Zawad's P.O.V.
I looked at my reflection in the mirror wearing the white sherwani and smiled. I bet she is looking dashing in that pink dress. She has to.
I am afraid that I will not be able to take my eyes off of her at my first glance and she will get annoyed. After all we will still be a haram couple and she will continue to ignore me in front of everyone in the University Argh.
Getting ready, I knocked on Mom's door. The last 2 weeks, it has been a bliss for her presence in my apartment. "You ready?"
"Yeah."she smiled bright.
I looked at her maroon sharee, "You look drop dead gorgeous mom."
"Oh!"she laughed aloud, "You will forget that as soon as you see your bride huh."
"How could you say so? NEVER! You are my first love and always will be, lady."I dramatically replied holding my chest.
She giggled fixing her sharee. "I wish your father was here to witness your engagement." She spoke of dad so casually looking at the mirror that for a second made me only mazed and I was out of words. "Umm yes....."
"What are you thinking? Go, call your uncle and see how long it will take them to reach here. Your wife is waiting."she laughed again.
"Oh yeah, sure."I hurriedly came out of her room and sighed at myself. How can I be so selfish and overwhelmed about my wedding that I completely forget about my father? How can I not miss him at all by my side today? I am so measly! How did I forget the person who gave me birth, brought me up and dedicated his whole life for me?
With a sour mind, I called my relatives. They will be picking us up and then we will start for her home together.
"Abir?"
"Yeah ma?"I turned around.
"Take this." I looked to find a bouquet of pink roses in her hand.
"What am I supposed to do with it?"
"Give it to your bride. I specially ordered the roses. She will be overwhelmed, I am telling you."
"Umm....o..kay!" I took the bouquet from her with slight confusion. Wow, my first flowers for her is going to be from my mother?
"I should have ordered the flowers actually, shouldn't I?"I sighed again.
"Yes. And you forgot it. You must know when to give your girl flowers and gifts and keep her happy." She laughed aloud, "Looks like I have to teach you all these things too."
"Argh! I'm hopeless! I was so excited to do our engagement, I didn't even bother to think of other gifts!" I whined.
"There, there, you will learn."she chuckled and caressed my back when my relatives began to show up. After exchanging Salam and hugs and all the "Our Abir has grown up" and "You are really getting married now" speeches from my uncles and aunts along with exciting congratulatory wishes from the little cousins, we finally started for her home.
Reaching there the first thing that took our attention was the lawn of her house decorated in combination of white and pink roses. Though I personally hate the colour pink, right now no else colour seemed to suit the design better.
"Ayyee! Hello there groom! Salam." My eyes followed Annaba's voice as I smiled. She came to the door running with her brother and some other relatives maybe slowly walking behind her.
"Walaikumus Salam. How do I look?"I grinned.
"Handsome!" Click! She took a pure candid picture of mine and ran backwards, "See ya! I gotta show it to the bride!"
"What the...! At least let me pose!"
"Nope. Original grin is the best!"she laughed and ran upstairs while we entered.
I laughed and sat down on the couch in the living room while my to be mother in law started to greet me with a lot of snacks and drinks even though I said I was full. To be honest, I looked at her with a bit of surprise as she was without her hijab today. She As far as I know, I and my make relatives are still some guys from outside and she should have been in a hijab right now. I wonder how Shayba is going to appear? Will she put a lot of makeup? She is beautiful anyway.
After a long phase of introduction and chatting with her whole family, finally Shayba's dad asked her mom, "Why don't you bring Shayba downstairs now?"
"Yes, yes, I'm going."she ran out of the room keeping me waiting like crazy. My heart paced faster and I was becoming impatient with each second passing. I sat with my backbone straight and fixed my tie. God! I'm sweating!
I felt mom's hand pressing on my back with a bit assurance as she tried to hide her smile, "Are you being nervous?"
"No, absolutely not."
She chuckled seeing my expression and whispered, "You really want her to be your wife, don't you?"
"Mom. Stop laughing. And why? You have a doubt?"I threw a glare.
She hugged me from the left, "No. I just hope she loves my child like I do and takes a good care of him."
I smiled and stared at her but couldn't utter a word. I hope the same mom.
Finally we heard sounds of the bride appearing and wow there she was.
Taking little steps towards us with her family surrounding her. I didn't even know when I stood up from the couch staring at her without a blink. She was wearing light pink and under the veil over her head, I was relieved to see a hijab of the same colour. I knew she would not leave wearing hijab in front of all these people even if her mother killed her. She barely put on makeup unlike every other bride which soothed my mind even more.
Then she glanced up and her eyes were locked with mine and I swear,
My world just stopped that instant.
Shayba's P.O.V.
"Ready?"
"Yes, mom."
"Come."she smiled and kissed my temple.
"Are you okay with the dates we discussed? One month later?"Dad asked me.
"Yes, Alhumdulillah dad."I let out a soft sigh. I have exams coming on in two weeks, so I cannot by any means, take the risk of getting married while I am busy preparing for my exams.
"Let's go then."
I took one last glance at the mirror twigging my face. I have applied makeup as light as possible by myself and now I am suddenly worried what everyone, especially Abir will think of me.
I don't know exactly when I mentally started to call him by his nickname. It just happened eventually. I just knew that I was prepared to accept him completely as my life partner for the rest of my life.
I knew how he looked today from the picture Annaba showed me, and even though I wanted to deny, my heart skipped a beat seeing his wide grin. I descended the stairs carefully with my parents and siblings when my eyes fell upon him.
Our eyes were locked and it took me a while to get back to my senses to lower my gaze. I barely suppressed my laugh seeing his reaction. God! Someone please tell him to stop smiling like an idiot.
"What? Can't take off your eyes?" Anu exclaimed excitedly. This girl is so embarrassing!
"Yeah, it was hard." he laughed from my opposite seat and then finally looked elsewhere. Argh!
"Masha-Allah she is very pretty." One of his aunts stated.
"Jazakillahu Khairan, aunty."
They asked my name and whereabouts, if I read Quran or not, if I said my daily prayers or not once again before proceeding with the real ceremony.
"Let's proceed with the rings, shall we?" dad asked.
"Yes, sure!" His mother chimed.
"Shayba, you have anything to say?" Dad asked.
I simply nodded in the negative.
"Alhumdulillah." They put out the rings in front of us as his mother took her seat beside me. She took my left hand in hers and squeezed it lightly. "How are you?"she smiled.
"Alhumdulillah fine aunty. How are you?" I spoke in a low voice.
"Oh, I'm still your aunty! Okay!"she rolled her eyes making everyone laugh out loud, "Yes, I'm fine too Alhumdulillah."
She took out the ring from the box and slid the ring into my finger. Everyone around me said Alhumdulillah and clapped. His mom embraced me and whispered in my ear, "Take care of Abir. He is such a mess sometimes, it's your duty to bring him back to his senses."
I blushed and smiled in return being extremely shy about the fact that he and I somehow got involved in each other's lives already.
Then my mom sat beside him and quickly slid his ring too. She caressed his cheek and smiled, "My daughter is really a nice girl. Calm and sober. She never wants anything that is expensive or unnecessary. She neither whines, nor complains. Never nags or disturbs people. Just treat her the way she deserves and she will make you the happiest spouse on the earth, I promise."
"Ing Sha Allah I will aunty."
I didn't even notice when my eyes brimmed with tears until Anu pressed a tissue paper on my wet cheek, "Sshh, silly girl. Don't cry."she wiped my face when her own one was wet in the first place.
After a very emotional session of congratulating and welling up, all the elders fixed a date for our marriage just 2 weeks later. Two weeks only?!! Then boom, I'm someone's wife!? Oh Allah, my hands turned cold immediately. Dad asked me if I had any objection with it, but I nodded in the negative. What will I raise an objection for? Tell them that I'm scared?
Then my brother asked me in a corner if I wanted to speak to the groom alone. I immediately said no but the groom didn't budge. For his sake, everyone left the living room for lunch leaving the two of us alone, and by alone I mean both my siblings eavesdropping from the door.
"Hi."he greeted with a bright smile.
"Assalamu Alaikum."I smiled in return too.
"Damn it! I always forget that in front of you! Walaikumus Salam."he said crunching his eyebrows. Is it okay to think that he looks cute this way? Nope. No Shayba. Hold the chains of your mind!
"So? Umm... Oh! These are for you!"he extended his hand with a flower bouquet that I missed to notice before.
With a bit confusion, I received the bouquet, "Thank you. SubhanAllah, it's beautiful!" I heartily spoke looking at all the light pink roses, "I love roses!"
"Okay I should remember that."he grinned. Argh!
"And these ones completely resemble my dress. Did YOU purposely pick them?"
"Aaaaaaaa.. well ummmm....."he kept pretending to remember.
"Okay, you didn't."I laughed.
"No." he gave up.
"Let me guess. Considering the colour totally match my dress...umm.. your mom chose these?"
"Yes." Honest reply.
"I love them. JazakAllahu Khairan. Both to you and your mom."
"Wa Anti Fa Jazakumullahu Khairan Shayba." My mouth literally gaped hearing him utter the full sentence correctly for the first time in life as he grinned and winked at me. I mean how? Like for real?
"Yes, I learned it. For you."
"SubhanAllah. That's nice to know."
"Thanks. By the way,"he stopped in the middle and took a pause itching his head, "You look absolutely stunning today. I mean really!"he stressed upon the last word.
My face turned red in an instant. I didn't know where to hide this time, so I had to go with the flow, "Thanks."I barely muttered.
Then there was an awkward silence in the room because none of us knew what to talk about.
"So? I think we should go." He got up from the sofa.
"Yes, we should."
"See you in class then."he grinned again.
Damn it! Why do I forget that?
____
It was the day after our engagement.
I entered the classroom being slightly afraid. And the reason why?
Well social media.
I wouldn't even have got the news if Nadia did not send me a screenshot of it.
It's all thanks to my future husband for uploading the news on Facebook and informing the whole University that he was engaged. It was a picture of his hand with the ring under a caption, "Had a crush on her for one long year. Finally she said yes. Alhumdulillah." with a couple of hashtags that were probably meant to be cute. But argh!!! I have no idea how he is going to cover up for me until the wedding. The last thing I want to have in my marriage is the evil eye.
I slid out the ring off my finger and put it in my bag safely.
"Shayba! You are here! Look what's going on!" Farhana indicated to a group of girls among who one was turning red in tears and calling names to the bitch who was getting married to her crush. Oh my dear Lord!
I saw Tonima sitting in a corner of the classroom in fury browsing her phone, maybe trying to find one single clue of the bride. I am so doomed. Nadia and Farhana are the only people who know about me. They patted my back trying to sober me up.
Fortunately he had no class with us today. So it saved me from a lot of embarrassing moments and blushes, but as soon as I entered the cafeteria, that guy was the first person I had to encounter. My hand instantly went up to my face even though it was covered with a niqab.
He smirked as I muttered Salam and avoiding his eyes, kept walking to a table far away from him. He replied to my Salam and immediately there was a crowd around him.
"Sir! Who is the lucky girl that you are engaged to?" "When are you two getting married?" "When did you two first meet?" "What does she do?" "Is she beautiful?" "Aww show us the ring!" "At least tell us her name sir pleeeease!" Questions popped up from the girls who put up fake smiles on their faces flattering him unnecessarily.
I heard him laugh loud in reply. "How is she supposed to be lucky? I am the one who is lucky for being accepted finally!" Oh God! This guy!
"She is a student just like you all."
"Really? Which University?"they screamed. Hearing the question, he stole a glance at me smilingly as I stared at him being extremely scared.
"Well I better keep that a secret." he smirked.
"Ohh.."they seemed heartbroken at his reply.
"Here, this is my ring. I guess I am tied to her forever now haha."he changed the topic holding his hand up as I sighed in relief.
"Oh it's so cute! Let me see!" they squeaked trying to get a hold of his hand. I turned my eyes to the window lest I should witness any Haram physical contact going on with my fiance.
"How does she look? Well..... How can I describe that in words?"he stopped for a while, "Just know that she is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life. She is just..... you know.... perfect!"
"Aww!"they wooed over the comment as blood crept to my cheek and my ears turned warm.
"I mean I have not had a crush on her for a year without any reason! She looks damn pretty and has the most amazing personality." Everyone started aww-ing over his confession.
That's it. I am leaving this campus right now. I don't think I can ever get used to hear these dialogues. I got up and started walking to the door while he continued talking to his students.
Oh my dear Allah, I don't know how the consequences of such craze would be. Neither do I know what path our relationship is going to take after a month. But please save us both from the evil eyes and provide us with what is best for us. If You wish, You will always find me patient and grateful towards You. Please shower your blessings upon us both. Please let it conclude to a beautiful beginning of our brand new chapter.
Wow. From when did all the 'I's of my prayers turn into 'We's?
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