Emeralds

Twenty.

Mom, Aya and Mariam get in my car and we drive behind Omar.

“What’s with the sudden lunch outdoors?” mom asks.

“We were bored and thought you guys too needed to go out,” I say. “Plus, I really don’t want to leave Ahmed alone the days I’m here. He’s feeling really down. Even if he’s trying to hide it, I can still know.”

“He’ll soon enough find the suitable girl, and he’ll know then that what he felt towards Reham was not love compared to the girl he’ll marry,” mom says.

“I hope he finds someone good enough for him,” I sigh. “He really deserves better than this.”

We arrive at the restaurant, and Ahmed and his family arrive ten minutes later. We order lunch and keep talking and telling stories until the food comes.

“I guess we really cause so much noise wherever we go,” Aya laughs.

“This makes us different,” Jana says. And they keep talking some more.

“Mariam,” I whisper to her, sitting next to me.

“What is it?” she asks.

“If you were in Leen’s place,” I say quietly. “When would you want the wedding to be?”

“Why are you asking me?” she smiles mischievously.

“Because apparently you’re a girl,” I smile annoyingly at her.

“Not because I know her?” she smiles evilly.

I sigh, “Whatever, Mariam, just tell me. You’re almost the same age too, she’s only a year younger.”

“Okay,” she says. “Hmm, I think I would want it like a year after the engagement, and–”

“You too will say a year?!” I say in frustration. I guess Leen will sure say a year as well; it seems like a common sense. Is it a rule to Arabs? Maybe travelling too much made me forget my roots.

“What is it?” she laughs. “Who else said a year?”

“Omar,” I say. “Is this a rule or something?”

She laughs really hard, “I’m gonna laugh too much from now on. And it’s not a rule, it’s just that you both know each other well.”

We get home at night, Omar still seems mad since that phone call he got earlier.

“Are you okay?” Hend asks him quietly as we’re sitting in the living room.

“Yes,” he says with a frown.

“But you look a little–”

“I said I’m okay! Now stop asking,” he snaps at her, and we all stare at them.

“Why are you being like this, Omar?” I ask. “She’s nothing to do with it, and she’s just worried about you.”

“I’ve always been having all responsibilities on my shoulders, and no one has ever interfered, why should anyone be worried now?” he shouts. I immediately get the hint that he means me saying ‘no one has ever interfered’, but do I have to have the same job as him to show that I also take responsibility for this family?

“She’s not anyone she’s your wife!” I exclaim. We both stand up, and it’s clear this won’t end well. It’s just like those times we kept fighting over the same thing more than seven years ago.