Family Matters•••[COMPLETED]

Chapter Twenty-Eight (FINAL CHAPTER)

UMAR's POV

I'd always heard that ladies used to have cold feet on the mornings of their nikkah,... they'd get so emotional and spend all their time before going for the ceremony curled up in their beds with their moms and friends tearing up, they'd share lots of experiences and advice, and give as much moral support to the bride - to- be as possible, I always thought that all of that was supposed to be tiring. Trust me, I was experiencing first hand, the 'cold feet' part, and it wasn't funny, man was I nervous!

Funny how life can be so surprising though, I mean I always thought I'd just be on the receiving end, you know, receive the bride and all her mushiness, the teary-red, bulged out eye and all, no offense, Sumayyah, handing her tissues and all to wipe her face and blow her stuffed nose... But being in this present situation, I felt like such a girl! To actually think that I was getting married today, like, in very few hours, less than three, two hours fifty three minutes to be precise, got me really freaking out, not in any bad way though.

Ali stared at me, speechless... sorry I forgot to mention that I wasn't in the room alone.

Ali had been sitting in my room for over three hours now, right after we came back from the masjid for observing subh, he'd been filling me with completely unnecessary advice, he kept on staring at me and was probably drilling holes in my head already. He had tried talking me through the whole thing, and totally failing miserably.

- "you gotta brace up yourself man, you handle this whole situation like a real, grown man, you know what I mean? All you gotta do is get up there and grab your woman, no hassles..."- he'd said, like he wasn't years away from getting married himself

" yeah, bro... You make it seem so easy. You got any more unhelpful ideas though?" I'd said, clearly stating the fact that he was completely as clueless as I was.

"Well, nothing much that I hadn't already said, if only l..."

"Yeah, yeah, if only you'd gotten married... I'd still be the one schooling you, so, thank you for making me remind you of how miserable you are"

"You're really mean Umar, you're lucky I've changed so much, plus, its your wedding and all, you've to be in one piece. So, thank your stars.
Why can't you ask your dad by the way? I mean he's married and he's probably experienced more wedding ceremonies than you probably ever will, I'm sure he'd be willing to help"

"Sure! My dad has attended like, only his own wedding, cos every other day he's out on business. You think he'd waste his precious hours attending sappy things like this, trust me, my dad's out if it. Besides, if he felt like he had to give me any advice, he'd have done that by now, without me having to ask."

"Well, judging from all that you explained earlier, he's probably not so comfortable around you yet, maybe not enough to be discussing such issues with you"

Apparently, I'd told Ali about how things had been, with dad not being around most of the time, and mom having to fill in his role, how even after he had apologised and promised to be better, things still hadn't changed much over the past four years (since his promise to be better), he still travelled for businesses and stayed out for months, only this time, the meetings weren't as frequent, and he was actually making effort to spend time with his family. He even mentioned some months ago that he intended to take us on vacation, but due to the wedding coming up and technically, we were all involved in the preparations, he decided to postpone it till we were free enough after the wedding.

We were pretty much making progress, Alhamdulillah.

"I know, and I understand, but still he has to make more effort, I don't mean to be a whiner Ali, but really, if he wouldn't do this for me, then who will? Abu Toheerah? 'Course, he's always been there for me, but even at times like this, no one's better suited for the job. I'd probably even feel more confident if my dad talked to me, even if it were just for two minutes."