The Wedding

Chapter 8

Saturday

21 days to the wedding

"So..." Zee leaned closer to whisper to Laila, their shoulders touching "Remind me again how this crazy situation happened?"

"It was Mukhtar" Laila hissed. "He set it up"

"And since when do you listen to him?" She could hear the annoyance in her own voice. Zee tried to calm herself and wear a nonchalant expression as she saw Yaseer head towards the car where they were leaning against, wrapping up his conversation with Mukhtar.

Zee was upset and she tried to lie to herself that it was because the not so nice boy from school was going to be around them but deep down she knew better. It was because Mukhtar wasn't part of the planning committee anymore.

"Let's go?" Yaseer said upon reaching them. Laila nodded before getting into the passenger seat. Zee pulled open the back door to the car when her eyes met with Mukhtar's and he waved shortly, accompanied with a small smile before he got into the car to leave for the hospital.

Zee felt guilty that while he was dealing with his father's ill health she was here upset he wouldn't be around her. Not that he was even supposed to be around her. She remembered the time she arrived at the hospital and seeing Mukhtar's tormented face she had broke down. His face was the only thing needed to set off the girl, she cried easily. Her being in the hospital every day since his dad's accident had definitely made Mukhtar notice her, he appreciated the kindness and she appreciated being there for him even if she wasn't offering any... comfort. She had been as upset as Laila when she heard his plan about the surgery... it scared her to think of Mukhtar being in his father's place in a few years. She was glad Uncle Hassan regaining consciousness had worked in their favour to stall Mukhtar for a few more days.

"So," Yaseer asked as the car pulled onto the street. "Where am I driving to?"

Laila gave him the address of the shop and he started to head down.

XXX

"I need you to look very carefully" Laila said in a dramatic way only she could pull off, "this?" she raised the cloth on her left hand "Or this?" she raised the other

Zee sighed. One thing she didn't love about Laila was her indecisiveness "I thought you had already booked the peach one before we came"

Laila had booked the material her gown was to be made out of weeks ago. They were supposed to pick it up, pay and leave. A five minutes affair.

They'd been there for thirty minutes.

"I know. But when I ordered they didn't have this color," she referred to the pinkish, orange-ish other clothe. "Just choose one"

"The new one is good. Pay so we can leave"

"But this peach looks sooo good" she stared at it dreamily

"Then take it" Zee said not seeing the problem.

"I just can't decide"

Zee stood up. "Drop them. Go home, pray to Allah to show you the best one in a dream. You can come back after your dream" she opened the glass door to leave.

The store owner laughed.

"By then it'd be too late. It won't be sown on time"

Zee's shoulders fell in resignation. "Then what do we do?"

Laila was quiet for a few seconds before she came up with an idea "We vote" she looked behind at the store owner and her assistant, held up the two and asked them to vote. They both voted for the old one she had reserved. She looked over at zee and she too stuck with the old one.