Naina (Al-Ameen Family #4)

Fast Forward

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I texted Armaan to meet me at a rooftop café close to his condo. We could have met with at my apartment, but I figured that would have been a bit too borderline haram. The café was in the nice, affluent part of Mumbai, which meant more privacy and lots of silence for us to talk in peace and ease. We were meeting around noon, so I spent the morning at the gym boxing and then working on the case a bit. I had been slacking so much on intel collection since I came back to India.

I left early so I could get there before him. I wanted to micro manage where we'd be sitting so we wouldn't be bothered in case paparazzi had followed him.

I picked a spot in the corner of the café that was away from the edge of the rooftop and covered by some plants. The table had four couch seats, one on every side. I picked the one that would allow me to be able to see the café.

He was perfectly on time.

"Hey," he smiled, sitting on the patio couch across from me. I greeted him back, putting my phone down on the table between us.

"This place is nice and empty," he noted, looking around at the only four other people on the rooftop.

"Yeah, I didn't want to risk having your fans show up," I chuckled, taking a sip of my water.

He nodded, taking his sunglasses off and putting them down too. "I couldn't sleep properly last night. I kept thinking about what you could possibly say to me today," he said so honestly, I was a bit taken aback.

I was always in awe when people were able to be so open and vulnerable to someone they haven't known all their lives. His honesty shined.

"Now you're just making me nervous," I laughed.

"No, no, I'm here for it all. Don't hold back," he chuckled, leaning back in his seat. His arm came up to stretch behind his head and I got distracted by his flexing bicep.

Talk about past emotions coming up today.

"Hello sir, hello ma'am, would you like something to drink?" a waiter came to our table.

Armaan gestured for me to go ahead. "The orange pineapple juice please," I said to him and Armaan ordered a coffee.

"Okay my cricket queen," he stood up and moved to sit on the sofa beside me, so he was out of the sun. It was getting hot as the day went on. "Start."

"You're making me nervous. Don't look at me," I started giggling, and then cringing at my giggling. Very few things in life made me nervous but awkward conversations like these were sure as hell one of them.

"Okay fine, I won't look at you. But just start talking otherwise you're only going to get more nervous," he made a good point.

"Okay, okay you're right. Here it is. I was married a long time ago. That relationship I told you about a few days before was marriage," I said so quickly I worried he might not have heard what I said. But as usual, he got it all.

I've said a lot of things to Armaan, but I don't think he's expected this. He already knew I'd been in a relationship but the stunned look on his face told me he definitely didn't expect marriage.

I kept talking while the adrenaline was still coursing through me. "I was 16. Well my parents got a rishta from a family friend. The guy was 20 but my parents did it for the money. I had just converted, I didn't know what was going on, but I knew the guy. We'd grown up around each other. I made the mistake of talking to a molana (priest) at the mosque. He gave me some bad advice and said to just get married since I knew the guy and knew he wouldn't make my life difficult."