Love and Letters ✔

Chapter 10

Love and Letters

Chapter 10

I sat on the sofa next to him, biting the corner of my lower lip nervously. Both of us were leaning close to one another. It was slightly awkward, but not tensed between us, despite the unusual circumstances. Every time that he looked at me, he did not even attempt to hide his smile. I felt nervous, this was after all one of my friends, or at least someone that I considered a friend.

It was Zubair.

Zubair Ismail. My best friend's older brother.

I knew that Suraya and her crazy ideas would get me into trouble, but as her best friend, I was liable to be her guinea pig. After the fiasco of the failed guy who came to see me, Suraya said that it was time to put her big plan into action. I agreed, thinking that she was going to have one of our friends let it slip that he was coming for a proposal, but it wasn't this. I had never expected it to be this.

A fake engagement to her brother.

Things had happened quickly over a space of two weeks. It annoyed me that immediately after telling my parents that I wanted a year to think and to grow, I was getting engaged. It was hypocritical of me.

With the grace of Allah, no one looked at me as I were losing my mind. They had all readily agreed and helped where they could. The only one who was suspicious of the whole affair was my brother. However, Suraya, Zubair and I filled him in quietly. Suraya was against telling him, but I reminded her that he held those letters for years, if he didn't think that we were suitable at all, he would have burned them all to ash.

"What's with this ostentatious tray?" Zubair asked me, motioning to the tray filled with the sweet meats I had made. Then, he looked closer. "Burfee? Where did you get it?"

I rolled my eyes dramatically at him. "I'm not going to tell you! Now, do you want some?"

He shook his head stubbornly. He would not eat it until he knew where it was made. Zubair always had a problem with eating food if he didn't know where it was made or bought.

Realising his stubbornness and how thick-headed he could be, I relented. "I made it. Happy now?"

"Ecstatic." With ease, I lifted my right hand, the bangles clinking against one another made a beautiful sound. As I brought it near his lips, ready to feed him, he shook his head. "As much as I appreciate the idea, I don't eat burfee."

I couldn't understand it. Who doesn't like burfee? Who doesn't eat burfee? It was a good thing that it was only a fake engagement, because I don't think that I could spend my life with someone who doesn't eat burfee.

"Okay." I felt slightly dejected. I had no idea why, but I felt rejected.

For the next fifteen minutes, we sat and spoke quietly amongst ourselves. Would anyone say that we were a newly engaged couple? I doubted it. The sun shone brightly on us. At times, I had to blink rapidly from the way the sunlight caught onto my heavily beaded dress. My heavy jewellery fluttered and sparkled, and I felt like a princess. Pretty and somewhat bold. "I have to go," I pouted. Despite the fact that this was a fake engagement, it felt very real.

"Hey?" Zubair called as I stood up.

"Yeah?" in slow motion, I turned and looked at him. What did he want?

"I got a question."

Smiling, I looked down at him. He was seated on the couch, comfortably reclining like a king.

"What if I fall in love with you before he asks you to marry him?" Zubair asked me seriously. My heart fluttered. Would it really be so bad if he fell in love with me? Would my life be that difficult with him? The guy that I was in love with had been wasting too much time to ask me to marry him, but why did I still hope for him to ask? Why did I still believe that he would come?