After I do's

Chapter 1

Today is the day we got married. I didn't see my husband much before wedding because the couple is not supposed to meet when the marriage is close. I did sneak a peak at him some times when he came over. I urged my cousin to get him to meet me before marriage so I knew what I'd be dealing with. A chauvinist? A sexist? They were the most common types. Being a naive and timid girl my cousin is, she simply declined and told me to not ask her for fatal favours. 

Dramatic much.

I had to wait till today to take a good look at him and possibly figure him out beforehand in order to act accordingly. Here we sit in the car, all alone, facing away from each other while the driver drove to his house. My thoughts were going wild and my fingers were visibly shaking due to the close proximity even though he was sitting a good meter away from me. Hell we were exchanging the same air, but the driver was sharing the exact same air too. Conscious of germs my hands inched towards the button and in rolled a fresh gush of air. The air made my nerves calm and my eyes were aesthetically pleased with the clear road and yellow street lamps. I placed my head on the headrest giving the driver a perfect vision of my nostrils and double chin. The exhaustion of the wedding got to me and I was drifting to sleep until a certain somebody spoke up. 'The AC is on.'

The nerves were back and my heart was beating at the speed of light. Sleep long gone. Eyes wide awake. He was now tapping away on his phone. 

'I need fresh air.' 

It came out more monotonous than expected.

His eyes moved from his phone towards me still glistening from the light and then behind me. He let out a sigh and switched off the screen of his phone. It was stark dark in the car and the sleepiness came back. 

Soon the car came to stop and we both made a bee-line towards the house. His family and relatives had already reached though I was confused as to why the relatives were there.

At first, everyone stared at us like we were aliens. I was feeling extremely uncomfortable and a little out of place. People started warming up and breaking the silence when men playfully punched Hamzah on his chest while smiling some even smirking. As much as I wanted to hide my smirk, I couldn't help, but give out a weird smile in attempt to hiding the smirk thinking too bad your man is not getting any of this anytime soon. 

I was leaded my the girls of his family to my supposed room. The room was decorated with roses. Too much roses. I looked around the room to find a spacious room with grey floor tiles, dark beige walls, a french window covered by dark beige curtains beside black Japanese style bed, beneath the bed lay a dark beige rug, a tall black lamp stood beside the side table and a horizontal wall mirror under which rested a minuscule dressing table. 

Two side tables besides the bed and two picture frames hung above the bed matching the room aesthetic. A wall closet beside the door was placed and opposite the bed was a huge LED screen. A black chandelier fan hung below the ceiling in the middle of the room. All in all, it screamed minimalist. It looked like a room out of Tumblr. I was so focused in my thoughts that I forgot to see if the rest of the house looked as gorgeous as this room. I sat on the left side of the bed inwardly groaning at how much I'd have to crouch. The room was too dark for my liking even the with lights which themselves were dim it had an intimidating presence. 

The girls talked to me more like interrogated me from my education to future plans when a relative of his barged in saying that it's late and they should let us rest for the night. The sounds of laughter dimmed down slowly signalling the relatives were leaving. I stood up and moved towards the wall closet where all my clothes had been placed and took out a loose suit of shalwar kameez. 

I was so tired and didn't have the energy to remove the makeup not to mention the pins in my dress and hair. Thankfully, it was winter and not humid otherwise I would have to take shower to wash the sticky feel of sweat off. I placed my clothes on the bed while I took out the jewellery and placed it carefully on one side of the dressing table. I was fumbling with the dupatta as one of the pins got stuck and my hair was pulling when in walked Hamzah. Feeling awkward having being caught with my limbs clutching both my head, I continued to do so with my now hurt limbs.

'Uh.. Could you help me out here, please?'

Wordlessly, he came towards me. I looked at his calm reflection when he couldn't figure out why the safety pin was stuck to the cloth his eyebrows scrunched while he focused on fixing the problem. Soon it came out and he began to walk away when I caught his wrist.

'Could you take out the pins at the back and my hair too, please?'

For a second, it looked as if he was ready to protest, but I beat him to it. 

'Please, I am just really exhausted and I have to remove this waterproof makeup too.' I said, pointing my index finger to my face. 

'That's not my problem.' He seethed.

He probably went to get ready for bed leaving me take off the dupatta and search for more pins.

Before going to the bathroom, he looked at me once, and when he saw me without dupatta, he gulped visibly, but I was too busy to get rid of the pins and silently cursing whoever made pins.

He came back out his hair wet, and he was clothed in a gray shalwar kameez. He checked his phone while drying his hair. I had upgraded from pins in my dress to the pins in my hair. Since most of my hair was hidden in a bun, I thought there wouldn't be many pins. Soon my limbs gave out from being in the same position for 5 minutes. I decided few pins are better than a lot of pins. I grabbed my crystal clutch and took out the makeup remover wipes from inside and I could bet that it took me more than 10 wipes to completely rid my face from makeup. Feeling happy with my bare self, I rushed into the bathroom to wash my face with soap to complete the purity ritual. I left the bathroom feeling much better and decided to change. 

After changing, I met with a sleeping Hamzah. Looking at the clock, it was 3 am. When I reached his house it was around 1 am. Thinking it was best to go to sleep as soon as possible because next day would be a day different from usual days. I turned to face away from him while I rolled myself in the blanket, but sleep didn't come. 

The clock ticking was too loud for me to sleep. One reason I hate winters.

It was around 5 am when I decided to pray Fajr, but I didn't know where the prayer mat was. I silently searched the dressing table, wall closet and the bedside table on my side, the prayer mat was nowhere to be found. 

I pondered over my choices of scrambling through his bedside table, and decided for it.

I got my hands on the prayer mat, but just as I was about to close the drawer. I heard ruffles from beside me and Hamzah turned to look at me with an annoyed look on his face. 

'What the fuck are you doing in the morning?'

'Why does it matter to you?'

'You're making a noise.'

'That's not my problem.'

'Oh and honey dearest, what is the direction of Qibla?' I asked changing the tone of my voice to a sweet one.

Shocked at the duality, he stood up reluctantly and snatched the prayer mat from my hand while throwing it in the direction of Qibla. He went towards the bathroom possibly to prepare for prayer.

Wordlessly, I began my prayer. After I finished, I heard Hamzah sternly say, 'Leave it there.'

Rolling my eyes at him, I got up. I felt sleepy and decided to get little sleep before the day officially started. 

I laid as far away as possible from his side and rolled my self in the furry blanket when I felt the bed dip beside me and he faced towards me. I could feel his penetrating gaze on my back, but I remained still.

Closing my eyes, I slowly drifted to sleep. While I was at it, I felt fingers softly rummage through my hair. The sensation fueled my sleepiness. I was an addict. I didn't want the fingers to be stopped because I felt pure bliss.

And then I felt my hair pull slightly before I gave in to sleep.

Note: 

A new book. I have high hopes in this!