Book I: My Muslim Man | COMPLETED

Chapter 3: Joint Family

Finally I was back home. Imran's home. His family waited for us eagerly. His sister, was at the door to receive us. She greeted me with hugs and so did Imran's mother and sister in law, Amna. Amna was the first person to who I had liked so much at our very first meeting. She was 6 months pregnant then. Despite the hormones being all over the place which was what I assumed, she was very friendly and being around her almost felt like being around Ayesha. Mariam was more like Ali. Slightly childish which was obvious as she was the youngest of the siblings but she was fun too. I was really looking forward to have a great time with these beautiful girls. Imran brought in the luggage from the car and kept it in his room while I continued to walk in to the living room.

Uncle Khan, Imran's dad and Fahad, Imran's brother greeted me when I was brought to their highly spacious living room. Fahad and Amna were seated in a love seat at the left of the room while others were sitting on the couches at the right of the room. There was a coffee table at the centre. Aunty brought us some orange juice even though we insisted we just had ice cream. I was sitting between Mariam and Imran. Imran was keeping his distance for the sake of modesty in a family gathering obviously. He was leaning back looking slightly tired. Everyone was smiling at me and I started to feel like the centre of attention, which I mostly disliked. Imran's mother kept giving her blessings to us.

"Mom can we go to our room now, it's been a long day", he sounded slightly annoyed.

"No! I haven't even got a chance to talk to my new daughter in law yet", she refused.

"Mom! Come on! We all know Imran wants some time alone with his wife... Let's not make poor Imran suffer anymore", Mariam bugged Imran and did some movement with her eyebrows. Everyone stared at her. My cheeks were going red.

"Mom! She is starting it again!", Imran warned.

"Mariam have some shame", her mother glared at her then she looked at me and then at Imran and suddenly fell into a fit of laughter, followed by everyone else. I kept gazing at my lap and trying not to make eye contact with anyone. Wow, this family was very open. Specially this little one, Mariam. She was nothing like Imran rather a complete opposite.

"Mom? Dad? Are you guys done?", Imran said, still annoyed. I was still no where near making eye contact with them.

"Don't worry bacha, you'll get used to this", I hope so. I nodded with a smile. I liked how she addressed me as 'bacha' (child), just like mom did. I was going to miss mom a lot.

"That's revenge for teasing me before", Fahad said. Imran glared at him.

"Alright people, we need to unpack", he got up from the couch and looked at me, "you coming Afaaf?"

"Wait! I haven't even given her a tour around?", Mariam pleaded, "let's go Afaaf api", she took my hand not waiting for Imran's approval.

"Amna api, you coming?", she asked Amna before stepping out.

"No, I think I can't move a lot now", she rubbed her belly.

"It's okay", she mused and moved pulling me behind her.

I have never seen the house even though they kept requesting me. It didn't felt polite to go visit your in laws even before they are your in laws. There were two hallways. We walked through the hallway on the right first. It only consisted of the kitchen and a bathroom. Then we moved the opposite way towards the left hallway. There were beautiful framed calligraphies of a few verses from the Qur'an with light bulbs at the bottom of the frames giving the whole hallway a dramatic feel.

"Like these?", Mariam asked as I stared.

"Imran bought them and this one was a special gift for me from him", she touched the one with Allah's names on it, "Imran really loves this sort of art".