With You

Chapter 25

"Oh my God, Zari!"

Zarah giggled, biting on the side of her thumb as Faiza expressed her surprise on Ryan's proposal and the small engagement ceremony.

Yeah. Zarah Khan was now engaged to Ryan Ahmed. He had came maybe with full preparations because after they talked for a while, Ryan went outside and came back with her parents in tow. He told them that he didn't have any relatives at the moment in Amroha but he wanted to have some kind of ceremony so that everything would be fixed.

"Why he's in so much hurry?"

"He said, if we both feel the same way towards each other so it's not good to elongate the wait."

Zarah said Ryan's words which had made her impressed. He was really fearful of the Almighty, a quality she really wanted to see in her husband and her Lord had really heard her prayers by giving her Ryan.

"My, my. I'm impressed."

Zarah shyly smiled, playing with tiny beads on her dress. After talking some more to her about the wedding preparations and details which she didn't want to go again, Faiza bid her goodbye.

She came outside of her room, suddenly feeling fresh after a long time. Her mother was sitting in the lounge with something in her hand. Knowing her mother's excitement, Zarah knew she had already started preparations of her wedding. Her parents had decided the last week of this month for their wedding ceremony. So basically, after fifteen days, she would be officially Mrs. Zarah Ahmed.

"What are you doing, Ammi?"

"Seeing some of my jewelry which I want to give you."

Zarah took her hand in hers while looking in her eyes, "Ammi these all are your gifts and I don't want anything except your happy faces."

"Zari, these all are for you. It feels as if we haven't even talk with each other properly and you're going now all of a sudden." Ammi said, her voice wobbly at the end as she took Zarah in her embrace. "That's the biggest decision parents can ever take. They have this stress to wed off their daughters and once everything is fixed, they have to cope up with the sadness of their daughters going away."

Zarah wiped the corner of her eyes as tears welled up her eyes hearing her mother's words. It was beyond comprehensible, a sadness of going away from them and welcoming someone new in her life.

"I'm just glad that you're going to be Ryan's wife. He is best for you in every way." She nodded hearing her mother's proud voice as she kissed her forehead and Zarah closed her eyes, feeling calm and content in her mother's embrace.

***

"That will be enough."

Ryan looked at Zarah who was checking the bags in her hands. They had came for shopping of their wedding. It felt unusual, wedding; his and Zarah's wedding. The man who ran away from every kind of relationship was now ready to tie the knot that too with Zarah Khan. If Hamida would be alive, she would be on cloud nine just by hearing his decision of getting married else would be history.

"Wedding shopping is never enough, my dear Zari. What's say Ryan?"

He nodded with a small smile on Faiza's words. She was their chaperone and he must add, an annoying chaperone. In the hospital, he used to think that Faiza was of serious temperament but she was totally opposite. That accident had really changed their lives and he was seeing everyone's different aspects which he had never seen before.

The talkative and annoying Faiza.

The shy and nervous Zarah.

But he loved seeing this part of Zarah. The nervous Zarah always made him feel different emotions which he hadn't felt before.

After ten days they would be having their small wedding ceremony and the next day, he was throwing a big reception party. Hanan was happy with his decision but slightly skeptical for telling the truth to Zarah. But that thing was out of the question, he couldn't tell her anything and just had to go with the flow.

"Need to see something more?"

"No. Please Ryan." Zarah said looking at him with crunched up nose to hear her plea. Ryan chuckled and pinched her nose gingerly, pushing Zarah into embarrassment as her cheeks turned red over his ministrations and he pursed his lips hearing fake cough from Faiza.
"You both are gutsy, you are just ignoring me." Zarah elbowed her gut to stop her blabbering and eyeing her in the process.

"Okay. Let's head home then."

Ryan said moving towards the parking lot. The ladies took the back seat and as he fixed the rear view glass, Zarah's eyes clashed with his again but this time there was no hesitancy or embarrassment, instead there was exchange of smiles which moved his heart in fast pace.

"There used to be the new mall, where is it?" Ryan looked outside on Zarah's voice, to see a blank space where there used to be the new mall, which had been destroyed in the bomb blast. An incident he could never forget because Hamida died in it.

"They destroyed it."

Before he could speak anything, Faiza beat him off to answer and Zarah got busy on getting the details from Faiza. They had to pretend, they had to lie so that Zarah didn't get any suspicion. But how long they could keep going? What will happen when one day Zarah would get her memories back, where he would be then in her life?