Too Little, Too Late

28 (Part II)

"If you want to talk, I'll listen and if you don't, that's fine too. We can just finish our teas and I can invite you to be a part of our sister community. It's all up to you, Ayra. I just want you to feel better before you return home."

Ayra smiled sadly at that. "It's not home anymore...I called it home since late last year but it's not home anymore. It's never been."

Maya was at loss for words. "Oh."

Ayra sniffled and then exhaled, motivated to talk as Maya wasn't in anyway related to her or to her family. She felt safe and strangely at peace. "I've been in love with my husband since I was thirteen. I met him for the first time on a Friday and since then all I wanted was to be his wife. He's ten years older than I am and he didn't really know about me until 2019."

Maya nodded to show that she was following. Keeping her gaze on her hands, Ayra continued. "I spent the past eight years of my life getting to know everything about him, loving and praying for him from a distance. Our families are friends but we move in different circles so my husband and I didn't see ourselves. Also, he'd already gone on to be a prodigy with his friends while I was still schooling."

She paused to breathe. "My parents didn't encourage my feelings for him but they didn't make me feel awful about it and there were family members who told me to not hold on to him because there was more to life and there were more people that I'd meet. But we've always been taught that Allah makes the impossible possible so I never gave up. Even when my best friend came into my life and kept shaking sense into my head, I never gave up. I called his name in every prayer I made and I held on tight to the hope that Allah would reward my perseverance. And He did. It took seven years but he did and I was over the moon, Maya. I was so happy."

It was Maya's turn to get emotional; a lump growing in her throat as she continued listening.

"His marriage proposal came out of nowhere and I was so, so happy that I wasted no time in accepting because I was convinced I knew everything about him as I'd spent my teenage years focusing on him at every given opportunity. I felt as though there was no need to hesitate or act as though I was still thinking about it when I already knew my answer. My best friend, Ibty, calls that dragging class. I didn't want to drag class when I knew what I wanted so I said yes and we got engaged. That was July last year. It was on my birthday so I remember it very, very well. We didn't talk after that. We didn't talk until the day of my graduation which was in August."

"Why?"

It was a new realisation for Ayra and her brows furrowed. "I actually don't know...I assumed he was busy then because the news spoke about him and the others working on the Nohean branch of The Hexad so I just assumed he couldn't find some time to talk to me. God, that's why Ibty was so sceptical. Oh my God..."

Maya, who'd put two and two together in order to know the Ayra in front of her was the same woman married to Ibrahim Fahad, put her hands on her laps as her chest squeezed again. "I'm sorry, Ayra."

Ayra reached up to rub her temple. "We didn't talk for a month, Maya, and I was fine with it. I told everyone close to me that he was busy and it was alright. Then on the day of my graduation, his parents called my father and told him Ibrahim hadn't reached out because he wanted our first conversation to be in person and with his schedule, it'd been hard...I was over the moon and I looked forward to our engagement party which was that same day. Oh Allah..."

Maya swallowed the lump in her throat, unable to not say anything.

"Then during the engagement party, he was able to take me away from everyone else and we went to the second living room at my parents' home because he wanted us to talk privately. Along the line we spoke about how long we've liked each other and he said he'd liked me since October 2019 when he came across an Instagram post of mine. He told me how he'd done his digging and how he'd fallen for me and that when he went to his parents, they said bringing a marriage proposal would be better and they did."