Apparently, Sameer wasn’t okay with Hina accepting him as her life partner three months after they had been married....
COVER STORY
Things were still stormy between Hina and Sameer as Amani’s wedding drew nearer. Hina had accompanied her friends to all their outings and girls’ nights prior to the wedding. She had been able to attend all of them without worrying about neglecting Sameer simply because he hadn’t been speaking to her since she had revealed her true feelings to him.
Apparently, Sameer wasn’t okay with Hina accepting him as her life partner three months after they had been married. It was not acceptable to Sameer. Every time Hina tried to reason with him, he said, “You were undecided about your commitment to our marriage for the first three months, Hina. This is not something inconsequential.”
Cooped up in the car with Sameer on their way to Amani’s mehndi, Hina was bothered with the silence between them. She nervously rearranged her dress and said, “Can we talk again at least for the duration of Amani’s wedding? It would look so strange if the two of us didn’t speak to each other during the whole event.”
“What do you have to say for yourself?” Sameer spoke up immediately.
“I thought we could put the whole issue on hold and talk about something else,” Hina said.
“I can’t think about anything else, Hina,” Sameer said. “Here I was, so blissfully happy for three months, thinking you were as happy as I was, when all this time you were still considering if you had wanted to marry me or not.”
“It’s not like that,” Hina said.
By this time, they had reached the venue. Sameer got out and helped pick up Hina’s dress for her to get out of the car.
“What was it like, then? I was only an option for you even after you signed the marriage contract with me,” Sameer said. “You said, ‘I accept’ three times! In your heart, you were saying ‘maybe’!”
“The contract and the ‘I accept’ three times are all valid,” Hina said as they walked into the venue. “Everyone heard me say it. My signature is on that marriage contract.”
“But your heart wasn’t, and that bothers me a lot,” Sameer said.
“Hey, Hina, Sameer!” Ray and Gohar walked up to greet them. Ray shot both of them a look but said nothing.
“Let’s go to Amani to get her ready for her awesome bridal entry,” Gohar said brightly.
They walked in silence for a few moments. Then Gohar asked Hina, “Is everything all right between you and Sameer?”
“Everything is fine,” Hina replied automatically.
“It looked like you were arguing when you arrived,” Gohar said.
“No time for this now. Let’s check how gorgeous Amani is looking today,” Hina said desperately. They had entered the bridal room, where Amani rose to meet them, all smiles.
“You look heavenly!” Hina said.
“You look awful,” Amani said cheerfully.
“Are you that upset at having to let me go into married life at last?”
“She is fighting with Sameer about something, and won’t tell me anything,” Gohar said.
“Well, they had to have their first argument at some point, right?” Amani’s smile did not fade. “You’ll be all right, Hina.”
Hina nodded weakly.
“More importantly, today is my day! Let’s do this,” Amani said. “You two are going to be right next to me when I make my entrance. All right?”
“All right!” Gohar said.
Hina remained silent.
“Hina, you can’t afford to be preoccupied on the most important day of my life,” Amani said, nudging her. “You ready?”
“I suppose,” Hina said.
The entrance went off without any mistakes. Hina lowered the decorated cloth they had been holding over Amani’s head and joined the ranks of girls surrounding the stage as the groom made his entry. Moeed looked like he was having the time of his life as he danced with his buddies before sitting down next to Amani.
Hina rejoined Sameer in the seating area.
“Look at all those girls with their husbands,” Sameer said as soon as she sat down, as if their conversation had not been interrupted. “Do you think they chose them after their wedding?”
“I don’t think I know their circumstances,” Hina said. “That one married her college sweetheart, that other one didn’t agree to the proposal until she’d seen the guy three times, and the bride of the day is Amani, who has known Moeed, her husband-to-be, since they were kids. Does it hurt you to think that when you reached marriageable age and your mother found someone for you, that was enough for the girl in question to be absolutely impressed by you? All you needed to do was walk into the room and the girl was yours? It takes more than that to convince someone to spend her life with you.”
“You should have told me that before your mother banned us from talking,” Sameer said.
“I didn’t know she was going to find out we had been talking on the phone and stop us from doing that,” Hina said. “I thought we had plenty of time to talk things out.”
“You should have—” Sameer started, but Gohar stepped in.
“I know I am not qualified to give my opinion regarding your argument which, by the way, everyone in the gathering can hear,” Gohar said. “I don’t qualify because I trusted the person I would marry because he was my best friend’s brother. I don’t have Hina’s problem. At least let me say this. Today is Amani’s day. Yes, Amani doesn’t have your problems because she’s known her husband to be since they were kids. Let’s not spoil the day for them because your circumstances are different.”
Sameer instantly apologised. Hina pursed her lips.
The rest of the mehndi passed in a whirl of sound and colour. By the time Hina and Sameer were back in the car on the way back home, the argument had resumed.
Sameer said, “Do you know what the problem with you is? I bet if you told your family you wanted to leave me, they’d take you right back.”
“It’s not that easy,” Hina said.
“Fine,” Sameer said. “Watch this.” He dialed Ray’s number. Ray picked up. Sameer said, “I know this is sudden and the worst timing, but I wanted to tell you something Hina said to me. She said she wants to leave me. Did she tell you this?”
“Yes,” Ray said immediately. Hina’s mouth fell open in shock. “I am on my way to your apartment as we speak,” Ray added.
“All right,” Sameer said. “See you.” Sameer disconnected the call. Hina had still not closed her mouth.
No matter how much Hina tried to talk herself out of it, neither Sameer nor Ray was ready to listen to her. She found herself packed off to return to her parents’ home in Ray’s car. Gohar turned around from the front passenger seat and took Hina’s hand.
“It’s going to be all right,” Gohar said. “We didn’t know it was that serious.”
“It’s not,” Hina said. “Everything’s fine. Sameer’s just—”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” Ray said. “You just relax for now.”
“But I didn’t even say all that to Sameer!” Hina burst out. “I didn’t tell him I wanted to leave him!” She started to cry.
“Let it all out,” Gohar said. The car continued on its way back.
To be continued…
