"Hi mom," I said, as I walked into the kitchen. My head was pounding with stress.
"Hey Shelina," she said as she washed the dishes.
"So um..." I started to say. My palms started to sweat.
"WHat is it?" she asked, looking concerned.
Okay there are 2 options here. Either I tell her about Adam and how he proposed or I chicken out and casually ask her if she needs help.
And knowing the big coward I am, I chose Plan B.
"Nothing, just wondering if you need any help," I told her.
"Nah, im done," she said.
"Okay," I said and turned to walk to my room.
"Shelina?" she called out the kitchen. "Come back here."
"Yeah?" I said confused.
"Okay, now tell me the truth. What happened?"
"Nothing," I said, defensively.
"Shelina," my mom said in a stern voice.
My face started to turn red. I could feel it.
Like I said before, I really need to work on hiding my inner emotions.
Now I was panicking. If I tell her about the proposal, either she'll be extremely mad or extremely happy (which I'm not expecting.)
"Uh okay, so this um.... this white Muslim.... proposed to me," I said, waiting for an explosion.
"Okay, but you need to have a Nikkah. And who is this guy?" she said, not smiling at all.
"Adam.... and um yeah, a nikkah," I said.
"Where is he from?"
"He's Albanian."
My mom let out a big sigh.
"Shelina, we'll have to discuss this later with your father. And I doubt he will be excited about it, especially since he's all the way in New York," my mom said. "But it's good that he's Muslim. And is he in your class? Where did you meet? Why didn't you tell me about him before?"
This was the avalanche of questions I was expecting. But at least she wasn't mad.
So I smiled and told her the whole story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"No, are you crazy?! What is this? Romeo an Juliet?!" my dad said outraged over the phone.. "He's not even Indian."
"He's Muslim," my mom told him.
"No no no, you have gone crazy, absolutely crazy!" he yelled.
"Listen, the Nikkah will be this Friday," my mom said.
"No no NO!" my dad repeated.
"Come to Toronto this Friday, okay bye," my mom hung up.
I started laughing like crazy. "Wow, you're funny."
"Yeah, don't get too excited, it's probably not gonna work out. So stay away from Adam and tell him the wedding is off."
"C'mon, pleaseeee," I whined.
"Shelina, did you not just hear your father?"
"Yeah, but stillll, maybe he needs time to calm down and think a little."
MY mom sighed. "Okay shelina."
YOU ARE READING
Forever After?
Romance"The whole world must love you," I laugh. "Does it matter?" he asked. "What do you mean?" I asked. He looked up at me and smiled. "Maybe you don't need the whole world to love you, maybe you just need one person."
