THE EID ENGAGEMENT, AND OTHER WEDDINGS #43

COVER STORY

‘I’m getting married in three months,’ Amani said. Hina and Gohar wrapped her up in a big hug. ‘Congratulations!’ Hina and Gohar said together.

‘We have to get started on the wedding shopping,’ Gohar said. ‘Unless you’ve already…?’

‘Of course, I went wedding shopping with Moeed already,’ Amani said. ‘Don’t worry! I’ve saved some of the trickier bits for you two. I want girls’ opinions on some things, and Moeed just can’t advise me about fashion like you can.’ The girls grinned at each other.

Hina arrived home, full of talk. Sameer listened to her as they had dinner. ‘Is Amani’s wedding all we are going to do for the next three months?’ Sameer asked.

‘I don’t think so,’ Hina replied.

‘It sure sounds like it,’ Sameer said.

‘I’ll talk about what we’re going to do,’ Hina said. ‘I have a list of things I want to do.’

‘You and your lists.’ Sameer smiled. His phone beeped.

‘That’s a list of restaurants I want to try,’ Hina said. Sameer picked up his phone and looked at it.

‘I can think of a few more places to add to this list,’ he said. ‘What else?’

‘I want to go shopping for Amani’s wedding,’ Hina said. ‘Us. Together. Pick out something for you and me to wear.’

‘Hina, what about all the clothes we have made for us for our own wedding, you want to go out and get more?’ Sameer asked.

‘Yes,’ Hina said. ‘I want to wear something new I picked especially for Amani’s wedding, not something I had made to wear as a newlywed.’

‘All right,’ Sameer said. ‘That’s fair. What else are we shopping for?’ Sameer’s phone beeped again. ‘I should have known. There’s a list?’

‘I still want some things for the apartment,’ Hina said.

‘We’re always getting things for the apartment,’ Sameer said.

‘We’re going to get more things for the apartment.’ Hina started to pick up the empty dinner plates.

‘All this is fine, but don’t you want to take a break for a while?’ Sameer asked.

‘Go on our honeymoon, you mean?’ Hina asked.

‘We can do that later,’ Sameer said. ‘This would just be a trip to Murree. You and me. We’d get away from the routine for a bit.’

‘I like that idea,’ Hina said.

‘I also have a secret I’ll show you later,’ Sameer said. ‘If you like it, we’ll spend lots of time on it.’

‘What could it possibly be?’ Hina asked.

‘Let’s get through some of the things on our list first,’ Sameer said, and so they did. The time passed relatively pleasantly, until one day shortly before Amani’s wedding when Sameer spent the day acting all secretive.

‘What are you hiding from me?’ Hina asked.

‘It’s in the locker room downstairs,’ Sameer said. ‘Come down and see it.’

Hina followed him down through the elevator to the locker room. There stood a new green bicycle, shiny and splendid.

‘It’ll match my blue one,’ Sameer said, his face shining. ‘We can go on rides together. You’ll have to learn it first, of course.’

‘What took you so long to get it?’ Hina asked.

‘I was waiting for the right time. I wouldn’t have it said that the first thing I made my new bride do was getting dirty on the street,’ Sameer said.

‘This is going to be fun! Let’s go,’ Hina said.

It took some time for Hina to learn to balance on the bicycle. Finally, she sped ahead down the street, hair flying behind her.

‘You’re pushing really fast!’ she said.

‘I let go a minute ago,’ Sameer called out to her. She swerved the bicycle around and rode back towards him.

‘I forgot how to make it stop,’ she said, wobbling as she approached Sameer.

Sameer caught the bicycle by the handlebars, and Hina came to a stop. Laughing together, faces flushed, Hina said to Sameer, ‘I choose you!’

Sameer grinned back at her. ‘What do you mean?’ Then his smile faded. ‘Let’s put the bikes away,’ he said. All the way back up to their apartment Sameer was silent. Once they were inside, he said, ‘I wish I had misheard you.’ His shoulders slumped.

‘You heard me right.’ Hina’s smile had not faded in response to Sameer’s quickly setting sun. ‘I choose you!’

‘Hina…’ Sameer sat down on the sofa and put his face in his hands. ‘You can’t mean what you just said.’

‘What’s wrong with it?’ Hina flopped down happily next to him.

‘Hina, you decided to marry me some time ago,’ Sameer said, not removing his hands from his face.

‘Yes, but I hadn’t chosen you as the one I’d marry yet,’ Hina said brightly.

‘What were you up to all this time we’ve been together since we got married, then?’ Sameer asked. ‘What if you’d spent all this time with me and decided you didn’t choose me, what would happen next?’

‘You know what would happen next,’ Hina said dismissively. ‘I’d leave.’

‘That’s not fair.’ Sameer lowered his hands from his face. ‘You shouldn’t agree to marry someone thinking that you would decide later on whether to stay with them or leave them.’

‘That was the only option I had,’ Hina said, sobering up somewhat. ‘Ammi didn’t give me enough time to choose you.’

‘You think you would have chosen to marry me before our marriage if only you’d had a little more time to think it over?’ Sameer asked, turning towards Hina.

‘Yes,’ Hina said, nodding.

‘What if you hadn’t chosen me back then?’ Sameer asked.

‘Then I wouldn’t have married you,’ Hina said. ‘Ray backed me up all the way on this one.’

‘It would have hurt far less for you to refuse before getting married, compared to now. Finding out I was only an option for you until this minute hurts me more than I can say.’ Sameer’s face darkened.

‘I acted based on the options available to me,’ Hina said. ‘I could have backed out before the marriage because I was unsure, but I wanted to go ahead while I was still unsure to see how it would go.’

Sameer angrily stormed out of the room.

-To be continued…