The Favour (COMPLETE)

Chapter 22.

Rahul

I don't know whether she'll actually come or not. She had agreed to come on the phone but that's easy to do. I stare into my mug of coffee, two shots to boost my heart rate and adrenaline. Things hadn't exactly gone great earlier and to top it all off I've now got a bruise coming on my left jaw.
"Rahul." Leyla's grandmother plops herself down in front of me. 
"And what should I call you?" I ask cooly trying not to let my scared interior become my exterior.
"Sonia," she breathes placing her hands on the table, her fingers laced together. I told Leyla I'd make everything 'fine' again so that's what I'm going to do no matter how long it takes to convince her grandmother.
"Leyla is really upset," I begin but Sonia cuts me off.
"And so am I. She should know better," she laughs shaking her head.
"So you've never made a mistake?" I ask catching her off guard. I feel as though I need to make it up to Leyla. I sort of just thrust her into my world without an explanation and then she thrust me into her world and we just sorta clicked.
"Excuse me?" Sonia replies in shock, furrowing her eyebrows and pulling her lips into a straight line.
"I love Leyla and Leyla loves me but she also loves you. You are the only person she has in this world who treats her like their own child," I rush to say making sure Sonia can't interrupt, "are you really willing to throw away the only thing that truly remains of your daughter?" Sonia tenses the muscles in her jaw.
"She understands where I stand on the matter," she tries to be diplomatic.
"Sonia, you have three choices. Force Leyla to leave me and get rid of our baby watching her grow up to be miserable. Force Leyla to stay with me and have our baby missing out on seeing your first great-grandchild grow up and making Leyla unhappy. Or accept that, yes, Leyla may have slipped up but she's still your granddaughter, she still wants to make you happy and you know her parents wouldn't have abandoned her," I want Sonia to see which option is the correct one. Which option she knows deep down is the one she wants to pick.
"I hear you've had a run in with Ajay," she states blantantly staring at my jaw.
"Leyla was convinced you'd be happy for us. She kept going on about how great everything would be she didn't even take into consideration what would happen if you rejected her. When she's like that she's infectious, even I turned optimistic. I was and I still am going to ask you for her hand in marriage. I would have asked her dad but you know," I ignore her statement, "but then you told Leyla you didn't want anything to do with her. I still would like your blessing though." Sonia looks thoughtfully at my proposal, staring at her hands then at the wall behind me.
"Leyla's always been a quiet girl. It was just a shock and then it all just came tumbling out but I definitely didn't mean it," Sonia mumbles, "of course I want her in my life and I know you make her very happy. You can have my blessings Rahul and I'll talk to Leyla, patch things up." I smile at Sonia who has tears forming in her eyes.
"Thank you," I place my hand on hers forcing her to look at me.
"Don't worry about Ajay, he's a bit of a loose canon," Sonia smiles back, "but I'm glad you asked me Rahul. Most people now-a-days just go straight for it." I nod my head. I could never have 'really' proposed to Leyla knowing her family didn't approve it just wouldn't have felt proper. I leave the café and Sonia on the phone to Leyla. Looks like my work here is done huh?! All that's left is formulating the best proposal to Leyla ever. I look at my watch. It's late, really late, 11:32pm to be exact. Well at least the library will still be open to start drafting my proposal.