بنا تیرے جو گزری ، وبال جان گزری

Saturday - 6:47pm

After the storm, the calm had finally graced Hemayal Khakwani- her soul fulfilled, heart contented, mind peaceful. The long years of misery had finally ended and she hoped, for his sake and her own, that they were gone for good. Because, wallah, another storm and she would crumble like a house of cards.

But, no.

Tonight, she wouldn't focus on the past, its miseries, aches and sorrows; her sole focus would be on the future, welcoming, hopeful and bright.

"Hemayal?" Baba whispered from in front, seated on the passenger seat beside Hadeed Lala who drove.

"Hmm?" Hemayal mumbled, gazing absently out the window with a small smile on her face - that had come to be a constant ever since Ibrahim had mouthed those three words last Monday night.

"I'm sorry, after that man's death, Anas Ali, the police had hit a dead end. But we're doing everything we can to find who he worked for." Baba said and the smile dimmed for a second before Hemayal sighed.

"Baba, if I tell you to let it go, will you?" Hemayal replied, cautious not to give away too much.

"Why would you want to let it go?" Hadeed Lala asked, hands on the steering wheel while a confused expression migrated to his face.

"I just...I don't need to find who he was. It's in the past, let it stay there." Hemayal replied, casting Mehmal a quick glance who sat beside her on the back seat.

"Hami, you shouldn't let it go." Baba said, voice soft and Hemayal let out a troubled breath.

"I am letting it go. What good would finding that man do to me? It's over and I'm trying to move on now." Hemayal replied, urging Mehmal with an elbow to her sides to speak.

"Yes," Mehmal said hurriedly before coughing slightly. "I mean...Hami's right. If she's trying to move on, let her. Finding that man will only open healed wounds." Mehmal said and Hemayal cast her a grateful look.

"Okay, but what if he tries to do anything again?" Anisha Bhabhi asked, sitting beside Mehmal.

"He wouldn't. Baba found his man, that Anas Ali, so I think that was enough of a message for him. He wouldn't dare again." Hemayal replied, wanting her father off this case with a feeling that almost bordered desperation.

"Alright, if that's what you want." Baba replied, giving in, and a small smile touched Hemayal's lips.

"That is what I want." She said softly, glad that another one of her worries was out of the way.

Before, she did want her family to find out about Ibrahim, sooner or later, but not now. Now that everything was fine, them finding out about it would only complicate things and Hemayal already had had enough complications to last a lifetime.

"We're here." Hadeed Lala announced as he parked the car in front of the restaurant, exiting it and handling the keys to the valet.

Hemayal and Mehmal walked a close distance behind everyone - Hemayal due to her uncertainty and newfound hesitation and Mehmal just to keep her company. The dinner of her family with the Yaazdani's was long overdue and anticipated and she knew what was about to come but she wasn't prepared for it - not one bit.

"It's going to be okay, Hemayal. Quit worrying." Mehmal jabbed her elbow in Hemayal's sides and Hemayal would have winced hadn't she been too involved in her own worrisome thoughts.

"I'm not worried, he asked me about the dinner." Hemayal replied, voice low.

"Then, I guess it's nervousness behind your actions," Mehmal mused with a mischivious cough and a blush lingered on brown-haired woman's cheek. "This is the first time you're meeting him after that night, right?"

"Yeah." Hemayal mumbled, stopping just outside the doors while her family went inside, Mehmal stoppping with her.

"This is not the first time you're meeting him or his family. What's all this blush about?" Mehmal asked, wiggling her brows and Hemayal let out a laugh despite her tension.

"I'm not blushing." Hemayal replied, placing her palms against her cheek - a futile effort to hide.

"Sure you're not," Mehmal laughed, the mischief in her eyes and face too evident for the world to see. "Oh, Hami, love looks good on you." Mehmal's expressions suddenly turned solemn and a small, sad smile graced her lips as she looked at her cousin with adoration.

"I don't think I've ever seen you this happy." Mehmal said and Hemayal straightened, still smiling.

"I've never been this happy." Hemayal replied, the smile splitting her face.

"I hope he treats you well and I hope life doesn't away take this smile. Ever." Mehmal said, hugging her shortly before hurrying inside the door, a smiling Hemayal left behind.

Just as Hemayal too flexed her legs to cross the threshold, Mustafa came to stand in front of her, face all the shades of serious and grim. Hemayal took a step back, the words from their previous conversation coming to hit her back with full force, the pain that Ibrahim and time had numbed, surfacing.

"Can we talk?" He asked, urgently.

"Now?" Hemayal whispered, gazing from above his shoulder at the two families who had now occupied their seats by the table, too busy talking to each other to notice the two of them.

Ibrahim wasn't there.

"Please." Mustafa said and Hemayal found herself nodding her head as she took another step back and turned, walking a few feet away from the door.

"Hemayal, first of all, I'm sorry. Whatever I said to you, it was totally uncalled for." Mustafa began and Hemayal was taken off guard for a second.

She was not expecting that.

"No, I understood where it came from. It's okay." She replied, nodding her head in acknowledgment.

"It really isn't. The way I talked about your Dadu, how I threatened you - Ibrahim would kill me if he finds out." Mustafa said and Hemayal chuckled a little.

"I won't tell him if that's what you're trying to say." Hemayal said and this time, Mustafa chuckled - in good humour, she hoped.

"You can tell him if you want to. It isn't that. It's just...you're my brother's wife, I never should have talked to you the way I did, no matter how angry I was. And now that you two are finally going to be together, I don't want our relationship to start on the bad footing." Mustafa said and the smile began dancing on Hemayal's lips again.

"Mustafa, it really is okay. The person who shouted at me that night, he was just a concerned brother, scared for his family, angry at the person who did it. And I'm not going to hold it against you, not when I know your intentions weren't bad." Hemayal replied, realizing at that moment how far she'd come since Ibrahim had walked back into her life.

"I've always thought of you as Safaa and now that Abi and you have made up, all the more reason for-"

"Hemayal?"

Mustafa was speaking and Hemayal was listening to him with lips pressed in a smile when Ibrahim entered her peripheral vision and she turned to him at his voice, the small smile widening as every inch of her expressions came alive on seeing him before her.

"Ibrahim." She said, the grin on her face dazzling.

I love you.

His last words from the night still played in her mind, in her heart; a soft, melodic tone that made her soul sing. Never in a million years did she expect to hear them - not so soon, not ever.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ibrahim asked, eyes narrowed in confusion as he looked at his brother but approached Hemayal. "Everyone's inside?"

"Just talking about you and yeah, everyone's inside." Mustafa answered just as Ibrahim, in the middle of the lot, threw his arm around Hemayal and brought her close to him in a side hug - his gesture ever so casual - and Hemayal's heart went into an arrythmia, toes curling ever so slightly.

"Hey, you." He whispered into her hair and before Hemayal could say a word in reply, a bout of cough interrupted them and Hemayal turned towards Mustafa with crimson cheeks; Ibrahim's arm still thrown around her.

"Go easy on the PDA, you two." Mustafa winked and Hemayal heard Ibrahim chuckle, a throaty one that vibrated his chest, before he slapped his brother on the shoulder.

"Go in there. We'll be inside in a minute." Ibrahim said, shaking his head while Hemayal blushed even further as Mustafa turned and went inside with a lopsided grin.

"I never thought you as a blushing type." Ibrahim remarked as he removed his arm from around her, coming to stand in front of her with a breathtaking smile of his own.

"I never thought you as a PDA type." Hemayal reiterated and earned a laugh from Ibrahim - a full, head thrown back, eyes crinkling, neck exposing, laugh and warmth flooded her.

She'd never seen him laugh before

"It was hardly PDA," he remarked but dimmed the laugh by a notch as he stared intently in her eyes. "Anyways, how was your week?"

"Good, great," Hemayal smiled, tilting her head sideways and up to get a clearer glance of his handsome face. "Yours?"

"Better than I imagined." He replied as he turned towards the restaurant, taking her along with him with a hand around her elbow.

"I'm sorry about your job though." Hemayal said, the sorrow to her voice too evident.

"I'll find another," he tried to smile - for her sake - but the sadness that filled Hemayal's face at his attempt only made him halt. "Hemayal, let's just forget it, okay? They'll be deciding our wedding date inside, focus on that. Let's leave every bad thing happening right now to rest."

"Alright." Hemayal nodded just as she entered the restaurant and approached the long table at the far end, occupied to the brim except for two seats.

"There you are!" Ibrahim's mother quickly vacated her seat as she approached Hemayal, catching her halfway in a hug.

Caught off guard, Hemayal felt expressions of shock lifting her face and everyone on seeing that, let out a laugh. Quickly recovering, she felt a smile coming across her features as Ammu let her go, her expression so soft she almost cried.

"How are you, child?" She asked, taking Hemayal to her seat beside her own which Hemayal occupied before meeting other members of Yazdani household.

"I'm good. And you? I'm sorry I couldn't come..." Hemayal said, taking a seat between Ammu and Mehmal, with Ibrahim coming to sit directly in front of her.

"Nonsense. Nothing happened to me. You know these kids, they just exaggerate." Ammu brushed off and Hemayal felt herself smiling at the way her gaze melted to love at the mention of her kids.

"I'm sure they do. You look healthy as ever." Hemayal remarked and felt a smile lifting her mother-in-law's lips.

"See, there's a reason Abi can't get over you. You flatter too much." Mustafa remarked from across the table and after a second of silence, the whole restaurant shook with the ring of their laughter.

"Shut up." Hemayal rolled her eyes at him as she said, her pressed smile and scarlet cheeks a sight to behold as her gaze went to Ibrahim.

"Don't tease her, Mustafa." Safaa said, eyeing Mustafa in a warning, but the smile on her face was too soft to convey the message.

"Sure I will. She's the only chance I'll ever get to rile up Abi." Mustafa said, a lopsided grin now a permanence on his face.

"Yeah, like you don't have enough." Hadeed Lala said and a fresh pair of laughter broke across the table.

"These kids, their banter will never end," Baba said, a small smile on his face too as he gazed across the table and Hemayal's smile dimmed by a notch. "Should we first decide the date of their marriage?"

"Sure, sure." Ammu said as she sat forward in her seat, eyes widening in sheer happiness and anticipation, and Hemayal smiled at her reaction.

"How much time will we need for preparations?" Ibrahim's father asked, eyes pondering.

"Two weeks, I think. Three if they want a lavish affair." Anisha Bhabhi answered, looking at the two of them in question.

"Definetely not lavish," Ibrahim quickly said but stopped to look at Hemayal, raising brows in question. "If that's okay with you."

"No, nothing big." Hemayal acceeded with a slight shake of her head and Ibrahim smiled.

"Then two weeks is more than enough. Right, Ammu?" Safaa said, turning to look at her mother who seemed deep in thought.

"Yeah, I think it'll be enough," Ammu said, coming back from her thoughts with an encouraging nod. "What's the date two weeks from now?"

"9th November." Mehmal replied, pulling out her phone to confirm the dates.

"9th seems fine to me." Baba said, looking at Hemayal and Ibrahim with question who hadn't yet uttered a word.

"Me too." Ibrahim said, such a bright smile on his face that Hemayal's breat hitched in her throat for a second.

"9th it is." Hemayal whispered with a shy smile, looking straight at Ibrahim with nothing but deep love in her gaze, and the table instantly broke with cries and hooting.

After that, everybody dissolved in different conversations - some discussing the wedding, some politics and some just eating food - and Hemayal and Ibrahim were left to stare at each other in peace, their smiles too bright for the world, their happiness unmeasurable. A second later and her phone vibrated, indicating a message.

"Green suits you."

The message read and Hemayal's smile instantly widened, fingers hurrying to type a reply.

"Wish I could say the same."

The expressions that marked Ibrahim's face after reading the message made a small laugh leave Hemayal's lips, her insides warming at his sour features.

"You fine with the date?"

Hemayal looked up at him only to find his eyes already set on her, deep and probing. A small nod and a smile escaped her together and Ibrahim visibly relaxed in his place.

"If it's too soon for you, let me know."

Another message came through and Hemayal sighed deeply before smiling, fingers already typing a response.

"It's him, isn't it?" Mehmal leaned towards her and asked, her eyes although directed ahead as she talked to Mustafa.

"Yeah." Hemayal replied with a laugh as Mehmal shook her head, straightening.

"When, and please focus on the when, I have second doubts, I'll let you know!"

Ibrahim's expressions hardened after reading the message but when his gaze rose and he saw the mischieft and smile in Hemayal's eyes, he only shook his head and chuckled softly.

"Can we go somewhere after the dinner?"

The message came and her heart skipped a beat just as Ammu engaged her in a conversation about the number of functions she wanted to have and Hemayal could only nod in response, too distracted by his blatant words and wandering eyes.

"It really doesn't matter to me. As many as you want." Hemayal replied to her, putting the phone down for a second.

"What do you mean by that?" she made a face as she said and Hemayal let out a small laugh. "It's your wedding, you decide how many functions you want."

"Three, I guess. Mehendi, Barat, Walima. Or maybe we could make it one, MaShaLima." Hemayal shrugged her shoulder as she said, fingers itching to type a response as she felt Ibrahim's hot gaze on her.

"Three it is." Ammu hurriedly said and this time, Hemayal laughed out loudly - the older generation and their desire for wedding functions for their children.

"Where?"

Hemayal typed a response and Ibrahim cast her a meaningful smile before lowering his head to pull out his phone and read her message.

"I do know some nice places in the city."

The message brightened her screen, the words her heart.

"I'll see."

The words were a lie because everywhere Ibrahim wanted to take her, she knew she'd gladly go.

"Sure you will."

Ahh, Ibrahim, he knew her too well, Hemayal thought with a smile as she shook her head before finally putting the phone down.

After the meal had ended, Hemayal ordered green tea along with others, stomach and heart both full. The happiness that had enveloped the table was refreshing, peaceful and warming. Never in all her years before had she witnessed such utmost joy before and despite missing Dadu terribly, she for the first time in her entire life felt that she'll be alright.

Ibrahim be with her and she'll always be alright.

As the waiter came around the table to place her tea in front of her, Hemayal felt something being dropped in her lap and her confused eyes went from the note folded in her lap to the waiter who had his eyes downcast and serious expressions on his face. She cast a quick glance across the table but everyone was busy with something, Ibrahim included who talked with her father.

Hands shaking, she picked the note and straightened it, eyes narrowed in confusion, heart fluttering in fear. On it, only a single line was written in a neat, cursive handwriting and Hemayal felt the storm nearing as her heart skipped multiple beats at once.

"Your ninth will never come."

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...and what do you think? more trouble in paradise?

do vote and comment!

till next time,
salam