--Okay! This is the next update and I really hope you enjoy it. There might be a part in the chapter that you're like, 'what on earth is going on?' but please do read the A/N at the end and it should hopefully clear things up.

///Jamil

Amma had said she would look after the kids but I knew she wasn't feeling well and needed to rest. So that's why I had Tariq trying to quieten Mariam in the back. I made a mistake not feeding her before we left but I didn't want to wake her. All I wanted to do was stop the car and hold her in my arms  to stop her crying.

"Okay, baby, Abbu's here. Shh, it's okay." She stopped crying  for a few seconds but carried on again. I felt my eyes burn with the tears. It always hurt to see your children so upset. "Come on. Please, Mariam. Abbu is here, yeah? Tariq, talk to her!"

"I'm trying, Abbu." I heard him sniff and looked in the mirror to see him sulking. Great, you idiot! You made both your children cry. I saw the restaurant and slowly relaxed. Not too far now. As soon as I was parked, I rushed out the car and took Mariam out. She didn't quiet down as soon as I lifted her up but a minute later. Tariq came out with her bag and I took it off him with a smile.

"I don't like her anymore," he said sulking. My eyes widened to the shock. My first thing was to scream at him and tell him it was wrong but I bit my tongue and squatted  down so I was at eye level with him.

"Why so, buddy?" He crossed his tiny arms around his chest and stuck out his bottom lip. Just as he opened his mouth, someone beeped their horn.

"I'm sorry but can I park there? Or is it already taken?" I looked around us and saw i was in a parking space. I stood up and quickly as I could without hurting Mariam. Tariq followed me with his stomping feet.

"Sorry about that. Never knew I was standing there. It's all yours." I turned my attention back to Tariq.

"Excuse me," she said again. I turned around and faced her. "You left your door open." I mentally slapped myself and quickly shut the door. "Thank you."

"Sorry about that." I squatted down beside Tariq again. "Tell me now, buddy," I said softly.

"You always shout at me now. Whenever I want to go to the park, you always say Mariam will get ill. We don't play anymore." I felt the lump in my throat as I saw him start to cry.

"If I bring Mummy back-"

"No!" The woman who got out the car looked at me strangely and then walked away. "I don't want Mummy! I want you!" He angrily wiped his tears away before stomping off. I stood up and followed after him but he then began to run. "Tariq! Tariq, come on there are cars!" My eyes searched the car park frantically as I sped up after him. It was hard to run since I had Mariam in my arms. The only thing that kept me relaxed was that there were no cars around.

"Hey, got you!" I heard a woman cheer. She had her arms wrapped around Tariq with a young kid next to her. I slowed down and smiled at her. "Jamil, right? Brother of the bride?" I raised an eyebrow at her and she nervously smiled. "Sorry. Too upfront? I'm talking about the wedding. Aisha's wedding. I'm one of Aneel's friends and Nafeesa's." I would have stared at her until I recognised where she was from and if I ever met her but my main focus was on Tariq. She turned him around to face me and kept her arms down on his shoulders incase he ran off again.

"Tariq, please. Don't run off like that again. It scares me." He kicked his feet but didn't look up at me.

"Do you want me to hold her?" I looked down at Mariam who was playing with her hand. I looked at the lady again. "It's fine. I have a child myself. I won't hurt her." I slowly kissed the top of Mariam's head and she giggled.

"Be a good girl for Abbu, okay?" I handed her over and bit my lip as I watched her settle into her arms. I knelt down in front of Tariq. "Tariq, Abbu loves you. I love you so much, you know that? It scares me when you run off like that. It's dangerous and you could get hurt which will make me upset."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. I smiled at him and cupped his face.

"I'm sorry. I know I haven't been playing with you much but because Mummy is gone, I need to look after Mariam more. And Khala is gone so she can't anymore. If you want to see Mummy, I can call her and she can play with you sometimes as well. Does that sound okay? Abbu is sorry for making you upset."

"I don't want Mummy...she doesn't love me." I shook my head but he only said it again. I felt the tears already running down my face and I really didn't care if we were in the middle on the car park.

"Me and Mummy love you very much. We're just not together anymore, Tariq. You can still see her. I won't ever stop you. She didn't leave you, I promise. She wants to see you still." In all honesty, she actually didn't want to. But I had to tell him that. How would you say that to your little boy?

"No, Abbu. She told me she didn't love me. I didn't listen to her and-"

"No. Listen to me, Tariq. Mummy was just angry. It doesn't matter. Just know that I love you very much, okay?"

"Promise?" He slowly brought his pinky up and I laughed. I quickly wiped away my tears and latched mine onto his.

"I promise. And you see, Mariam? She is going to grow up and say that she has she best brother in the world. She is going to say how much she loves you and how happy you are. You're Mariam's big brother, remember? Who else is going to protect her when you go to school? Remember, you have to keep the bad guys away from her whilst Abbu is working." He grinned and nodded his head. His head looked up to Mariam. The lady leaned down slightly.

"Want to give her a kiss? Show how much you love her?" He kissed the top of her head and I stood up. "There! See, she's laughing. That's her way of saying she loves you."

"Really?" His smile grew and he bounced slightly. "She loves me?"

"Yes, loads and loads." Tariq hugged my legs and I chuckled, wiping the remaining tears.

"I'm sorry, Abbu. I made you cry." With another laugh, I picked him up and ruffled his hair.

"It's okay, buddy. I promise I'm not upset."

"Promise?"

"I promise, my little man. And I promise to spend some more time with you okay? We can go to the park tomorrow."

"Can we go inside now? I want uncle Aneel to throw me!" I set him down on his feet and he held my hand. I looked back at the lady who was holding Mariam. She was slightly rocking her as she stared down at her. Mariam was just smiling and touching the woman's face.

"I'm so sorry. You must be meeting someone inside and I stopped you here. Please, forgive me for disturbing you-"

"No, everything is fine. I'm meeting up with Nafeesa anyways. I think Aneel is too. So we must be attending the same table." Her head straightened when she heard a car alarm. I turned around and groaned. "Is that yours?"

"Sure is. I'm really having the best night, aren't I?"

"Do you want me to take her in? You can stop your car...doing whatever it's doing and I'll take the kids in. It's starting to get a bit chilly."

"You sure?"

She smiled. "I'm certain."

"Buddy, you want to go with Aunty-" I stopped when I realised I didn't know her name. She kindly smiled before saying her name.

"My name is Priya. Want to come with me, Tariq? I'll take you to your Uncle Aneel and Khala." Tariq looked between us two but finally made his mind up by holding her hand. The boy next to her poked her side and she let out a small giggle. Ticklish. "Yes, Said?"

"Amma, can we go inside now? It's cold now. And can I hold the baby?"

"We'll go inside now, honey. But as for the baby, I don't know. You have to be a good boy inside. No running around okay?" Even though she was talking to her son, Tariq nodded his head. I covered my mouth with my hand so he wouldn't see me laughing at him.

"Anyways you lot go inside. Your nose is going all pink. I'll be there in five minutes." I jogged over to my car and sighed when the alarm stopped. My door was still opened! After checking if everything was still there, I picked up Mariam's bag that I dropped when Tariq ran off and made my way inside.

I couldn't deny that Priya was beautiful. It was the first thing I thought when I saw her. No, Jamil! What you thinking about?

I shook my head, trying to get her out of my mind. I walked in and found them still at the front. It looked like she was having an argument with one of the workers.

"Hey, what's going on?" She huffed and looked up at me. Her cheeks were all red and her eyes were glazed with tears. She looked back at the woman in front of us.

"You know what, yes I made mistakes in the past. And I know i screwed up bad by having a child young but he is the best thing that has happened to me. I changed my life around for him and I don't give two-I don't care what you think or what anyone else thinks. It doesn't matter if these three were mine or not because they are beautiful children that I wouldn't mind being the mother of. But you, Hanna, you don't deserve to tell me that I couldn't keep my legs closed. Because I swear to god you say anything bad about these children again I will close my hands around your-"

"Priya, come on," I quickly said. The waitress looked up with a fake smile.

"If I was you, I'd check your wife stays in her limits."

"She's not my-" I shook my head and stepped in front of them. "I ain't wasting my breath on you. You don't deserve to judge people on their past mistakes. Now if I was you, I would show us to our table before you lose your job at the end of our meal."

"Guys, what on earth is going on?" Nafeesa asked. I relaxed and smiled at her. She glared at the woman in front of us and pulled us to our table. "What on earth was that about? You guys are so lucky that the restaurant is pretty much empty otherwise everyone would have heard."

"Here, let me take her from you," I whispered as Nafeesa kept on talking. She did have a habit of talking a bit too much for my liking if I'm honest. Priya carefully handed Mariam over. "Listen, I'm so sorry if taking my kids in brought you that trouble. If I had known then-"

"It's fine. Stop saying sorry. Not only my child but what pushed me over was the fact that she got the children involved. Cuss me out I have no problem but the children did nothing wrong."

"I-"

"Sit down you two. How did you two meet anyways?" Priya began explaining so I went on a quest to find a baby seat for Mariam. I looked back and saw Said and Tariq deep into a conversation. Something about power rangers? Couldn't be too sure.

Once I had the baby seat, I took out her little jar of baby food along with her spoon. I heard the others speaking around me but nothing was interesting so I just kept my attention on a hungry Mariam.

"You don't see many single dads that do this for their children," I heard Priya say. She had her hand under her chin as she looked up at me.

"My children mean the world to me. They brought happiness into my life least I could do is give it back to them."

"That's sweet. Honestly that is so great." She looked down at her son with a smile before kissing the top of his head. He looked up and kissed her cheek before turning back to his conversation with Tariq.

"You raised a good boy there. Knows how to respect women. You're doing a really good job."

She sighed and her smile was replaced with a frown. "I feel like I'm not giving him enough. He needs a male role in his life and my dad isn't enough." I forced my smile back. So she was single and that meant I had a chance.

"Not necessarily. You're doing good. Remember, not every woman needs a man. Isn't that what they say nowadays?" She laughed and shook her head.

"Working two jobs to get what they need and when it still isn't enough, that's when you need a man. It's getting too much. Looking after my parents and my child with just that money.." She shook her head again. "I don't want to think of my parents and Said as a burden but sometimes I just wish I was by myself. And I know I shouldn't feel like that but some days I just can't help it. Does that make me a bad parent and daughter?"

I sighed as I gave Mariam her food. "My mum works herself but is now cutting down her hours. I have a well paid job so even I she stopped I would still be able to cover everything well. I can't relate to you on that but I know what you mean by wanting to be the only person in the world. Not having anyone to care for and just be alone for once. I know that feeling very well." I wiped Mariam's face before feeding her again. She jumped happily in her seat with a giggle, almost spitting out her food. "Mariam, no. Come on, eat this properly." I looked back at Priya who was making smiling at her. "Stop doing that," I said with a laugh. "She needs to finish this." Priya laughed which made Mariam jump in her seat again. "Seriously, stop," I said with a laugh.

"Okay, okay. No playing with the sweet cutie in front of me."

"Priya!" Aneel screamed. He got up from his seat and Said ran to him. "My little big man! How you doing?"

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm better now that I saw you." He looked at Tariq. "And you!" Tariq ran up to him and Aneel flipped him around before setting him down on his feet. "You guys go back and talk." He made his way to Mariam who was silently eating her food.

"Aneel, let her eat. I just got told off myself," Priya said. He frowned and pulled up an empty seat beside her. "How are you?"

"I'm good. Got that shorty at the end of the table. What about you? How are Mama and Mami doing?"

"Yeah I'm fine.  And Abba is well again so the stress is all gone. Where's Aisha? Does she still hate me?" My ears perked up as I wiped Mariam's face again. What did she do to make Aisha hate her?

"No, she doesn't. She never did. Stop worrying about everything because I think you two would be great friends."

"Why would she hate you anyways?" I found myself saying. She scratched the back of her neck and frowned. Aneel rolled his eyes.

"This is Priya." I raised an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes again. "Priya as in my ex-wife Priya."

"Oh." Nafeesa called Aneel over so he put the chair back and went. I saw Priya stand up and push her chair back. "Where are you going?"

"It was a mistake coming here. I should have known my boundaries. Aisha must-"

"Priya, sit down," I said softly. She looked at me before slowly sitting down again.

"You must hate me now. Your sister defiantly does."

"Why would I hate you? Your past is your past and shouldn't be judged."

"It's easier said than done. Everyone knows me here and I feel like they are judging me wherever I go."

"Then let them. I don't know if I should be saying it to you now but my wife slept with another man. For years and years and I had no clue. I feel so worthless and just to know that all the years of marriage we had was an absolute fake. I admit I spent too much time at work and then with the kids and I put her last. I take it as my fault that happened and that kills me inside everyday."

"It's not your fault. You made a mistake but that didn't ruin your life. It was her decision to do what she did: no one forced her." I smiled and put the empty jar down.

"Exactly what I'm trying to say to you. You made a mistake but that didn't ruin your life. Let others judge." I looked down at the table and saw Aneel holding Aisha's hand whilst whispering something in her ear. "Aneel did worse than you and look how happy he is with her. Mistakes change you for the better in most cases but that doesn't stop your chance of happiness."

She smiled again. "Thank you. Honestly that means a lot."

///Priya

I know I shouldn't be thinking about him like that but I couldn't help myself. I mean, who wouldn't want a man who is a great father and loves his kids so dearly, or who gives people chances or makes me...happy. I know I only knew him for about twenty minutes but sometimes that's enough.

"I'll make sure to come down sometimes. It's right next to my house anyways." I didn't have to smile this time because I was already. I hadn't smiled this much in ages. 

"I'll see if I can give you a discount if you ever do." I mentioned I worked part time in a bakery when he said how much he loved sweet stuff. Cakes especially.

"I want one prepared by you. Unless you don't bake anything-"

"She's been baking her whole life!" Nafeesa said. I don't know why I blushed but I couldn't help it. "Remember that strawberry tart I bought you once and you said it was the best one you ever had, well this little one made it herself."

"You being serious? Strawberry tarts are the best! And you made that one? Seriously, Priya, you need to make that again."

"If you come by tomorrow morning I promise there will a fresh batch."

"Why don't you come to my mum's house and make it there? She's been asking about you anyways. And plus, will you not give your pregnant friend the craving she wants?" I let out a nervous laugh and looked at the both of them. I looked around the table and found everyone staring at me, waiting for my answer.

"No. I promise I will get some for you tomorrow but I won't know how to get home form there and it's gonna be late-"

"It don't matter. I'll drop you off," Nafeesa said. "Well my husband will but if not then I'm sure Bhai can drop you off." She looked at me and smiled.

"Of course I will," Jamil said.

"No, no. I don't want to keep you guys up or invade-"

Nafeesa huffed and grabbed onto my arm. "Don't you love your best friend?"

I quickly glanced at Nafeesa before looking at Jamil. "You okay with me staying late? It's just that it takes about an hour or two." It was only right to ask him because he was the one that lived in the house, not them.

"As long as I get a strawberry tart at the end it should be fine." He turned to Mariam who was eating her bib. "Hey you! You're so quiet today, aren't you?" She giggled and raised her hands in her air, dropping the saliva coated bib back to its place. Aneel appeared beside me again and extended his arm. "Were you just waiting for her to be finished?"

"Yes! Now please give her to me?"

Once Jamil kissed the top of her head, he gave her over to him. "Make sure you do a big poo for Uncle Aneel, okay?"

"Don't be a di- you are so lucky there are kids here." Jamil chuckled and opened up the menu.

"Sort of wanted to go to Tinsel Town for the waffles and milkshake but she changed her mind at the last minute," he said. He sighed and looked up at me. "What would you get?"

I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Said. "Don't know. I barely come out to eat so I'm just used to home cooked meals."

"Alright, let me ask the others." He turned to the others and asked two times but no one was listening. I hid my smile behind my hand when I saw his sulking face. "I guess I will ask them later then." I shook my head softly and turned to Nafeesa.

"Babes, what we doing? We've been here for half an hour and no one has seemed to ordered anything."

"I'm sorry, they don't open officially till another like five minutes or so but we told asked them to let us in nicely. And here we are! But we were planning to order a platter. If you want you can order separate food if you want."

"No, I'll just have what you lot are having. Jamil was just asking. No one was listening to him."

"Aw, Bhai, what did you want to ask?"

"Well you answered now," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry, Saif was just being an idiot." He smiled when Saif turned around.

"Don't have to tell me something I already know."

"Why are you being so mean to me?" Saif asked Nafeesa. She shrugged her shoulders and started to talk to Aisha again.

"Priya?" I turned to Jamil who was smiling at me.

"Yes?"

"Nothing. Just checking if someone would listen to me." I let out a laugh.

"Don't worry. I'm always here to listen."

"Hi, sorry for the wait. May I take your order?" the waiter asked.

Once everyone ordered their food, Said looked up at me whilst holding my hand. "You're smiling, Amma," he said with that big grin of his.I laughed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm always smiling, baby."

He suddenly frowned and squeezed my hand. He shook his head. I looked over at Jamil who was just smiling at us. "No, Amma. You don't smile for real. You look beautiful when you smile." With that said, he turned back to Tariq and said something about ninjas. I wiped away the single tear that fell and laughed.

"Silly boy. Too smart for his age."

"You can't hide anything from your kids you know. These moments make it so worthwhile. All the stress, the sleepless nights, loans and whatnot...just the smiles on their face is worth it and I would go through the same thing again and again to see that." I bit my lip as more tears threatened to spill from my heavy eyes. Jamil sighed when I looked up at him. "I'm sorry if I...I didn't mean to make you- Nafeesa, give her hug." Nafeesa turned around automatically wrapped her arms around me.

"Aw, babe! What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm just proud of my little man."

"You should be, he's gonna grow up to be an awesome man." I pulled back and wiped away my tears. Everyone awed and I laughed. Way to be centre of attention. I felt someone squeeze my shoulder and looked up to see Jamil pass by. He gave me a reassuring smile just before he walked into the bathroom.

"If I hadn't known better I would have thought you two were already married," Aisha said with a smile. I automatically blushed and everyone around the table laughed. "It's okay, I think he likes you too."

"Guys, stop it. He doesn't like me. And I don't like him like that. We just met!"

"So what?" Aneel said. He kissed the top of Aisha's head and held her hand. "I saw her once and I knew she was the one. It doesn't always need years and years like these two."

"Hey, he was very unattractive at first. Still is," Nafeesa said.

"And why is when you say that to a woman it's offensive?"

I felt my face burn as Jamil came back. I looked up at him and smiled. "You didn't take too long."

"Just went to go wash my hands. Got some of her baby food on me. What you guys all huddled up for?"

"We were talking about marriage and proposals," Aisha said. Jamil laughed and sat down.

"Had enough of marriage. Ain't getting married again." I forced a smile and quickly looked at the others. They all frowned but then laughed softly. I sighed and then played around with the fork by my side. "What happened when I went? You seem to be upset." I snapped my head towards Jamil who had his arms crossed and was leaning slightly over. Although the others were talking quietly I knew their ears were perked up to listen to us both.

"Nothing."

"Sure?"

"Yes."

"You seem upset."

"I'm not. I'm fine."

"You seem upset," he repeated. I sighed and crossed my arms on the table.

"You said you didn't want to get married again. Yet before you said everyone deserves a chance of being happy. What if this woman is the one that truly brings you happiness?"

He smirked and leaned more forward. "Is this a proposal?"

"I doubt I can make anyone happy. So it's not me. But what if a woman came by and-"

"What you talking about? I'm happy now and it's due to you." I looked away from him and carried on playing with the fork. "What if I give you a proposal?"

"Of what?"

"Marriage." Everyone stopped talking and looked over at us. I felt my cheeks burn again and sunk into my seat.

"We don't know each other."

"Then we get to know each other. It's on the table for you."

"Wait, are you being serious?" I raised an eyebrow and he smiled. He slowly nodded his head. "I can't...I can't do that to Aisha. I mean, doesn't it bother you that I was once Aneel's wife?"

"No it doesn't. Everyone has a past. My mind set after I got divorced was that I would wait couple of months before I start looking again and even then I would be a bit apprehensive about it. I didn't want to go through one marriage to another. But with you..." He sighed and smiled. "When you know, you know. That's all I can say."

"We've only met for about half an hour." He shrugged his shoulders. This whole thing never seemed to bother him. "Jamil, I can't."

"Okay. I respect your decision. I'm just saying we can at least be friends because I like what we have going on here. Or you could reject that too, I wouldn't mind. I would be hurt but you can't force a beautiful woman to do anything she doesn't want to do."

He unfolded his arms. His fingers started to fiddle with the corner of the menu that the waiter had forgotten to take. "I...We need to talk about this without these nosey people," I said. He gave me a small smile and leaned back in his chair.

"You guys can go and talk outside. Food is gonna be here in about twenty-thirty minutes," Aisha said smiling up at us. Jamil stood up and came over to my chair.

"You being serious?" He nodded his head and extended a hand. I took it with a smile and he slowly pulled me out the restaurant. His hand squeezed mine before slowly letting go. We both sat down on a bench near the car park so no one would see us or hear us. After couple of minutes passed in silence, I turned to him and sighed. "What will your mum think of me?"

"Nafeesa said you already know her. Does she know you're Aneel's ex?"

"Yes. She likes me and everything but I don't think she would accept me as her daughter in law. Would she even accept a Pakistani girl?" He laughed and put a finger under my chin. Once i looked up at him, he dropped his hand.

"She would have no problem. And when you are happy with someone who else should it concern?"

"But..." I sighed knowing I couldn't argue with that. He smiled.

"What about your parents? Would they accept me?"

"They wouldn't care. Anyone who marries their flawed daughter is enough for them." He clicked his tongue and looked ahead.

"Don't say that. You made mistakes, that's it." I pulled my jacket round me tighter and nodded my head. "You know, don't think I didn't see those looks you gave me at the wedding. We spoke for a few minutes didn't we?" I winced.

"You remembered? I thought you would forget. But hey, I thought you were single at first and then I saw you with your wife so I had to keep my distance."

"I'm gonna tell you something I haven't told anyone else. I divorced her two and a half months ago. I told everyone I did in the last couple days but in all honesty, it's was almost three months. She moved to her mum's house and obviously her mum knew so when the excuse came that she was ill and she needed to take care of her, she played along. Her mum is like one of those prideish people so she wouldn't do anything to ruin her image. So whilst the wedding and everything went on, she was there and came occasionally to visit the kids. Not too often though. I mean what woman leaves her kids? Her three month old daughter? She didn't even mention the kids and went out the door." I slowly covered his hand with mine. He smiled at me and pulled an arm over my shoulder. I carefully put my head on his shoulder and he kissed the top of my head.

"Isn't this a bit too sudden? We just met."

"About the marriage thing? Not really because if you think about it, if we were to get an arranged marriage, we would sit down and talk and decide there really. We can just talk for a while and hang out a bit and from there decide if we're better off as friends or getting married."

I closed my eyes as he kissed my head again. "Do you hate me? For what I did in the past?"

"I'm not gonna answer that stupid question. Do you not listen to why I say as well? I thought you were here to listen?" I opened my eyes and looked up at him. He was still staring right ahead. "You're son is gonna be a good man. A great one even."

"Really? I can't do everything with him and I think that holds him back. I want him to worry about others rather than me all the time." Jamil played with my fingers and then enclosed then in his hand. "I can't even teach him how to ride a bike because we haven't got a garden and nowhere to put the bloody bike."

"Just bring him round mine and I'll teach him. I have this bike that my nephew uses whenever he comes and it should be about his size." I pulled my jacket round me even tighter and sighed. Jamil looked down at me and chuckled.  "Do you want my jacket?"

"What? No! No, you keep it on." Despite me telling him, he quickly took it off and put it over mine, pulling up the zip. "Now you're gonna be cold." He squeezed my hand and smiled. "Are you serious about bringing him to yours?"

"Of course I am. Amma loves kids anyways so she won't mind." I glanced at my watch and slowly stood up. "Is your mind a bit clearer on the decision? Listen, I don't want you to feel forced into it or I don't want you to feel sorry for me or anything else. I just want you to marry me if you want to. If you think that I'll make you and your son happy."

I would have been happy enough if he said me but the fact that he always mentioned Said made me want to scream yes. He looked up at me and smiled before standing up beside me. I stuffed my freezing hands in my pockets only to realise that it wasn't mine. I felt a box in there and knew it was a packet of cigarettes. Everything was going so well! Why did he have to smoke?

"You smoke?"

"I'm stopping. I've stopped for the last...last four months."

"Then why do you have the box in here?" He just smiled and put his hand in the pocket to take it out. I let out a giggle when his fingers traced along my stomach. "Don't do that," I mumbled.

"Your laugh is absolutely beautiful," he whispered. He pulled his hand out the pocket with the box in his hands. "Now you open that up." I took the box off him and slowly opened it.

It was empty. Before I could ask him why, I saw the small writing on the inside of the lid. I'm saving you extra minutes you could savour with your children.

"That is actually beautiful. I never thought of stopping that way. I would have done so myself if I had known that." I felt my ears start to burn as I realised I told him I used to smoke. Jamil didn't do anything but just straightened up and extended his hand. I put the box back into his pocket and gave my hand to him. "Are you angry at me?"

"About?"

"Nothing..." He let go of my hand and walked up the stairs to hold the door open for me. I slowly walked past him but he stopped me.

"It doesn't matter if you smoked. Start a life with me and you start a new chapter in your life. New book even, yeah?" I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling too much. That's it, my mind was made up. "Go ahead, I'm gonna call and check up on my mum."

I gave him a small wave as I walked further into the restaurant. As soon as I was in their view, Nafeesa pulled me down on the chair and all eyes were on me.

"What happened? Something must have, you're wearing his jacket."

"Nothing...we were just talking."

Saif rolled his eyes. "You made your mind up or not?"

"I'm getting there..."

///Jamil

"What do you want?" Amma said when she answered the phone. I laughed and heard her join in. "I love you really. You okay?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to check on you and see if you were okay. Are you feeling better?"

"Stop worrying about me, you fool. It's just a cold."

"Of course I'm gonna worry about you, Amma. I just thought I'd warn you everyone is coming back."

She groaned. "I know. Your dear sister told me this morning. But it's fine, haven't seen everyone in ages."

"And urm, Priya is coming."

"Priya? Really? I haven't seen her in months! Aww, I can't wait to see her little boy. Is he still short?"

I laughed and kicked a little stone. "Very."

"Aww, bless him."

"Amma...I want to get married again." I cringed, preparing myself for her screaming. Nothing.

"To Priya?"

"No...How did you know?"

"Aneel's been telling me how he would set you two up and whatnot. Pushed it away until Nafeesa and Saif came and did the same thing. I actually think she will be good for you." I threw my hands in the air and groaned.

"Why does everyone know everything before me? I'm the oldest and I deserve to know what the idiots are doing behind my back."

"Hey, I gave them the idea of you two meeting up. Are you calling me an idiot too?"

"Why, Amma?" I sighed and leaned against the wall. "Why didn't you guys come and tell me?"

"Shut up. You would have said no. At least this way you get to know her properly and stuff. Oh, and I talked to Lovely and she told me when you two really got divorced. So watch when you get home, young man. We're gonna talk."

Lovely was my mother-in-law. I nervously laughed, running the back of my neck. "I love you, Amma."

She hummed and I knew she was annoyed. "Go back to your new dearest would be wife and I'll give you grief later."

"What? Amma, seriously, you're impossible," I said with a laugh.

"She's lovely though isn't she?"

I looked up at the sky and smiled. "Very."

///

I sat back on the table and watched everyone watch me. They watched my every move when I went to fold back the menu or rearrange my cutlery. I turned to them and smiled.

"What is it?"

"Have you mind up your mind?" Saif asked.

"I have. But the decision is up to Priya." Priya blushed and scratched the back of her hand. I let a small smile settle on my face as I looked at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she mumbled. "Said is starting at a new school on Monday. Same as Tariq's."

"That's wonderful. Maybe fate is saying something then," I said with a smirk. She shook her head with a laugh. "Being serious."

"Yeah, I can tell how much."

//A/N: First of all, hope you enjoyed that! And second...I know many of you will be thinking how fast it is going with the both of them but if you think about it, in Asian culture, you tend to meet for the first time and pretty much decide if you're gonna marry that person or not. Obviously you get to change your mind later on which is why they are giving it time before they get married. I don't know if this clears anything up but I tried.

And the next one or two updates will be mainly based on Priya and Jamil and then I'll go back to Aneel and Aisha after that. If there is any problem with that then let me know, I'll be happy to talk to you about it!

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See you all next week 😄