All Of Me - (Islamic fiction, Z.M. Sequel)

Chapter 2

“I know it was.” His smirk was back on.

“Hey!” I protested as he smiled.

Silence fell between us as we both read the menus. As I was reading a thought crossed my mind making me feel worried about this whole thing.

“Zayn?” I asked hesitantly and he hummed in response, “Do you really want to marry me or is this engagement our halal way of dating?”

He gave me a quizzical look then said, ”Why are you saying that?”

Shrugging, I felt like my doubts had been true, so he just wants to date. Of course he wasn’t ready for marriage. Heck, I wasn’t even ready for it to be honest.

“I Love you Maggie. I know it hasn’t been that long and we don’t really know each other but now we can know each other better. I want to do it right for you and an engagement is the right thing, right?” his words weren’t exactly what I wanted to hear.

Sighing, I nodded and looked at my menu with a heavy heart. So he didn’t want to marry me but at least he wanted to be with me enough to try to do it right.

God, why did I even ask him that? It was like a trick question and it wasn’t fair. I didn’t even know what I expected him to say when I didn’t know where we stood with each other or what I wanted out of this relationship. All I knew was that I wanted to be with him and that was the only thing that mattered.

“Marriage is a big step, Maggie,” He continued, “But Dating is too small of a step as well. All I know is that I want to spend as much time with you as I can. I want to tell the whole world that we are together and I want to show you how much I love you.” How can he make me sad then make my heart jump around in happiness in the same minute?

“I want to do this, I want us to work and eventually I want us to be married but let’s take it one step at a time?” His eyes were hopeful and he had this small smile on his face.

“Yeah, I’d like that. One step at a time.” I smiled whispering the last part.

Looking back at the menu, I read all the dishes names with confusion. I didn’t understand anything on that menu and I had no experience in eating in such fancy place before.

“Would you like me to order for you?” Zayn asked reading my expression and I nodded.

Zayn nodded to the waiter to come then ordered some dish that I didn’t even know how to pronounce for us. The waiter wrote down the name of that dish then left to get it.

It was nice being on a ‘date’, I think you can call it that. I never been on one before, sure I had been on those ‘pizza and movies’ dates when I was in school but I never went on a real one.

Technically speaking this was my second date with Zayn but back then we didn’t dare call it that. It was weird to think about it really. How I felt like it was wrong being with him or being friends but loved it at the same time. And now here we are; Same people, same situation but different feelings.

“Woho? Earth to Maggie,” Zayn interrupted my thoughts making me look at him, “What’s on your mind babe?” small butterflies erupted in the bottom of my stomach when he called me babe. I love it when he called me that. That was definitely something I can get used to.

“You,” I smiled blushingly then shrugged like it was no big deal, “Us.”

He smiled making me skip a heart-beat, “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Of course.”

“Remember the last time I took you to eat?” I nodded blushing on the memory, I was so horrible to him yet he was so sweet and loving, “In my mind, I pretended like we were dating. And for those short few hours, I actually believed it. And when that girl said she didn’t mean to interrupt our date and you didn’t tell her we weren’t on one, I felt like the happiest person in the world.”