"That's how my beautiful life took an ugly turn and is still embarking upon my peace," Noorie said, trying to fight back her tears that surfaced in her eyes.

Noorie had shared everything with Aftab Ali Khan, of how their family decided on this engagement, how she was happy and willing because she liked Irfan and how wrong that decision turned out to be because they were miles apart from each other and argued over everything, and finally called off their engagement. Aftab listened and looked out her cautiously as she talked.

"You know, both of you really did the right thing and you should be proud of it that you saved each other from lifelong torture and your parents from the miseries they had to face watching you suffer that way," Aftab said assuring her, feeling taken aback with how he felt, watching her yell. Something inside him didn't feel right, but at the moment, making her understand was more important than reflecting upon his feelings.

"They are in no better state at present either,' Noorie expressed in a low tone.

"Because you - you are not giving them reason to be," Aftab pointed out.

"Me?," She scowled. " You think I would not want them to be happy?"

"I didn't intend it that way."

"No...  Enough. Since you have met me, you have only been making judgements on me, without even knowing anything about me," She said angrily, not able to control her own frustrations.

Her helplessness was taking toll on her, Aftab understood this so he excused the manner in which she responded back."I know a part of you now - your past and what I said was based entirely on that, it was not a judgement but a statement."

"A wrong one then."

"You want me to be biased like others? Will that do any good?" It was his turn to inform her that he does not play with his profession. He honors his work and he deals with it seriously and truthfully. So, she has to learn to accept the truth.

She felt guilty for responding that way. She is actually losing her head over her past and he is right, she needs help. She does need help. She looked away with tearful eyes that made his heart skip a beat. He felt sorry for being strict but it had to be done.

"You showed this little faith in me then hang on to it and listen to what I have to say. It's upon you to take it or leave it, later. I wouldn't be around to force you or mock at you. Will you try?"

She nodded slightly.

"Please do not again jump into conclusions and listen to me with an open mind," He affirmed.

She nodded once again.

"I hope so," He said as he smiled at her.

She smiled back, but what he said next wiped away that smile, she didn't respond. Instead, listened to him, controlling any reactions that might make her regret again.

" You do not love Irfan. You only liked him," He said bluntly and then watching her listen quietly, went on to explain," What affected you was the breakup, because you had your plans made, decided upon which dreams to materialize. You were tied to that planned life with him. But when that didn't happen as planned, you felt cheated." He paused, watching her intently. She was still quiet but her eyes had a strange expression. He went ahead, saying," It's natural, we all go through such things, act exactly like you did, but then you have done all that and now you must free yourself of what could have been and live with how things are now."

There was another row of silence. Ultimately, she said as if considering something,"You imagine my pains to be of my doing, that I never actually felt anything?"

"You are again, twisting my words. I said you liked him, not loved him, but you definitely got attached, but the truth is bitter and different from how you expected it to be. And You are unsure which pain is worse – what occurred or what never happened."

"What makes you think I didn't loved him?," She flung at him. How can he make conclusions like that without knowing about her and Irfan.

"Pardon me, If I am wrong and correct me with the truth. Did you?" She should have answered straight away but she didn't, because she was unsure. She had liked him... A lot and it had great potential to blossom into a loving marriage. Except that it was just what she had fantasized. Truth was so different from what she wanted to believe and as time passed and she realized different shades of Irfan, which made her question her feelings. Yet she gave her best, hoping he would learn to love her.....

Noorie felt miserable as the truth of reality dawned upon her because of his words. It was like someone showed her the mirror and the stark reality made her feel more awful. "It does not matter now whether I did or not. It's over now and because of my mistake partly or maybe more." How vain she had been, she just couldn't believe that she had deluded herself into thinking they can have a loving marriage and made his parents believe of the same whenever they asked her to be sure about it. She feel so like a fool. "It is my mistake that my life is like this today... My mistake that my parents suffered," She cried. What was she thinking by overlooking every rude and selfish side of him? When has she gone so desperate for marriage that she risked losing her self respect for it? Zayna had been so right about everything. Even this stranger could figure it out in no time but, she couldn't. Allah, when did I turn so blind?, she sulked inside.

"Or, maybe I did wrong and could have saved my parents from this hurt by simp,y marrying him and giving us a chance", she considered as she added, "Maybe by ending it I did a mistake...." She looked up at him to get a confirmation but, his expression was of denial.

"I contradict that and you know you are only saying these things with the flow of emotion because you are feeling bad for your parents. Within you, you know what you did was right."

She was so misplaced in her self-loathing she was confusing everything. "If I know I did the correct thing, then why the damn it hurts so much," She asked him tautly. There was a certain kind of request in her eyes, almost pleading at him, to make her understand and ease her out of sorrow.

His throat tightened at the expression in her eyes which showed that she was trying to trust him. He has to make her face the truth, even if she reacts badly to it. She needs to face the truth. She deserves to move on.

He let out a breath and looking straight in her eyes  said forcefully,"Because you are letting it to." She grimaced but he ignored it and added with same truth and strength," Forget mulling over what could have been as positively as you imagined and see it as how it really had been if you had not broken up... With you two almost bearing each other for the sake of being in a relationship - an unwanted relationship only for the sake of your parents but which would ultimately had made them regretful too."

She kept quiet. Not knowing what to say. Her brain had been too blank to register any positive opinions. He realized her helplessness and said,"I understand things are messy right now and it's not easy to accept things, especially advises from a stranger, but trust me if you just let this transformation take place peacefully, it will be over without you realizing. You have to keep faith that what has been lost will be returned to you in a better way, that you are not falling apart, but falling in the right place that will complete you."

"What if this turn out to be yet another false hopes?," She asked, fear dancing in her eyes.

"It's not," He corrected her once more and went on saying,"It's's the call of destiny, the wheel of fortune always takes a turn and it can constantly surprise you with what it has planned for you in its next round. Allah never burdens his servants with more than they can bear."

"And what if Allah never turns it for me," she said, not feeling that luck or destiny is ever going to favor her.

"You must not feel so negative about your life over one bad experience that you lose your trust in your creator. The one who had given you so many things. One bad experience is not your whole life, but just a part of it. Will you be so unwise as to let your entire life be destroyed over one single incident? His ways of giving might be different from what we expect, but Allah always has a better plan. Will you let Shaytan corrupt your mind against him because of one test from him? He asked, hoping she sees reasons in his words.

Noorie sat quietly, staring again at her palms, as if trying to foresee her destiny, but her mind was in a chaotic state. His words were causing a storm within her. "Everyone you encounter in life has a role to play in the story of your life.," He said caustically as he took in her expressions and added,"Important one's or minor ones but they are there for a reason. Some stick around with you for a longer time and some tear away, but each one of them teaches you something in their own way because Allah wants you to learn , to be more wise so that when he finally give you a thing you desired, you learn to value it."

"I thought he was my forever," she almost choked saying that. As if a certain bitterness overwhelmed her thoughts.

"The concept of forever is so cliché, you know. I do not understand why everyone is after future and forever when it should be the present, they should live and enjoy," He said tersely.

"You do not believe in forever's?," she questioned, eyeing him with a surprised expression.

"I do," He corrected her and added," but my thoughts about forever might not match with what you believe it to be.

Her eyes wide and she looked at him thoughtfully as she demanded,"Why?, What is yours forever like?"

"I do not bother with planning but just following the plans Allah made for me. I have seen people romanticizing and making vague promises of forever when they cannot even learn to respect each other's choices and eventually goes apart. The day I make a commitment to complete my Deen with someone, I believe my forever will start that very day." He said and without realizing, as if flowing with his speech, as she listened to him with apraising eyes.

"For me, it's the little things of everyday you share with those you love - like enjoying while it lives, because all things finds their ends someday, being part of each other for only a special period of time granted by fate, and then as fate changes its course, they part ways by linking hands with death. So, nothing actually lasts, except the feeling that what you are feeling at the moment is yours forever itself, which creates memories - a legacy left by those who left you, and that will last until you live the world to join them in Jannah. That is forever. The right kind of forever." He looked at her and smiled as she was trying to figure out what he meant.

She counted up at him and he blinked as he enunciated with a smile,"Quite complicated, Right?"

"No... No... It wasn't," She said thoughtfully. "I think you are right... It's the everyday thing that constitutes forever, and Jannat is the destination, if one is looking to be together forever."

"True. So let go of what is gone and live in your present, for what is meant for you will find you and you shall create your journey of forever with him," He advised.

"Hmm," was all she said. If it's possible for her to follow so, she thought. She really wanted to believe she could....

"The rule is to Live with hope, dream and make wishes but never expect too much because what you wish, hope and dream might be different from what you might get and it doesn't always have to be bad. You need to look at things with faith and belief and you just might be able to see that there is good even in the bad. Everything does happen for a reason. Like this meeting of ours..." He articulated and their eyes met as he pronounced those final words.

"What... What do you mean?," She inquired in a suspicious tone, not realizing what he stood for.

"Don't you think it's not exactly an accident, but fated?", He said confidently.

"No. It's just coincidence."

"I don't live here. I never came to this park before, but today I did, because up there it had been planned this way so that we can meet and help each other," He explained the truth of the situation they are in.

"I haven't helped  you at all," She sounded out in a confused tone.

"You did, you just don't know about it," He said, suddenly looking away, watching the clouds. And then he looked at her as if something relieved him.

At once, She felt nervous. Not feeling comfortable treading in to that area so changed the topic. "You are so like my best friend."

Her instant change of topic was a sign that he must not push further, talking about them.

"Am I?," He said gleefully.

"Yes," she replied merrily. "She talks a lot like you ...," and paused for a while as if thinking about her and added,"She has a way with words and she knows when to use them and make people feel better."

He grinned at her dedfination about her friend and more than that, the thought that she is comparing him to someone she is so fond of brought much happiness to him, but he as gentleman enough to not gloat on it to her and said, "Then maybe she should take up counselling too. I believe when you are gifted with such qualities, then you must share it with the world by giving out."

"Like how you tried to help me?"

"I hope so," He said smiling down at her. "What did she say about this whole thing you faced?," He inquired.

"I didn't get to discuss with her much. She is away on some important business." She said, her tone sad again.

He could contemplate that she missed her friend. "It's bad when the one person you need most to be with you, is away. But, there must be others too?,"He inquired again.

"I never talked about things with anyone, because you know how people can be.," She said honestly and then confided,"And I cannot discuss with my parents, you might understand why."

He nods in silent agreement.

"It had been all bottled up all this time, but now as you say it, I feel I am re-discovering what I already knew, but had been stupid enough to not really envision it." She said honestly.

"You can say thanks to me instead of cursing yourself and regretting," He said jokingly and it managed to bring a smile on her face. "Embrace what makes you feel happy and alive. The rest doesn't matter. Let people have their opinions. It's their fault if they do not understand what self loving is and how necessary it is for survival. Allah wouldn't want you to destroy your life over anything. It would be committing sin, if you do so."

"I know. You have been a lot more helpful than I thought possible, Thank you," She said smiling back at him, trying to grasp in his wise words.

"I hope so or the plans of destiny will go fruitless" He said as his eyes gleamed with some thought, or so she perceived. She didn't like the sound of "destiny" coming from him, related to them. He is a stranger and he ought to stay that way. It will make her seem more stupid in front of everyone, if they ever come to know that she had opened almost her entire life to a stranger. The thought terrified her. He might have helped her, but the way he was looking at her now was making her feel nervous.

She suddenly stood up, pretending to look at her watch, "Oh, It's already 8."  She was genuinely shocked. She didn't realized that it had been almost more than an hour, since she began talking with him.

"Time does fly," He acknowledged as he stood up as well.

"Yeah," she agreed and with a smile displayed by her lips added,"I appreciate all your tries to help me out, Thank you again." She said as she intended to leave.

"It was nice...," He wanted to say 'meeting' but knowing she might not take it pleasantly, as he guessed from her hasty decision to go, he averred,"... talking to you."

"It was nice of you to be so kind enough to bother, even though I had been on the defensive, but I am sure you understand...," She said feeling silly over the thoughts that made her nervous.

"I do...," He said gently. There was an edge of lingering in his tone.

"Bye then. Have a nice journey back home." She uttered as she was about to take turn towards the park gate.

"Yeah, the seminar first." He pointed out.

"All the best for that as well."

"Ermmm... Won't you as much as say your name at least?," He finally gathered up the courage to ask. He might not meet her again, so at least he can know her name for memory's sake.

"I'm... I don't think it will be the right thing to do," she said nervously, although felt guilty to doubt him. But, she needed to be careful. She had gone beyond her protocol and her mother teachings of not interact with a Non-Mehram already, she couldn't help that because she really needed to bring it all out and who better than a counsellor who understands the thought process, but she cannot go further with exchanging personal details. That would be risking too much, he is after all a stranger.

" I don't know you and there are so many of similar names, I wouldn't really be using it against you, you can show that much of trust...," He requested again.

"I know... I know... I'm just not comfortable..." She just wanted to run and hide somewhere now. She never felt so embarrassed in her life as she felt now for not being able to at least tell him her name, even though he helped make her understand things about her life.

"Okay, I won't push you then...," He decided to not force her.

As she was about to leave, he stopped her saying,"But listen...  do think about what I said. We all make mistakes and experience bad things, learn to forgive yourself and others and move on in life."

She smiled saying, "I'll try."

"And succeed." He finished it for her.

Both smiled and just for a split second their eyes connected and then she said Salaam and walked away, without turning around. She wanted to have one last look of him as she went far away from him, but she didn't dare, for suddenly she felt that she just might act silly and exchange her contacts with him.

Some incidents should be simply left without advancing upon them much. For as, Aftab said... These are people who just cross our paths to help us see things, we do not realize on our own.  She met Aftab for the same reason, for him to act as a god sent guide, to help her see reasons. And she should keep it to just that. She thought wisely as she got out of the park's gate.

As she continued walking away from him, he kept looking at her, hoping she would turn around once and he might have one more look fo her, but she didn't. She gaited forward until her figure went blurred in the passageway leading to the park gate, he felt as if he lost something which he should have not let go.

He sat on the bench and kept looking at where she had been sitting.

"Who are you?," he asked, as if she was still sitting beside him.

☆☆☆☆☆☆