Too young to love???

Chapter 14

Sara's POV

We arrived at the famous Indian restaurant near Berkeley square .As we reached I read the name written in bold letters - 'Benares'. I had heard a lot about it and wanted to taste the food that was served here. As we entered, my first impression of the place was -Man this is nice!

 I went and checked for our reservations on the reception where the receptionists confirmed it, and thereafter we were lead to a table, huge enough to fit all of us in.

As soon as we settled a waiter came up, I read his name tag which stated his name was Chris. He asked for our orders and I requested him to get water for all of us till we decided about our food. He handed us the menu cards and left to get us water. I confirmed with the manager whether the chicken and lamb served there was halal or not, and they showed me the certificate of serving halal food after which he left and we decided to order non vegetarian food as well. After a fifteen minutes debate between me and Mariam aapi on whether we should order prawns as one of the starters or not we finally gave our orders. Of course prawn was not one of the items ordered; apparently Danial and the rest of his family didn’t feel like having prawns so I won although I found out that all of them loved prawns.

“Why didn’t you take my side Danial, you love prawns” Mariam aapi beseeched.

“Because I don’t feel like having it today, besides I had my share at Hamza’s Reception party”, he informed her. I scrunched up my face at it, I honestly couldn’t understand why people like that thing even my father likes it, once he even forced us to try it, ever since then I had never tried it again.

“What are you making a face at?”,Mariam aapi questioned, arching a perfectly shaped eyebrow at me.

“She is not the only one making a face out here and I think you know the reason” , Rehan bhai replied in a calm tone, he was sitting on my left while grandma took a seat on my right, Hamza bhai sat next to Rehan bhai next to whom was Aaliya aapi. Aunty and uncle sat next to one another on grandma’s right while Alley sat on uncle’s left she was at the same time seated on Danial’s left who had Mariam aapi on his left. We were sitting in a way such that Danial was sitting right across from me.

“No, I don’t think I know what you are talking about”, I heard her trying to dismiss it ,Rehan bhai opened his mouth to reply but I stopped him by placing my hand on his arm gently, he gave me a pointed look but I shook my head at him meanwhile pleading with my eyes. He reluctantly withdrew from the argument that was surely coming. I gave him a thankful smile then took my hand off of his arm. As soon as I looked up my gaze locked with Danial’s, he scowled at me, not knowing what he was scowling at, I turned towards grandma joining in their conversation. The rest of the time I avoided getting into conversation with either Mariam aapi or Danial, Eventually we all ended up conversing in three little groups that were unknowingly divided, one being of the elders, including aunty, uncle and grandma, the second one consisted of me, Rehan bhai, Hamza bhai,Aaliya aapi and Alley. The third one was that of Danial and Mariam aapi, who talked with only one another, actually most of the time it was Mariam aapi who kept blabbering while he listened, looking all bored.

Our food arrived and it smelled so delicious, we said Bismillah and began eating. As soon as I ate the first bite, I felt like moaning, it was so delicious. We ate in silence apart from a few comments nothing else was spoken. I guess it was due to the fact that the food was indeed really good, from starters like seekh kebab, roasted chicken to the desserts; every single dish was just mind blowing. Even the drinks tasted really good, I couldn’t feel better than I already did. The waiter got me the bill and I was about to make the payment when Mariam aapi decided to ruin my happy mood.

“Sara, I think you should let us pay the bill, considering that you belong from a middle-class family I don’t think you’ll be able to pay the hefty amount that is sure to come”, she proposed in a high pitched voice.