Light Upon Light

#59 Perfect Two

#59 Perfect Two

The Ali cousins group was blowing up with notifications. The news about Samir was officially out so it was a given. The group name had even been changed to #Sajwa by Iqra Bhabhi. And every time Samir tried to change it someone else made sure to revert it with lots of heart emojis. Samir gave up when he saw that it was him against the lot of us. Safwan was ecstatic when he found out. He was relentless in his teasing of Samir.

Oh Samir Bhaiiii... You chuppe rustam! Who would have thought that within a month of going to India you’d get engaged! :P :P

Juju was saying the other day that he was running after her to get to know Najwa better!

All that talk about Juni first and see... Such a besabar guy he is.

You should have seen his face when we reached Najwa’s house guys! I was so tempted to take a picture then!

And so on and so forth. Samar had a lot of information to supply about Najwa. And then there were so many pictures of him. I finally had to block my notifications because it was being a hindrance when Lia and I were getting her trousseau organized, her possessions packed up and generally preparing for her rukhsati.

While the shoebox of a bridal kit was her gift, I had also made her a dress. And she couldn’t decide which she liked more. The dress was a long flared gown in lilac with faint silver embroidery on the bodice and ruffled sleeves. Let’s just say that when I gave them to her, she had a fit of tears and was quite emotional. And basically that’s all she’s been doing as she packed her things one by one. It was quite natural and even I felt my eyes sting with tears. She would look at photo albums and tell me the stories and a few tears would skip down. Her brother would come in to ask her about the flowers or some other errands for her and she’d be staring at him just like that, not responding. In the end her family decided that it would be better to just let her be with me.

Two days into my stay with her, I got a call from Najwa. I hadn’t told Lia about the proposal yet. Partly because Najwa would not have appreciated it and partly because things still weren’t set in stone. And also because Samir forbid me from telling anyone outside the family until things were fixed. 

“Who is it?” Lia asked as I checked my phone.

If I told her it’s Najwa and walked away to answer, she’d sniff something fishy. And I can’t really speak to Najwa openly in front of Lia yet. So I told her it was a call from Samir and walked out of the French windows to the little garden.

“Assalamu alaikum Najwa,” I greeted cheerily as soon as I picked the call

“Wa alaikumassalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu Juni. How are things going on at Lia’s place? How many tissue boxes have you gone through already?”

“Alhamdulilah all the preparations are going fine. The decorators and tent people just left her house and her relatives have started arriving. And haha, yeah she’s been crying and laughing a lot. But... That’s not why you’ve called me... So tell me, you’re going to be my sister-in-law or not?”

She gave a nervous little laugh. I knew she was rambling because it was probably really awkward for her to talk to me about this. I mean, I’m her prospective sister-in-law after all. And an only one at that. I wanted to laugh at her, but I restrained myself. There was no need to make this any more difficult for her.

“Well...”

“Come on stop stalling. It’s a yes or no question!”

I already knew her answer. If it was a no she probably wouldn’t even be calling me in the first place. But it was fun to make her squirm a bit.  At the end of that call, Samir was in for a lot of teasing.