Besabriyan

27|TWENTY SEVEN

I picked up some of your clothes from your house, they are in the third wardrobe to the left.
Zaviyar

The minute Maheen opened her eyes, it was his message that she woke up to. From his text she could say he was not home and that he was going to be late. Also, she didn't know how she was going to meet his family's eyes without being embarrassed. Her thoughts were a lot different the night before but now that the night was gone, she wasn't sure how she was going to face them. Getting up from the bed and going to the wardrobe he mentioned in the text, she opened it to see her dresses fully arranged in hangers and a few others were folded and placed in order in the compartments.

She looked around to look for a clock to check the time and found a digital led one on his desk- the papers from last night now decluttered and properly placed so she could tell he had spent an ample time in the room to set everything back in place and so carefully to not wake her up. Since the time was already up close to nine, she hurried into the bathroom to wash up and get ready for the day but only the thought of it sent chills down her body. No way did she think she would be spending the first day after her nikah at his place and as his wife and no matter how many times it replayed in her mind, it was still afresh and nerve wrecking, given the fact that her confrontation with her father in law was still pending.

Maheen descended down the stairs to find the women of the house bustling in the living hall- while Bazia begam had tossed the entire house, her daughter was relatively calm and was teaching her daughter at the dining without paying any heed to her mother's demands to the cleaning staff. Maheen bit the inside of her bottom lip and looked down at her. There were no traces of being a new bride who got married just a day ago and moved in with her in-laws.

"Maheen?" Looking up from her kurti, she found her mother in law standing at the end of the staircase with a mixing bowl in her hand.

"Jee,"

"Did you have a good night's sleep last night, beta?" She asked, trying to suppress a grin growing out. Ahlah, who was busy with her daughter's textbook, looked up and looked at her expectantly. It was no news and she was no child to not understand what the woman was implying and she couldn't help but feel her cheeks flush. Sure, they had come a step closer and he told her about how he felt last night but there was a whole bridge to cross in order to be where she wanted to be.

"I guess?" She tried to chuckle it off and rushed down to go where Ahlah and Hala were seated. She couldn't talk much to her niece in law the day before as she was cranky and slept through the day after the nikah. Little Hala flashed her teeth at Maheen the moment she sat beside her.

"Where is your husband? I have yet to take a glimpse of that boy." Bazia begam wondered because her son was so adhered to his rules and wouldn't be late even by a minute. She came to Maheen with a cup of coffee and an omelet. Maheen, who was looking down at the little girl, watched her mother in law bring food to her.

When Zaviyar and her used to talk on the phone at nights, he would tell how the siblings– mostly him since he was much younger– were abandoned by their parents and how Ahlah used to take care of him. She could remember the time when he could barely breathe as he put down the weight of pain. And how his mother suddenly realized her responsibilities after Ahlah's divorce and stayed back home after hiring a professional to do her job. If what she had been seeing in her eyes was right, the mother had regrets scattered in her eyes and speech.

"I don't know," Though hesitantly, Maheen managed to say it out loud, unsure of Bazia begam's reaction. She didn't know what else to say to her for not knowing her husband's whereabouts when it had only been a day to their marriage.