● Y A W A R ●
"You don't miss us at all?"
"Farak nahi parrta." (Doesn't matter.)
"Who the hell said that?"
"Do they miss me?"
"Daadi." He sighed. "She stays in her room mostly, eats very little, and sometimes I catch her staring at the polaroids you, Kanwal, and i stick to the wall of her bedroom."
A wave of tears crossed my eyes, but I gathered myself again.
"Come back for her at least." I heard him request.
"I will try, Zain."
"Yawar, you have become beyhiss." (Senseless)
I shook my head. "Besharam." (Shameless) I corrected him.
Isn't that what they had called me. Taya Abbu, Tayi Ammi, Chachu, and Kanwal--she hadn't said it verbally, but animosity in her eyes was enough to kill me that night and then the pain of losing Riya.
Love didn't make me just lose my family and cousin sister but a soft girl who loved me and with whom I could possibly have had a beautiful future.
It all flashed in front of my eyes.
"Yawar?"
"Han?" I snapped back into reality.
"You weren't answering."
"What?"
"My wedding is probably after i finsih ny M.S. You are coming, right?"
I was flabbergasted. Did I just zone out again?
"Ovbiously. In Sha ALLAH." He was my cousin brother. How could I not attend his wedding? "I will surely come."
***
"Your office is ah-mazing like you know. I mean this interior and everything. It's bombshell!" He rubbed his stubble. "And the colour of paint you have chosen for your office walls. Hell yess!"
Jazaar was practically sprawled on the two-seater sofa in front of my desk in my office at the cafe. His fingers toying with his phone.
"Abey, can I come inside?" Zehra chimed in, her hand on the doorknob.
"Sure." I gave her a sobber smile.
"ABEY?" Jazaar piped followed by a slow thud. His phone was on the floor.
I wanted to facepalm myself. Why was it that this guy loses his cognitive abilities in front of her?
"It's how you address big brother in Turkish language." She said, her eyes on his phone that he had now picked up.
I threw a caustic glance his way. Now I get it why he visits my bakery every other day and makes alibis that his mother likes the biscuits from my cafe.
I feel traumatised by these stupid antics of him.
He kept staring at her until I cared my throat. So unethical.
