With You

Chapter 20

"I think, our Zarah likes him."

Maryam said to her husband while looking at her daughter from the kitchen window. She had seen Zarah growing up and knew how she used to be around boys or opposite gender but after she had gotten into accident, Maryam could see the changes in her daughter especially regarding Ryan.

Before the accident Zarah was not a big fan of Ryan, somewhat sympathetic and more like irritated on his arrogance. But now she didn't even remember him and was considering him as her saviour, Maryam could identify Zarah's impressed feelings for him. The way she was stealing glances of him every now and then, her non stop chatter about Ryan when he had came to meet her in the hospital. Maryam was bound to think that Zarah was interested in Ryan Ahmed.

Maryam only wanted best for her daughter, Zarah and after getting a new life in the dreadful accident- she had became more protective towards her. Ryan was a reserved man and she couldn't tell if he would be a nice match for her daughter like Muneer who was good in every way. But if Zarah would be happy with Ryan then she would be too.

"Are you serious? Does she really?"

Maryam hushed her husband who became kind of excited and his excited voice reached an octave, "I think so. Have you ever seen blushed cheeks of your daughter in front of a guy? She is blushing, Qasim."

"If that's the case, we should talk with Ryan."

"Hush down." Maryam held her husband's hand to stop his movements, he was seriously too excited without even thinking properly, "I have this assumptions. We should first talk with Zarah then we should try to have a talk with Ryan. And I don't think it would be a good idea to just persuade him to marry our daughter, he is one of the richest man in Amroha-he would think of us as greedy people who are after him for money." She uttered the doubt which was crawling in her mind from the time when she began to see Zarah's interest in Ryan.

"I don't think he would think like that. I mean we are not that rich but Alhamdulillah we have everything and he is a nice guy to think like that."
Maryam nodded looking at her daughter who was now glaring at her friend sitting beside her as she said something.

***

Ryan felt his heart going inside an ocean of doubt or excitement as he again stole a glance of the girl sitting in front of her, who was now glaring at her friend who said something in her ear.

"How are your wounds? I mean are they healing?"

Ryan questioned to grab her attention towards him. Coming in her house, he wanted to be with her for more time because she was not letting his mind wander anywhere else. His mind, his body and his soul was stuck at one point-Zarah Khan. He watched as Zarah turned her head towards him from her friend and nodded with a tight lipped smile.

"Yeah Alhamdulillah." She replied and bit her lower lip, pursing a smile which was about to come on her lips. Their eyes clashed for a split second and in that moment Ryan felt he had given her something which was so close to him maybe a piece of his being. That was why he felt at ease when he came near her, because the part of his being always called him near her.

"Faiza, bring the fruits from the kitchen kid."

Zarah's mother told Faiza as she entered the living room holding a tray of tea and snacks with her husband in tow. He took the teacup as she served him with a small smile.

"How's work going on, son?"

She asked him while taking a seat across him, her voice and tone motherly and Ryan really felt nice hearing her words. Nobody ever talked him like that-he was a man of aura and power and everybody gave him respect and formal greetings. But nobody asked him how he was doing that too with so much care.

"It's going...going well."

Zarah's mother nodded and gestured him to have the fruits that Faiza brought.

"Zarah always talk about-" Ryan looked at Zarah who cut her mother's talk in middle as she patted her thigh and gestured her with her eyes, shaking her head.

Zarah's father smiled looking at him and started the talks of business and all. Didn't know what was so calming in that house? The members of the house or the presence of Zarah. He really had no idea how much he was missing her until Ryan saw her in front of him.

He could see her raking eyes when he wasn't looking at her, that too a soft gaze. That was not that Zarah who he met before her accident. This was a new girl who blushed in his presence, who gave him small smile and the biggest thing was who considered Ryan as her saviour which was not the case. He was the one who pushed her to that point! This was the reason Ryan just wanted to ignore his weird feelings for Zarah; one day she would get her memories back, she would just leave him and once with Zarah, maybe he wouldn't be able to live anymore without her.

Didn't know what was happening with him, he was never surrounded by so many confusions. Everything seemed to be hazy and didn't know how he would find some route.

***

Zarah opened her eyes one more time with a smile as she found that face again in her memory. Ryan. He didn't do anything that would increase her feelings for him; he didn't look at her properly, he didn't even gave a proper smile, his talks were too hurried yet her feelings reached a peak just by seeing him.

"Lost in thoughts?"

Her breath hitched hearing her mother's voice as she came inside with a smile while Zarah looked down, trying to compose her heartbeats. "No why would I?

"But these are saying some other stories." Ammi pinched her cheek lightly while giggling at her blushed condition. Leave it to her mother to tease her to no extent.

"You like him?"

"Who?" Zarah tried to dodge her question because she too wasn't sure about her feelings. Didn't why she got attracted to Ryan everytime she thought of him, his mysterious and reserved aura pulled her more and more with every strand of her thought.

"Ryan Ahmed." Even if Zarah was trying to show herself clueless or uninterested, her face might had opened her secrets as she felt her cheeks flaming with shyness while Ryan's silent gaze moved in her mind throwing her heart into a tornado. "I can see it."

Ammi cupped her face looking in her eyes as she looked at her in confusion. How could she know her like that? Was this the thing which every book talked about? Mother's gaze which could understand a deep buried secret of her child.

"Ammi, I don't know. I'm not sure that I like him but didn't know why I feel this pull towards him. As if he needs me. He's secretive." She confessed truly to her mother; her thoughts, her feelings, all that was running in her mind. "Is it okay to feel that way as a girl? I'm afraid to think about him but I can't help it. He feels like so away from me yet so close. I don't think we can ever be together but he always puts me in turmoil."

"It's really okay to feel like that my child. Allah doesn't stop you from liking somebody, he stops you from getting in the wrong direction with your love. Just pray to Allah, he knows what is best for you."

Ammi soothed her with her words and hugged her before placing a kiss on her forehead. Zarah smiled in her embrace, feeling light all of a sudden. It was all Allah's plan and she didn't have to worry about it.