Intekhaab✔️

Chapter 25 - Sur (سر)

At the breakfast table the next day, the whole family seemed excited and joyful for the youngest member of the Khan family to have been married too now. After the ritual first breakfast the men had left to their respective work, whilst Bilal was strictly ordered to take a few days off. So he stayed back. But being the workaholic he is and also the devoted masters student he is, he decided to take the opportunity to revise a little. He head to his room and began going over some papers he created for work.

The ladies sat downstairs in the living room, all gushing over how pretty they all especially the bride looked yesterday. The next topic began, it was a full teasing session to Safiya which didn't really tease her much since she really hadn't done anything last night. The topic then lead onto honeymooning which she was clueless about.

Later on in the day Qirat told Safiya to call Bilal down for tea. Bilal saw this as the only chance they were alone so he had a much needed conversation with her.

She knocked on the door and he 'hmmd' her in.

"Apko khala bularahi hein chai ke liye" ahe began to leave after finishing her sentence.

"Andar ao, bheto idhar" he pat the seat in-front of him.

"Jee" she said and obliged.

"Let's please take things slow ok...I can tell you're hesitant about this, that's fine. But can we be friends?" He asked.

She looked up in his eyes and back down straight away. And nodded agreeing to him, he seemed genuine. No matter how much she feared a husband, her husband seemed to be different to what she'd expected, and she couldn't be more thankful for it.
——-

Days passed, their walimah was long done and their honeymoon was postponed. Bilal put the excuse of both of their education out, so no one further questioned their reasons to postpone the honeymoon.

He decided to move his course to KU too and now the both studied their own respective subjects in he same university. They grew closer as friends. Not close enough but close enough for where she could finally speak to him.

At first it was just him speaking and her complying. But now he began asking her questions about her likes, dislikes and more. And she began answering them more elaborately as the days went on.
It was a casual mid summers day and Safiya had come to visit her mother. After the initial small talk her mother interrogated her married life, to convince herself that her daughter was happy. Somewhere even Uroosa had given up the idea of their being good men as husbands.

"Bilal apka khayal rakhtein hein" uroosa asked.

"Itna ke me bata nahi sakti Ammi, woh bohat bohat zyada achey hein. Me lafzon me bayan nahi karsakti woh sirf khoobsurat hi nahi khoobseerat bhi kitneh hein. Mard insaan bhi hota hai yeh mene unse seekha hai."

"Mashallah mashallah, Allah khush rakhey, naseeb achey karey. Buri nazr se bachaye" Uroosa blessed her daughter whilst beaming in happiness, hugging her.

Their hug was interrupted by a knock on the living room door. It was Bilal, he had been there a while and had accidentally eavesdropped. He could've disturbed them but he too wanted to hear, what she thought of him. Hearing it all initially let his lips curve up, liking it. He thought about it, he hadn't ever done anything so great for her, she thought of normal living as such a great blessing. She hasn't yet explored how much he could do for her, right now they seemingly just coexist, that's it. The fact that he isn't doing anything bad was something she over-appreciated.

He walked in to the room, he had come to collect Safiya. Upon hearing him enter Safiya quickly wiped her tears and smiled his way.

"Asalamulaykum khala" Bilal greeted and nodded towards Safiya. And she nodded back acknowledging his presence.