Echoes of Agony

Chapter Six

Zaytun was feeling exhausted and stressed as she tried to prepare for her upcoming wedding party in under two weeks. Both families seemed to be giving her a hard time with their capricious ideas, making it difficult for her to keep up with the constant changes in the plan and decoration. The event planner responsible for the arrangement had been calling Zaytun every day to inform her of the updates, which was adding to her stress levels.

Despite the challenges, she was determined to make the wedding party a success. She devised a plan to play along with the families' capricious ideas while sticking to her own concept. She hoped that the event planner would understand her approach.

Zaytun's mother was also involved in the preparations, but she was having a hard time dealing with AbdulJalal's mother, Mrs. Sani. Mrs. Sani was requesting things on her own, which was causing arguments between the two mothers. Just yesterday, her mother was arguing with Mrs. Sani about the perfect decoration for the party. Mrs. Sani was not convinced, but Zaytun had already chosen the concept of white and gold, white was AbdulJalal's favorite color, including black and gray.

AbdulJalal, on the other hand, seemed to be less involved in the preparations. He decided to take charge of his dress and wanted to take Zaytun for the dress fitting. She agreed, but she couldn't understand why he didn't want to help her with the preparations. He explained that he would be busy with meetings and if he took part, he had to be fully available, or else it would be unfair to take credit for things she worked the most on. However, Sadeeya, Zaytun's cousin, thought that AbdulJalal was just not fully invested in the preparations.

Zaytun was feeling extremely stressed out with her wedding fast approaching in just three days. She was struggling to keep her cool as everything seemed to be going wrong. During a recent altercation with the staff who delivered the wrong chairs to the venue, she lost her temper and yelled at them. Fortunately, her friends Asma, Habeebah, Sadeeya, Nana, Sadeeq, and Mimi rushed to her aid to help calm her down and make arrangements for the wedding.

Zaytun was in the midst of a last-minute check with the event planner when her phone suddenly rang, and she had to pick it up. It was AbdulJalal who had just returned from his travels and was waiting for her outside the mansion for a tailor's visit. She quickly excused herself from the meeting and rushed to her room to change into something more comfortable.

As she made her way across the living room, she suddenly realized that she had left the event planner waiting. She facepalmed herself in frustration and quickly did a U-turn to retrieve the planner.

"Excuse me," she said apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I have to leave for a moment. Something urgent has come up. Please send me the details to my email, and my friend Asma will continue working with you."

The event planner nodded understandingly, a smile on her face. "Of course, Zaytun. I understand. I'll send you the details as soon as possible," she replied.

Wasn't it normal to be this in love with someone to the point you couldn't stand being away from them even for a second? It's like you couldn't think properly, being half there and half with them all day? Excitement rolled out of your head and your brain couldn't keep up with how much more you needed them even when you were in their embrace? Zaytun didn't know where to draw the line to the emotions she was feeling towards AbdulJalal. It was the first time she'd fallen in love with someone. And that her first love was her husband too. She didn't know how to behave, what to do and what not to do. Was she too much? Was AbdulJalal okay with her as his wife? She couldn't ask him those questions. Though, he didn't show any sign of discomfort in the way she generally acted. Well, not generally with AbdulJalal since she put extra effort into making sure every moment spent together was enjoyable. Although she disliked some of his personalities: using his dominant side a lot, not apologizing for things he knew he was wrong about, going MIA on her out of nowhere. Those traits could be fixed once they started living together, and she would make sure he changed those habits. Until now, their age gap wasn't an obstacle to their developing relationship. Nor had he ever mentioned their age difference, not even when their interests couldn't match or when she acted all childish. Like now.