Somebody to Love

Chapter 18: Double cheese burger

Mom insisted that Nazrul came to see her off at KL Sentral. They were taking the night train to the north. I tried explaining to her that Nazrul had an appointment with a customer, but mom always got things her way. It was a very last minute request and I had to apologize to Ku Na, who was with Nazrul and another friend. I told Nazrul that his plan had kicked-off and there was no turning back - he had to give full cooperation. 

"No problem. I'll be there in 20 minutes," he told me as he rang off. 

The three of us were having burgers at Mac Donald's when Nazrul arrived - still in his office attire. Mom looked thrilled to meet the 'love' of my life. It never occured to her that I would find someone I fancy in this big city. I had done nothing but complained to her about the guys working in the office (thank god I never mentioned Nazrul's name specificially, although he was one of the main reasons I kept on whining about work over the telephone).

"You must come from a well respected family," said mom and I gave her a soft elbow and at the same time I kicked Shira's leg, as a warning - I didn't want her to make any remark on my so-called 'boyfriend'.

"Thank you, aunty," said Nazrul politely, in fact I've never seen him so polite in my entire career with the company. "My father is a retired policeman while my mom is an English teacher."

Mom nodded in approval. "Great!" She smiled and showed the content expression I hadn't seen since the day I showed her my SPM results. "I myself was religious teacher in Kedah. I'm sure your mom and I will have a lot of things to discuss when we meet."

"Yes. She is very passionate about her profession. I'm sure she will enjoy your company," said Nazrul as he looked at mom intently. I kicked his feet underneath the table as if to tell him not to encourage mom too much. 

"I would love to see her. Do bring her to Kedah whenever you have a long leave. She must be a wonderful woman." Mom's eyes lighted up and it didn't seem like she suspected that we were pretending to be a in love. Now, there was definitely no turning back. She would be asking to speak to Nazrul whenever I called her after this. 

"This is just great," I said out loud and three heads turned to me. 

"Yes! Isn't it great, honey? My parents would love to meet your family soon," said Nazrul like a seasoned soap opera actor. 

Shira giggled when she noticed my crimson face. She must have thought that I was embarrassed with mom's request. 

I didn't talk much as mom and Nazrul continued on with the conversation. She was telling a few unforgettable things I did when I was little, which left my face in an even darker shade of crimson. 

Nazrul turned to me, smiling as he shook his head. "Seriously, honey? You did that in front of your school teacher?"

I just shrugged my shoulder. There's nothing I could say in defence. It happened when I was in standard one. The teacher asked me to sit beside a smelly boy with a pair of very dirty hands. I tried to protest but the teacher told me to keep my mouth shut. Desperate things called for desperate measures - I went down on the floor, lie on my back and screamed at the top of my lungs. The principal and a few other teachers came rushing to the class while all my classmates ran out to the field - too terrified after witnessing the scene. 

"And I should have known that she was indeed very talented. She was the school's Theatre Club President when she was in Form 5!" Mom had always been proud of my achievement, especially in acting. Although she was a religious school teacher, she never opposed to the idea of her own daughter getting involved with performing arts. 

"You can act?" Nazrul looked at me again. "You should be in one the company's campaign videos," Nazrul made a suggestion and Shira shrilled with excitement. 

"Kak Lysa, you're going to be on TV. Mak Su, I can't wait!" Shira was shaking mom's arms. They both laughed enthusiastically. 

"Nah!" I waved off Nazrul's suggestion. "I haven't acted for so long. It had been almost 10 years."

"Oh, come on Kak Lysa!" Shira looked disappointed. At her tender age, she must really looked forward to seeing her cousin making an appearance on national TV so that she could brag in front of her friends. 

"I'm too old for acting, Shira. In less than two years, I'll turn thirty." I picked on my veggie which I had separated from the cheese burger. 

"It's good that you mentioned it, Lysa," said mom and I suddenly felt my stomach turning. She was about to say something that would make me regret agreeing to Nazrul's stupid plan. I knew it. "When are you and Nazrul going to take your relationship further. I mean get married - just in case you two didn't get what I really meant." She laughed as if it was a joke, but I knew she was being serious.

Nazrul and I exchanged glances. None of us had rehearsed an answer for the question. I lied to mom, saying that we had only started seeing each other - the relationship was less than a month old. We were hoping that she wouldn't get that far... but who the hell knew what went on in a retired religious teacher's mind.

"Aaah... can you give us a few more months before we ..."

"Yes! Yes!" Mom interjected and Nazrul seemed taken aback. "You can take your time to get to know each other. But don't take too long. My daughter is not getting any younger," she warned him as I hid my giggle behind the double cheese burger. 

Shira looked at us in confusion. "Is Kak Lysa getting married to this man?" She questioned mom. 

"Soon, Shira.... very soon," mom answered with a hopeful face and she just succeeded in making me felt guilty again. 

The drive home was so awkward. I couldn't forget how Nazrul kissed mom's hand before they entered the platform. When mom hugged me, she told me to take a good care of Nazrul. 'Yeah, right! Like I'm going to prepare him breakfast and do his laundry (like how some of my friends from college did to their boyfriends - the lucky bastards who managed to get free labour as they spent their scholarship money on gadgets). It's never going to happen!'

"So, when are supposed to break up?" I asked Nazrul as he took a left turn to the road heading to my apartment area. 

"Hey, we've only dated for three weeks. What's the rush?" He was teasing me. 

"Stop making fun of all this. You said we'll stage a break up once mom is okay with the whole idea of me staying and working in KL." I was getting mad at Nazrul. Although his acting was far from perfect, mom had chosen to believe every single word that came out from his mouth.

"God! I don't know, Allysa... or should I start calling you Lysa now?" I shook my head. "Okay, I'll call you Honey. Is it alright, honey?" His smile was broad and his eyes twinkled. 

"Get serious, will you?" I almost snapped at him. 

"Okay... okay.... cool it Lysa. I can handle this. We can do this together."

"So, now tell me how are we going to stage the break up." I stared squarely at him. He looked pretty nervous as he drove.

"Yesterday, everything seemed so simple. But.... but when I saw the look in your mom's eyes tonight, I don't know whether I'm strong enough to break her heart....." Nazrul's voice trailed off as I continued to stare at him in horror. 

"Nazrul! Noooooo!!! This has to end."

"Let me sleep on it." He scratched his head like how he did it whenever he had run out of ideas. Now I was getting really terrified.