knew he wanted that too. He wanted to be married to Akeela, as much as he wanted Sarah. He knew with Akeela's calm composure, he was going to experience what true love is.

Even though it was apparent that what he and Sarah had was pure lust, he was still confused.

He knew he wasn't going to regret marrying Akeela because she seemed to be a good lady. And a wife material at that. But Sarah wasn't.

It was high time he stopped deceiving himself and accept his fate, he concluded.

When he parked at the garage of his house, he came down from the car, locked it before sauntering to the front door. He was exhausted and he needed sleep. It was almost 7 pm and he intended to take a shower and go to bed.