Bismillaah hir Rahman nir Raheem.
His name is Maahi and it's just so unique.
Of all the names she had named him to be having, not once did the name Maahi had crossed her mind. Well, she knew it was one of the five names of the Prophet Muhammad(Pbuh) and she had liked it when she first read it on the Qur'an.
Stop it.
She forced her mind to halt from going into a rapid-fire round on her head.
Maahi had gone to grab his Jacket from inside and soon, the Aunt too bid adieu and went after him.
"You don't have a problem, right?" Jesima asked once they were out of sight.
Shabna just shook her head in a no.
"These people look nice, we could trust them because they are Muslims too. I just got worried about how we would go back to the hotel safe and sound." Her forehead creased, as she tapped her leg impatiently on the ground.
"I know dearie! That's why I was keeping my mouth shut all this while," Shabna's voice was merely a whisper.
Her heart leaped when he came out wearing his jacket over his blue buttoned-up shirt and of course, the starting two buttons were open revealing his black undershirt.
Oh! Those similarities.
She made her gaze flicker back to the ground as they started walking, him as the lead.
Jesima was too busy checking her phone and Shabna hardly knew how to control her raising heartbeats. She couldn't even see ahead of her and walk. For when she saw up, his back was visible. She didn't know what to do, so she fixed her gaze on his steps.
He carelessly towed up a stone and she was so engrossed in her thoughts that she got tripped over that same, freaking pebble. All thanks to Allah, Jesima caught her up in an instant and she saved herself from falling face-first on the ground.
Maahi turned around due to the commotion and when his eye fell over her, her face burnt like fire.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice lacing with concern.
She just shook her head, her eyes always cascading down, like she was admiring the floor beneath her.
When he turned around and resumed walking Jesima asked, "Why are you being so clumsy today? Is this your time of the month?" and then she turned to face Shabna, she gasped, "Oh My God! Why are you so red?"
Shabna's throat was so dry that she couldn't reply to her friend at once. After a few beads of silence, she said, "It's just the climate. I am not used to it."
"Oh! Really? I am not going with that." Her tone dripped with sarcasm and Shabna rolled her eyes.
Then she fixed her gaze back to the path and concentrated on where she was walking. Whenever they passed a stupid pebble, Maahi would push it to the side with one of his shoes.
His act of kindness was rather small but despite herself, her lips twitched up, just the slightest. If you didn't notice her closely, you would never know that she had smiled.
By the time they reached the bus stop, her nerves were finally calm. Maahi told them that all the buses that came to the station would drop them at their hotel and finished his sentence with a Salaam.
Even though she wouldn't agree to it, it was one of those beautiful Salaams she has ever heard.
And then he was gone.
Standing there in the middle of the lane, with all her heart, she prayed that she should never be able to meet him, ever again.
Not knowing that the answerer of prayers doesn't answer whatever we ask Him for. He accepts the one which benefits us and rejects the one which would harm us and instead replaces it with something else which would be good for us.
....
Her eyes lose almost looked familiar.
It was a nanosecond he was grateful for, to get a peek of them because all the while the owner of those orbs made sure they won't be seen by anyone by shielding them with their long eyelashes and having their gaze fixed to the floor. He didn't get to look for long but whenever his eye traveled to her face, she would be gazing down.
But that minute moment, when the hold was not strong, he was just coming back after wearing his jacket when he saw those eyes. It was a fraction of a millisecond which suddenly made familiarity creep over him, as he had seen them somewhere, but he didn't know when.
After leaving them at the bus stop and making sure they knew how to go back, he returned. He shook his head of the previous thoughts as he climbed up the stairs to his home. He opened the door and hung his jacket on the hanger and started heading towards the living room.
His footsteps came to a halt when he heard his name amid the conversation going on.
"Looking at the both of them, I realized one thing. Maahi is of age," Hafila said.
"Really Mom? You realised it now. Well, you are late," it was Fathima now.
"Whatever! But he should probably start looking for the 'One' in his life too."
"Yeah! I have been telling him the same thing for a while now. Okay! Back to the topic, were they beautiful?"
"They were. And you know what? one of them was pursuing her Master's in Doctorate.”
"She should be some sort of a genius then."
"Yeah! I think she is."
"So you want Maahi to go after the Doctor?"
"No!" Hafila said.
"Why not?"
"Doctors are quite busy when it comes to real life. They won't get to spend much time with their family due to their duties. And you should have seen the other one, she seemed shy but very cute."
"Awwww!! Mom. I missed something interesting."
Maahi skipped the rest of the conversation and straight away went to his room, facing a grumpy Asad.
"What's with the pout?" he asked, grabbing the towel to go freshen up.
"You broke rules of the Bro Code."
"I did! what?" He asked out loud, surprised.
"You accompanied two ladies for a walk without my permission."
"For your kind information, I didn't go for a walk but instead went to show them the route to the stupid bus stop," Maahi replied rolling his eye at the Lil one's antics and walked inside the washroom.
He looked at the reflection of his face in the mirror. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling them in the process.
Was he really of age?
Was he ready to accommodate someone into his life and give the keys of his heart?
He turned on the tap and splashed the water through his face and cooled his brain to stop itself from running down mechanisms of theories, which he was still not sure of.
If he was ready, he would eventually meet with someone who would deserve to live the rest of their life, with him.